Tubin'

On Sunday, my friend DD and I packed up with our kiddos and headed to Florida! We have been talking about making this trip for about a year and finally we put the plans into action!

We hit the interstate and were heading to spend the day in Gainesville. Our first stop was the Natural History Museum of Florida.

We let the kiddos take their ipods in to take pictures and they seemed to really enjoy capturing the moement! :0)

We also got to see lots & lots of butterflies!

Davis waited so patiently for a butterfly to land on him, but it never happened!

After the Butterfly museum, we went to see the University of Florida stadium.

Don't worry, we still love our Auburn Tigers! We were just sight seeing! ; )

We enjoyed dinner at a fun little restaurant called The Swamp and then we were heading to see the bats fly at dusk.

The kids enjoyed watching the gators and turtles...we had to remind them not to get too close! ha!

I thought we might be the only weirdo bat watchers, but the bats brought a crowd by dusk!

There were thousands & thousands of bats...and even after we left, they were still flying out of the bat houses!

The next morning, we got up and headed out to tube down the river and swim in the springs! We stopped along the way and rented our tubes and we were on our way for an adventure!

We took the 3-4 hr tube route and DD had to drop us and the tubes off and go park her car and catch a bus back! As we were at the 1st spring swimming, Mack looked at me and said, "mama it's so beautiful, I know you wish you had your camera!" She was in awe..it's was really a sight to see! Since, we later came back by car to swim, I was able to capture the beauty! The spring is 72 degrees year around. It's amazing.

This is the other spring. It was more shaded and there was no wading in the cold water, you just had to take the plunge. It made you squeal as you did, but seeing the spring underwater was worth every minute. The current was really strong from the spring, so Mack couldn't overcome her fears and the cold to see it with her own eyes! She wanted to soooo bad and got really emotional bc she couldn't make herself do it!

Of course, I couldn't get any pictures of us while on the river, but it was lots of fun too. The first time we did the 3-4 hr route. We saw lots of fish, birds, turtles, and even a manatee was within reach. She literally swam right beside our tube and came up for air. Thankfully, she didn't come up for air under the 4 tubes we had tied together! ha!  Later that afternoon, we went back down the river on the short route and one last swim in the spring. We had a full day! We headed back to the hotel for a swim in the pool and pizza on the patio!

We got home yesterday at around 4:30, a quick change into a leotard, we were off to gymnastics from 5-8 and a tball game at 7! I don't think we know how to stop! ha!!