Later Gator

We saw our first alligator today!!!

I made the trek to Costco today, which is about 25 min away. (Dallin is allergic to all diapers but the Costco generic brand, weird eh?). I figured before I ventured into Costco with 4 boys I should take them to a park and get the wiggles out first. I saw a lake called 'Alligator Lake,' and well, I HAD to stop!

We got out and walked a trail around a lake. The trees are surreal- spanish moss hanging from every branch. After about a half hour of exploration (from the walkway, mind you), we saw an alligator! They are hard to spot unless they head towards you, which this one did. We were standing on the deck and sure enough this little 3 foot gator comes right under the deck and stares at us! The kids were so excited. It just sat there in the water for a long time. Soon, from across the lake another alligator headed our way. It was so crazy that we could see it from so far- as it swam the water displaced around its body. This one was maybe 4ft.

A few 11 yr-old boys came roller blading up to watch. They said thy could tell from our expressions that we had found a gator and they'd been dying to see one. (By the way, want to know the best places to spot gators? Ask 11 yr-old boys. They have tons of interesting information, ha ha.) They discovered that alligators don't muh care for leaves or mints, both of which they tried to throw into the water to get a reaction. So like a boy.

Finally, as Florida does in the afternoons, it started sprinkling. I tried to warn the kids we'd better head back to the car,but there was NO WAY they were leaving their alligator friends. And really, it was pretty stinkin' amazing to see such a creature outside of a zoo- in its natural habitat! It took about 10 min to persuade the boys to leave, and by the time we made it to the car it was a full on tropical rain storm. We would have been soaked had we stayed even 1 minute longer. We made it to Costco and the boys were good like they promised (if we stayed longer at the lake). It was raining so hard we ended up browsing the isles of Costco tasting samples to wait for it to stop before we left the store.

Definitely one of those days I wish I'd had my camera.

My favorite quote of the day?

Grant: "Mom, it's NOT fair. Evan got to see an alligator when he was six months old, and I had to wait until I was 6 YEARS old."