Random December

After being here for a couple of months with just one car, Andy FINALLY got a new one! We were planning to get one right after we arrived (with the money we got from selling Andy's truck before we left Utah), but the missionaries told us we should wait and get one from the mission office. They were right! We had to wait quite a while for them to have some available, but we ended up getting a 2012 Toyota Corolla for a great deal, and no worries about dishonest history since the mission office keeps excellent records of their maintenance.

A few days ago Andy took Skyler and Ally out to wash the car in the driveway. Ally mostly supervised.

Ally has become our own personal garbage disposal. She can often be found sneaking around the table to finish up whatever anyone else has on their plates after she is finished. One night Skyler refused to eat his spaghetti at all, so he was upstairs in his room crying about it and we left it out for him to eat when he was ready. Everyone else finished and left the kitchen. A few minutes later I walked back in there to find that Ally had climbed up on the table and helped herself to Skyler's food. And that was after she'd already had seconds of her own!

Right before Christmas Break Kylee's school had Field Day. The first thing 3rd grade did was tug-o-war. Kylee's class has only 15 kids (while the others have 20-21), so they basically got CREAMED both times they were up. It wasn't even a contest. They tried hard, though, and that's what counts!

They also played with parachutes.

And ran a 40-yard dash. Kylee got 3rd place in her category for this. They also did a baton-relay, which her team did great at as well, but I was on the wrong side of the track and didn't get a picture of that.

Grandpa and Grandma Visit

In the beginning of December my mom and Bruce came to visit us. The weather was nice when they were here because it was not too hot and barely any humidity. The first day they were here we went to a preserve in South Naples, and saw this turtle (plus lots of turtle burrows):

Later that day we went to the beach and played until the sun set.

We found quite a few nine-legged starfish. Don't worry - we threw them back before they had a chance to dry out.

I have no idea what is going on with Ally's face here. I told her to say "cheese" and this is what I got.

Andy decided to photobomb mom and Bruce.

Ally loves to just sti in the sand at the edge of the surf and scoop wet sand into her bucket. Sometimes a rogue wave will come up too far and wash her bucket away, but she just chases it down and then starts over.

Another day while Kylee was at school we went swimming at the pool in our subdivision. We were the only ones there (we usually are), so we had the whole pool to ourselves! 

Another day we went to the Cypress National Preserve down by Everglades National Park. There were a few boardwalks you could go on to try to see some animals in the swamps. On the first one (which was super short), we saw an alligator on the lawn behind the bathroom, and this guy swimming in the river.

On another one we came upon this bird just as he was catching his lunch.

He held the fish in his beak and whacked it back and forth on the log a bunch of times until he was sure it was dead. Then he tipped his head back and vibrated his neck super fast while he swallowed it whole. It was really interesting to watch!

We also saw this guy strolling around the swamp.

On the last one we went to, this alligator was lounging on the grass right outside where we parked our car.

And her baby was lounging in the shade on the other side of the river.

This boardwalk was pretty long, and basically just went out through a rain-forest type swamp area. Way out at the end, in the observation area, we ran into two ladies who recognized my shirt because they rode the same MS ride in Utah in 2013. What are the odds? Small world when you can be out at the end of a boardwalk in the middle of a swamp in Southwest Florida and meet people who did a bike ride 2600 miles away the same time you did.

We also went to our ward Christmas Party and met Santa. Note that there is no photo of Ally. She wasn't having ANY of that. Not even if I tried to sit with her. I barely got Skyler up there.

December

It's hard to believe that it is already December 7th. We've been in Florida for almost 3 months already! Sometime around Halloween my friend found an advent calendar that she wanted to try to make. I changed it a bit to make it more to my liking, and it took 100,000 years to make (all the ornaments are sewed by hand, and decorated by hand, etc.) but I got it done right on Dec. 1 so the kids could start using it. So each ornament goes in a pocket and every day they take one out and hang it on the antlers. Skyler is a little OCD and thinks there shouldn't be some empty pockets and some full pockets, so twice I've caught him taking them off the antlers and putting them back in the pockets, but that just gives Kylee extra ones to hang each night, so I guess it's fine!

This week there were a few Christmas/Winter events that we took the kids to. On Thursday evening they did the annual Christmas Tree lighting and Santa visit. It had been raining on and off all day, but we decided that since it was still close to 80 degrees a little rain wouldn't hurt anyone. Yeah. We got there at 6 (so it was fully dark), and right after we left the car we got hit by a monsoon. Literally had about an inch and a half of water in the cup holders and trays of my stroller, and the umbrellas were not very helpful. We were dripping from head to toe. Since it was warm, though, the kids thought it was fun and stomped in every puddle they could find. Then the line for Santa was super short because they moved him from his sleigh to under an overhang in some little alley between a store and a theater, so nobody knew he was there. Turned out fine, until we stopped to eat dinner at Pei Wei on the way home and froze to death with their AC blowing on us when we were wet!

Then on Saturday they had "Snow Fest" which was also fun. Skyler and Ally didn't understand why we wanted them to stick their heads in these cutouts though, and Princess Anna was very upset about getting her photo taken.

They put blocks of ice through a chipper to make the snow, and they had piles for each age group to play on. I took Ally and Skyler to the 3 and under hills while Andy took Kylee to the 7-9 hills. Of course Andy didn't take any photos of Kylee, so we just have Ally and Skyler. It was interesting to play in snow when it was close to 80 degrees outside still! Ally and Skyler enjoyed throwing snow at each other, and Ally slid down the pile as many times as she could. They also had some inflatable things to play on, and a craft for the kids to make, so the kids had lots of fun.

