Fun with Kiddos & Alligator Lake

So as I have mentioned before - I'm a wanderer. 

But today, the adventure was a little more exciting. 

A few weeks ago I was riding my bike alongside the road, and I noticed a big path going into the woods. This is about a mile away from our house, and I thought 

"Hmm, I wonder what's back there."

Here it is, weeks later, and I decided it was time to take a little stroll over there. I parked my bike in the weeds and I began walking. The first thing I noticed was the I-Kid-You-Not gazillion mushrooms.

But then I noticed it - 

the lake

Yes, I found a hidden lake. And I cannot even begin to explain to you the rate my heart was rabidly beating. With every step, I was worried,

"what if I get caught?"

"am I trespassing?"

But, I went for it, and I kept walking. 

It's funny, you know, because in that moment I was just thinking to myself, "ahaha, it'd be really funny if I saw an alligator" AND I KID YOU NOT

I LOOK UP AND OH

HEY LOOK

IT'S A FREAKING ALLIGATOR

This is me in this moment:

NO, NO, BAD BAD ABORT ABORT ABORT

and I was literally shaking soooo bad, I couldn't even keep the camera steady. This was amazing, it was exhilarating. And I was worried I'd die. But I kept on moving.

Oh, big mistake, I was several feet away from three smaller gators, and in the distance I could see another. I was done... it was time to go home, and I was glad I got home, because Joshua & I played with our friends, Savannah and Cameron. 

We had a fun time, and afterwards, it was the potluck!

Weekly Campground Potluck

At the Walk A' Bout campground, they have a Sunday Potluck every week. Everyone brings food, a dish or some kind of dessert. (we usually bring one of each!) I think it's a great way to meet everyone here, especially because this campground in particular doesn't have a lot of permanent residents.

what is left of the food,
most of it is already gone!

There is about seven of us in the campground who will be living here, but the rest of the campground spots are for people that just come and go. Most of who you meet, you never do see again.













The owners of the campground, Suze and Troy, have four kids around Joshua & my age, also this weekend a few other kids were camping here with their grandparents. So after eating some dinner, we all went outside a played tag in the dark! It was a lot of fun :)








I thought this was pretty awesome, because I've never been to a campground before that does weekly potlucks such as this!

I wonder if other places do the same....

bowling, floyd, & african dancing

Today happened to be a very long day, and I was really excited about it!

My friend Meghann and I were dropped off at bowling alley, and that's where she and I spent our afternoon hanging out :) It was really exciting for me, because I mean, she & I have hung out at the library before without a parent present, but this is the first time I've actually done something fun with a friend by ourselves!

She and I had an awesome time bowling together! Maybe some people think it's lame, but I really enjoy bowling, haha.
I had some extra money left, and the bowling alley had a little restaurant  so I bought us a Veggie Wrap, along with a big pretzel (and Meghann also got herself some curly fries as well!)

stuffed animal we got from the claw machine!

After bowling, Meghann's sister Shannon picked us up and drove us to Floyd, Virginia. That's where we spent a few hours there, walking around town, going into all the hippie shops, we also stopped at the Red Rooster Cafe (Shannon works there)
and we drank smoothies!~

ahaha afterwards, we drove to Roanoke, Virginia where we stopped at her uncle Ian's house.





We hosted the International Dinner / Potluck at her uncle's house - tonights theme was Africa! The reason for doing so, was that tonight in downtown Roanoke, an African music group was preforming, so we figured the African dinner would co-inside with the events tonight!

The food was pretty good, but I don't really like a lot of spicy food, and that's what a lot of the dishes were :) So it was eh for me.

Later on, we all drove over to the theater, it was a group of 10+ in total of us going. I was super excited for this performance!

It was soooo GREAT! It was incredibly lively, upbeat, and fun to dance to. During the intermission, some of the members talked about where they are from in African and what their life was like back then, which I thought was pretty awesome.

Near the end of the show, anyone who wanted to could come up and dance, so naturally Meghann and I headed up there to jam out!! It was tons of fun!! By the end of the night I was exhausted, we didn't get to Meghann's house until almost 1am! Since it was so very late, I just spent the night there :)