Gatorland

Have you ever heard of Gator Boys? Like the TV show? Well, we lived awfully close to Orlando to pass up the opportunity to check out what these guys were all about. While we didn't actually get to meet the "gator boys" themselves, we did get a smokin deal on our tickets. We even splurged and got train tickets too.

This little guy was pretty fiesty. Good thing he had the tape on his mouth when the handler went to pick him up. 

We got there just before it opened and there was already a huge line. And it was already hot. Nevertheless, we had a blast.

This is a saltwater crocodile. The sign reads "Saltwater crocs, like this one, are the largest living reptiles with reported lengths up to 23 feet and weighing around 3,000 pounds. They're mighty mean with real nasty attitudes, and they've been known to eat a lot of folks in Northern Australia, India, and Southeast Asia. They're called saltwater crocs, but they can also live in freshwater. And even though they live in saltwater, they don't taste salty, so please don't lick this fellar."

As soon as you walk in the front door, there's a small pool of about 20 small alligators. They were about the size of the road kill one we got to meet. There was a splash park, a play ground, the train, a "close encounters" show, gator wrestling, and a gator jumparoo show. The close encounters show was really fun, except the kids wouldn't sit still. The guys running the show pulled out a tarantula, pygmy rattlesnake, a boa constrictor, and a few other things that we could see right up close. They started with some of the things in boxes and they took the boxes into the crowd and set it by a couple ladies. Whoever was sitting by it had to open the container and potentially hold what was inside. One girl got the tarantula. Another lady got the rattlesnake but they didn't actually make her hold that one.

This alligator was all by himself. And he was HUGE! The sign says "This big fellar's name is Chester and he loved eating dogs in Tampa, FL. At 13 1/2 feet long and 1,000 pounds, he could put away some "hounds." We saved him from trappers who wanted to make a suitcase out of him. He don't get along real well with other gators, so he gets this cool bachelor pad and private pool."

In the gator jumparoo show they tied pieces of chickens to strings and dangled them into the pits of alligators to see who could jump the highest to eat the chicken.

While walking to another exhibit after we watched the close encounters show, a duck walked out from a pond and right into our path. Ivan yelled as loud as he could, "There's a duck in my way!" He was very excited to see the duck and wanted to pet it. We've been trying to teach boundaries and safe ways to watch wildlife since some of the animals we come close to can be dangerous. Ivan did pretty good at listening but it's a dang good thing we had Charlotte in the stroller so she couldn't jump on the duck. She does this scrunchy finger thing and tried so hard to grab onto the duck. It's pretty cute.

"There's a duck in my way!" 

After a while we all got pretty tired of walking around. We got a slushy, which we wouldn't normally spend the extra money on a drink from the super expensive cafes at places, but it was much needed. Not only was it ice cold but it was extra sugary so we could all get a little energy back.

Our plan after that was to ride the train then go to the splash park to cool off. We ended up enjoying the walk to the train a little too much. There were so many cool birds nesting with chicks in the rookery across the little pond that we spent a ton of time taking pictures and watching the birds. There were alligators in the water fighting each other too. It was awesome.

A tricolored heron. 

Baby great egrets. Man were they noisy!

Adult cattle egret with two babies. During mating and nesting seasons, these egrets get all that orange on them, the rest of the time they're pretty white. And they have these little afros where they make the feathers on their heads stand up. 

When we finally got to the train I could barely move. And I couldn't believe the line! We only had to wait about a half hour but it seemed like forever in that heat. Then the train was fun for about 2 minutes and then the kids were done sitting. Go figure.

This is Michael trying to contain Charlotte. She was tired of being cooped up. 

We got to see this guy right after we got off the train. This is a Florida panther, a cousin to the mountain lion out west. And they are endangered. The last time I had Ivan stand in front of a mountain lion was at Brenda's graduation, over a year ago. Ivan was months away from being 2 and Charlotte was still just so little. Ah, the memories. 

And when we were done with the train we were just done. It was well past nap time and still about an hour drive home.

This snake was moving around a bunch and sticking out his tongue, you know, like snakes do. Ivan thought it was awesome. He kept doing that for the rest of the day and saying he was a snake. 

Look at all those cormorants, vultures, and great egrets! Seriously, bird watching heaven. 

