Hey guys, did you all have an amazing leap day?! We did! I always like to do something really special, it only happens once every four years. In 2012, and 2016, we made time capsules to open on the next leap day, so I dug it out for leap day 2020.
But before we get to that, we needed something specail to do for Leap Day! This year we decided to head on over to the zoo to do one of those "behind the scenes" tours. There was much debate about weather we should see the penguins or the rhinos, but with the vote split, I made a decision to see the rhinos. To be fair, nobody was against the rhinos, and I promised we could do the penguins some other time, so stay tuned for that one!
In the meantime, we got to go "behind the scenes" to meet with the Indian Rhino, whose closest realitives at the zoo are tapirs. It makes sense when you see their mouths. The Southern White Rhinos in the Africa section of the zoo have much more square mouths than the Indian Rhinos. Also, Indian Rhinos are more solitary. No Rhino crashes for them! They don't have as much of a horn either, because they spend a lot of time in the water- and since their horns are made out of the same stuff as our fingernails, all that time spent in the water softens their horn and they wear it down more than their African counterparts. We also got to see a cast of their footprints, and some of their dung (which was safely plastic wrapped and heated, so it was hard and totally touchable. Since they're solitary, sniffing each other's poop is how they can identify who has been where, and if they're looking for a mate, all they have to do is sniff!
The Tampa Zoo has two Indian Rhinos, a boy and a girl. We met with the girl rhino, Jamie. She's about my age! She's been at the zoo for awhile, but she wasn't born here. She is part of the conservation program at the zoo that works with breeding endangered species.
For today, we were helping with one of her training sessions. Her trainer would tell her where to stand, to back up, to come forward, and to open her mouth (or close it if she were begging). Once Jamie did the desired behavior, the trainer would blow her whistle, and we got to hold out the collard greens to feed Jamie. We also had to keep them behind our back until the whistle blew, after all, you can't give her the treat until she does the behavior.
She was super awesome, and sweet, but VERY slobbery. She also has some serious teeth back there.
Hayden and I went into the little area with the rhino first. You weren't allowed to bring your phone onto the mats, but we could stay behind the chain and switch out to take pictures.
Asa, Calib, and Peyton went next. Asa had to wait a few times because Jamie was "begging" for her treats.
Which she also did with Calib.
She didn't get her treats until she stopped begging. But that didn't stop the drool.
Peyton got to feed her last. And while he voted for the penguins, he did seem to enjoy feeding Jamie.
Then they took a picture for us with our own camera, which was really nice.
After our little behind the scenes adventure, which lasted about a half an hour to 45 minutes, we headed off to enjoy the zoo. We stopped by and pet the sting rays.
And there were even baby ones!
Peyton wanted to go through the reptile and aquarium area. These are never my favorites, but he's loved them since he was tiny, and at least at Zoo Tampa, my reward was getting to see the manatees and the otters at the end of that.
We did see the Florida Panther awake, so that was pretty rare. We talked to one of their keepers who told us all about the three they have at Zoo Tampa. They're all "rescues" so to speak. One had an injury, and one was abandoned as a baby and since they raised them from so young they weren't able to be re-released into the wild. So here they are.
We didn't do the behind the scenes for the penguins, but we did go visit them (next time for sure, the tours for pass members are only $10 so I want to do them all before our pass expires!)
It was a really nice day too, so we saw a lot of animals. It wasn't so warm they were all nappying by midday, but it also wasn't so cold they were hiding.
The koalas, however, were sleeping. But, they do that a lot. I didn't take it personally.
We also visited the lorikeets, and fed them. Calib still hates bird houses, but he can go in them now at least. He still won't feed the birds however.
Peyton and Hayden were happy to feed the birds though.
Hayden got this one bird who was really messy about eating, and then kept licking his hand for the nectar.
Asa convinced a couple to come see him.
But this one bird LOVED Peyton. Like, we eventually had to shoo him off.
I think he was attracted to the colors on Peyton's sweatshirt. It did match him after all.
After the lorikeets, we did visit the other bird house too. So, good job facing your fears, Calib!
After the zoo we headed to Hyde Park to go to Goody Goody Burger for dinner. For leap day we do "backwards dinner" where we order dessert first, and goody goody burger is supposed to have awesome pies, so we thought it'd be the perfect choice. Plus, I won our family March Madness bracket last year and picked Goody Goody Burger to eat at, and we hadn't even gone yet (so, we got it in before March Madness starts all over again!)
