Memorial Day

When we bought our bikes our goal was to ride on Saturdays for the exercise and just to explore this beautiful area we live in.  Well, it's been so rainy, we haven't been able to do much.  On Memorial Day, however, it was a gorgeous day.  So Mark and I rode our bikes to Markham Park.  It's a beautiful multi-purpose park about a mile away.

Our tires were low.  I don't know if the humid weather has anything to do with that, but it was hard going until we got to a gas station and could get air in them.  What a difference!

Markham Park is huge!  Different areas are used for different purposes.  We stopped where people with model airplanes can fly them off an airstrip built for this fun hobby.  Some of the planes have retractable wheels.  One person had a jet!  It even sounded like a jet.  We enjoyed watching especially that one as it flew high in the air.  When it finally landed, we marveled at how much practice that must have taken, and how much money must go in to this kind of hobby.

It sure was fun to watch, though.

Very cool!

In another area was a shooting range with a couple of buildings for different gun or shooting clubs.  Of course in another area there was a playground and a swimming pool.  There was also a large lake with a sign saying there were live alligators and not to feed or entice them, and, of course, no swimming!

There was also another area for camping;  it was quite a large area, very nice, and several people had parked their trailers or pitched their tents.

The whole park was so beautiful with lots of trees and grass.  We explored all the different roads and finally discovered one that went around the entire park.  All in all we probably spent about 1 1/2 hours riding around enjoying ourselves before heading home.  I'm a bit saddle sore today, but we enjoyed it very much.

Our ward gathered at another park in Plantation for a picnic.  Everyone was to bring what they wanted.  We found them gathered under a ginormous shade tree, visiting and eating.  We had Boston Market (salad) and Kentucky Fried, so that was our picnic.  This is still a fairly new ward for us, so it was nice to sit and visit with people.  Many had brought frisbies or other games.  Someone brought kites.

After getting home it was a quick clean-up-our apartment isn't very big.  Then off for groceries and then a relaxing evening.

Mom and Dad called.  Rick's dog had eleven puppies!! 

It was a wonderful day!

Duck Family

I walked out our apartment one Sunday morning to go for a brief walk in the sunshine.  I was absolutely delighted when I saw a mother duck with a huge brood of ducklings following behind her.  I counted 22!  I thought, this woman not only has her own, but must be babysitting the whole neighborhood!  She took them to a pool of water that had formed in the grass during the last rains and let them swim.  I tried to get a good picture, but my camera died. 

Yesterday (Memorial Day) Mark and I were driving home from a ward picnic when we spied them again.  This time we pulled over and I took these pictures from the car:

Adorable!

There are ducks and birds and other creatures that wander around freely.  On another of my walks I took a picture of these two:

We call this a turkey duck.

Charity

One of my all time scriptures comes from Moroni 7:45-47:  "And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore...if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth.  Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail--

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

The other day as I was studying, I found a wonderful quote about charity from Elder Marvin J. Ashton.  I love this:

"Charity is, perhaps, in many ways a misunderstood word.  We often equate charity with visiting the sick, taking in casseroles to those in need, or sharing our excess with those who are less fortunate.  But really, true charity is much much more.

"Real charity is not something  you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself.  And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in  your heart, you are never the same again.  It makes the thought of [putting others down] repulsive.

"Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don't judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet.  Charity is accepting someone's differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle something the way we might have hoped.  Charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us.  Charity is expecting the best of each other."  (Ensign, May 1992, 18-19)

I would like this to be my creed; the code by which I live.  I know I'm not there yet-not by a long shot, but it's something I want very much to strive for.  Can you imagine how wonderful the world would be if we all treated each other this way?  Well, charity begins with each individual.  Let it begin with me.

The Lizard in Our Porch Light

We'd been seeing droppings on our porch for quite a while.  We would sweep them off then there would be more that would show up.  I was worried that a.  it was rats, or b. it was those giant cockroaches they call Palmetto bugs. 

Since Mark kept finding them under our porch light, he shook it one day and more droppings came out.  So we knew that whatever it was, was living there. 

