Florida - Days Two and (most of) Three

After the horrible weather our first day, it was very hard to believe it was really going to be nice the next day.  Thankfully, it was beautiful (mid-70s, I think).  I don't have any pictures because Nate took the camera to the airshow and Judson and I spent much of our day in the pool.  It was his first real pool experience and he LOVED it.  Not that I was surprised.  I was so thankful for a VERY warm pool.  I'm such a wimp when it comes to cold water.  We took his new life jacket, which he was perfectly happy wearing the whole time.  I still had to hold him, but it made it easier to play with him.

Nate and Erik enjoyed the airshow and came back in time for us all to go to pizza for dinner.

On Saturday (Day Three), we decided to go to the Florida Aquarium.  We were going to go anyway, but I was especially excited when I learned that my zoo membership would save us 50%.  We were even able to use it for the other family, which was great.

Judson was in heaven.  He loves fish and there were some really amazing fish.  God is so creative!  There were also plenty of turtles and other wildlife, which thrilled him. 

**We didn't take our nice camera with us.  It's just so big.  However, I'm really thankful to have it.  It's such a struggle to get good pictures with our little camera.  The shutter speed is awfully slow.  So, these are better than nothing, but not great.

There is a MASSIVE fish behind the white-ish one you see.  I forget what kind it was, but could get up to 800 pounds.

Joshua (3.5) and Judson...the only one we got of the two of them together

 After we'd seen everything, we headed outside to the water play area.  Judson loved fountains last year, but this was especially fun for him, since he's now mobile.  :)  He squealed and carried on, though my slow camera missed most of his best expressions.

We didn't get to spend too much time there before it was time for our bay tour.  It was pretty fascinating...the 27(ish) miles of Tampa Bay are constantly being dredged and new, man made islands are formed.  A few of the islands are bird refuges.  The vegetation all started on its own.  People aren't even allowed on the bird islands.  When we went past them, we could see hundreds or thousands of birds - in the air, in the trees, on the beach, and in the water.  And such interesting breeds, too!  

Judson fell asleep shortly after the boat ride started.  I loved it, though.  He hasn't slept in my arms in a VERY long time.

The highlight of the boat ride was seeing all of the dolphins.  Someone spotted them way off and they stopped the boat.  It's illegal to go to where they are, but if they come to the boat, that's fine.  Thankfully they did.  There were bunches of them and they hung out around the boat for quite some time.  It was fabulous.  Judson had just woken up, but was still able to get pretty excited about the "ish."  Again, our camera did its best, but it wasn't great.

Though I love the heat, I will never live in a tropical climate.  I'm not a fan of the humidity - especially what it does to my already-too-frizzy hair...  :)  (Not that the boat ride helped.)

  Okay, this is getting to be really long, so I'll hold off on the rest of day three for the next post...