Michael & Amanda and chicklets to call our own: 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.