Gators are GRRRRRREAT!!!

Across the street is a magnolia tree.  I love the blossoms.  

They don't last too long but they sure are pretty.

This is a hibiscus bush right outside our bedroom window.

The blossom is a double blossom and so much prettier than a single blossom.

I took it from in the house through the screen.

This sign was on the highway as we were traveling down to Naples to see the alligators.

Pretty cool eh?

This is at Wootens, the park we went to for the day.

This is the first alligator we saw.

It was amazing to see him.  

He wasn't swimming very fast but was coming right for us.

We were up where he couldn't get us.

They look so prehistoric!!

I loved them.

Here he is just sunning himself to the side of where we were waiting for the air boat ride.

He looks like he's sleeping.  He's just hanging in the water and no one can get him to move.

A close up of his face.  His eyes are open.  His ears are the flaps right behind his eyes.  

There were about 5 or 6 of them here.

We got some video of them but still can't figure out how to send a video.

Can someone help?

Here are some gators hiding in the shade.

They just hang still in the water and enjoy life.

One of the Elders in our group lost his brand new sun hat.

Before he knew it, it was right there in the water.

Then the alligator was on top of it in less than a second.

He bit at it a little and then wasn't interested when he found out there was no head in it.

Another gator is coming.

He's still got a hold on the hat and a second gator comes in to check it out too.

Here he's just laying there beside it.  

Our poor Elder Satchel really needed that hat but no one was going in after it.

Then a fellow came along, in his 20's, who said that he'd get it.  

While everyone was protesting because we think he might get eaten, he went and found a stick and knocked the alligator on his nose so he would back up, which he did.  

Holding the stick there to make sure he stayed at a

little distance he leaned down and got the hat.

It was nothing.

This is a good picture where you can see how their front legs just hang in the water while they slowing move through it hardly creating a ripple.

Here's our group!  Left to Right

Back row:  Sister Tuft (behind Dad) and Elder Tuft (standing up on the bench), Pres. Summerhays,  Elder Satchel (standing down again, wearing the now famous gator eaten hat), 

Sister Knight and Elder White on the end.

Front row:  Elder and Sister Draper, Sister Summerhays, 

Sister Satchel (stepping forward to give the photographer her camera too), 

Elder Knight and Sister White on the end.

There's the fan at the back of the boat.  Sister and Elder White are in the photo.

They are serving Sarasota.  

They came last September just before we got here and 

already they are talking about not being here much longer.  

They have a 12 month mission.  We are so glad we have 18 months.  

A year just isn't enough time unless of course that is the most you can do.

We are on the air boat here.  

The water is only about 12 inches deep and in some places it's only 2 inches deep.  

We went very fast!!!!  It felt nice to have the breeze in our hair.

See the yellow leaves on the trees. 

 In this area the salt water is getting into the fresh water which is not good for the plant life.  

On these trees there are some leaves that take all the salt and they turn yellow.  

If you chew on one it will be very salty.  So the leaf sacrifices itself for the tree to live.

These trees have all the little airborne plants that live in the trees but they are not parasites. 

They just live from the air.

These little birds I thought were called some kind of little 'penquin type' bird because of its colouring.

Elder Draper doesn't think so but I was sure that is what they said.

They ran out there in the water while we were passing them on the air boat.

Here is the swamp buggy.

The swamp buggy.

We were early in the season so there is no water at this time of year.

The buggy has very big wheels so they can go through the swamp when the rains come.

The growth in here is very thick.

You couldn't walk through it.

In July, there will be 3 to 4 feet of water here in many places.

Do you see the little racoon?

He's up in the crook of the tree.

He was so cute.

There he is again.  He's trying to hide from us.

The little trunk hanging on the big trunk is covered in little hairs.

The saying is, "Hairy rope -- don't be a dope."

It's poison ivy.

This is clinging fig.  It is a parasite.

It grows up the trunk and taps into the tree and takes all the nutrients from the tree.

Eventually the tree weakens and blows over and then they both die.

The seed for this is blows through the air and sticks like a little piece of velcro to the trunk and taps in.

Here's a picture of a really big one.

This is more of the denseness of the swamp.

..... and again.

Here we are getting off of the swamp buggy.

Notice Elder Satchel's hat??

Inside there was this display of a gator scull and teeth and so forth.'

The teeth are big!!

Here's a big rattler sleeping in one of the displays.

This big parrot was out in the gift shop.  He was so beautiful!!!

You can see that he is quite big.

He must have had an itchy head today.  He kept scratching himself.

I love the detailing around his eyes and face.

The whole front of his body is the bright yellow.

The green/blue feather s are beautiful too aren't they?

His colours were fabulous.  He was green and blue all around his body.

This picture is the best to show how vibrant his colours are.

You an also see his yellow chest and under his tail.

What a beauty!!!

This is a little otter.  Do you like him Katie?

I thought of the otter at the swimming hole when I saw him.

He's really cute.

This is a crocodile.  They have some that do live here in Florida.

They differ from gators in that they are much more aggressive. Also notice the narrow snout. 

Another crocodile.

Swimming turtles.  

We've had some of these up at our house out from the lakes.

I think they're so cute.

When Brother King feeds the fish in the morning we can see several turtles coming to eat too from all across the lake.  I love the animals.

A whole bunch of little gators.

There were lots of them.

These are the signs on the sides of the cages.

I think they get their point across.

Another sign you see around.

Here is one of the panthers.  

Really they are the same as a cougar, mountain lion, or puma.

He's sleeping and we couldn't get him to budge.

Probably he'd pounce on you if you got in there.... just like the gators.

Remember the wolves we saw sleeping in the Calgary Zoo?  

How they laid there and we couldn't get them to respond to us until Keith threw a stick in and they all POUNCED IMMEDIATELY!!!

