Busch Gardens - Tampa style

Even though Wednesday was zoo day, we could not keep Jake from playing with the animals.  Today he was practicing his grooming techniques with the chimps.  We were suprised to find that Busch Gardens had such a wide selection of animals to see.  Typically people relate the Amusement park with their rides.  The most popular at Busch Gardens Tampa are:  Gwazi (wooden roller coaster), Kumba (roller coaster), Rhino Rally (safari ride), SheiKra (coaster), and Montu (coaster).  Jake was brave enough to try SheiKra and Kumba with friends - Molly and Sarah cheered them on!  We hear that Scribbles is trying out Gwazi as this is being written!

This white tiger had us covered - literally.  The tiger enclosure had a really cool feature - you could go under it and pop your head up in a plexi-glass box in the enclosure.  It just so happened that there was a tiger laying on the box while we were inside it... we got an interesting picture of a tiger belly.  All the while the tiger just laid there looking a bit bored.

Jake got this shot of the full moon over the Morocco Palace.  We had just finished catching a few of the musical shows offered in the park when we looked up, and there was the moon begging us to take its picture.  It was a stellar -or lunar- way to end a busy day.

Tampa Critters

On our first full day in Tampa, Jake, Molly and Sarah went to the Lowry Park Zoo while Scribbles did whatever the band was doing.  We found some cool critters there.  Jake was racing through the zoo trying to see everything.  We got him to slow down long enough to make friends with a few sting rays though.

So we can only assume this guy is thinking "What's the deal with all the unhairy critters looking at me?"

We wanted to include Scribbles today since it is because of her we are in Tampa. She's somewhere in this photo of the band on the competition field. They put on a great show. We will find out tomorrow evening how they scored - the highest scoring band gets to do the pre-game show on New Year's Day. Cross your fingers!

Welcome to Florida!

Scribbles' band is competing in a competition in Tampa, Fl so the entire Pohick family decided that would be a great place for a getaway.  Little did we know in the planning stages that the trip would require a 3:30 AM wake-up and 4:30 drop off for Scribbles.  Since the rest of the family was up already, they took to the Pohick mobile and started their adventure - pausing only briefly on the 11 or so hour drive for this photo!

Christmas in Pohick

Merry Christmas from Pohick Ya'll.  We had a great Christmas this year.  We celebrated Christmas with a candlelight service at Messiah Lutheran Church in Madison, Alabama.  After church, it was home to hang the stockings by the chimney with care in hope that Saint Nicholas would soon be there.

The girls are obviously getting old because this year instead of waking up Jake and Molly, Jake and Molly had to wake up the girls. Jake waited until he just couldn't stand it any longer. After opening up some gifts, we celebrated with a traditional Christmas dinner of stuffed shells and garlic bread. What? Who says that isn't traditional. Since we had a large traditional turkey dinner while Jake's mother was here last week, we decided to have something just a little different. For the rest of the day, we just hung out and enjoyed each others company. A perfect Christmas.

To Boldly Go

While Grandma was visiting from Pittsburgh, PA, we didn't just make cookies the whole time.  We also did some of the touristy stuff in Huntsville, AL.  Our visits included the Galaxy of Lights and The US Space and Rocket Center.  While at the Rocket Center we received our very own VIP Tour from our very own personal VIP Tour Guide.  On Saturday we plan to head up to Burritt on the Mountain.

Cookies with Grandma

For the last several weeks, Grandma has been visiting us from Pittsburgh, PA.  We have enjoyed having her stay with us.  Last week she and the girls conducted a cookie making marathon.  They made sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, butter scotch cookies, peanut butter cookies, and gingerbread cookies.  Jake can eat a prodigious number of cookies, but even he has admitted that he has met his match.