Spring(s) Break

A couple weeks ago our kids had Spring Break. I loved it. Apparently there's something wrong with me as a mother since I actually like having our kids home all day. On one of the days we went for an adventurous drive to a hot springs swimming pool.  That was a blast. I discovered that 5 kids exceeded the amount of humans we could swim with while also taking pictures of them. So no pictures, sorry.  But we did bribe the two older boys to go off the high dive. And we got pretty good at staying on the floating log. After three hours of swimming and playing, we set out to find another destination we had heard about. 

 We followed the directions we got online (you can believe anything you read on the internet) and came to this beautiful area. We hiked up a bit and found what we were looking for. Guess what it was.  Here's a hint: 

Here's an even better one: 

 An alligator farm!  In Idaho!  

That is one BIG daddy alligator!  Apparently since the hot springs are so... hot... the alligators can live here in the swampy area year round. They are fenced in, and I'm not sure what kind of upkeep they need from the farmer, but they seem pretty happy.

Up around the bend a bit we found a few more alligators. This one was wide awake, watching us.  So was his friend, hiding in the water.  To the right.  Do you see him?

Here's a closeup of his eyes. I kept laughing. It's just like on Peter Pan! 

Personally, I was quite happy there was a fence between us. 

The kids had fun looking at other wildlife along the way. 

Like this big fish. He's lucky that he's not on the other side of the fence too.

I love watching the kids. Jonathan and Zach kept their hands behind their backs the whole time (so they wouldn't get bitten?) and Greg is just pure energy. 

Here's what we look like to the alligators. 

We're just one big, happy, water-logged, alligator-watching family!