Pelican Island

We took a short trip south to Pelican Island. Pelican Island is the country's first wildlife preserve. The island itself is actually inaccessible. Well, that's not entirely accurate. You can get there by boat, but you're not supposed to step foot on the island. People used to hunt down the birds that nest there and use their feathers for ladies hats. Somebody, Paul Kroegel, decided that wasn't ok and that too many of the birds were being killed to the point of extinction. I even read something while we were there that said like 80 species of birds that once lived there are now extinct due to over hunting. So in 1901 the Audubon Society made the area protected for non game birds and 4 people made wardens to protect the area and the wading birds there. 2 of those guys were killed while trying to protect these birds. Then in 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt made it the country's first wildlife preserve. It was pretty interesting to read about all the effort it took to get credibility for a wildlife preserve, both in the sense of people respecting the law and not trespassing and the fact that the country could see a need to keep a piece of beautiful land from being inhabited, fished, and farmed.

The board walk path leading to the overlook. They had all the wildlife refuges listed in the order they were established, starting with the most recent and ending with the first... Pelican Island. We were so excited to find Camas, which we've been to several times while in Idaho. 

A lake that we walked past before getting to the Pelican Island overlook. 

Ivan did not know how to work the telescope thing. This is the overlook for Pelican Island. I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of the actual island!

There's a nice boardwalk trail to walk and it goes by a little lake, then you get out to the overlook for Pelican Island. They call the place where these birds nest a rookery. We saw wood storks, pelicans, tri-colored herons, and some really cool lizards. The lizards were all over the place, and we were really curious about them, so we looked them up. They are called the anole, also known as the American chameleon because they can change colors. The males have this little flap of skin (dewlap) they can project out and it's very brightly colored. Ivan and Charlotte were fascinated by it.

Alligators in the water. Always. 

Tricolored heron

Alligator snapping turtle

Brown pelican. These guys are so cool. They fly over the water and when they see a fish, they nose-dive the water and resurface with a fish in their mouths. 

Wood stork, not my favorite but it makes me feel like we're in Africa or something.

Here's that lizard. We saw some green ones with that same dewlap. 

On the way to the preserve, Ivan had an accident. Not his first, and definitely not his last, but probably the worst. He pooped, and when we changed him we could see why he couldn't hold it. But this was the one time I didn't have a change of clothes for him! Go figure. And this was before we even got out of the car to explore. So we put one of Charlotte's diapers on him and let him run around without pants on, praying nobody else was there to see. I tried to keep him in the hiking backpack, but he wanted to run free, so there he is without pants, in a diaper that's way too small, and getting bug bites all over his legs.

I tried to only take pictures of him from the shirt up, then you couldn't tell. But I needed to blog about something!

The Sunshine State

We finally made it to Florida! We left Rexburg around 3 pm on April 9, got to Tennessee late at night on April 10, made it to Atlanta on April 16, and now Florida on April 18. Michael's first day of work is Monday, April 21 so we wanted to get to our summer home a couple days before he started so we could settle in. Turns out that was a fantastic idea. When we got to Florida it was raining, go figure. So we backed the car as close to the house as we could and started unloading things. Then we noticed the puddle of water in the kitchen. Somehow we thought it was caused by the rain or something and that if we just dried it up everything would be ok. We took 2 or 3 towels, dried up the water, and continued to unload. By the time we brought in about half our stuff, the puddle had returned and it was at its original size again too! Now we were concerned. It was only about 8 o'clock, so we called the human resource guy that's over the intern housing. He just lives around the corner, so he and his wife came over to check it out and decided to move us into the house next door. There are 4 intern houses here all in a row. All of the houses had been assigned, since there are 4 interns for this summer. But only one other intern had shown up yet, so we could move to another house without someone being in it yet. Turns out that the other house they put us in was much nicer (as nice as a one bedroom house could be I guess). It has a newer washer and dryer, better ceiling fans, and was cleaner too. Also, the bathroom was all inside the bathroom. In the first house, there was an extension of the bathroom that had some more cabinet space and a sink on the outside of the bathroom door. Which meant easy access for small children. So in the house we ended up in, we didn't have that and I am very excited to control the water access. The house came with a TV, an old 50 lb tube TV, but no DVD player and no real way to hook the DVD player to the ancient TV. That put a damper on my attitude. Then we set up the beds. 3 beds for 4 people in 1 room. Somehow my math doesn't add up there. We brought a pack and play for Charlotte and expected a bed for us. I tried really hard to fit Ivan's mattress in the car, but it just didn't happen. So I thought he would sleep in our bed the first night and we would buy him another mattress and just stick that on the floor, then sell the mattress before we left. Turns out the housing guy found us a twin size roll away bed. Yay! Ivan has a bed, a BIG bed (so he calls it) and we didn't have to buy anything. Our bed was made when we got there, which creeped me out. I'm sure the person that lived there before washed the sheets and made the bed for it to look nice, but what if they didn't wash the sheets? Gross. And the housing guy got us brand new sheets, so I put those on the bed, along with our wedding quilt that Michael's mom made for us. That definitely made it feel more like home. All of our stuff fit very easily in the cabinet space this place has and we only had to ask for a few things for the kitchen, which they found in storage and gave to us. Sweet.

