Museum of Natural History

On Friday, we headed over to Gainesville to the Florida Museum of Natural History. It's only about 35 miles from the camp. Gus and I had not been there since we were kids and our kids had never been there. It was wonderful! The highlight of the museum was definitely the butterfly rainforest, but we enjoyed everything we saw. I would like to go back with just Avery when we have more time to read and explore without the distraction of impatient younger siblings. I'll have to plan on that this fall. One of the student volunteers was kind enough to take a family photo of us in front of the big mammoth. Imagine that..... Mom in one of the pictures!

Avery climbing on the rope spider web in the butterfly exhibit.

The kids loved exploring the caves - love that look on Hunter's face!

Avery pretending to be a caterpillar in it's cocoon.

Gus and Hunter weren't as impressed with the butterflies as the girls and I were, but that's alright...

I think this it the Blue Morpho... Loved this one!

Meagan was tried very hard to contain her excitement and follow all of the rules given to us before we could enter. It's only natural to want to touch a beautiful butterfly when it's inches from you isn't it?

This picture does not do this beautiful bright green butterfly justice. It was my favorite!

That is Avery's finger reaching up to that butterfly - I had to remind her that was a big No-No!

I have to admit that I was thinking of my sister Lisa the whole time we were in the Rainforest. She could probably spend hours in there taking some awesome pictures with her fancy camera and I'm sure they'd do more justice to the beauty of these creatures than my little point and shoot. Can't wait to go back!

Gulf Hammock Getaway

We headed over to Gulf Hammock to camp at Gus's Mom's place for a few days. After we unloaded our stuff, we headed up to Chiefland to eat lunch at a local favorite - Barbeque Bill's. It was delicious!! Then we traveled west to Cedar Key. We found a really nice playground that the kids enjoyed playing on even though it was burning up. After Gus and I had enough of that, we followed the signs around the island to the Cedar Key Museum. It was really tiny and not too interesting, but it was something to do. The funniest part was when I explained to Meagan that we were going there to learn and she responded "But I don't WANNA learn!!!"

After all that learning and sweating, we headed back to camp to get down to some riding and relaxing. The kids loved taking rides on the four-wheelers and Jeep.

Avery and I had a couple of good games of Uno - a family favorite!

Katrina was ecstatic that Hunter finally started saying "Mimi" this weekend!

You know we enjoyed some yummy meat off the charcoal grill compliments of the master chef!

The kids all had fun playing with the rod & reel we brought over. Meagan actually was pretty good at it.

Another fun game Gus and Avery learned this weekend was Dominoes. Gus got pretty hooked and stayed up late playing each night. Of course, Hunter liked them, too!

On Friday afternoon, Gus's Uncle Damon and Aunt Ruth came over. Ruth surprised us with this beautiful (and delicious) cake from Fresh Market to celebrate Gus and Hunter's upcoming birthdays.

Sweet Aunt Ruth (as the kids refer to her) also bought Hunter his very own Spiderman 4-wheeler! He was super excited to be a big boy like Daddy!

Gus and I came home Saturday afternoon to get ready and go to a National Wild Turkey Federation banquet over in The Villages. Not exactly my idea of a good time, but it was nice to spend some time together (kid less). We also woke up this morning and went out to breakfast and picked up some groceries at Publix. Katrina brought the kids home around 2 and we've just been hanging out here enjoying our last day together. Gus decided this has been one of the best vacations we've ever had and I have to agree!