Day at the Beach!

great blue heron

to be honest, I never thought I'd enjoy living in Florida, but I've found many advantages, such as living so close to the beach! Never in my life have I spent sooo much time at the ocean, and I really, really love it.

today in particular, we stopped at the local beach and just hung out all day. I myself didn't get in the water, but Joshua had a blast splashing around. I found myself wandering around along the shore, snapping pictures of anything that flew by. :)

Manatee Springs State Park, FL

We've officially left and moved away from Georgia, which means I am happy yet very, very sad. :(
but nonetheless, life shall continue to move on, as it always does. quite frankly.
















Our stop for this weekend was Manatee Springs State Park, which is located in Chiefland, Florida! I unfortunately got sick a few days before moving here, to the point where I couldn't breathe through my noes, my eyes were pink, my head hurt, my throat hurt, and my body was weak.

Which is odd, because I eat like a rabbit. I am super duper healthy and nothing fights down the walls of my immune system! Or at least, not usually, so when I suddenly became sick this suckkkeed.



The first day we arrived at the state park, I just slept, and when I wasn't sleeping I was watching supernatural and eating soup. I was a mess. We also had no wifi, internet, water, or television here. (At least we had electricity!)







Something I loved most about this place was how our campsite was literally dead center in the woods, right in the trees. We're surrounded by birds and forest and deer and that just makes me so incredibly happy.





Also, hence "manatee springs", the park has numerous outlets to the ocean-fed river, which is currently home to tons and tons of manatee at the moment.

The water is over 70 degrees year round and is perfect for swimming! (I can see why the manatee are currently living in these waters) not to mention how crystal clear it is, you can see every fish in this water! How awesome!





The next day, after taking a long hot shower and blowing my nose a few dozen times, I was finally able to make it out the house, despite the fact I felt so sick, I just couldn't miss this day.

The sun was shining and the air was nice and cool. Dad and I went for a walk on the wooden bridge, it goes for almost a mile through the woods, and is alongside the water.














We happened across a hawk, and got very close to it, which is the highlight of my life right there because I mean how often do you get this close to a hawk and snap such an amazing picture.

I loved seeing all of the different animals - such as turtles, manatees, butterflies, hawks, squirrels, blackbirds, fish, and the list goes on.

Swimming... in January?

It's January, and usually for me, being a Wisconsin-bred child, this is the month where you don't leave the house because the temperature doesn't get above -0, the wind doesn't stop and the snow is at your waist.

But today, it's January, we are in Georgia, and you know what my brother is doing?

Crayfish Crawl and fun at the lake...

We are living in Dublin, Virginia which is actually where Claytor Lake State Park is located! Joshua and I have been going swimming almost every evening during the week, there's nothing like chilling off in the lake after a hot humid day! We enjoy swimming at the lake in the evenings for two reasons - one it's not super hot and the sun isn't giving you a sunburn, and two- quite often there is hardly anyone there! Usually at least a few kids to play with, but for the most part it's not crowded like in the afternoon (when there is a tons of people on the beach!)

(a fish we managed to catch)

Something cool that the State Park does, is they offer educational wildlife programs throughout the summer. Some of the things we've done (so far) is made Eco-Friendly Bird feeders, learned about Owls at the "Owl Prowl" and most recently participated in what is called the "Crayfish Crawl." These little freshwater crustaceans can be found in the lake here (and are also known as Crawdads or even craw-fish.) My cousin India is the lovely lady who teaches and offers these wonderful programs, and today we started off by learning all about these Crayfish and how they live, such is what they eat, how they find food, and so on. Then we headed off to the water with our little nets and attempted to catch some crayfish!

After looking in the water for awhile, none of us seemed to be having any luck, but then I lifted a rock and there are two crayfish just hanging out in the water! A total of 5 were caught this afternoon, and I have to say it was a very enjoyable time! These five in particular happened to be small, but I've seen them grow very large in size.