Saturday, May 17, 2008

Lakehouse with the Heltons

Today we headed to the lakehouse with John, Christie, Teague and Levi. Sean unfortunately had to work but made it out after work. The boys loved playing on the beach and in the water. Levi and DallasThen I noticed the gators hanging out at our next door neighbored dock. 3 of them! So we had the kids get out and play slip n slide. It was more amusing to watch John and Christie slide down it than the boys!

Boston on the slip n slideThe gators weren't leaving so we got the BB Gun out and John tried to shoot near them to scare them away (you aren't allowed to shoot or kill an alligator). But this didn't seem to phase them. They actually chased after the BBs when they hit the water. Crazy! We used to through rocks out near them and this would always scare them away. These guys were staying put. So they were there the whole day and Sunday as well. They didn't seem to care about the boys swimming in the water, gators aren't very aggressive. On the lookout for the gatorsThose of you who are reading this and don't live in Florida probably think we are INSANE for letting our kids swim a few feet away from alligators...LOL I would venture to guess that they were about 4-5 feet long. If I had any thought they would come after the kids we would not have let them play in the water.
Jumping waves
Dallas and Levi
Pretending to be gators
But they had a blast in the water and it was a fun day in the sun. On Saturday after everyone had left it was just me and the boys and my brother Wes and one of the gators climbed on the steps of our neighbors dock...crazy! I think he's going to have to come back out and reclaim his dock since they seem to have taken over!!!
Notice the gator sitting on the lower step and the head of one in the background

1 comment:

Chelle said...

Oh my gosh! You are so brave!! LOL!

I have lived here my whole life and I wont even swim in any lake or river because of gators and/or amoebas.

We saw a TON of gators on the river a few weeks ago. May is the peak time of gator mating season and that's why you'll see them more. They get very brave during mating season.

Usually when we boat on the St. John's and we get near one they go under water and hide. But this time of year (April/May) they will swim right past your boat and not even flinch.

They scare the crap out of me!