Fall in Florida

While most of you are starting to don your hoodies and coats, we are finally getting a reprieve from the heat here in Florida. And its fun to experience a new kind of autumn. We also had a few wonderful visitors (and welcome anyone and everyone). Check out below....

Darren and I taking a stab at paddle-boarding - loved it!

Infamous "Robert is Here" fruit stand and shake shop for THE BEST key lime shakes ever

with Grandma Voss. And yes those are green, raw, unhusked coconuts in the background.

First fishing trip at the Long's house (a great family in our church congregation that opened their arms to us)

Alligator at Everglades National Park (10 minutes from the shake shop in Homestead, Florida - top of the Florida Keys)

Halloween at Aunt Becky's - it was so dang hot, the twins were sweating in the costumes, so you don't get the full "cuteness" effect. But it was just fun to walk the neighborhood together:)

The only milli-second Justin wore his whole costume

I was asked to do a face-painting booth at the church's trunk or treat party (Jared just got a gecko on his cheek). So I dressed up as a gypsy and gave our fortunes for the adults too. Pretty fun!

Ominous Darth Vader and the most beautiful snow princess you have ever seen (think Lion, Witch & Wardrobe)

Great friend of ours, Gary Murray, from the good old Lehman Days. He is also the mastermind for the annual rim-to-rim hikes at the Grand Canyon, which we sadly missed this year. We loved catching up with him and doing dinner on the beach!

Just gotta get buried in the sand when you go to the beach!

Grandpa and Andi (and Precious down by Grandpa's leg) in a "drive-by" visit

U-pick Pumpkin Patch for Darren's birthday

Visit by the beautiful Aunt Sarah!

Yet another nature preserve trail we explored one weekend. This one had so many spider webs strung across the trail we ended up using sticks to probe ahead of us, so as to not inadvertently run into one. There is a huge banana spider at the top of this one, kind of brown/orange - just nasty! We did not destroy the web just so you know, went "under" this one.

Turtle Hatch

Here is the turtle hatch we saw

89 loggerhead turtles emerged here!

Truly an amazing event that spanned about 30 minutes from beginning to end.

Because it was still daylight, the rescuers did not allow the turtles to head toward the ocean as most would not have survived given the circling birds and waiting fish. They were placed in the buckets and released late in the evening. It was sooooooooooo cool!

Lizards and Turtles and Snakes OH MY!

Lizards and Turtles and Snakes - OH MY!!!!!

Florida is FILLED with all kinds of creepy, crawly, nasty, cute and amazing things. Only a few captured in photos below.

Hiking to the top of an overlook point in one of the nature preserve parks.

These are bananas spiders and they are as big as the palm of your hand - they are everywhere. When Darren runs in the morning, he hates it when he hits a spider web in the dark....because you never know what is on the end of the web string!!!

The boys relentlessly chase lizards

One of the many snakes we found in our yard - let's not even mention the ants and 50 year old insidious mold IN the house. The first few months were a trial of my OCD clean-freak tendencies for sure.

Jared has VERY quick hands, catching even the smallest of lizards

Over the course of a few days we watched this little lizard become a meal for ants and bugs. We thought the skeleton was cool.

Yet another lizard

We have a camera full of lizard pictures, but you get the drift. Another crazy animal story was an encounter at 2:00 in the middle of the night. Right outside our room, we heard this banging and crashing sound. It woke Darren and I up with a fright and ready to find a baseball bat. Come to find out, a frog had accidentally jumped into the AC fan outside and got thrown about making the banging. It was not pretty to say the least, but just happy it wasn't the boogieman. Lots of rats, other rodents, and squirrels about. When I questioned the locals if it was just "the area" we were in. The scoffed response was, "in Florida, there is a thousand rodents per person. Best not to worry too much about it." This doesn't even TOUCH on the mosquitos and no-see-ums and biting flies. Those are just a given! At one point Rachel and I looked like we had chicken pox with so many bite welts. Ahhhhh, Florida in the summer....

Monarch Butterfly

Python - Rachel at far left and Jared at far right

On several occasions we would run into the volunteers for the animal rescue center on the beaches. So we had amazing, once in a life time opportunities to assist in some of the turtle nest digs. We even happened upon a nest just as it was hatching, which was the most beautiful thing we have experienced EVER! 89 turtles emerged from just this one nest. People live in Florida all their lives and never get this rare opportunity. The other occasions were 1-2 days following a hatch where we would assist the volunteers as they dug out the nests. They would count how many eggs hatched and how many did not make it, document dates, locations, turtle species, etc. On a few occasions we would find live baby turtles that could not get out of the sand, so Rachel and Jared thought they were TRUE animal rescuers as they saved these turtles! It was some of the most phenomenal experiences we have ever had and memories to last a lifetime.

A turtle marker - these were ALL OVER the beaches to keep people from destroying the beautiful nests