Here's a tiger taking a rest as well.

Elder Knight is taking his turn with the little fellow.

He's posing for a picture in this shot.

Pres. Summerhays holding Dino.  Isn't he the sweetest little thing? 

 No, I mean Dino.  (just kidding)

The President is enjoying his little friend.

He passed Dino on to me and I LOVE him!!!  He was so adorable. 

 He was soft and clean.  He wasn't slimy at all.

Sister Summerhays is very afraid of him and is trying to touch him to see what he feels like.  

Everyone is teasing her and making her especially nervous.

I'm holding his tail away from her because he keeps moving it around and scaring her.

She did get one finger on him for about a millionth of a second.

I told her to do it again because she was so fast she didn't get to really feel him.

She said that she felt him 'just fine'.  That was the end of her close encounter.

I really do love him!!

He let me cuddle him for quite a little bit.  It was SOOOOO FUN!!!!!

Here's Elder Draper taking his turn.

He really enjoyed it too.  

We were all brave because you can see the little ring around his nose right?

Here's a little close up with Elder Draper.

Maybe we can get one of our own to take home.  

Look at that darling face!  Who couldn't love him??

He's adorable!!  Such lovely eyes!!  Don't you think?

Now this fellow is a little larger and not quite as cuddly.

The zoo trainer (not that he's trained because he isn't) is having fun with him.

He knocks his top lip with his fist and the gator opens his mouth.

These gators at this park are not tame.  

They are handled by humans and so they are not afraid of them.

They get fed regularly so they are never hungry.

No alligators are harvested for food from here.  

They all are kept until they die and are then buried across the road.

This guy is about 8 feet long.  He hissed for us once.

That would make you move in a hurry if you were out in the wild with him.

His eyes are open in this picture.  Isn't that a nice smile on his face?

His eyes are closed here with the white skin that goes over them for when he swims underwater.

These are wild gators out in the pond and no one goes near these fellows.  

They are very big.  They do get fed but they don't get in close contact with people in this pond.

You can see that there are a lot of them in there.

We couldn't count then because they won't all stay out of the water at the same time.

They swim on top of and underneath of and all over each other.

This looks like the horses resting their heads on each other's back at home.

Well, gators do that too.

Here are some more swimming around together.

This guy was very big.

He'd just have his back out and then his head would come out and he'd look really big.

Then he'd move his tail and let the end of it come out and move around.

He looked gigantic then!!

We were invited to go to the Bishop Water's house from the Winter Haven ward for a P-day.  We had a nice day there.  Elder Draper and I visited with Sister Waters for most of the time.  She's a really great person.

She builds houses and has done amazingly well.  They are very high end houses.

She gave us the grand tour and it was so fun.  I took some pictures.

As you enter the front door, this is what you see.  The ceiling is 20 or 24 feet high.

This is right in the center of the house.

This is the living room off to the right of the picture before.  The paintings in this home are all originals.  Lots of the furniture is made to order for this home.

I'm standing in the piano room to take this picture.

Here is the piano room.  I nice Baldwin Grand with tons of cupboards of music. 

Look at the mirror on the wall.  

Can you see the details on the frame?  What a huge frame.  

There are other pictures around that match this frame too.

This gives you a good idea of the scale and enormous size of this home.

Look at the detailing of the ceiling.  

That is one of the things that they really enjoy doing is to design original ceilings.  

Each ceiling in each room of this house is different.  They're amazing!!

They, of course, use this as a show home for new buyers.  

This house they will sell but they custom build most of their homes for their clients.

This home is 17,000 sq. ft. and will go for about $5 million because of the recession.

Before they could have sold it for $8.5 million.

Here's another beautiful painting.  Everything is decorated so well.

This kitchen is amazing!!

On the stove there is a big tap coming out of the wall for pouring water into big pots.  

The stove is very big, having a big center spot where you put the pots to fill them up.

On the left of the picture is the freezer and the fridge.  

You can see that there is a door in between them.

Open the door and go into a little hallway the depth of the fridge and freezer and you come into a hidden pantry with tons of supplies.

That is a really cool thing to have.  I'd love it.

She has all sorts of kinds of stoves and ovens.

They also have off to the side a caterer's kitchen so when they have parties this kitchen doesn't look messy at all. 

The mess is in the other room with a fridge and freezer and big table and stoves, more dishwashers etc.

She's thought of everything.

Out the back there is a fireplace and a nice sitting area with tons of furniture.

There are grills and tons of other things too.

Here's the pool.  They back onto a lake that is beautiful.

Their lake is used all the time so they swim in it because the gators don't like the people around them.

They are afraid of people.

So this pool isn't screened in either.

They feel pretty safe here. 

I didn't take enough pictures but this kind of gives you the idea.  

It was a pretty fun day.

Besides all the beauty of the home the Bishop and his wife are some of the nicest people there are.  

She works with Church Public Affairs and does a lot of work with the city.

She hosts a family week each year.  It lasts a week and every day they focus on an important idea on how to have good families, close families, that build good communities and good countries.

She is amazing.

You look at people and think they have it made and that their life is so easy

 but we all have our own trials.

She is a very athletic person.  One day she was out and as she sat down she heard a big pop.

As she sat there the worst pain went through her whole body and by the next day she was paralyzed from the waist down.  She was like that for a year.

She went through so much and worked so hard to learn to walk and build up strength until she could finally walk again.  For a long time her one leg would drag so she was in a wheel chair for a long time.

They have a elevator in this home.  

When she was telling us this she said, "Now you know why there is an elevator."  

She had such faith through it all and knew Heavenly Father was there, aware of her and he loved her.

She felt His arms around her many times.  

What a testimony she has and I was so grateful that she shared it with us.

I can hardly wait until Family Week.  I think we'll go.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and especially Dino!!!