This is an Anhinga swimming around looking for fish to eat. It speared one while we watched. 

This is the oldest alligator alive. I forgot to see how old, but he's only got 2 teeth, so in Benjamin Button years that must make him 90.  

And they were passed out before we got to the highway. 

It's A Boy!

We're having a baby! And it's a boy!

We weren't quite sure about when we conceived and I think what I thought was a period was implantation. How bout that for TMI? Anyway, I never took a pregnancy test til March and was thinking we were due end of November. At my ultrasound, they sized the baby and estimated my due date at November 1. Woohoo! That sure felt like I just skipped 3 weeks of pregnancy. So I'm about 22 weeks now.

A Better Visit

On my way back to Michael after visiting my parents, I decided to visit Chris and Laura again. It's a no-brainer that we would stop and say hi, since it's the perfect place for the kids to get some energy out, it's on the way, and I love my kids getting to know their cousins.

This is at Morgan Falls Park, right by Chris and Laura's apartment. It's a really cool park. There are tons of jungle gym toys, swings, astro turf  instead of grass, benches, and tons of space. There's a separate play area, picnic table group (like 30 tables), and fire pit with outdoor (adult sized) swings surrounding it. There is a trail head to a sweet little hike that is immediately in the woods. And there's a dock on a lake. It's all only a couple minutes off the main road and yet it feels like deep country. 

Here's that lake. It keeps going off to the left. 

My 'stop by and say hi' turned into staying for 4 days. Thanks for that. Seriously. We played at the park, yes the same park, and I even got a chance to go out by myself. Laura had a doctor's appointment and I offered to watch her kids, but she had already lined up a babysitter. And that babysitter was glad to watch my kids too. I haven't left my kids with a babysitter since, what, March? the beginning of April? Yea, it had been a while. It was nice to look around at Pier 1, which is definitely not a place you can take you littles. I got a smoothie and visited Trader Joe's. Then Laura and I met back up and visited the Goodwill nearby. I found a sweet Ikea chair for kids for just a couple bucks. And we stocked up on kids books. Laura found this really cool frog book where the cover has eyes and you can move them around. I just know Ivan is going to love it!

We took a trip to Costco, cuz who doesn't love Costco? And while we were in the car Jane counted all the kids. She kept saying there were 7 kids and I was getting really confused. I count 5, where are the other 2 coming from? Then we realized she was counting our pregnant bellies as babies! And then it dawned on me, this is the last time that we could all fit in Laura's van like this! And Laura and I tried really hard to wrap our minds around the fact that this many kids at these ages is what Michael's mom endured with her 5 kids. Crazy!

Throughout the whole visit, there was one thing in particular that stuck out in my mind. Chris said to me "how are you so normal?" I can't stop thinking about that. In all this time that I've been in Florida I have not felt normal. I've not acted normal. And having just experienced the crazy that was Tennessee, it felt really good to be called normal.

The Tennessee Aquarium

After a super fun time at my parents, I decided to do something super fun with the kids on my way back to Florida. I've always seen signs for the Tennessee Aquarium and I've heard tons of great things about it and with all the 16 years I lived only 3 hours away, I'd never been. Ivan's crazy about fish, I didn't want to drive anymore, and let's face it, I would enjoy the aquarium as much as the kids. I never realized how much it costs to go to a good aquarium... 

Ivan loved the penguins! We spent probably 20 minutes just watching the penguins dive in the water and swim around. Ivan is counting them in this picture, and by counting I mean saying 1, 3, 4, 6, 1, 3, 6, etc. 

The aquarium has 2 buildings. We went to the ocean building first. That building is 4 stories tall and has a tank that runs the entire height. Charlotte squealed when she saw the turtle. 

This turtle is a rescue. He was in a boating accident that took both his back legs (fins?) off. He still did a great job of swimming around and getting to the surface to breath. 

Ivan said "A shark! look at all those teeth! Just like me." We also saw someone scuba diving in the tank and Ivan thought it was Michael. 

This is in the second building, the river building. They had some really active otters. 

Ivan had a blast feeling the stergin. There was a different tank in the ocean building that had rays and tiny hammerhead sharks to pet. He about lost it getting to touch the fish. 

Great Expectations

If you know me, you know that I get excited to go home to Tennessee. And if you know me really well, then you know how disappointed I am every time I do go home.