Our humble abode. If we parked the car in front, the car would be about 3/4 the length of the house. 

Saturday we went grocery shopping and explored the ranch a little bit. We got invited to an Easter egg hunt and potluck that evening. It was nice to meet a few people before we got to church. Ivan had a blast running around with all the other kids. And of course he loved finding the eggs with candy in them, but even better, there were a few eggs with money in them! Pennies and nickels mostly, but man was Ivan excited to get his very own moneys. The people whose house we were at for the activity had a calf fenced up in the back yard. Charlotte was very curious about him, so we went over to say hello. Then the calf mooed. Charlotte freaked out! She started crying and clawing at me and climbing up my neck to get away. Ha ha. She's so funny. Ivan cried too when the cow mooed. So he just ran away and kept playing with his new friends.

I think he looks a lot like my brother in this picture. Where did his shoes go?! I'm pretty sure he's trying to sweet talk some Easter eggs away from her. 

Haha, I can't help but laugh at this. She was SO freaked out by the mooing! That wouldn't last long with all the cows across the street from our house, you know, cuz we live on a ranch with thousands of cows. 

On our way home from the activity, we found a little alligator. He was dead in the road, which makes this next part a little gross. We passed by it and Michael said "Can I go back and get it?!" He was very excited. And we were prepared and had a tarp in the back to put the thing on. It was really fresh, man how hillbilly does that sound?, so it didn't smell. We got home, took it out and let the kids see it. It was good to let them see one up close that way they couldn't be as curious in the future. It was also a good opportunity to show them the teeth on that booger. And his claws. Now Ivan knows a little better how dangerous they can be and will hopefully listen to us if we ever see one up close, since he's about a mouthful for the larger gators.

And we went to the beach, of course! It was a little windy, but very pretty. Ivan loved chasing the birds. And Charlotte just loves playing in the sand. We took them into the water and they hated it! Now we can't get either of them to go in the water. Maybe it's just too cold right now? Even though it's 80 degrees outside. Silly kids.

Oh he had a blast!

Charlotte testing out the water. 

After church on Sunday we were invited to a cookout thing for Easter. We got to meet a few people with kids the same ages as ours and the people here are really nice. It's a pretty close community because all these people work together and most of them go to the same church and do some of the same things. There's a swimming hole on the ranch for ranch employees and their families to use, so I'm sure we'll get plenty of use out of that when it opens up, and see all these same people there too.

We've already seen a few alligators. If you look in any water that's not salt water, they're there. We will NOT be swimming in any ponds or lakes or rivers around here. The wildlife here is amazing. I mean it's no bighorn sheep or moose, but the variety of birds is incredible. I've never seen anything like it. We've seen a few wild hogs, which are almost as big as the deer! And just a ton of birds. So far we're enjoying our time here.

We've been told you can estimate the size of an alligator based on the distance from the tip of his nose to his eyes. However many inches you guesstimate = how many feet long the sucker is. 

A picture of just how wild it is here. Definitely a shocking difference from SE Idaho. 

That's a big one!

That blurry brown blob, yea that one there, is a wild hog. 

"The Thinker" Charlotte at the playground

Pit Stop #2

We took a short drive, short as in less than 15 hours, to Atlanta after visiting my parents. I grew up in the country. I didn't drive on the interstate until I was 18 years old. I didn't drive in high traffic on the interstate until I was 19 and I about died of a panic attack. Then I moved to Rexburg. It's much less populated there, meaning much less traffic. So all the times we drove across the country and got grid locked on the interstate in St. Louis I thought it was ridiculous. St. Louis has always been my worst traffic experience. Even driving through all of Salt Lake City at rush hour wasn't as bad just a snippet of St. Louis any time of the day. Then we drove through Atlanta. I'd been there plenty of times before since we would take a trip to Six Flags almost every year with my family growing up. But I never paid attention to traffic, usually because we wouldn't get there til the middle of the night and there wouldn't be any traffic. Oh boy. Atlanta was something else driving through it! It was insane, seriously insane. I don't ever want to live there ever. I don't ever want to live anywhere close to there where I would have to drive through there on a regular basis, heck, even just a once in a while basis would be too much for me. I've decided I like small towns. I like the country. I like living where there aren't any people around. Now I just need to find some land backed up to a national forest and make sure I don't get any neighbors. Swan Valley, Idaho is sounding pretty good right now.

Anyway, we went to Atlanta to visit Michael's brother Chris. Chris is getting his master's degree in engineering at Georgia Tech, so they are living in Atlanta. We stayed the night with them and I got to go to a relief society activity at their church and make a mason jar garden. I planted cilantro because we always buy cilantro and end up wasting some because we can't use it fast enough. If I grow my own, we can use it at our own pace and always have some. We'll see if it actually grows. And if it survives the drive down to Florida.

We also got to go to the zoo. We drove right past the Braves baseball field, which was very exciting. I've always told Michael that I wouldn't care to go to a baseball game, but now I think I would. It would be fun to sit in the stands and just plain feel American. And eat a ball park hot dog and nachos of course. Is that me talking? Must be the cravings...