We were heading to dinner or somewhere and he wanted to show me, so he rattled the light for me.  This lizard darted out and then raced back in.  It startled both of us, especially Mark.  In his words it scared the "bejeebies" out of him.  I had a good laugh.  He thought it might be a good idea if we got rid of it.  Not me.  Those things eat bugs.  I'm glad we have a lizard living in our porch light.  Hopefully it will keep the Palmetto bugs (which Mark actually saw one night on our wall around midnight).

I saw it on the stairs one day after I had gotten home from somewhere, so I took this picture:

Our lizard friend.  He's pretty long.

There's actually quite a few lizards that live around there.  I see them on the sidewalks and my porch sunning themselves.  They run pretty fast whenever anyone comes along.  I understand it gets pretty buggy in the summertime.  I'm glad we have lizards around.  Live on, lizards, I say live on!

Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley came to stay with us last week.  He was the geography project of Reagan's second grade class.  Flat Stanley is a character out of a children's book.  Apparently, he was flattened by a bulletin board, but the benefit of that was he could then mail himself to friends in different places.  So he mailed himself to us. (via Reagan)

We really got into the project!  I took one look at his outfit (long sleeved shirt and tie) and told him he couldn't dress like that in Florida, because it is too hot and humid!  So I made him some more comfortable clothes.

Flat Stanley

Monday after Mark got home, we took him to Fort Lauderdale Beach.  The wind was blowing and there were several parasurfers on the water.  It was fun to watch them being pulled around with their parachutes.

Me and Flat Stanley

Normally along the Atlantic here there are no breakers, so it's fun to see waves like these.  Walking along the boulevard, we saw many skating, biking, running or just walking like us.  Across the street from the beach are many shops and restaurants.  Farther up the beach are nice hotels.

During the months of March through October sea turtles come to lay their eggs on the beach here.  There are signs posted cautioning people to be careful.  It is against the law to bother the nests and turtles,  Also, during those months it's important that it stays as dark as possible so the turtles will lay their eggs.  The city asks people to keep their shades drawn at night so the turtles don't see the light.  They also keep the street lights low during that time.

Nests are marked so people don't accidentally step on them. 

Ft. Lauderdale Beach Blvd.

 Mark and I ate at a nice restaurant on the beach then took Flat Stanley to Bubba Gump's where he got his picture taken again.

Run, Stanley, run!

 

Mark had a meeting one morning in Sunrise, so I took Flat Stanley to Sawgrass Mills Mall.  It's pretty famous here.  It's ginormous!!  I looked it up.  It is 2, 383,906 square feet of shopping space!  Mark and I thought it was the second largest mall in the United States, but it is actually the 6th largest and the 2nd largest in Florida.  There is a wooden alligator at the entrance.  I got there too early for the stores to be open, but I took his picture at the Rain Forest Cafe.  It's really cool there.  It is decorated to look like you're eating under the canopy of a rain forest.  There are life sized animals throughout the restaurant that "come alive" at certain times.  Plus it rains every so often with thunder and lightning.  There are also aquariums throughout the restaurant as well.  It's a neat place to eat.

Can you find Stanley?

Thursday, I took Flat Stanley to the temple site.  Since it's a construction site, I made him a hard hat and a safety vest to wear, plus long pants and boots,

Some interesting information about the temple site:  Two lakes were dug as part of the plans, but the limestone material they got was then ground up to make the material for the foundation.  The water table is so high here that when the basement was dug, pumps had to run 24/7 in order to deep the water level down.  Layers of cement were poured, as well as a waterproofing material laid down. Enough layers of cement were poured so that the water could not make it float.  The actual baptistry will be above the water level when it is completed. 

Mark has found all kinds of shells and coral.

Sign at the entrance of the job site.

Saturday we took Flat Stanley across the state to the Gulf side.  It only takes about two hours to get from where we are to the other side.  We stopped at Big Cypress National Preserve so he could see his first alligator.  Big Cypress is not part of the Everglades, but is near them. 

Along a wooden walkway we were able to look down into the water where several alligators were swimming or sunning themselves. 

Big Cypress is over 2,400 miles.  There are many animals that make their homes here.  We saw a doe and her fawn.  Florida panthers and black bears are two more animals that live here.  Sixty inches of rain falls here on the average.  The water slowly flows towards the Gulf of Mexico through Big Cypress and the Everglades.

I have been surprised at how many people have recognized Flat Stanley.  I had never heard of him before we got him in the mail.

