~Saying 'goodbye', more Alligators and a Hair Cut~

Saying,"goodbye" is not always easy to do... even if it is someone you have just known for a few days.  This is Mitzy... I'm not sure I am spelling her name right but she brought so much joy to my kids when we first arrived in Florida.  Mitzy is almost two years old and loves to play!  Asa, Hannah and Kylie fell in love with her.  They were sad to leave her and, even more sad, to leave Ms. Smart (Memaw)!  Our time at Ms. Smarts house ended up being longer than we had originally planned.  By the time we left we were all calling her Memaw.  She is such a kind lady who loves the Lord,  we will always remember her kindness toward us!  

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The day before we left Ms. Smart gave each of the kids a gift.  As you can see they were quiet proud of them.  Asa is holding his Woody, and Kylie her Dora Dora... each of these dolls came with a little blanket... so sweet of her to spoil my already spoiled kids!

Hannah's stuffed toy was a penguin, she wears it around  on her back all the time.  We took these pictures the morning we were heading out.  Hannah was crying and crying because she wanted spaghetti for breakfast, which made it hard for me to get a picture of all the kids with 'Memaw'  and Mitzy at the same time. We thank God for bringing special people like Ms. Smart into our path, we pray God bless her in a mighty way!  
We got no further than a mile down the road and from the backseat of the truck I hear Asa say, "I miss Memaw already."  It was saturday and Sam was preaching in a church about twenty-five minutes away on Sunday.   The church had a mission apartment in it and we were suppose to be there at 1 o'clock to meet the pastor.  We got there about forty-five minutes early so we decided to pull into the parking lot where there was a big dock that went out onto a lake.  We walked all around looking at the many odd birds and plants and I noticed something floating under the edge of the dock.   I soon realized it was a tiny alligator.  As we all got excited and everyone spotted it, it went under the water and much to our surprise when we saw it next it was right in front of us in plain sight.  This alligator was no bigger than our Kylie Joy!  We watched him for a very long time, he was not frightened by us at all.   

Asa wanted to take a picture of the alligator so I let him. Then he wanted to take one of Sam and I.  I  don't think I could have done a better job myself... he just might turn out to be a photographer!

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We asked why it is illegal to feed the alligators, and we were told that it is because if everyone started throwing food to them like we do ducks they would start expecting it just like the ducks and get aggressive.  I remember when I was a kid we went to Lucy Park to feed the ducks, when we ran out of bread one of them bit me.  Can you imagine what would happen if you ran out of bread while feeding the alligators!?!  Have no worries... we will not feed the alligators!  We'll just play with them... hehe!  

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I don't know if you can tell or not, but, Asa's hair was getting a little shaggy.  Sam was also needing a haircut so we found a barber and Asa for the first time, after seven years, got a haircut from someone other than 'mommy'!  I think it was also the first time he was not bawling his eyes out, spitting and telling me how badly he was itching! lol

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Asa's first real haircut!  Such a handsome boy!