FL wrap up - Misc fun and pix

This post is just about ordinary days in FL - the times we spent together as family, mainly at the house. Below are pix of the activities with captions for posterity.

Jamie's little cage - he certainly likes a challenge!

Watson had a lot of fun with the yoga ball Santa brought him. We shipped it to Lansing, so it'll be
there when we return. This pic also shows the butterfly tattoos from Aunt Korinne, as well as Jamie
sporting his baby legs on the cold, hard tile floors. Notice the boys having fun together?

Just a bit of tablet and computer play going on in FL...above and below!

Cards too - Blink from Aunt Korinne was a hit. Watson also played his first game of Upwords.

And of course, reading...Jamieson LOVES books.

Jamieson really developed his walking while we were in FL.
We got him this walker and we walked all over the place with it!
He also walked with Grandma's cane and he walked
 carrying a variety of random things around the house.

And cuddling, too! Aaaawwwweeee....

We are all so glad that we got to spend time together in FL - thanks for helping to make it happen Mom and Dad!

FL part 4 - Disney!

While in FL, Jubin and I took Watson to Disney's Magic Kingdom for a day. The 4 of us went there for the 1st time for 1 day back in March 2013, and Watson LOVED it. Jubin and I had sort of delayed going, thinking that it was SO expensive and SO overdone and SO commercial. But then when Jamieson was born, we decided that we better bring Watson soon, before Jamie was walking and it would be really difficult to go. Then, for a while Jamie would be too young, and the next opportunity might be when Watson was too old for Magic Kingdom!

From March, 2013 - taking the trolley from the parking lot to the Monorail station

The experience turned out well - Watson loved it, Jamie slept some of the time, was pretty chill in his carrier or stroller or being lugged around by me or Jubin, and the Disney baby feeding/nursing rooms were really great. Overall, Jubin and I were pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is crazy expensive, but the park wasn't as crazy busy (very few long lines actually) or overdone as we had feared it would be. Parts of it were downright amazing, actually (e.g., the Electric Light Parade). And, it was so great to see Watson's reactions to it all...so, we thought that us taking him there for a 2nd day in Dec, just the 3 of us would be the perfect Christmas gift for him. And, it was!

First ride of the day!

Still loving It's a Small World - went on it twice!
And, we were all humming it for days...

We rented a car and drove a little over an hour down to Orlando to Magic Kingdom. After getting a little lost on the way there (just a little), we had a great day. But, it was busier than in March (school break week - thank goodness we went on a week day at least!) and we got there later in the day. Both of these facts meant that the first Fast Pass we got, for Peter Pan, was for 7:30pm! Still, we never waited in line for more than 20 minutes. Then, in the afternoon it RAINED. And, I don't mean rain, I mean RAIN! We tried to wait it out in the stores for a while and finally gave in and bought Disney ponchos and kept going on the rides that we could. The good news about rain at Disney? People with multi-day tix leave! Let's see - highlights? It's a Small World, the People Mover, and the Tea Cups were probably Watson's favorite rides. He also did this really cool thing we hadn't noticed in March - Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice.  They gave Watson a map and some cards and he went on a scavenger hunt all around the park trying to find portals where he could defeat villains. At each portal, a video plays and he had to pick a card with a special power that could defeat the villains in the video. He really liked it! He still pulls out his map and cards to look at it all...they told him that they'll be good forever and that each time he comes he'll get more/different cards and be able to defeat more/different villains. Guess that's something we'll be bringing back with us from Belfast to Michigan...

Oh, and of course the Electric Light Parade was a hit again. Interestingly, during the day we saw 3 major glitches during parades. It seems that even the big machine of Disney can be affected by the weather!

Can't help but wonder about the cost of each day of operation,
just in terms of energy consumption...

Low points? Well, in Tomorrowland, we waited for about 20 minutes to go on the Astro Orbiter. Right when we finally got to the front of the line, it started pouring again, and the ride has absolutely no shelter. So, we didn't ride it...but, the good news was we then went to the People Mover instead because it is covered, and that ended up being a cool ride (one of W's favs) that we probably wouldn't have tried otherwise. Another low point was the Tomorrowland Speedway - cars that you ride around a course. Watson was NOT a fan. I have to admit that I wasn't a huge fan either - they were very hard to steer and were pretty jerky. Interesting tidbit - Watson was fascinated by Splash Mountain and really wanted to go on it, but when we got there he was too scared to go - he was SO torn! Cutie. But, all in all we had a great day! We left for The Villages after the parade ended and Watson was asleep within a few minutes.