We went to Marco Island first after leaving Big Cypress.  You get to it by bridges.  Mark and I had taken our bikes.  We were hoping to ride along the beaches, but we found out that they don't allow bikes or dogs on the beaches there.  Too bad, because I had transformed Flat Stanley's construction hard hat into a bike helmet.

He's ready for an ocean swim!  Marco Island, Gulf of Mexico.

 

 

Later we drove to Naples.  What a fun place that is!  Cute shops and homes on the way to the beach.  It looks like the kind of place we'll have to come back to and just wander around.  We took Flat Stanley to the beach and took a couple more pictures before heading home.

The wind was blowing.  He had a hard time keeping his head up.

The last thing we did with Stanley is take him to church with us (well, he had to wear his shirt and tie at least once while he was there).  Mark had to teach a Primary class so he took Stanley with him.  The girls were delighted and had to have their picture taken with him.

One last picture before we sent Flat Stanley back to Reagan.  Adios, Flat Stanley, it was a fun week.

Disney World

We went to Disney World in Kissemee Friday and Saturday.  We left Thursday afternoon and stopped first at the place that is building the panel walls of the temple.  They are so beautiful!!  It's amazing to me what can be done to prefabricate such things.  Mark was really pleased with how they turned out and complimented the manager on the beautiful work.

We stayed at the Marriott Springfield Suites not very far from the park.  Mark had built up enough points for us to get a free night.  It was a beautiful room.  Disney World has a great deal for Florida residents--$99.00 for three days.  When each day normally costs $90.00 that is a great deal!

Friday morning, we went to the Orlando temple.  I love it there!  It was a very small session, in fact, there were only two of us women.  But it's always great to be at the temple.

Afterwards we went back to our motel, changed and headed to Disney World.  Mark and I were astounded at how enormous the Disney World complex is.  They have their own freeway system for heaven's sake!

Disney World has four main parks here:  Magic Kingdom, which is like Disneyland in California, Epcot, Disney Hollywood and Animal Kingdom.  We decided to go to Magic Kingdom the first day.  The park stayed open until 11:00, so we figured we would have plenty of time to see everything.

We had a great day!  It is interesting to compare Disneyland with Disney World, but between the four theme parks you find pretty much everything Disneyland has and more.  I was NOT disappointed in the least.

Of course we went to "It's A Small World" first.  I thought of Nana because that is her favorite place to go.  Mark and I couldn't believe how many coins people had tossed into the water!  A person cleaning that up could make a pretty good haul.  I even saw a couple of dollar coins.

There were some fun parades.  Mark and I were both amazed at the guys on stilts who danced and moved with such ease.  Wow that had to take some practice.

All of our favorites were there:  "Splash Mountain", "Haunted Mansion"  (ooh, I loved the mansion!  It looked like it came out of the movie), "Pirates of the Caribbean" to name only a few.  They are in the middle of construction in Fantasyland.  Whatever they're doing I'm sure it will be awesome.

From the graveyard of the Haunted Mansion

 My personal favorite ride was "Splash Mountain".  Even with so much to see and do we did that one twice.

It's always fun to see the Electric Light Parade.  They did some really cool movie things on the castle like it was a big screen.  We were really tired by the time we finished, but ready to go the next day!

Mark with the Tree of Life in the background

 Since I knew we would have to head back home early on Saturday, I chose Animal Kingdom for us.  It was great.  I loved "It's Tough to be a Bug" and Kali Rapids.  There are different countries to go to with animals from that area along with attractions.  The buildings are always so cool!  Disney never does anything half way.  The closest thing to the Matterhorn was Mt. Everest train roller coaster!  Very cool, but a little more intense than we wanted yesterday.  Oh well, next time.  My favorite was "Finding Nemo, the Musical"  I loved that!  Very well done.

Absolutely soaked after Kali Rapids in Animal Kingdom, Asia!

Near the dinosaur area of Animal Kingdom

Kimodo Dragon

See the bat?

 I'm so glad we decided to do the Animal Kingdom.  They actually close around 7:00, but we were both worn out around 5:00 so we headed for home.  What a wonderful weekend.  In fact we were so excited to be there that we ended up buying a year pass!  So...we will be back.  It's a good thing too because there are at least two more parks to see!!