I get incredibly excited for my kids to see my parents. I'm unbelievably excited to be in my home town where everything is so familiar, even 5 years after moving away. I'm truthfully excited to see my family.

And then we visit and I realize how much Clarksville sucks. My parents house hasn't changed in years, which means absolutely no baby proofing. And that means the outside too. My dad is a skilled craftsmen and woodworker. He is also an excellent avoider of the cleaning up part. This time he did a pretty good job, compared to his usual. There weren't any nails on the carport, or sawdust, wood chips, tools, etc laying around. He had even cleaned the workshop and made it into a usable space which hadn't been a possibility in years. I'm really impressed at how well he cleaned the carport. There were still a few nail ridden boards laying around the yard though. That's no good for tiny toddlers. And that's just the outside. Inside my mom has a ton of nice, breakable, decorations. And all within reach of my midgets. Not to mention that Ivan can open doors, even if they're locked. He and Charlotte love it outside. My parents have about 10 acres that their house sits on. Tons of land out front, mostly pasture, and even more land in the back which is heavily forested. So if he escapes, there's no knowing where he's gone to.

See what I mean? This is me already halfway down the driveway and that blue dot out there is Ivan. Good thing Mina, my dad's German Shepherd, was with him. She's a really good dog. She would follow Ivan anywhere. 

As you know I've been seriously losing it lately. So my thought behind this trip is to clear my head, have a little more space for the kids to play, and have my mom and dad around to help me a little and keep me company during the day. I didn't really feel like that was expecting too much. I also have friends in the area that I was happy to be closer to for longer, that way I could see them without feeling like I'm just using my parents as a hotel. And this time I meant to stay for a couple weeks.

Well, I started out my drive differently than I wanted to. I was finally able to see a doctor (for the first time in this pregnancy) and I really wanted an ultrasound the same day. Silly me, I didn't realize they referred out for all their imaging. I called to see when I could be seen for that and it wasn't for weeks. So right after my appointment I headed north, at about 10 am. My original plan was to leave way early in the morning so we could spend some quality time with Chris and Laura, the ultimate pit stop. I really wanted to get there that day so we could see Michael's parents while they were in town. We got there in time for dinner and had a fun visit that evening.

The next day we stayed a little while in the morning, played at the park, and had lunch then set out for Tennessee. Somewhere between St. Cloud, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia I lost my credit card. Awesome. This and the drive along with some extra greasy Wendy's set me into a series of contractions. I didn't really understand what was happening for about an hour, then I had to stop and go walk around. That sucked pretty bad. The kids were happily napping and I couldn't possibly drive anymore. We stopped at the Tennessee welcome center, which was gorgeous, but we stayed for over an hour before I felt I could drive again. By then the kids were really wound up and were not going to sleep again. Not only that, but now I'm going to be driving in the dark. Yay this is going so well already.

She's so cute. This is at the beautiful rest area that we played at. 

By the time I got to my parents I was thoroughly exhausted. I was completely freaked out that I was having contractions at barely 22 weeks and I just wanted to go to bed. After being in the car all day, of course Ivan and Charlotte did not want to go to bed at the normal time. Super. Oddly enough, I thought if I had given enough notice to my parents that they would be ready for all that my visit brought with it. Which was one overwhelmed pregnant momma and two busy toddlers. Obviously I need to be more specific. My dad was still at work, and in his defense he tried his hardest to be home sooner and did still get home early. But my mom, oh dear, she was not ready for us. Did I ever tell you that she begged me to come visit again? I remember complaining to her one day about life in Florida and she said she would drive down and pick me and the kids up and take us home with her. I thought she was kidding! That sounded ridiculous. Well, she was serious and we continued to talk the idea over for several weeks. We had such a good visit in April and I was glad she wanted to see me again for so long and so soon. We talked about me driving up and getting Michael a rental car. Well we decided on me driving up, my mom paying for gas, and Michael hitchhiking while I was away. Keep all this in mind when I tell you the next part.

My mom got the kids a little water table to play with. And of course she wanted them to play with it right away but had started setting it up wrong since she was already tipsy... at 5:30. 

So much fun!

