The boys had one last Monday off before heading back to school following their Christmas break. Brian had to work for a few hours that day and by the time he got home we ALL were ready to get out and do something. Brian suggested a hike, and I suggested the Hobe Sound Nature Center since we drive by there every day going to school and have yet to visit.
It was, surprisingly, pretty awesome! The center was small, but filled with all sorts of creepy crawly and fascinating creatures. Snakes, lizards, spiders (I steered clear of those), scorpions, turtles, a skunk, and sometimes (just not this day) an owl and hawk.
And the people who work/volunteer there are wonderful! They were drawn to the kids like magnets and as the boys were looking at the snakes, one lady just came over, popped open the snake cage, reached in and took one out!
"Do you want to touch the snake?" she asked, which was met with a big ol' grin from Jace and huge "YEEEEEEESSSS!" from Samuel!
After our explorations inside, we headed outside to hit some trails. What a wonderful and beautiful place we live in! The boys were even uncharacteristically quiet in the hopes that we would happen across some sort of wildlife, though the only creature we saw was the scurrying lizard. We wondered around for a bit before this Mama and baby decided that we had walked just about enough.
After our little adventure, we headed north until we came across an amazing and mouth-watering sight.. a giant ice cream cone!
Ahh, soft serve, dipped and sprinkled ice cream is the PERFECT way to end an adventure, wouldn't you agree?
BUT WAIT!!!! Was our adventure over yet?
What is that rustling in the trees?
It's a masked bandit!
See it?!
A raccoon! And by the looks of his belly, this guy has been hanging around the ice cream place a while, haha.
And he wasn't the only cute face trying to con us out of our cones, except that another little guy actually succeeded.
Do you see him? Up in the tree?
See him now?
Yes, that is a squirel. Up a tree. With an ice cream cone.
And when the raccoon realized that he wasn't getting anything from us, he decided to join his friend in the hope that he would share...
I think Mr. Squirrel did leave a little something :)
