Nature is pretty and pretty interesting when it's not trying to devour you.

Thank you all for the well wishes to my mom-she reads my blog AND all the comments.    

She was released from the hospital on Friday night and she rested all weekend; hopefully she'll have some answers soon. 

I secretly hope she's pregnant; I'd love a sibling!

I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but I was distracted by something. Mostly likely by something sparkly or tasty. 

It happens. 

A few weekends ago our good friends from Jupiter spent the weekend with us. On Saturday morning I wanted to share with them Dawn's nature trail. Ok, it isn't just for Dawn, but it's so close to her house; she goes there quite a bit AND her son Camden completed his Eagle scout project there. 

In my book, that makes it hers. 

 Camden made fabulous trail markers for the entire 12 miles of this incredible trail. 

One day, I hope to make it to mile marker one. No, I'm not a slacker Mc Suzy....you'll see why we didn't make it that far in about 3 photos. 

Oh, that guy? That's just a little {sissy} baby. 

We saw a few of those as well as a day care center for raccoons. 

Ok, maybe it was just a few raccoon youngnin's in one spot and I assumed they were in daycare. 

You'd be surprised by how many calories I burn assuming things. 

Looky looky whose trying to block our trail. (including Lolo and Cocoa)

Yes, I sent my child and my dog ahead of me. HA. Actually quite a few people walked next to/past this very large gator without a thought.

Me? 

I had lots of thoughts and most of them ended with me struggling to free myself from her jaws while shatting my shorts. 

See Dawn's brave son Camden over there in the yellow shorts? Just a few feet to his right was a water moccasin....so, we were to finagle between the gator and the water moc!

I finally did it; thank goodness some really nice teenagers came by and said they would walk between ME and the gator. 

AND I LET THEM. 

I know...can you imagine if something happened and I had to explain to their parents that I let them sacrifice their lives for me. 

I was not in my right mind. 

Thank goodness there were a lot of pretty views when you looked up. 

Ibis and egrets everywhere...they were so lovely and I don't believe they've ever eaten anyone; although that one was 'eyeballing' me. 

You should know that walking while looking up can be dangerous....because we ran into another one of these unattractive parts of nature. 

Why do snakes just sneak up on you like that? kinda rude. 

To exit the trail, you have to go out the exact way you came in. We HAD to walk past the gator to leave the trail. Can you believe she hadn't moved an inch? Lazy pants.

YES,  of course we'll do it again; this is why we have life insurance. 

Anyone have any close encounters with nature lately?

XOXOXO