Canoeing alongside alligators!

We spent an awesome afternoon with Amanda, Joel, Jaycent, Gaven, and Austin canoeing 7 miles at Juniper Springs in the Ocala National Forest.  It was absolutely beautiful!  It is a clear, narrow and winding spring fed river.  There was so much vegetation along its banks and a lot of wildlife. We even saw 4 alligators! 

 Amanda and Gaven tipped less than a mile in.  I love this picture- the canoe is completely submerged!

 Our first alligator sighting!  It was a little nerve racking seeing them so close especially since it's not that hard to tip the canoe with kids in it.

 

I wish this picture was clearer but we didn't exactly stick around to watch him.  He was about 8 feet long and definitely not happy to see us.

This is not a course for beginners!  There were quite a few quick turns with trees in the way.  We even went over rapids which is hard to believe in Florida.

 
 We stopped for a quick swim, making sure the alligators were nowhere in sight.  This place had a lot of springs.  If you stepped into one you would easily sink up to your knees.  The kids were having fun trying to find the springs and then jump in them. 

 After the canoe trip we swam in the natural springs.  The water was about 65 degrees and cold! 

6 Month Picture Update

 5 years old, Ormond Beach Florida


7 1/2 years, Ormond Beach Florida

Disney and Back in 3 days!

For almost 5 years we have been telling Avery and then Alia that we would go to Disney when Alia turned 5.  It was a constant topic of conversation in our house for years and we finally hit the 5 year mark!  It actually came at a great time because we are considered Florida residents and were able to get some pretty amazing deals for those 3 days.  It was also awesome to be able to vacation with family.  The trip was fantastic.  I loved how excited they were and I was very impressed with how brave Alia was.  She was able to ride on almost all of the rides which included some scarier rides.  She loved some of the roller coasters but Tower of Terror in Hollywood was a little too scary for her.  She had her arms and legs wrapped around the seats and me when we dropped.   I couldn't get her to ride that one a second time!  Disney over all was great.  The lines were fairly short and we really didn't have to wait all that long to ride anything.  The kids were troopers and walked everywhere all three days.  Alia never once complained of being tired even though we had early mornings, late nights and she had to walk everywhere. 

Magic Kingdom

 We ran into Sue, Mark, Jake, Joy, Riley and Kylee on the Tea Cup ride!

 No Disney vacation is complete without eating something in the shape of Mickey's head.

 Sophia the First and Alia

 Disney at night was fun when you add glow in the dark toys!


Animal Kingdom


 I've always been impressed with the Tree of Life.  Animal Kingdom is probably my favorite park.  I love the large open space and the animals.

 

  On our safari

 She was very excited to meet the characters.

 Dinoland!

 She bought this monkey with her birthday money from Bama.  She named her Chocolate Banana and carried her around everywhere.  Here she is posing next to the monkeys.

Hollywood Studios

 We were able to watch a stunt show and learn how they make special effects for movies.

 This was a playground of a backyard from Honey I Shrunk the Kids.  It was great to see what the world looks like from an ants perspective.  There were a few underground ant tunnels that we adults tried to follow the kids into.  At one point the tunnels were getting smaller and narrower and we were starting to panic!

 Disney with cousins is the best!


It rained most of the day at Hollywood but that didn't stop the kids from having fun.  If you are going to do a theme park in the rain, this was a great one because almost everything is indoors.

A final birthday celebration for Jaycent and Alia's birthdays in Mexico : )!  Those sombreros were really heavy.