FINALLY saw an alligator!!

Everyone told us that when we moved to Florida we would be able to see lots of alligators. (Of course, everyone also told us it would be in the mid-70s by the end of October. Lesson to be learned here - don't listen to "everyone.") Anyway, when Andy was on a bike ride he once saw a baby one, but the rest of us have yet to see one, and we wanted to see a good one. So, today after church we drove out to a nature preserve that's about 10 miles away from our house, out in the swamp, because we've been "told" you can see alligators there.

We went on a dirt road to get there, and when we parked, there were posted signs saying "Park at your own risk - Vultures will eat the rubber on your car." Seriously. I should have taken a picture of one! (And we did see a bunch of vultures, so it maybe wasn't a joke?)

Also according to the posted signs this preserve houses bobcats, panthers, black bears...and some other less-scary sounding stuff. I was way more worried about the large man-eating animals than I was about alligators! Luckily we didn't see any of those. This trail makes a 15 mile loop out through the swamp, and we only walked like 1 mile in, so maybe the scary things live deeper in.

First you walk on this boardwalk through the swamp for a little while, and it is really pretty. It's almost like being out in the mountains of Utah, except there's a foot or two of water everywhere underneath you.

Towards the end of the boardwalk we passed some people going the other direction, and they told us that just a little way down the main trail there was a big alligator on the side of the trail. The main trail (after the boardwalk) is an old railroad bed, so it's basically just a squishy muddy lump of grass and dirt going through the middle of the swamp, with water on both sides.

And sure enough, this HUGE alligator was right alongside the trail!

Kylee wouldn't let me take a picture with her and the alligator, so here is Skyler with the gator in the background.

And here's everyone carefully going around him.

His eyes were wide open, which was kind of creepy! When we were walking back past on our way out of the trail he blinked just as Skyler and I were walking by, and I thought he was thinking about chasing us, but he didn't move. Apparently alligators are SUPER lazy.

Recent Happenings

We've recently been seeing lots of posts on Facebook about the snow in Utah and Colorado, and it's kind of sad, I'm not going to lie. However, I'm torn. I LOVE snow, but I HATE being cold. I think yesterday was the coldest day we've had since we moved here...and it was like 77 degrees as a low (somewhere around mid-day we still hit the 80s). So, since we can't go sledding or build snowmen, we do other things. Here are some of the recent happenings here in Florida:

We swim in the pool in our subdivision with friends.

We killed our fish. Okay, not really. But he did die. It was a super sad day. He survived his entire trip to Florida only to croak after about 5 weeks. RIP little guy. Skyler thinks now we're getting a turtle to put in our tank because he saw that someone else has one.

We went to play at a park by the beach, and then walked in the sand and let the waves wash over our feet.

We found an exhausted Snow White who thought climbing the stairs for a nap was just too much to ask, so we allowed her to nap on our sofa.

And Ally, too.

We sliced Skyler's head open so we could visit the ER and see what it's like. Okay, again not really, but while Andy and I were out on a date at the Cheesecake Factory Skyler decided to tumble off a recliner at our friends house and whack his head on their coffee table. They felt super bad! The doc said if it had been 1/2 inch back they would have had to staple, but where it was they were able to use glue.

The nurses loved him and made him a glove balloon to match his shirt.

We got Kylee new glasses. Yep. She went in for her eye exam and her vision was about 2x worse than it was last year. It's declining so quickly they suggested we do 6 month appointments instead of annual. Darn vision! Hopefully it'll even out here soon and start leveling out!

We play on the patio. Ally loves to ride her bike around and yell at the lizards, but she gets so hot out there we can't stay out for too long. Her sweat starts dripping in her eyes and she yells "Owie, Owie, Owie!" as she wipes it away.

Kylee turned into a pirate...

...and was forced to walk the plank and get eaten by a rabid shark. Sorry folks, we'll let you know about that funeral.

We walk to the bus stop with Kylee, and then walk home. Super exciting times. (Just as a side note though, for those who get tired of snow/cold, this photo below was at 7:55am on Nov. 17, and it was like 81 degrees outside. Notice the shorts and bare feet.)

We visit the beach. Last Saturday it was super cloudy but we decided to go anyway. It turned out to be awesome because it was still really warm (in the 80s), but there was no bright sun going down to blind us, and it wasn't too hot because an occasional breeze blew. Plus, we saw a group of dolphins (there were 5-6 of them) swim by really close to shore, so that was cool. 

Then a mermaid washed up on shore...

...and then another one. There were mermaids everywhere. They're real. If you don't believe it, you'll just have to visit us in Florida and find out for yourself.

We went to the zoo because Collier County residents get in free every 1st Saturday of the month. It was freakishly hot (are you recognizing a theme here?) so the kids were a little bit miserable after a while, and I apparently only took this one photo, but it was fun. The monkeys all live on little islands and you get to take a little boat cruise to go see them, so the kids liked that. I'm thinking we'll go back in January maybe when it's supposed to only be in the 70s instead of 95+ like it was that day (plus humidity). All the weather things here have the actual temp and then the "real feel" temp that accounts for humidity. If there's a huge difference between the two it usually means it will downpour soon, but before it does - it is HOT!