Two years ago today,  the girls and I were on Sanibel Island, enjoying (too much) sun and ocean waters that felt like bliss. We took a boat trip out to see manatees and were treated to a small aquarium before the trip.

The feature of the exhibit was a large touch tank, filled with all of the local invertebre. 

The guide shared interesting tidbits about the animals and we watched the conch crawl and the sand dollars squiggle. 

“Now if someone will flip a sea star over,  we can watch how it performs a gymnastic like maneuver to flip itself back.” Sure enough, the little critter slowly got itself flipped right side up.

Pepper, only 3 at the time, reached in and flipped one of the other sea stars on its back.  Then another one. Then she went back to the start of the tank and systematically flipped EVERY single sea star on its back. 

I tried to coax her away, but she insisted that the lady told us to “flip them over” and wouldn’t leave until her chore was complete.

From the sea stars’ perspective, she must’ve been a real gem.