The Everglades Alligator Farm

One of the neatest things to see in South Florida is the Everglades... the GATORS, the birds, the airboat rides, the miles and miles of open swamp. I have been to 3 different facilities and my favorite is The Everglades Alligator Farm. It is the oldest farm in Florida. It is neat because they actually breed gators there so you will definitely see not just one but TONS of them at the Farm (where as at some of the other places you will only see gators by chance).

BIG Lizard! Snapping Turtle
Ducks with curly feathers.

"Ahhh! It's been fun and all but..." She's ready to go back to her larger, more comfy home. She won't ever be released back into the wild due to her injury.

THE GATOR SHOW

"Hiiii!"

"C'mere, see what happens!"

A few of them having a little hissy fit out in the water.

" Don't step on my foot or I'll bite your tail."Getting in position for their rat treats.

This gator actually pushed the fence open trying to get the rat treat. Good thing that handler knows what he's doing.

WOW! They can lunge themselves up the entire length of thier body.

Work for it!

The Grow Out Pens

The infantsThe babies

The tweens

The teenagers... almost ready to meet the real world.

THE GIFT SHOP

Ali and I both bought matching necklaces.

THE AIRBOAT RIDE

Our awesome captain. This guy can drive!!!

Mom and Alvin ready to go.

Mommy gator defending her nest.

Get your picture by the skins....

L to R: Crocodile, Python, Alligator

Me, Mom, Annalynn Woof!

THE SNAKE SHOW!A little hint! Don't make eye contact with the show man.... you might find yourself in the show.

Yes, he made me come down there and get a snake out of the bag and hold it.

Courage Whitney!

It wasn't so much holding it... but the snake kept trying to sniff my arm. It took everything in me to not throw the snake in the air and run.
It's hard to describe the sensation of the snake wrapping around my arm.... time to go back into the bag.Alvin got bullied by his lovely daughter and my darling husband to go on stage... and since a girl (me) did it he HAD to do it. HAHA

Are you serious?! He was as cool as the snake was himself.

Fearless!

The snake likes him, it's that touch, he's got it!

Ali having a go at it. Haha

Family Affair

Tomm's family visited us for a long weekend. His Mom and Dad, his Sister and Bro-in-law and thier Daughter all stayed with us. They were visiting us from Oklahoma and Texas. We fit so many things into 4 days and had a blast doing it all! It was really fun to show them the house too. Everytime our families come visit us it makes us wish we lived closer to eachother. We are so happy when we can get together and have some quality time. There is nothing like family! One day all of us girls went and had facials, went shopping and went to the beach! It was an amazing day; we all felt so pampered! While we were gone, Dad and Alvin went for a drive with Tomm and ended up going to the beach too! Afterwards we all met up at Chili's for lunch. What a day!

Dad and Alvin at West Palm Beach

Alvin
..... that's it? Only two pictures? No fun poses? (The differance between guys and girls)

Hobbies

My hobbies have been trumping my Blogging and Facebooking lately. It's been so fun to start some new projects. These are some things I have been working on.....

Children's file folder games. They are fun for kids and help develop certain skills. Can you tell I am exited about having kids? I am ready! (already!)

This one is called Match Play

The pieces to be matched with the copy.

This one is called Shape City. Everything that isn't colored in has a shape to match it with. I actually drew this one; it's fun to be creative! All matched up! For cute!
This one is Color match. They can learn the primary colors, secondary colors and some other essentials (Hello! Pink and Lavender!) It's so cute; it has paint brushes that go with the paint cans.
This one has the story, Noah's Ark that comes with it. All the animals on the left page are girls. Heehee. I had a little fun with it.

This one is called Fruit or Vegetable. It's a little more advanced sorting skills, but I thought it was such a cute idea!

I found all of these games online. They were all free; I just googled "Free File folder games"

Our herb garden!

This has been interesting! I used to think gardening sounded about as fun as pounding sand. I think I am getting old cause it's actually pretty awesome. When it comes to Gardening I never knew my butt from my elbow, so I decided to start with herbs and go from there.

L to R: Basil, Basil, Oregano, Parsley and Lavender.

How sweet! After I took this picture, they both hissed in each other's face. haha

Planting Cilantro, Dill and Chives.... and making a mess! Randy is glaring at a lizard.

Living with Macgyver

So as luck would have it our air conditioner broke on a very hot day (94 degrees and soggy). No problem for us when one of us is Macgyver. Apparently he was able to bypass the breaker and rewire it without one, until the next day when we could go get a new breaker ( a feat no service tech would have the guts to do... they might shock their little fingers). I swear you can't stump him!

Here he is in all his heroicness!

The old corroded breaker
Rewiring
A closer look at rewiring

Randy ready to help.
Yay it works! Putting the lids back on.