This is my first attempt at a blog. I am not really a blogger at heart and doubt how long I will be able to keep this up. Also, I don't necessarily believe in sharing every intimate detail of my life with other people. That being said, I do enjoy reading other people's blogs (most of the time) and seeing pictures of their families (most of the time). In addition, my family (siblings and cousins) are becoming more and more spread out and in an attempt to reconnect with loved ones, I feel it is important to share some of my personal experiences and adventures. Lastly, don't judge me on my grammar or spelling or I will stop posting.
For spring break this year, Jeremy and I decided to go and visit my Uncle Keith and Aunt Shell who happen to live in Melbourne, FL. I have always felt close to all my aunts and uncles and was extremely excited to visit the Barron family....and spend time on the beach. Jeremy is in the middle of vet school at UT and I work at least 50 hours (usually more) a week. Needless to say, we don't see each other as much as we would like so this was a good excuse to get to spend some quality time together.
We spend Friday afternoon at Brevard Zoo:
This was a small zoo and it only took us 3 hours to get through the whole thing. They had a lot of interesting animals. Jeremy is standing beside the Jaguar exhibit where they had a mommy and baby jaguar.
They also had a great alligator exhibit with at least 10 huge
alligators! We were hoping to see it eat a fish or something! They had extra fencing below the walkway just in case someone fell in. You can see it in the bottom right hand corner. This part reminds me of the Knoxville zoo who kindly put up signs that said " Please do not climb on fences, you may fall in and may get eaten which would make the animals sick" (or something like that)
These things are the largest rodents in the world and are called the Capybaras! The top photo is of the babies. They kind of look like guinea pigs.
Jeremy staring in awe of the Caypybaras and at their amazing rodent abilities.
These were some of the beautiful birds that we saw at the zoo. The middle one was my favorite and I named it squishy. I think the last one was a parrot of some sort, and it had very colorful markings. There were a lot of birds at the zoo and in Florida in general. One the way to the zoo we saw a swan nest and osprey nest. Also, there were vultures everywhere! At the zoo, they had a tent set up that you could stand under to avoid getting pooped on by the vultures, which brings me to a story that Jeremy finds funny. I had just told Jeremy to watch out for the birds flying over head, as they might poop on us, and five seconds after I told him that I got pooped on by a vulture. It was on my shirt, hair, and hand. He thought this was pretty funny. I on the other hand remain unamused.
Proof that ducks were once wild.
Zookeeper feeding meerkats
One of the coolest things about our visit to the zoo was getting to see the zookeepers feed the animals. The bottom photo is of a squirrel monkey, I believe, eating a pineapple. We also saw Dustin, the sloth, getting fed peanuts. The zookeeper had to keep tapping him on the shoulder to wake him up to eat the peanuts.
Brevard Zoo really knows how to show people a good time. They had various activites that you could do in the zoo to enhance your experience (for a small fee of course). We went on a 30 minute kayak tour of the zoo. It was my favorite part of the whole zoo experience. We got to see some animals that you could only see on the tour such as lemur island. There are giraffes in the last two photos among the trees. The last photo is of the baby giraffe that we saw from our kayak.
That evening we attended a Rodeo put on by Deseret Ranch (one of, if not the last cattle ranch owned by the church). Our favorite part was the mutton busting competition where little kids hold on for dear life while they ride sheep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm_FTC_Za98 Follow this link to see what I am talking about. It usually ends in tears but is really funny to watch.
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| On the way to the beach! |
King Palm
Spanish moss
Palm on palm
Staghorn Fern (I think)
After the beach, we went to Florida Tech University's Botanical Garden. The flora down there was so different than what we were used to. Above are some pictures of the interesting plants we saw. We did get lost in the botanical garden and had to climb over a fence into a parking lot to save ourselves. But that is what makes it an adventure! 
That evening we took a walk on the beach.
Even though we only spent a couple of days with the Barron family we had a wonderful time. It was just what the doctor ordered and couldn't have been more perfect.