When I got to my parents house I got my kids ready for bed and put them in bed. Ivan wouldn't leave the light alone and Charlotte just cried and cried. I lost it. I gave Ivan a spanking, which I immediately felt sorry for. It wasn't a normal spanking and I cried with him and gave him hugs and kisses and told him I was sorry right away. That experience only made me feel more like crap. Not only was I a bad person, but now I'm a terrible mother. So I decided to leave the kids in the bedroom and go to the living room to cry in peace. I sat there bawling. Guess who sat across the room from me and did nothing? Guess who had too much to drink already (mind you it's 8 pm)? Within minutes of my arrival she passed out on the couch. In all of this talk about me coming to visit again, my mom, on her own free will, promised me that she would not drink while I was there.

Charlotte likes my dad so much. She would prefer him over me while he was around. 

And as wonderful as our visit was in April, there was one evening that was not good. We celebrated Easter early since it was the most family gathering we'd had in a long time. My older sister Heidi and her kids were there too. While making dinner, my mom nearly fell in the oven trying to get the ham out. My dad made her lay down and she was passed out in minutes, leaving me to finish dinner. That's just a snippet of that awesome night. But after that experience, I think my parents had a serious discussion. To know that we had driven 2000 miles to see them and my sister had drive nearly half as much and this was how my mom was going to act around us? Not to mention that this is how our kids will remember her. Just insane. But after this, she was willing to admit that her actions were wrong and that she wanted to do better. Her promise to not drink while I was there was the most honest she has been with what she does.

Thank goodness my dad came home early. He gave me hugs and made me feel justified in how I was feeling. And that's the end of day one of my retreat from insanity.

On one of our many walks to the creek down the road. Charlotte totally loves her Papa. 

From there I only felt bad about being there. I missed my husband. I felt totally abandoned. I was up at 6 every day with the kids. And I didn't sleep well because they didn't turn the a/c on. I got to hang out with some friends but it just wasn't what I was looking for. My mom offered to let me take a nap and she would watch the kids for me. Silly me, I took her up on that offer. I woke up suddenly and went to find everybody. My mom was asleep on the couch and my kids were nowhere to be found. Charlotte was in the bathroom, in the complete dark with a few fresh bruises on her head. Ivan was outside. Ivan was outside! I freaked out. Thankfully he was just feeding the chickens, which is fairly close to the house and easily visible from the door. But he could have gone to the creek down the road, which he asks to do constantly. He could have gotten into my parents 4 feet deep swimming pool. He could have gotten lost in the woods that stretch for a mile behind the house. I cannot say how many times I thanked my Father in Heaven that day that my little boy was safe and that I woke up before they were alone for too long.

Ivan wanted to help Papa and build something. So he found a rubber mallet and went and banged on a bunch of trees. 

So there's that. Then there was an evening that my dad and I were hanging out watching a movie. My mom walks in, plastered, and yells at my dad. She was mad at him because he was spending more time with me than with her. She chewed him out. On a different day, she told me that I was judgmental and overbearing. She said we had differences in parenting, that she wished I lived closer so she could show me how to handle my children. She also told me that she regretted me coming to visit. So I spent Father's Day with my dad, Ivan wanted to get Papa a special treat because he had taken Ivan on so many walks to the creek. And the next day we left.

One of the days we were in Tennessee, we managed to spend some time at one of my favorite places. We went for a walk at Dunbar Cave State Park. This is the mouth of the cave, which is actually barred up. But there are bats in the crevices! And there's a secret back entrance (shh!) that's super fun to spelunker. Can you see Ivan?

Charlotte practicing her modeling. I think she has a promising future, except for that pesky height thing. 

This was what the kids loved the most, splashing in a puddle. The trail that goes from the parking lot to the spot where this picture is taken winds around a pond. We saw about 8 turtles sunbathing on a log, Canada geese, fish jumping out of the water, and a ton of other little birds. It was really fun.

I'm LOSING my mind

May 5 So I might be a little bit crazy. I KNOW I'm high spirited and high maintenance at times. But throughout all my life I've never felt like I was a danger to anyone around me or to myself. It is at this point in my life that I suppose a thorough inner soul searching would be appropriate.

