We surprised Mimi with a birthday party at Jetty Park! Robin had the idea and then she and Anthony and his dad plotted on how to set it up. Anthony sent her this long text message asking her to meet someone at the park to pick up something for his fish tank and after a lot of convincing and coaxing from everyone she agreed to do it. She was completely surprised to see everyone waiting for her!
Eating cupcakes:
Anthony brought his fishing gear and almost caught a shark! He went closer to the water to try to reel it in right when a large wave came by and he got completely soaked. Then his line broke so he didn't even get to catch the shark.
James and Dallas had so much fun looking around the rocks for things people had left behind.
Our stake primary is in charge of the annual 11 year old scout day camp, so since I am in the stake I volunteered Anthony to do the first aid class. Since both of us had to be there, that meant taking the boys with us. James was very excited to be going to scout camp and wanted to wear his cub scout shirt that Mimi passed on to him from Dallas.
We finally bought a new riding lawn mower so now we have a lawn mower that actually works consistently! It works great with the sled that Anthony made for pulling tree limbs, but we discovered that it will also pull little boys :)
Visiting the reptile discovery center in Deland has been on our list of things to do for forever and we finally got a chance to do it. It was 100 percent worth the money!! They had a lot of really neat tortoises and snakes to look at, but the best part was watching them milk the venomous snakes. They have a company on site that collects different kinds of venom for different pharmaceutical and research companies and it was insane to watch! They milked 4 different kinds of snakes, 3 snakes for each variety so we got to see them do it 12 times. Every time was tense watching how close they got to them and how easily one slip could mean a serious bite.
Coral snakes first:
Next were copperheads, but we didn't get any good pictures of them. Then came the diamondback rattlesnakes! One of the snakes even flipped itself off the counter and on to the floor before they were able to catch it by its head. They just reached down with their snake hook and picked him up like it was nothing.
The last type of snake was the cobra. They had a dark colored on and this albino cobra. After he put it on the table, he walked away so that everyone could get pictures of it without him behind it. Anthony took a video of it swaying back and forth to James' hands moving around, just like you see in the movies.
The younger chickens are finally big enough to get to come out of their coop during the day with the big girls. The wild looking one is our polish frizzle. She is full of sass and doesn't let any of the bigger chickens boss her around!
On Thanksgiving day, the kitchen sink became completely blocked and wouldn't drain so Anthony and his Dad went to investigate the septic system access port that is outside of the house on the other of the kitchen wall. As they were moving some things away from the house they found this nest of eggs! It seems like one of our chickens has gone rogue and decided not to lay their eggs in the coop and made her own nest. We have no idea how long those eggs have been there!
Our two older silkie chickens have gone broody, which means that they have a strong urge to sit on eggs and hatch their chicks. Even with no eggs to sit on, they will sit all day in the nest. I gave them a few of the discovered eggs to sit on, thinking that it would make them happy. Then I read that if you give them unfertilized eggs to sit on, they will stay there for twice as long (6 to 7 weeks instead of 3) waiting for them to hatch. So I took the eggs back out and now I just go in there every day, make sure they aren't sitting on anyone elses' eggs, and kick them out of the nest for a few minutes. Hopefully they will snap out of it in a few weeks and go back to laying eggs!
We went downtown to the lighting of the Christmas street lights and the large Christmas tree. It was also Santa's first night in his little house downtown where it is free to sit on his lap and take pictures. James and Rett ran around with all the other kids until it was finally their turn.
James took Santa by surprise by asking for an incubator for Christmas! He said he wanted me to have a really nice one that turns the eggs for me and everything, so he asked Santa for it for me. (So sweet!) Santa was a little confused at first, he took a second and then went, "An incubator? Like for eggs?!" He also asked for a watch (he meant a smart watch that can call one or two numbers that they make for kids)
Rett asked for an angry birds car and a candy car. He is easy to please :)
Anthony volunteered our house as a rescue/foster home with a few different wildlife rescues in our area. Within a few days they contacted him about an iguana needing a place, temporarily or permanently, that washed up on the beach. They think he had been in the water since the hurricane months ago! He ended up at the marine science center in their rehab section, but their permit is only for native wildlife so they needed to find a place for him. We got to visit the center and see behind the scenes when we picked him up. It was so fun! Since he is a wild iguana, he doesn't like people too much yet. I'm sure Anthony can tame him though! Is there any animal Anthony can't get to like him??
Taking him out of the tub once we got home:
He is kind of cool looking isn't he? We named him Castaway.
We put him outside in the pen Anthony built for the baby tortoises during the day. We have used that pen for so many things since he built it! He is slowly getting used to us, now he doesn't go crazy when we put our hands in to put food on his plate. Maybe soon he will let us touch him!
Now that Anthony has Saturdays off, he gets to go fishing more often. It is fine with me as long as he brings back something to eat!
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