a trip in pictures

We took a picture in front of this cactus 3 years ago. It was gigantic, green, and thriving. Look at it now! DEAD. Something about not transplanting it with the south side facing south?

Santa Fe River Trip

What a wonderful trip we had!!! We have so many pictures to share because it is impossible for us to put the beauty of the river into words...

Every morning we were greeted by this magical sunrise.

We spotted this big man hanging out on one of our rafts. Not too glamorous, you might say, but we were excited to see any and all wildlife! His size was very impressive and were were very surpirsed to learn that he wasn't full grown! We found a couple durring our trip that weren't so scared of us and wanted to be friends. they would climb all the way up your arm and didn't want to get off!

Stopping for a break on a walk through the woods.

Checking out a sink hole.


Kaiden was really good at spotting alligators! Can you see him?

Oops! Crystal dropped her glasses in the river filled with alligators - very typical of her. Vee saved the day and climbed down and rescued them. What a valiant gentleman!

While on his rescue mission Vee discovered this beautiful egg.

This is called the river sink. It's where the Santa Fe River disappears underground for 3 miles and then reappears at the river rise.

The local mechanic, grocery, video rental, boat rental, gas station, bait, antique, and medical supply center. Watch out Walmart!

We found this pretty lady on one of our adventures.

1, 2, 3, JUMP!!! Kaiden learned how to jump off of a rope swing and it seemed to be the highlight of his trip!

Kaiden's clay creations.

There are so many other things we want to share!

Like, while we were tubing down the Santa Fe river spotted a pod of manatees and we floated right through the middle of them while they were coming up for air! If the current in the river wasn't so strong Randy would have hopped into the water and swam right along with them and made a new title for himself - The Manatee Whisperer!

And, during all the excitement of trying out the rope swing Vee decided to give it a shot. Wanting to outdo Randy, he became a little overzealous and wound up breaking one of his fingers!!!!! None of us knew where the nearest hospital was and no one seemed to be in a rush - Randy taking a leisurely shower, Jenn blow drying her hair, and Vee standing around waiting for someone to take some action- very politely of course!

Canoeing, snorkeling, spotting deer in the woods, fossil hunting, spiders in bed, painting, lazy day naps, arts and crafts, cookouts, board games, finding hidden treasure, soccor games... good times with great friends!!!

Angel's watching over us

::Kaiden was attacked by a pygmy rattlesnake!::

::But he's ok, and he didn't get bitten::

-Kaiden's angels were protecting him today! We went outside to talk with a Verizon telephone man who had just pulled up into our yard, when Kaiden stepped off the porch and onto the sidewalk. I look down and see a snake attacking him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It lunged at him 5 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Angel protection #1:

Right before Kaiden walked out the door he decided to put on his big army rain boots. The snake was attacking the boots and didn't actually get Kaiden.

Angel protection #2:

I yelled that there was a snake and was yelling for Kaiden to move when the Verizon man ran up like a pro (think crocodile hunter) and pinned the snake with a stick and then picked it up!!!!

-If Kaiden wouldn't have been wearing those boots and that wonderful man hadn't have picked that snake up our child would have been bitten more than 5 times by a rattlesnake.

-What are the odds that when you walk out your front door a rattlesnake is waiting there to bite your ankles and you just happen to have the perfect protection against snake bites on your feet and a man in your yard that knows just what to do?

:::::THANK YOU GOD!!!!:::::

Happy Birthday America!

Yesterday Randy and Kaiden were in the North Port 4th of July parade!
Mother Nature was trying to stop the parade with all the rain she was puring down.
But they still marched!
Of course we sat in the pouring rain cheering them on like crazy!
Kaiden was beyond proud to be in the parade (as you can see by that look on his face).

Later in the evening we went to my mom's house for some swimming, poppers, steak dinner, peanut butter pie, and sparklers. This has definately been the most memorable 4th of July yet!

sweet little baby

This little baby mocking bird fell out of his nest this morning! He looks like he's not doing too well in this picture but let me tell you - this little man has SPUNK! I think he gets it from his momma. We were trying to scoop him up to save him from becoming Rugby's breakfast when the momma starting dive bombing me! She nicked my back with her wings and scared the poo out of me!!!

Of course this rescue was right up Kaiden's alley and he went to work right away!

We read online that if you can't reach the original nest you should make an alternate nest for the baby if he's not hurt. We used a recycled butter tub nailed to the tree with paper towel and twigs inside to cushion him. Momma bird was so incredibly protective of him and kept yelling at us. I made sure I kept a stick waving over our heads the whole time so we wouldn't get attacked again.

Kaiden just had to ask...

"Can we keep him Mom?"

No Kaiden.

cleaning up the earth one baggie at a time

With a stash of plastic lunch baggies stuffed into the front of his underpants(the only thing he was wearing) Kaiden set off down our street. While tagging along I asked what he was doing and he replied "cleaning up the Earth Mom". He continued to pick up a piece of trash and put it in a baggie, hand it to me, take out the next baggie from his stash, and put another piece of trash in. And so it went until all of his baggies had exactly one piece of trash inside- 10 baggies to be exact. I tried explaining that he could fill up one baggie until it was full so we wouldn't be wasting them and making even more trash but that just wouldn't do!

Now our street is litter free, Mother Earth is beaming, and I'm all out of baggies!