I am living in a one bedroom house with 3 other people. I also live in Florida which means any kind of outdoor living space is not a reality, not in the summer. Michael is gone at work all day and I get to be home with my kiddos. I love having the time to be with them. It definitely makes me so much less stressed out to be home all day instead of working and being a mom. I honestly don't know how other moms do it. That being said, it's still not easy being a stay at home mom. I'm experiencing some rather awesome pregnancy symptoms as well. Nausea, like all the time, severe fatigue, headaches, light headedness (is that even a word), as well as all the emotional turmoil that crazy hormones put you through. So when my kids wake up at 6 in the morning, gross, I have a really hard time taking care of them. Not to mention the fact that I'm used to them waking up at 8 when we were in Idaho. Who knew moving into a time zone two hours ahead meant your kids would sleep 2 hours less than they used to.... And that translates out into waking up 4 hours earlier than they used to. And oh how I love my sleep. I cannot get enough of it. And pregnant me? She is even crazier about getting enough rest.

So I'm in basically another country, compared to Idaho, without any friends or any of my things and with absolutely no space to spread out. Toddlers need space to run and play and make messes. Moms need space to have peace and quiet. we have neither. And it's hot. It's so dang hot. Every single time I walk outside I feel like my face is going to melt off. I have no idea how I grew up in this heat and humidity. I mean, I played soccer in this weather, in the middle of the day! Crazy talk.

My only outlet for de-stressing is through phone contacts. And just about every person I've talked to says something like "oh it's only for a couple months" or "at least the beach is close." As nice as that might sound, I really feel like nobody is understanding how difficult this is for me. I get claustrophobic and overwhelmed and I need my own space. Thank goodness we haven't had anyone else try and fit in this house or I might lose it for reals. It is a serious problem for me to be cooped up inside all day. As much as I try to let the kids play outside, I just plain don't trust them to stay away from the road. And the road is pretty close to the house and people just fly down it. And I feel terrible. I seriously don't feel good, at all, like most every day. And somehow I manage to keep both the kids alive and mostly happy, the house clean, and dinner made. Of course if I didn't clean the house it would just make me more crazy. And if I didn't cook dinner I think I would starve. The beach would be fun if the kids actually liked the ocean. But it's really dirty. Sand is the devil. Charlotte eats shells and who knows what else and Ivan just runs and runs and I can't keep up. Really, going there by myself with the kids is just not safe. There's a swimming hole here, but it's really smelly, like sulfur smelly. So unless I'm feeling super great about shouting groceries into the garbage, then I try to steer clear of there. Plus it's a lot of work getting 3 people in swim suits and covered in sun screen and into the car and buckled and out of the car and making sure we don't drown. I'm tired just thinking about it.

May 14 I would really like to think that I'm super awesome at being a mom and I reread what I just wrote and I feel absolutely terrible. I feel like I can't do my job and wonder why I was ever allowed to take this much responsibility into my life. I wonder why Michael chose me as a wife and the mother of his children when this is how I feel about being a mom. I wonder why pregnancy is just as difficult as raising a child is and how in the world do people have so many kids? Am I doing it wrong? Am I just not cut out to do this? And when I think of the alternative that my life could be without kids... I am graduated from college and could easily be working on a masters degree to teach in the vet tech field. Or I could be working towards being a vet tech dental specialist. Or I could be working at a zoo or working anywhere and Michael and I could be debt free. Heck, Michael might even be done with school already if we didn't have so many kids to look after. But what is that really worth? I hate working anyway. Sure we might have more money, but we'd definitely find other things to spend it on. That's not the real issue here anyway. How I feel is the issue. I go on this up and down roller coaster of craziness and I hate it. Nothing makes me more sick than feeling like I don't deserve my children.

So here I am, feeling terrible about myself and letting it seep out into everything I do and onto everyone I come in contact with. My poor babies are stuck with me all day long when I can't get off the couch some days. And others I just plain can't get my emotions in check. I know two year olds will throw fits and that one year olds don't understand everything you ask them to do. But does that stop me from expecting them to be better? Nope. In fact, I think I expect more out of them since we get to do so many fun things. And still, messes are made, tears are spilt, punches thrown (not by me), and hair is pulled (not by me, unless I'm pulling out my own hair). Ivan and Charlotte are finally at the age that playing together is pretty cool... sometimes. Most of the time, Charlotte wants to be beside Ivan but not playing with him. And Ivan wants Charlotte to interact with him. Oh so many fights have been fought. And it is only the beginning. I definitely feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. All I know is, I'm losing my mind.