Kendra's seminar at QUB Biological Sciences

I was invited to give a talk to the School of Biological Sciences (http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofBiologicalSciences/) at Queen's this week. This seminar was part of the Ecology, Evolution, Behaviour and Environmental Economics Seminar Series (http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofBiologicalSciences/OurResearch/EcologyEvolutionBehaviourandEnvironmentalEconomics/), which is attended by mainly students and some faculty. During the past 6 months, I've gone to two of the other seminars in this series (Drs. Catherine McGavigan and Dmitry Kishkiniev speaking about aquatic plants and migrating birds, respectively) and it seems like a good group of people. These seminars are held in a really large lecture hall and often start a bit late, so I went over to the building early to get set up. Of course, at 5 minutes before the start, someone came and got me because the room had been changed...best laid plans!

My talk, titled "Landscape Limnology: Understanding multi-scaled cause-effect relationships between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems" was in the Medical Biology Center, about a block from the building my office is in. My talk was sparsely attended (only ~20 people probably), probably for 3 reasons: the room change, they haven't updated the seminar schedule online for this semester, and they were having a special evening seminar that night (many people, including me, wouldn't have time to go to 2 seminars in 1 day). Oh well, the people who did attend, asked me interesting questions afterwards and seemed to enjoy my talk.

It is interesting to experience the differences in culture across schools. For example, the seminars are not preceded or followed by food and drink (like those in GAP). Instead, the group gathers every Thursday morning for coffee and cake. I think that I will probably attend one of the coffee hours soon to see about continued interactions with people from this cluster.

Special thanks to Dr. Christine Maggs for hosting me - she seems to be a very nice person, 
as well as being a productive scientist and the Head of School. 

FL Part 3 - Christmas and NYE 2013

We spent Christmas and NY in FL. Christmas was pretty minimalist in terms of decorations and gifts, but Santa brought Watson his yoga ball and water gun and we gave him a day at Magic Kingdom with just Mom and Dad (Jamie stayed home with Gramma and Grampa). Watson spent lots of time making paper airplanes, origami, and snowflakes (kits he received for Christmas), as well as playing on a tablet with Grandma - their favorite was Paint Joy and Kaleidoscope. Kendra gave Jubin season 2 of Borgen and the 4 adults proceeded to watch the entire season between Christmas and Jan 5. For anyone out there who hasn't heard of that show, we highly recommend it! It is a Danish political drama and is really well done (see post about our favorite European tv shows for more info).

Watson's note and snack for Santa

The make-shift FL xmas tree with all of the gifts on Christmas morning

Ok, so the stockings weren't exactly hung near a chimney... 

Opening gifts (above and below)

Watson's Disney snow globe that came with his GC for a day at Magic Kingdom with Mum and Dad

Jamie really LOVES books - so fun!

Watson in his Xmas blanket and both playing with their Xmas music cards from G&G 

Gramma in her scarf from Watson and Jamie

Grampa with his short from Watson and Jamie.
So great that purple is a truly unisex color in the UK!

Santa's note back to Watson!

New Year's Eve was a non-event for us this year, so we are already looking forward to NYE 2014 with our friends in MI. But, we had a nice dinner on New Year's Day with Andy and Terry.

FL Part 2 - Homossassa fun!

While in FL, we took a day-trip to Homossassa Springs on to the west coast (http://www.floridastateparks.org/homosassasprings/default.cfm). This state park has a spring where you can see wild manatees during the winter, as well as other captive animals (mainly native to FL) and manatees being rehabilitated.

Who doesn't love a manatee? This one is being rehabilitated by the Park. 

It was a bit warm that day, so we only saw a few wild manatees, but the park was really nice and it was good to go exploring a bit. After paying for your ticket, we took a boat ride along Pepper Creek (there is a map on the web page above) to the animal park, saw the animals, and then took the trolley ride back. Here are some pix of the day!

The boat ride to the animal park

Pepper Creek

Self-portrait - notice the Brit-style haircut? :) 

Is it just me or is this guy smiling?

They had feeding stations for the birds that Watson enjoyed!

I don't know what was inspiring them, but the flamingos were doing an amazing concert for us.
They were singing and dancing almost in synchrony - really neat to see and hear. Watson was amazed. 

These cuties were among our favorites of the day. Very playful.

Rubbings...

This is where we saw the wild manatees - out in the River.

Walk? No way - I'll RUN!

The trolley ride back to the visitor's center.