Business Trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Okay, so I still have issues getting the pictures to go in the order I want them to go. Reverse chronological. Reverse chronological. I will get it soon-for now bear with me. I went on a business trip for training to Ft. Lauderdale Florida. This is an alligator I saw on an airboat Everglades tour. I think he was about 6-7 feet long.

Hiding in the bushes. It was fun to go on a scavenger hunt to find them in the wild. We only found 2 because it was mating season and hunting season so the alligators were a little out of sorts. Also the Everglades were very flooded so the water was too deep to see a lot of them. They like to hide in the shallow parts so they were pushed pretty far back inland because the water was so high.

One of the channels that were man made by the Army Corps of Engineers. (This trip was in August so if my memory is failing me and the info is wrong forgive me.)

One of the airboats we rode. It was very fast and moves side to side kind of like the feeling of being on a jet ski.

The beautiful accomodations. The waiting area was completely flooded. The only ones using it were the birds.

I felt like I stepped into a scene from "Waterboy". Yes, we actually went inside and even used the bathroom. Brave, I know! It actually was a really cool atmosphere.

The view from our window at our hotel. It overlooked a golf course and was surrounded by very beautiful homes.

Me and Bree standing on a long pier. People were fishing off the docks. It was very cool to see.

Bree and Brenda my friends from work. We had a great time despite the fact that Ft. Lauderdale is a very sleepy town with not a whole lot to do. Bree and I heard about this awesome shopping center with like 70 or so stores. We drove all the way to Ft. Lauderdale and found the "amazing" shopping mall. There were maybe 15 stores that were actually in business, none of which were too desirable. A couple of nights later Bree and I spent 45 minutes driving around trying to find a nice restaurant to eat in. We could not find any chain restaurants. Were do people eat who live there? Finally, we found Olive Garden and we were elated. Bree and I did get in trouble for being on the beach when Hurricane Ike had closed the beach. Who knew that the red flag on the lifeguard station meant the beach was closed (we couldn't even see the lifeguard station from where we were at)? Not to mention the first night we arrived the fire alarm went off in our hotel and we all had to wait in the lobby for 45 minutes in our pjs. We couldn't go back to sleep until 2:30 am. We were all grateful we didn't have our little ones with us or we probably would have never got back to sleep. Oh well. It was still a great trip and it was fun to have a few days away.

Ode to a bottle

Life has been busy and I didn't find time to memoralize our family friend at his passing. For over the past two years our life has revolved around our friend, the bottle. It shared with us our joys and it was there for us in the very worst of times. Nothing could calm our screaming child faster, nothing could bring a smile to his face, no word was screamed more often than "bottle!!!" At last it was time to put away childish things and let go of our friend. Evan had outgrown simply sucking on it and decided it was way more fun to unscrew the lid and spill the contents everywhere, fling the liquid out of the nipple or simply chew the nipple off as quickly as possible. Sometimes it is better for all parties involved to end the relationship. Regardless, it will always have a special place in our hearts. Farewell, infancy! Here we come boyhood!

Dain, Evan and I went to the first ever Kite Festival in Spanish Fork, Utah. It was put together to celebrate our new windmill energy farm that was just finished in our city. This is a picture of Evan and I towards the end of the day. I love it despite the fact that Evan is very dirty from playing outside. Please notice that you can actually see his face!!! Success!!!
Evan has to find some way to entertain himself-even if it is crawling between Dain's legs.
Notice the cool "batman" shadow. No wonder Evan is running!
Evan and Dain riding the cool trikes made in Spanish Fork. It was very fun. They got going so fast Dain said Evan almost fell out on a curve. Scary.
Finally we are sitting down to relax with our friend Krista.

Evan looks stunned. Maybe it is because we actually got a pic of his face again. Or maybe it is the giant hawk behind him.

The boys playing in the reservoir-Dain, Evan and our friends Brian, CJ and Will. The sea-doo pulling the kites would drive by and splash the kids wading in the pool.

More Hoogle Zoo

Here are some more pictures from the zoo. The first two are of Evan feeding the ducks and swans. He absolutely loved it. He held onto the food for the ducks as long as he could, only giving them one little piece at a time. He had a blast 'faking out" the swans. I kept trying to warn him that they were going to bite him but he wasn't listening. We probably stayed here for 30 minutes and then we still had to carry him away crying.
Evan enjoyed the play area. I tried several times to get a picture of him crawling through the turtle shell.

Evan had to make sure and ride the baby after he rode the big one. He was excited to see the "cheetahs". Dain and Evan spend a lot of time looking at animal books and I was shocked how many animals Evan knows.

We were supposed to be quiet and not make any sudden movements in the giraffe house. That is basically impossible for Evan but he did his best. At least we didn't get trampled by a startled giraffe.

Evan loves alligators. He says "alligator" really rough and mean sounding. It is so cute. It is like the way he says it describes the animal. As you can see I barely caught him in the picture. He was so excited he ran from place to place and it was so hard to get a picture of anything besides the back of his head or profile. Oh well. Hopefully by the time he is three we can get some pictures of his face.

Hoogle Zoo

We took Evan to the Hoogle Zoo in SLC the day before my 26th birthday. Evan loved it. He ran full force through the zoo the whole time and we had to speed walk to keep up. We made it through the entire thing in less than 2 hours. You will notice the monkey backpack/leash on Evan's back. We didn't use it a whole lot that day but sometimes it is the only way to keep up with him in crowds when he weaves in and out of people.

Evan saw the turkeys first. He was trying to climb under the fence to go see them. He certainly isn't scared of strange animals.

Evan's 2 Year Old Pictures

I took Evan to get his pictures taken for his 2 year old birthday. I brought a birthday cake for him to eat in hopes that we would get some cute messy pictures. When Evan saw the cake he threw his arms up in the air and said "Party!" Evan was excited about the cake but he did NOT want to get dirty in order to eat it. He used the candle to get some frosting and then he poked his fingers into the cake and licked them but he would not grab a hand full or put it in his mouth. I guess his Daddy has influenced him over the last year since he could have cared less about getting dirty on his 1st birthday. The lady at the portrait studio kept telling me to smash his face in the cake but I didn't have the heart when Evan obviously didn't want to get messy. Oh well-it still was a great way to show his personality.