Sunday, March 15, 2009

ALLIGATORS!!!!!


Here is us on the boat:
And this is the tour guide:

Everglades scenery:



And finally.... drumroll please: we found one alligator. It was difficult, because we apparently went during the wrong time of day, so they were all sleeping at the bottom of the water, but we woke this one up, and he was trying to hide so he could sleep in peace. So, we took our pictures and moved on. :)




Here is me and Brittany

So, these trees that look dead... they are dead. Apparently some guy a long long time ago thought it would be a good idea to bring these trees in from Australia to drink up all the water in the everglades so that they could use it for farmland. BUT he was not aware that the water in the everglades would be where Floridians would get their drinking water... Whoops! So, now they have to poison these trees so they don't drink the drinking water! (apparently they are quite effective at that)
Another thing we learned that I did not know, is that the everglades are not considered swamp. The state of Florida is on a tilt and so the water from Lake Okeechobee runs into the everglades which runs into the Gulf. Therefore, the Everglades are considered a very large, very slow-moving river. It travels at about 1 mile per day. This is what our tourguide told us.

And, here is us holding baby gators:





I wasn't going to do it... but they finally convinced me to. Usually I don't touch reptiles or bugs or anything like that, but this guy was kinda cute.

There were lots of other animals at the park that we got to see too, and so here are a few pictures:

This is a black leopard, and it's hard to see his spots in the picture, but they were pretty cool looking. This guys is supposedly very aggressive, which you would never be able to tell by the way he stares at whatever he's staring at... Yikes!



This chicken jumped right up like Brittany was supposed to feed it. To it's shagrin, she did not have any food, and this is her telling him he's out of luck.



Awesome day!! :)

Monday, March 9, 2009

Pay it Forward

The Rules
1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!
2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!
4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate pictures and comments!
If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along.Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!SO, REMEMBER...Pay it forward!

new job

So, I found a job and today was my first day. It's with a company called 1st Choice Healthcare Solutions and I'm basically the only one besides the owners in the office right now, it's still in the startup phases. It seems good, and I enjoyed my first day, so I'm excited! Plus it's just a relief to have a job. :)

That's the latest update. Also, my friend Brittany is coming to visit this weekend and Tyler and I are also going to be celebrating our 3rd Anniversary on Saturday. So there will be much more to come in the next week or so I'm sure.

Other than that life is just hectic and crazy. We are dog-sitting this week while my Aunt Colleen is on a cruise with her parents. That's all for now!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Move to FLORIDA!!!

Warning: You may experience drowsiness and boredom while looking at pictures of Kansas.

Here is Tyler at the very start of the trip, still in Utah


Utah mountains, passing through the canyon:




These hills were tough on the rental truck but we made it! :)


This little town in Wyoming had a ton of "Drive up Liquor Stores" which I thought was funny






Just a fraction of the mileage:




Not even close. By the way, my dad kept asking us if we were there yet or if we were "out of Kansas yet" the whole trip on the walkie-talkies... Thanks dad! :)



Filling up the vehicles with gas...




Mountain Dew helps! We actually only got it this once, and drank a lot less soda in general (according to my expectations)



So, I tried taking pictures of the "welcome to..." signs, but as you will see throughout I was not very successful!



This is Denver:


We got to visit with my very very very good friend Brittany in a small town called Stratton on our first night and I was very glad to see her. I hope she is having fun in Disney Land, and will see you again soon!





Here is Eastern Colorado. As you can see this is where it starts to get BLAH





My dad is a huge fan of tractors, and not only did we see these 2 driving down the road, there was a whole lot of them. Get it? Lot? wahaha!







Really? Kanorado?... Can you guess where that town is located? If you guessed right by the border of Kansas and Colorado, you guessed right!


This is Kansas:





Kansas City:








Missouri!!! (this was day 2 still by the way)




So the story behind this next picture is that up until it got dark on the second night, we had had very good weather. We decided all the stars had aligned in our favor, and we were set. Well, Missouri decided to prove otherwise. So right as it started to get dark, it also started to rain... And I don't just mean sprinkles... this was torrential rain like I had only ever seen in California before. (I'm sure we'll get plenty here in FL too, but driving through it in the dark in a big truck with all your belongings on a freeway in a strange land ads a bit of suspense that is not normally paired with the rain) So, I thought we were going to die. That's a little bit dramatic I know, but the semi's and the noise of the splats of water all over the truck, I was seriously afraid and stressed and freaked out. I finally calmed down enough to speak again right as we came up on Saint Louis, but I still wasn't all better. The GPS was taking us on a route that my dad was sure was wrong and it was still raining, but the traffic had let up quite a bit... anyway all of a sudden we see off the side of the road the beatiful lights of the St Louis Temple, and the "duh-duh-duh man" and I just felt so much better. We had more stress of course, and got lost shortly thereafter, but for that moment I felt peace. :)


The next morning we left very early, trying to get to Atlanta, GA before the rush hour traffic and so I didn't get any pictures of downtown Saint Louis because it was still dark, but it was cool. We saw the arch and crossed over the river, and I loved it. That brought us into Illinois!


Here is Tyler in Illinois on Day 3



very quickly we were in another state, and here is the Tennessee sign:








This is Nashville:





This picture is for Tyler's old boss Paul. He had me take it to send to him





We saw this waterfall coming up so I pointed the camera out the side window, and couldn't see anything on the screen because it was moving too fast, so I just randomly clicked it, and would you believe I got a picture of the waterfall?!? it was meant to be... hahaha


AND "Welcome to Georgia"


We did NOT miss the Atlanta traffic. For any who don't know it apparently begins at about 3pm there... So, this picture was taken at about 3:20 pm and it took us about an hour and 20 minutes to get all the way to the other side of Atlanta.


Day 4: Finally we made it to FLORIDA!!! Hooray!!!

This is the Jacksonville area:



This is southern Florida, we're getting closer!


And we finally made it there! We don't have any pictures of us arriving or anything because we were just so glad to be there, we promptly ate some real food and went to bed! That's the end of the story of our move (well, so far anyway)
Of course, we will keep you posted on what's going on with finding jobs, etc. :)

Welcome!