May 23 I feel like it's this house that is hurting me. If I can get out of this house I will be fine. If I can have my own room to sleep in, I'll be ok. If the kids could play outside without the chance of them being hit by a truck, then they would be fine. So I decided to take a trip to Tennessee. Michael's parents are going to be visiting Chris and Laura for a few days in Atlanta. So I can drive up, stop and see them and have a chance to stretch my legs, and keep driving north. Hopefully it'll be a little cooler up there, but I'm not counting on it. All I want is a yard. Ivan and Charlotte love my parents' house. They have a huge yard with chickens and dogs and rabbits. The kids love playing with all the animals. And it's seriously a long way to the end of the driveway to get to the road, which is a dead end road that no one ever drives on. So I'm really looking forward to this visit. Plus our last visit with my parents went really well and I'm actually excited to see my mom and dad again.

June 10 Oh, did I mention I've been diagnosed with antepartum depression? You've heard of post partum depression, right? It's the "baby blues" you get after having the baby. Antepartum is a form of depression experienced from the onset of pregnancy. My doctor told me it could last my entire pregnancy and end when I have the baby but most likely, with my ppd history, I will have a much more intense post partum experience as well. And who knows if that will be the end of this or not. I'm really hoping I'll get this baby out and go back to normal, but for now, I do not feel normal. I literally feel crazy. There are days I wake up crying because I don't want to get out of bed at 6:30. Some days I get so angry, so incredibly angry, for a bowl a spilled cereal. Sometimes all I have to do is look at the overflowing sink of dirty dishes and wish to myself I had a dishwasher and I get angry and sad. I'm supposed to be eating healthy, as a management technique, but then I think about how much healthy costs and the fact that we are already spending over budget on groceries and that we won't have any money to live off of when we get back to Rexburg. And it's not just me that's hurting. It's my kids and my husband. I've distanced myself in my relationships and it's made it so hard to reach out for help. I'm silently suffering when I shouldn't have to.

As much as I try to reach out and make friends here, I find that there just aren't enough people close by. I have 2 friends I can talk to, but I don't feel like I can really talk to them. And they have their own things going on. I miss my network in Rexburg. I had a few friends I could kid swap with and have some time to myself. I miss the space I had, oh how I took that for granted. I miss the fenced in yard that I could toss the kids into and work on something else that needed to be done. I miss the parks close by and the lack of blistering heat. I miss the community feeling in our little trailer park. I miss my mixer and I miss baking. I miss baking and giving away all the goodies to those I cared about. I miss the mountains and the fresh air. Did I mention a gallon of milk is $4.30? For one gallon! No wonder we're going over budget each and every month on groceries. Things literally cost 2 to 2.5 times as much here as they did in Idaho. Shoot I could shop at Albertson's for all my groceries in Rexburg and still spend less than I would at Walmart here. Then you throw in the half a tank of gas to get us to the nearest grocery store, that adds up. It's the little things that set me off. I miss Brenda. I feel like we finally were living close to each other and we had to ruin it.

All in all, I just don't feel like myself. I'm known for a sassy personality, more so when I'm stressed, but I've never felt like this before. And I honestly felt like I had achieved a calm and collected personality after years of Michael's chillness rubbing off on me. I settled into a loving role as a mother and now I'm angry mom all the time. I'm not loving who I am or how I'm acting. I'm looking for a change. Getting out of this house is going to help reset my life. Hopefully I'll get to spend a couple weeks in TN and reevaluate with the help of my parents to watch my kids a couple times. I can catch up on my sleep, my quiet time, and my alone time. I can spend some quality time planning out the rest of my summer so I can stay on top of the boredom that begets fit throwing kids. I want to make our time in Florida fun, memorable, and worthwhile. I want to say we had a good sabbatical from school and Rexburg and normal life and that we are refreshed and ready to outlast another Idaho winter. (Although right now I could really use some snow.) I want to be able to bring our last child home to a family that is unified and loving. And I want to be the mom that my kids remember. I want to be a source of comfort, love, kindness, fun, and friendliness that they can't find anywhere else. I want to be like Julie Millett. She's like my ultimate example of awesomeness. Her and Llewanne Bass, Sister Spann, Martha Flake, just to name a few.

