Our cousins lived down a dirt road, and just off of it was another dirt road that led to an orange grove. You could smell oranges as you drove by…yum!
Now we’ve seen *lots* of ‘deer crossing’ signs, but never ever a panther crossing sign…’til now!
Our cousins let us drive both of their ‘gators’, all around their property, almost all afternoon long 😀
Saundra showing Jessica how to drive the bigger one…
…now it’s Jessica’s turn–hang on, Anna!
Susannah and Cassia on the littler ‘gator’…
They said that they’ve had alligators in this pond in their backyard, and they thought one was in there now, but we never saw him either! Alligators just weren’t very accommodating to these tourists 😉
One thing you could never be here, is hungry! Saundra loves to cook, so between the big meals and the wonderful snacks in between, your stomach never had time to rumble 😀 They had a cookout that evening, and it was so good! We were stuffed 🙂
Isaiah pretending to drive the gator
There was always a gator going, it seemed!
Here’s a video we took while on one of our ‘gator rides’–beware, you may get car gator sick!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3GLRNWxDUI[/youtube]
An example of all the goodies Saundra had for us 😀 There was another counter-full on the other side 😀
The pretty sunset…
By the end of the day we were tired, happy, and gritty from driving up and down the dirt roads 😀
With Jack and Saundra 😀 They were such fun to be around, and Saundra just shines the love of Jesus wherever she goes!
We headed back up to Safety Harbor the next morning, stopping at Bass Pro on the way. It was our first time visiting a Bass Pro…there’s so much to look at without even seeing their merchandise!
There was this ‘camp’ set-up on the upper level. It looks like this hunter was quite successful 😀
Stuffed birds were ‘flying’ overhead…
Another hunter/hiker and a deer…
…we even saw a few bears! 😀
Isaiah looking at the fish pond
The glass elevator we just had to try out 😀
We arrived in Safety Harbor that afternoon and got to meet Teresa Tapp in person, and we also got to sing “Let My Life Be a Light” for her 😀
She is so nice, and so sweet, and such a fun person to be around! It was fun to see her in real life, after having seen her on the exercise dvds for so long 😀 She was so kind to write in our visual journals for us…
…and she wrote each of us nice long notes! It’s a wonder her hand didn’t fall off by the time she was done 😀
We also got to meet Buddy and Mitzy, her two Bichon Frises…
…they’re so cute and fluffy!
We muchly enjoyed our visit!
Our next stop was in Georgia, where we visited some friends, and got to visit Sherwood Baptist…the church that made the movies Fireproof and Courageous 😀
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We went to the Bass Pro in Louisiana a few years ago—and we have something quite similar to it up here, called Cabella’s. It’s a lot of fun to go through! One of the things that Bass Pro had that Cabella’s didn’t was the live alligators. 😀
Yikesers! *Live* alligators??? Well, I suppose they were well contained and not crawling all over the floor 😀 At the Bass Pro in Florida, they only had dead, I mean stuffed, alligators 😀
Jessica
That’s what the boys said. I didn’t go in, myself, because we got the wonderful Vision Forum Peruvian flu (that was the year they went to Peru, obviously), and I wasn’t able to go in. 🙁 But they said it was pretty neat. 😀
Maybe it was a threat of what would happen if you didn’t buy, I don’t know.
Oh dear! The flu doesn’t sound fun 😛 Did you go to Peru, or just catch if from those who did?
Lol! Florida must have pretty good business since their gator was stuffed and up and out of the way 😀
No, we didn’t go-ha! Many of the people who went to the ’09 SAICFF got it because the VF team had just got back from Peru and brought with them that ‘lovely’ sickness. We stayed with one of the men who went and his family for a week after the festival (which we didn’t attend), and his boys had it, so we got it–making the rest of our trip not as much fun, let me tell you. But it sure made for some memories! Funny how those unpleasant things can leave the deepest memories. We were all sick alternately for three months straight.
*chuckle* Ahhh, the memories, the memories!
I’ve never heard of Teresa Tapp… do you like her Exercize DVD’s? What kind of exercises does she do?
Yes! We like them a lot 😀 You only have to do about 15 min. a day (there are longer exercise dvds, but Teresa Tapp says that ‘less is more’, and it is!) Mommy heard about it and decided to try it out because other exercises weren’tworking for her. With T-Tapp, she’s lost 9 sizes, almost 200 inches, and 50 pounds 😀 It’s amazing to see her before and after pictures…Daddy said she’s disappearing before his very eyes, lol!
It’s not just exercises to lose weight, though…Teresa’s focus is on the health aspect of it. I love doing her ‘butterflies’ or ‘hoedowns’ move when I’ve had too much sugar, or if I have what I call a ‘sugar-headache’…it’s made to burn sugar and kind of ‘clears your brain’ 😀 Mommy talks about it a lot on her blog and here’s a link to Teresa’s website if you’d like to read more 🙂
Wow! That’s a long comment 😀 Hope you don’t mind such a long answer to such a simple question, lol!
Jessica
Aww! Those doggies are adorable! They look like little fuzzy polar bears!