Wild Florida

Last Saturday the excitement started as we headed to Kenansville, FL. We had reservation for an airboat tour and have been looking forward to this for months...literally! We got there a little early and were able to walk around and see all the different wildlife. 

We definitively didn't expect to see animals like longhorns (not pictured), zebras, and peacocks. It was like a zoo, but in the swamp lands.

They had a pavilion right on top of a swamp with many gators inside. We were lucky enough to see this big fella (11ft long) swimming just a few feet from us.

There's the gator swimming away in the background

As we continued to wait we were able to feel this cut little guy ;) Surprisely gators are super soft. I wanted to take his skin home with me :)

When the time came for our tour, they had to cancel on us because Tropical Storm Debbie started to bring rain. We simply rescheduled for the following week and went to eat at the little shack near by that sold fried gator. Crazy I know, but we had to try it. It tasted similar to chicken, but with a slight flaky fish texture. It was good.

Luckily after days of rain due to the storm, Thursday morning brought wonderful weather and we hopped on our little boat.

 We saw several rare birds including a bald eagle and it's gigantic nest. I never knew their nests were so big. 

 Here's  swampy lake we were on. It has about 3000 gators and boy did we get close to a few before they swam away. 

Jordan sporting his earmuffs. 

That's a cow out there in case you were wondering. You can't tell from the picture, but it's extremely swampy. I was surprised to see cows eating in the water. Our tour guide told us that gators have no problem gobbling up any wild life in the swamp and they have lost plenty of cows and dogs to them...yikes!

The boat doesn't just go in water. There were plenty of times where we were flying on grass alone.

This is were we saw tiny baby gators about a foot long each. There are gator nests all alone the banks. Apparently June/July is nesting season.

This is a gator nest. We were disappointed because our guide told us that there is usually a mamma gator sitting on top and hissing at the boat because it's so close.

After our hour long tour through the swamp lands, we got to finally hold the baby gator. This gator was so funny. The owner would sling it up over his shoulder like a baby and the gator's arm would hold on to him and hug back. Plus the gator was trained to wave his hand when you waved to it...incredible!

Overall we had so much fun. Those boats go really fast by the way. We want to go again but next time at night. The people there tell us that the wildlife is much more active in the evening. 

We're alive and we're FLORIDIANS

Three weeks ago today we packed up everything we owned and drove away from Utah. It was so much fun driving because Jordan and I were able to laugh, talk, and keep each other awake the entire time. 

We spent two 11-12 hour days driving until we pulled into Texas to spend about 5 days with my parents. We  had a lot of fun in Texas and enjoyed being with my family. Jordan and I learned how to pressure cook meat, toured downtown Fort Worth (where I got to ride my first mechanical bull), and hang out with our college buddy David and his wife.

Once our time was up, we reluctantly got back in the car for another 2 days of driving. The last two days were a lot harder than the first simply because we were so ready to get to Florida. We got here and moved in the 29th. We were very blessed with cloudy weather as Jordan and I hauled all of our things up two flights of stairs to our apartment on the third floor. 

That whole first week were spent shopping every hour of everyday. We didn't have any furniture or food. Moving is very expensive we learned, but we came across some great deals and got a lot of things on clearance. The most surprising was saving $72 with coupons at Walmart on groceries.

(our trunk full of food)

After spending the week unpacking and going to store after store we hit up Downtown Disney, Cocoa Beach, and best of all Disney World. 

We are having so much fun and absolutely love Florida. We have a long list of things to do and go see. I'm so happy we live here!!

Not Your TYPICAL Sunday

This last Sunday we had Regional Conference. 135 Stakes received a broadcast from Elder Snow, Julie Beck, Elder Holland, and President Packer. The best part of this regional conference was that I met them!

Jordan's boss invited Jordan and I to help with the General Authorities both before and after the conference. It was fun for me to see exactly what Jordan does when General Authorities come to town. I just followed him around and helped where it was appropriate.

We all stood outside the side of the Marriott Center where the General Authorities park. First came Sister Beck then immediately followed was Elder Holland and his wife. Elder Holland parked the car and Jordan opened his door and I took Sister Holland's door. She said to me, "I have never had such a pretty young lady open the door for me." I took her hand and helped her out of the car and then she said, "You look like a movie star." I gave a small laugh and said thank you. I talked just a moment with her about her morning and the drive. My impression of her was that she is the nicest lady I have ever met.