The Brevard Zoo

As if we don't have enough animal encounters, we went to the zoo. Sometimes I feel like I live in a zoo with as much as Ivan and Charlotte growl, roar, cheep, moo, bark, meow, etc. These kids love animals. I'm sure Michael and I had nothing to do with that...

I went to the Brevard Zoo with my friend Mary a couple weeks ago. She has a pass that got me and Charlotte in for free so we only had to pay the $12 for Ivan to get in. By the way, I think it's ridiculous to have to pay for a 2 year old. Seriously? And not only is it silly to pay for a 2 year old, but I feel like I was charged a lot. Not just me in particular, but that the price for a 2-12 year old was $12? That seems overboard for me. Anyway, since the kids and I had already been to the zoo, we knew Michael would like it. And we got 2 free tickets from a friend and again only had to pay for Ivan. Not bad, except for the fact that he's 2.

I'm pretty sure this is a Cheetah. Those spotted big cats are hard to identify sometimes. He was pacing all over his yard and walked right in front of us several times. 

In all reality, I've been to much better zoos. The Brevard Zoo does not get my vote for best zoo ever or best price for what you get, but hey, there's a splash pad/ swimming pool in the zoo. Knowing it was going to be a million degrees outside, we didn't plan on staying all day or even seeing all the exhibits. This was a first for me. We didn't see everything when we went with Mary, but I didn't have any help with the kids and I expected to leave early because of that. But when I do things with Michael, I expect to go all the way. This time, I realized my limits, both physically and mentally, and we settled to see what we wanted and split before we went crazy or roasted. That was a good decision.

I'm not sure if she just really liked the emus or if biting the bars felt good on her gums. Either way she was very happy right here. 

This emu was thumping at us. They make this really deep sound in their throat that sounds like thumping on a hollow log. The kids thought it was neat. 

This zoo really just has a bunch of cool birds. There is a room that you can go in and it's all fenced in and there are tons of these little green parrot looking birds that fly around freely. You can buy little fruit cups and the birds will land on you, fight each other for the food, and eat right out of the cup. The kids thought this was really cool but Ivan wasn't quite brave enough to try it out, he just watched mom and dad do it. Charlotte kept trying to catch the birds, which was funny, but the birds weren't the nicest and weren't afraid to bite you. That is what I paid $12 for each time we went. Definitely my favorite part of the zoo.

They took dad by surprise!

Ivan loved seeing the bird eat out of dad's hand!

He even got brave enough to hold the cup! We made sure it was mostly empty so the birds wouldn't actually land on him. 

Charlotte is trying her hardest to catch these little cockateels. 

We ate lunch right next to the Flamingo pond. That's where we got to feed a scarlet ibis and a roseate spoonbill. Really it was just fish food, but instead of throwing it into the water for the giant coy to eat, we fed it piece by piece to the birds. They would take it right out of your fingers! And the spoonbill's bill felt like two plastic plates fumbling over your hand. Pretty neat experience. And I got pooped on.

Michael thought feeding the birds was really cool too. The one eating from his hand is the spoonbill and the red on is the scarlet ibis. Can you see the flamingos in the background?

One reason why we chose this spot to eat lunch at was for the shade. Shade means birds and birds mean poop. I kept saying they were gonna poop on me and we should move, but we weren't enough. 

It didn't take long after that for us to just be done. We went by the splash pad little pool thing and let the kids cool off then headed out. Somehow I don't have a single picture of the kids playing in the water. Dang, that place is pretty cool, too. They have a shallow pool with a manatee statue in it and a deeper pool that has more water park type things. The big pool has a bucket that fills and you pull the cord and it dumps it on you and it meets up with a giant fish tank with fish the size of Ivan in it. And there's the whale's mouth that is a slide that mimics a whale tongue and you can push a button and water comes out the blow hole.

The giraffe exhibit they have is incredible! They had a couple baby giraffes and 3 or 4 adults. The giraffes could reach their heads right up to this platform where everyone was walking. 

We even paid 2 dollars for a quarter stick of carrot to get the feed the giraffe. Ivan thought it was neat but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it more!

Look at his purple tongue!