Well, hell-oh there, big guy! Mr. Chompers, one of the alligators we encounter from time to time at one of our favorite county parks. And this wasn’t shot with a zoom. He gets pretty close to the walkway. Lucky us, he’s well fed on the fish and birds from the St. John’s River- the park backs up to it.
The main pool at Green Springs Park, a beautiful nature park right around the corner from us. We’ve nicknamed it “stinky springs”, because the sulfur that makes the water that crazy color, also makes it smell… not so good… only if you’re really up close to it, though. So, the rest of the park is enjoyable. 
Gabe did some time at the playground and we did some walking along the trails, while Gwen slept in the stroller (a first for her!).
On our way home, we missed a turn. If we hadn’t, we never would have encountered THIS guy:
“Wait- WTH was THAT?!” Luckily, our toddler decided to skip picking that phrase up, and picked up on “That’s a flipping turkey!” instead (and just as fortuitously, I happened to choose “flipping” instead of another word 
). Apparently, wild turkeys are found in FL year ’round, but, this was the first time I’ve come across one. Turkeys are a lot taller than you’d think. Google taught me that this is a juvenile male- spurs, long beard, and nekkid head and all. Poor creature.
Early day at the park, trying to beat the heat to come.
Uploaded, at least- I *have* been taking them. I’m finally starting to feel better- that first trimester all day nausea followed me well into the second trimester, but, after a week of only very rare yucky moments, I think I can say good-bye to the pukies!
I’m surprised I haven’t been getting yelled at- I guess you all are taking it easy on me.
So, here’s a few from a trip to the playground this evening. A really quick trip- we got there at 7:18 and were surprised to find that the gates closed at 7:30 (they didn’t- liars! ).
First, he had to tackle the climb- and he did it without any helping hands (just two watchful parents- why do they leave all those open sides on play equipment?).
And brave little guy went to the longer bumpy slide, instead of the boring double short slides.
But, that was just the warm-up! He climbed all the way to the top, and even though Dad was nervous about it, he took the tall curly slide by the horns!
And whoosh, he went down. Sort of. Kind of a slow woosh, but, he enjoyed it enough to do it several times. I adore the way he sticks his tongue out when he really concentrates on something- it makes me think of an old video of a piano recital that both my sister and I performed in. She stuck her tongue out the entire time- little bouncy blonde pigtails, SO adorable!
And we snuck in a little swinging, before the park rangers kicked us out (they didn’t- I think we could have stayed until dark).
And you may have noticed, I cut his hair AGAIN. It grows so fast! Don’t make fun of him, it’s not his fault his mom has zero skills with the scissors. I pat myself on the back for making it through one of his trims with both his ears still attached to his head.
This was from earlier in the day, pre-cut. Give it a few weeks, and it will be in his eyes again. If his sibling is a girl and has the same hair genes, we’re going to have pigtails long before her birthday!
Copyright © 2010 Keiki Photos.
