Botanical Gardens

The highlight of the trip to the Naples Botanical Gardens was definitly Great Grandpa’s scooter. 

It took Jaydon a little while to warm up to the idea but once he got the hang of it there was no stopping those two. 

It was super cute to see and a good thing that the top speed of those scooters is no more than a brisk walk so that we were able to keep up with them. 

Grandma Squeak showed us her favorite spot in the gardens and Jaydon got to try out a hammock. 

Once he got stable on it he tried to take a nap but decided it was s little too weird to be up in the air swinging like that. 

Aunt Patricia was the Tylor porter and the two of them got along great.  Next it was off to the water gardens. 

We got Jaydon all suited up and he spent about 4 minutes in the water before he decided it was too cold and was not a fan of the random spouts of water that could appear and douse him.  Tylor on the other hand thought the place was great.  Between watching his brother navigate the water and the streams of water shooting up and splatting on the ground Tylor was in pure hysterics. 

He was laughing so hard that he actually attracted people over to where we were just so they could see what in the world was making the baby laugh so hard.  After all that fun we tried to calm him down by a nice walk through the butterfly house. 

Jaydon went to the kids’ garden and helped out with some chores. 

We also got some nice pictures of Grandpa and the boys on a porch swing

and then brought Jaydon to the tree house so he could expend his last bit of energy before loading back up into the car for a quite drive home.

Shell Factory and Babcock Ranch

The Shell Factory is a bizarre little store that, as was explained to us by some of the locals, is a relic of the 60’s road trip attractions.  The main part of the store sells shells from all over the world made into neat little trinkets and Florida souvenirs.  The rest of the store is a mish mash of whatever was likely the newest fad at the time.  They had a pirate room, a petting zoo, a dinosaur path, bumper boats and likely other things we didn’t get a chance to discover.  Jaydon loved the reptile exhibit and we just happened to arrive just at the beginning of the 1 hour time slot where they let you hold the animals. 

Jaydon thought this was great and we ended up staying there the entire hour (only 1 other family came in while we there).  After it was time put the lizards away we found the goats at the petting zoo. 

I must have fed about $5 worth of quarters into the goat food machines and we had to tear Jaydon away to go see the dinosaurs. 

He loved the silly goats and made sure that every single one got a few bits of food from his hands.  The dino path was a bunch of ‘life’ size paper mache dinosaurs hidden in the greenery. 

Tylor and Aunt Patricia enjoyed the walk and Jaydon kept trying to figure out where the dino noises were coming from because it was obviously not from the dinosaurs. 

We also visited the Babcock Ranch which is a working ranch that also gives tours.  They loaded us onto a camo painted bus and we ventured into the wilds of Florida to see what animals there were to spot. 

We were visited by some beautiful cranes. 

But the funniest were the wild Turkeys. 

I never realized how colorful these birds are until they were up close and you could see their iridescent feathers.  The driver was feeding them so the chased the bus a good half mile or so. 

Jaydon thought it was hilarious that they were chasing us. 

Tylor just loved watching how into everything Jaydon was. 

They had a baby alligator that everyone got to touch and plenty of alligators in the road. 

This was definitely not a place to have a flat tire… 

Tylor was extremely well behaved, enjoying the wind and bouncy ride and of course hanging out with his favorite person his big brother Jaydon

Skuut and George

Fortunately for us, Grandma Squeak was able to raid the “Grandmas” closet they keep at their condo complex and brought along all kinds of neat toys for the boys to play with.  One was a skuut bike which Jaydon was very excited to try out. 

I bought him all the safety gear and got him suited up – so much so that he had a difficult time moving. 

Well, he got on the bike rode about 10 feet before deciding it was not his thing (probably no thanks to all the safety gear). 

One morning we woke up and were having breakfast on the porch when this gigantic bird flew in – a beautiful wood stork.  He watched us for awhile and had no fear; he even walked right up to the screen within just a few feet of Jaydon.  I got very nervous by the audacity of the bird so I brought Jaydon back inside, safely away from the huge beak.  Well the next day he showed up again, apparently he’s a regular around here and even has a name, George. 

Actually his full name is George-the-mooch because he has learned how to beg.  And George doesn’t eat bread crumbs like most birds, he wants meat.  

Jaydon and a neighbor girl Elly learned that he really likes salami. 

Who would of thought, but that’s one of the neat things about Florida – all the wildlife you see everywhere. 

We also spent one day walking through the six mile cypress swamp trail.  It’s a board walk they built over the swamp so you can see the wildlife at a safe distance above the mud and muck of the swamp.  Tylor loved the time outside and Jaydon had fun running up and down the boardwalk. 

Though, I don’t think our fellow bird watchers appreciated us being there much – the boys don’t really understand the concept of being quite in order to not scare away the wildlife…

Jaydon and Grandpa also got into the holiday spirit by decorating a gingerbread house together.  Well actually I think Grandpa did the decorating and Jaydon did the sampling to ensure proper quality for all the candy used in the decorating J

Fun and Fish in Florida

There always seemed to be something fun and new to do. 

Jaydon got suited up for a trip on the boat with Aunt Bun and Cousin Ian.  After the boat ride Ian took Jaydon fishing. 

For some reason the fishing karma that the rest of the family has (most of the time) has not rubbed off on Jaydon.  They tried and tried to catch something – anything on Jaydon’s line with no luck. 

Fortunately, our very nice neighbor Roger is an awesome fisherman and caught some beautiful fish while we were there. 

He knew how much Jaydon liked seeing the fish so he would always come and find us after one of his big catches so Jaydon could see the fish. 

Tylor was usually more interested in wrangling up the local rubber cobras. 

Or better yet taking a bath, but had lot of fun too.  One day Roger let Jaydon play with some of his live bait. 

Jaydon thought it was great having a (de-clawed) crab and fish buddy for the day. 

It was pretty cute until it became just plain gross with Jaydon carrying around his dead fish and mostly dead crab.  I finally convinced him that the crab and fish needed to go home and find their mommies for nap time, it took some pursuading but he agreed to throw them back in the river rather than take them to bed with him.

Fun at the Beach

We ventured down to Great Grandpa and Grandma Squeak's beautiful Naples beach three different times during our stay.  Jaydon loved the beach. 

When we would arrive he’d play in the sand, find shells, and splash in the water but after about 20 minutes he’d get bored with his real family and decide to go off and find a new one. 

He did this every time we went and would make such good friends with his new family that they would usually offer to adopt him and take him home with them.  He met all kinds of interesting people and learned fun new games like I-spy and how to draw pictures in the sand. 

Tylor also enjoyed the beach especially since with Jaydon off charming other ladies (always in bikinis I should add) he got the full attention of the family. 

After a few fun and sun filled hours at the beach we’d take the tram back through the mangroves and load the boys up in the car. 

They got very good at crashing in the car and it was times like these that I wished our drive was just another 30 minutes or so because they always woke-up as soon as we got off the interstate.