Florida Trip! Day 7 - Beach and Alligators!

Today, we woke up later than any other day, thank goodness! Kate and I were still up long before the rest of my crew. We decided to head to the beach that day (Omar had to work,) and contrary to Kate's wishes, we convinced her to go back to a beach with a splash pad, cause I wasn't sure how the girls would take the sand. We packed a lunch and headed out with lots of gear, but less than she usually takes, she says. It was a beautiful morning to be at the beach, though it was smoky from all the fires they'd been having (right near Kate's!)

The girls played around in the splash pad for a little bit, then we headed down to the ocean. It was so great - I could have stayed there for hours, it's so relaxing and I miss it! Unfortunately, we ended up only staying a bit over an hour. Jeff took Amelie out into the big waves, where she got a mouthful, and that ruined it for her. She was just crying and miserable after that. We took her shallower, then out of the water completely, but no cigar. Kate finally broke into her shell with drawing in the sand. About this time, I noticed she was feverish. We tried to prolong hanging out with the waves, but she just wasn't having it. Alisa, on the other hand, was in heaven! She was an adventuring wanderer. She walked and played anywhere we'd let her go, and seemed to have a grand old time. She really worked up confidence after day 1 or 2 of the trip, and we have to really keep the reins on her adventuring for the rest of the time! We ate lunch, there, then were talking about going home or the store to get medicine for Amie, but luckily I found ours at the last minute. So, we gave her some infant tylenol and then headed to the Alligator Farm (do you think I'm a terrible mother?)

This is another place Kate had recently been with visitors, but so graciously tour guided us there! Jeff had wanted to see some good gator action, but but we didn't have time to stop in at Gatorland while in Kissimmee (or we THOUGHT we wouldn't. We could have, seeing as we didn't get to the temple.) It was a fun place, where we definitely got plenty of views of gators and crocs, and I really liked it, though I wish we could have seen some of the jumping and wrestling they do at Gatorland. Omar had previously found one of the gator food machines that gives you food for free, so we parked there for a minute and fed the little guys for awhile.

After a tour of the place and standing outside for awhile, no joke, I had sweat streaming down my back. And it wasn't even July or August! Utah's thickened my blood. We took a break to let the kiddies play on a little kid playplace (where Alisa adventured her way into the employees only section) until it was almost time for a feeding show.



We stopped on our way out to watch a trainer feed the gator's right from his hand, up close and personal. He gave them dead rats (nasty) and it was fun to watch, a little crazy. He kept mentioning you could get your own extreme photos done in there with the gators!
We went "home" after that, and took much-needed showers and naps. I'm not exaggerating, the girls and Jeff slept for almost 3 hours when we got home! Kate and I ended up just curling up on the couch, too, cause it was so quiet. After that, we went to a Chinese buffet for dinner, Omar's favorite, where they had all the usuals, plus Mongolian BBQ/Hibachi, sushi, crab legs, and of course an ice cream cone on the way out! This was yet another time that I was so glad they don't charge for kids - sick little girls eat even less than not sick little girls! We headed home and wanted to play some games after the girls went to sleep, but as you can guess, they stayed up for quite some time after the late morning and long naps. Kate and I got in Battleship while we waited for the guys to come back from picking up our free redboxes... then we just went to bed without watching movies or playing games! Awesome. We're getting old!