Before everybody loaded on to the golf cart to be driven down to the holding room, both Elder Holland and Sister Beck shook my hand. It was fun just being around everyone is a small group and seeing them interact with each other. My impression of Elder Holland was that he is really funny and laid back.

It was fun being behind the scenes and seeing what happens and being so close to everything. After the conference I watched President Packer and his wife get into their car. As their driver was driving toward the ramp to go to the street I was standing to the side against a wall just trying to be out of the way. President Packer looked out his window right at me, gave me a big smile and waved. I waved back of coarse, but it surprised me a little just cause I was expecting his window to be rolled up and him looking forward. His wife leaned forward and did the same.

Jordan drove everyone back to their cars on the golf cart and I followed behind walking. Sister Beck gave me a huge hug and thanked me. Then Jordan and I took Elder Snow and his wife to their car because they parked at the front of the Marriott Center.

Not my typical Sunday, but I thought it was way better. I had a lot of fun being around everyone and seeing just how things go before and after a conference.

One Rockin' Day

Thursday afternoon Jordan bought me my first harness, ATC, and carabiner. The rock climbing store we went to had the harness on sale for a screaming deal. I only own rock climbing shoes and have been borrowing Jordan's sister's harness everytime we went out rock climbing. I was pretty excited to get my own equipment.



Today Jordan and I took an all day adventure up through Rock Canyon. We packed each of our camel backs with water and a lunch and hiked with all the rock climbing gear a few miles in. We rock climbed for hours.





Jordan is slowly teaching me more and more every time we go. Today he taught me how to clean a route. What this basically means is to take down the carabiners from the anchors that are attached to the rock at the top. Sounds easy to just take something off, but there is a lot more to it that makes it more complicated.

We were also able to hike down the stream which was a lot of fun. It was off the normal hiking trail that goes through the canyon so we were able to be away from everyone. The canyon was a little busy because of Pioneer Day. We found a huge rock that sat by a tiny tiny waterfall that had a big puddle of water (up to my knees) and we played around for a few minutes.







We had so much fun spending our entire day hiking and climbing.

Waterfalls

Yesterday Jordan and I with some of his family went to repel between two waterfalls. Jordan has told me that he has always wanted to rock climb next to a waterfall and a week before our trip to Colorado we took a hike and found these waterfalls. He hasn't climbed next to them yet, but we both have repelled down.

Jordan got a little crazy running on the rocks going from one waterfall to the other, but it looked awesome! I'm a little more cautious and not as trained in the fearless area as he is, but I was able to run a little bit back and forth on the rocks.

Thanksgiving Point

For Halloween this year, we celebrated a little earlier. Jordan and I wanted to do something with Jodi and Drew and Monday evening was going to be the only time all of us would be home. We headed out to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point. We started off going through this huge blow up "haunted" animal. It wasn't really haunted, but we weren't sure what was going to happen when we entered in, so we were all a little scared (well I was). Afterwards we then took a little tracker ride around in pumpkin carts.





Next the guys paid a dollar to shoot little pumpkins at cars.





We saw an area that said 'Pumpkin Dodge Ball' right next to the pumpkin shooting, but sadly it wasn't opened. Maybe next time we can smash pumpkins at each other. During a potty break Jordan and I took a sweet picture. Check out how buff we are..ha ha.



Next we headed to get lost in the corn maze. We opted to do the normal one instead of the haunted one because the haunted maze seemed scarier than we wanted. Jordan and Drew had fun picking the leftover corn and throwing it, however, originally they were going to take it home at cook it. Free corn right? Just kidding.



After a while we found our way out and started roping some cattle. I had amazing skills (must be the cowgirl in me) because I got the horns the first time.







After roping a few cattle I saw that they had an electronic riding bull. I stated that one of these days I want to try. Next thing I knew we were headed over for me to do it. We watched, but because of the long line, we decided maybe another time. We played on the big kid slides and then expended the rest of our energy on the enormous jumping pillow. Man, all I have to say is never jump with two guys being the only girl between...you will go flying!





We ended our night with fun picture taking and going to the Princess play area :)