We had to wait for a little, but we found a couple of nice benches and waited.
When we sat down we ordered a slice of banana cream pie, and a brownie pecan coconut cream slice of pie.
They were both delicious. Even Hayden, who doesn't usually like pie, was a fan. But I'm not sure he's ever had a cream pie before- mostly just like an apple or a cherry pie, or something more traditional like that. He loved the brownie pie.
The boys had never been to Goody Goody Burger before. They all got burgers and fries, onion rings, and mac and cheese.
And they loved it all. I got the giant banana fosters pancake. This is probably my favorite pancake (though the one's at the Grand Floridian Cafe are delicious as well), but pro tip it's HUGE. So, I ask for a box with it, cut it in half and save the other half for the next day. If you put the syrup on it, it gets soggy and you can't really save it. But then today for lunch, Asa and I both ate my other half. That's how big it is. One pancake = THREE meals!
Once we got home it was time to open our time capsule. We started this tradition in 2012 when we made our first one.
Then in 2016, we opened our 2012 one and made a new one for 2016.
And then in 2020 we opened our 2016 one and made a new one for 2020.
I don't really want to say what was in it. We have it all labeled by the year it went in there, and then put it back. So our 2020 has stuff from 2012, 2016, and 2020.
This is the first leap day we've owned a house, so we bought a treasure chest and we buried it in the backyard! Now, I thought we'd do it in the back corner, somewhere obvious. But, Asa went out to dig up the hole without any direction and picked a random spot in the yard. Now were all concerned we won't know exactly where to find it. Asa says if you line up the side of the house with the fence post between the Avacado trees it'll be right there.
So, those are my directions, 2024 Corinne- Godspeed and Good Luck!
In other end of February news, Asa and I were hoping to do Disney on Thursday but we checked wait times in the morning and it was bananas. I don't always mind dealing with the crowds, but I'm still in decompression mode from all the visitors, and was hoping for not wall to wall people. So, instead we headed into Tampa.
I was hoping to go to Flock N Stock, but they were closed. Not sure why, all the other shipping containers were opened. We decided to try something new and go with the grilled cheese place.
Asa got some spicy grilled cheese with pork, and I got one with apple butter and pork belly. They were both delicious. And the loaded tater tots aren't bad either.
We had some errands to run too, but we thought we'd swing by the USF Botanical Gardens on our way, because it was a lovely day outside and our Ford and Edison passes get us in for free. (We really need to start utilizing that more!)
There isn't a lot blooming right now though. Still a little "wintery" here.
But there were still lots of bees out. Pollinate little guys, pollinate! We've had so many in our backyard with the lemon tree, I need to make them a little drinking station. I'm thinking I'll just take the bird bath and put some rocks in there and then a little water.
I did love the cactus area. I should get myself some more cactus. I do so well with succulents.
I did do some tree climbing too. Look how high up I am (Ok, it looked way higher up when I was up there!)
But beyond the trees and gardens they have so many cute fun little lawn decorations, bird houses, and planters. I was inspired!
Also, I so want my pond to look this put together!
Friday I was not feeling all that well, so Asa went to his first fish-fry of the season without me. But, then he came home and made me a lovely coconut shrimp dinner with veggies and homemade fries. He's very sweet like that.
The weekend Nate and Allison left, I had so much to get caught up on, that we didn't go out to do much. But, we had a free blaze pizza, and a littlebit left on a RaceTrac giftcard, so two all you can swirl yogurts were $1.91. Cheap lunch date for sure!
Of course, in home school we've been catching up on celebrating birthdays. We did Lincoln and Washington a little late but we fit them in February, so I call it a win.
And we got our first Candy Bar Election update done.
And, we started on our blooper reel.
Of course, for Fat Tuesday we got some Paczki's!
And here is Asa giving the boys a tutorial on how to load the dishes.
We also were a little late on our president's day gave of True American.
Of course, I murdered everyone, because, well, presidents. But it's still so much fun!
And that's it for February 2020, we've turned the page on the calender and were headed to March! Hopefully we're also get a bit warmer weather. I'm not saying it needs to be 90 degrees every day. But, it would be nice to not be so cold.
That's it from here.
Next Up: Super Tuesday Madness! And Calib just has one more week of class before Spring Break!