Ivan just loves Chris and Laura's kids. It was so fun for him to see all of his cousins so close together.

Charlotte is thrilled to be in the carrier. That sure didn't last long. 

All the cousins. From left to right - Jane (blue jacket), Charlotte on my back, Megan, Ben, and Ivan. Then there's Chris. 

Pumba!

Lots of baby lions. This was one of my favorite exhibits. 

Brothers carrying their boys. 

Aw, they're holding hands!

There were a bunch of gorillas at the zoo. I don't think I've seen that many before. 

This is where we had lunch. There was an adorable baby monkey inside this exhibit that was going wild! He was so full of energy and he ran all over the place. It was really fun to just sit and watch him for a bit.  

They had baby pandas! 

This is how supermom looks. Haha

Alligator snapping turtle

Charlotte loved all the goats at the petting zoo. I couldn't keep her from petting them if I wanted. 

Ivan and Ben, partners in crime. This is over at the playground. There was a hand washing station and air hand dryers, or whatever they're called. Ivan thought it was pretty cool to pick up the wood chips and watch the dryer blow them out of his hand. Any time you walked too close to this thing, it would start automatically. So anytime Charlotte got close, it would start and she would freak out!

This zoo has got to be one of the best I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of zoos. The only problem with this particular visit was that is was crazy busy. There were tons of school field trip groups, tons! So that was kinda crazy. And we were expecting a little warmer weather, but it turned out ok.

Pit Stop #1

Along the trek back east, we managed to stop for about 5 days in Tennessee so see my family. My little sister is in Alaska with the army, so I didn't get to see her. And my brother just moved to Arizona, so I didn't get to see him either, bummer. BUT, I did get to see Heidi and her 3 kids, Paul, Ryan, and EmmaLynn. And my parents, of course. I was super excited to go visit them, even though it hadn't been that long since we'd seen each other last. I'm very grateful for how often we've been able to visit this year since I usually only get about 2 visits a year. Heidi's kids hadn't met Charlotte yet and hadn't seen Ivan in person since he was about 3 months old. Now that had been a long time!

He loved playing on the "tractor." He kept saying he was just like Papa. 

The kids took a little while to really warm up to each other. This hammock was just the thing they needed to get comfortable. They kept swinging on it and tipping over just like this. At one point we had all 5 kids on there, laughing and having a blast. 

We got some pictures done of all the grandkids while we were together. This is just outside the photoshop. Ivan looks a little worried about EmmaLynn's driving. 

Hanging out at the pool at Heidi's hotel. This little pool was awesome. It was only about a foot deep so Charlotte could walk around comfortably. 

And she got bored of playing in the water so she started biting my face! 

While we were there we managed to lose Ivan 2 or 3 times. That boy just loves to explore and run and be free. And my parents have a lot of land. A couple times he ran into the woods in the back yard (and came back with ticks all over). Once he ran all the way to the neighbors house, this was all in a matter of minutes. We were getting in the car to go somewhere and I had Charlotte and was getting her strapped in the car seat. I assumed Michael had Ivan and Michael thought I had Ivan. Oops. Away he went. That kid sure can run. The kids both loved all the animals. They got to feed the chickens, which was very exciting until Charlotte got bit. Then she started roaring at the chickens. Ivan did a happy dance for the kittens he found and Charlotte managed to badger poor Blondie, my mom's dog, into a state of pure terror. 

We went to Dinosaur World too. It's this really cool... exhibit? in Kentucky with life size replicas of dinosaurs. There is a small museum and a place to dig for fossils too. It was kinda chilly that day, actually the coldest day we were there and we were outside all day, ha. Ivan was in heaven! Almost everyday since we went there Ivan has said, "Gonna go to disagor world tomorrow with Papa. It gonna be so fun!" 

We're awful happy to be inside a dinosaur's mouth. 

Cousins! Left to right - Ryan, Paul, Ivan, EmmaLynn

ROAR! 

This is the giant dinosaur you can see from the interstate (which is just on the other side of that there fence). Apparently it's a fictitious monster created just for fun, and to draw in the customers. 

I'm amazed at all the detail put into each of the dinosaurs there. There are over a hundred and fifty life size dinosaur models. And all the dinosaurs are made on site! 

This is Charlotte roaring at the dinos. 

I think these ones are called the ultrasaurus. It is the tallest and biggest dinosaur that ever existed. 

I love this picture of my dad carrying my baby girl. It makes me think of all the times he carried me like that when I was that little. 

All the dinosaurs had name plates saying some info about them. I just really liked the engraving under the description of this one. Ha ha

They had a super fun playground area. Lots of stuff to climb on. 

This is the fossil dig. The kids all thought it was really cool and they even got to keep a couple of the fossils they dug up! (Most of it was just fossilized poop, but that makes it cooler, right?)

And of course any down time at the Roney Ranch meant it was time for a walk. We took many walks down the road to visit the creek and throw rocks in it. Not quite sure what's so amusing about that, but it sure entertained all the kids. Ivan and Mina (the dog) are best buds now. She's a good dog too, if Ivan got away from us, she would be right by him.