Part Three - Silver Springs

 Part three! This was my FAVORITE day of the vacation. We went to an animal park called Silver Springs which had lots of different animals in natural settings. the park was very well kept and extremely nice.

The front entrance :) The whole park was very pretty and the weather was absolutely perfect

Being eaten by an alligator? Oh yes :)

Pretty bird! He was mean though - he kept trying to bite me!

They had several animals shows where they brought animals out and had them perform for you. This bird could say all sorts of phrases and made us all laugh a lot!

Turtles sunning themselves on a log :) Cute, aren't they?

WE GOT TO HOLD A BABY ALLIGATOR!! He felt pretty cool. Don't worry, his mouth was fastened shut! My mom was really loving it, can you tell?

They gave tours in glass bottom boats. There were two routes and we got to go on both of them. Our captain on the first ride was very fun and informative, and the second had beautiful, clear water! Very cool :)

They also gave a jeep tour through another animal section with bears, llamas, emus, and other neat critters. We go to see emu eggs! And a zebra striped jeep? I think yes! :D

Isn't this the coolest carousel ever? I was bummer that i didn't get to ride it, but I did get lots of pictures :)

There were a TON of alligators!! They had literally hundreds. This was the biggest, and whoa, he was HUGE! I love how he's smiling for the picture.

White alligators are so cool. I had never seen one before. He looks like he's just a plastic model floating in the water, but they assured me that he was indeed real :)

Ahh, the beautiful palms and lovely, well-kept grounds. I loved being able to enjoy greenery and blue skies in April! NY is not very pretty in spring. God allowed us to go at the prefect time.

I got a souvenir - a soft, plush white tiger! He is so snuggly. I named him Libre, which is Spanish for free, because he is a free spirit. Haha!

Oh, I had so much fun that day. if I lived down there I would definitely get a membership so I could go more often. God's creation is so glorious and I am always refreshed when I get to spend a day enjoying the outdoors.

Saturdayyy

Today my brothers came home. Cody was at TLC (teen leadership conference) and Erik was working at Camp Lamoka. Cody works at Lamoka too, but he took this week off for TLC. It was hard for me because when Erik got home he told me about how great this week at camp was, and when Cody got home he told me all about how great TLC was, and I stayed home all week. I had a good week, but it was still hard because I would have loved to be at either of the places they were. Then also we were considering going to a graduation party today, but it didn't work out because of the business of the guys getting home. But I'm still alive and God is still good, so who am I to complain?

I also watched part of "Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution III" which is the 3rd DVD in a series of DVD's about absolutely amazing creatures that completely counter evolution. It was great to see how awesome our God is and to see how intricately designed everything in this world is.

This evening I was feeling really negative about the whole day, so I took a long walk to get my attitude right again. I walked out and then sat down on a hill and prayed and thought and then headed home. Now, I am feeling very refreshed and thankful again. God is good! :)