We wanted to rent a pontoon boat for a 1/2 day to go down the river, but they won't let you reserve those in advance and they kept selling out, so we finally decided just to rent one for a whole day, because we didn't want to miss out on this. It was Kevin's favorite day. We all had a blast. We picked up some KFC on the way so we could eat lunch on the boat. Lisa met us there with drinks, chips, water guns, and a squirt bottle in case we got hot. It was actually a beautiful day with a good breeze. Derek is the only one who I think got too hot wearing his life vest.
The scenery was beautiful as we drove through.
Haley enjoying a drink.
The river was pretty empty so we let all the kids drive. Logan was really good, he kept it nice and straight. Haley did a little zigzagging. Isaac was a race car driver.
Derek drove eating a drumstick.
We saw turtles, deer, lots of birds and gators.
A young gator coming down the shore into the water.
These gates helped me keep my sanity by keeping Derek enclosed.
Kevin thought I was talking too much and not taking enough pictures of the wildlife so I got to drive with Derek.
We saw 12 alligators on our trip. We parked the boat and walked up to the springs where there is a swimming area. On the walk up we saw 2 HUGE gators. They were at least 8-9 ft. long. We saw one of them eating a fish. You can see one of them in the background and the size in relation to the canoers.
A large gar. The 2 large gators and these fish were within sight of the swimming area. Fortunately where the water comes out of the springs is 72 deg and that is too cold for the alligators.
A junior gator sunning himself. As we were driving around Kevin told the kids who ever found an alligator would get a special treat. Every time we found a gator we would show it to Isaac who would get excited and say "I found an alligator, i get a special treat." After we docked our boat to go swimming at Blue Springs, Aunt Lisa and Isaac were sitting at the edge getting their water shoes on and Isaac says very calmly "Hey look I found a snake" and sure enough crawling up from underneath the boat was a black snake. Lisa was a little disturbed but Kevin was very excited and Isaac got a special treat for finding a snake.
We bought this raft so we could pull Isaac up the springs to the top. He wasn't so fond of it, he wouldn't even lift his head off the raft.
Haley jumping off of a tree.
Derek presenting his royal forhead for Aunt Lisa to kiss. (Whenever you ask Derek for a kiss he gives you his forhead, he never kisses on the lips.)
Derek pulling a fit at the end of the ride. He was so exhausted. He was asleep in the car before we even had the rest of the kids buckled in.
After our boat ride we went to Sonny's Bar-b-que. It was delicious, some of the best ribs ever. They also had fried cream corn nuggets which were so good.
Isaac got very attached to Aunt Lisa and when we got in the car to leave he started crying and reaching out the car and crying I want Aunt Lisa, I want Aunt Lisa. It was very sweet.
