Miami Zoo - Feeding Giraffes!

When we were in Florida my husband and I took Ariana to the Miami Zoo one day. Being there made us miss living a few minutes away from the Omaha Zoo. Our favorite part of the day was feeding Ariana's favorite animal, the giraffe! Yep, that's right, we hand fed giraffes! It was so awesome to be so up close and personal with these majestic animals! I know zoo photos can get boring if you aren't there in person so I'm going to try to limit the photos in this post to my favorites.

I'm kind of in love with this frog one I snapped!

Coolest lizard ever and he was such a ham, posing for me!

Ariana loved getting to feed the birds in the aviary.

I feel like she's saying "what are you looking at?!" Nice hairdo and makeup!

Check out that long purple tongue!

My favorite shot was of Ariana and the giraffe posing. I swear it's like they bonded and she wanted to be in the photo too. They were so cute!

Melting Pot Double Date

When James and Jen were here visiting we planned a double date to The Melting Pot. I love melting pot and celebrated my birthday there a few years back. They had never been before so we were excited to share the joy of fondue. 

We had such a great time really bonding and chatting and sharing food and life stories. We went all out and got the cheese, meat and chocolate fondue courses. Our favorites were the lobster and the cheesecake you dip in chocolate. Delish!!

Double dates are such fun. Especially with such a fun restaurant like The Melting Pot. We finished off the evening with Smores Martini's and then enjoyed sitting out on my Mom's screen porch talking.

Alligators in the Everglades

We went to the Everglades and took an air boat ride out to see the alligators and other wild life. Check that off our summer bucket list! We had such a great time with my mom and sister and Rich's brother and his wife. We saw 3 alligators which was pretty good. It was so awesome to see them in their natural habitat and a little scary. They were so chill though so it wasn't bad. James, my brother in law is not a fan of alligators but he overcame his fear and had so much fun.

The airboat out into the everglades was so awesome and we went surprisingly fast over the lily pad type plants. I took this picture of James looking out over the side of the boat so you could see how close we actually got to the alligators. Remember these are WILD ANIMALS!

Even the birds and plants and bugs out there were so interesting. I loved the purple gallinules and their babies walking on the lily pads. And the huge dragon flies flying around and hovering above the water was just beautiful. 

I loved the heart on this lily pad.

If you ever watch Gator Boys on Animal Planet you might recognize this guy. We went to Everglades Holiday Park which is the home of the Gator Boys. We saw Chris from the show but the other guys were out on a call I'm sure. He gave us some information about alligators in a little show and did tricks like sticking his hand in the alligators mouth and showing us how fast they close their jaws. He even held his mouth open with his chin WITH NO HANDS! Then Ariana and Rich and James held the baby alligator named Cricket. She was 3 years old and still so little.

Afterwards we all had to try Gator Bites which were mostly like chicken nuggets but it was alligator tail deep fried. The general consensus: not too bad.

From left to right: Jen my sister in law, James my brother in law, Richard, Ariana, Me, Anne my mom, Sarah my sister.