Wilderness, Florida Stlye

When someone talks about Florida to another person that has never been here, I am sure that said person thinks of a handful of things: Beaches (duh), Disney World and the likes (duh), Daytona, Spring Break, Miami, alligators and swamps.  But what they don't think of is the really great natural forests we have all over the place.  Gainesville has the bragging rights of having the thickest canopy in Florida, which is nice, because we certainly don't get the breezes that the rest of the state gets.  There are jokes about Florida being all sand on top of roots, and the sad thing really, is that it's no joke!  Throughout the city, there are several "Nature Parks" that have boardwalks, bike trails, picnic areas and more.  Each trail has informative signs about the plants and animals in the area and each trail is equipped with a dog doo-doo station!  HA!

One of these nature parks is right by my house and I can walk through it to my sons school, so we did just that yesterday...well, they were cleaning the boardwalk on the way TO school, so we took it on the way back, and of course, we had MJ with us.  She was amazed at even with the lack of rain so far this year (we have had some, but are about 8" below average) everything was really green.  And yesterday, we were also graced with a bluer than blue sky.

Here are some things that MJ saw on our nice walk through Hogtown Greenway and Loblolly Woods North.  :)

One of the boys had to give her a boost to see over the lowest railing!

Here is what she was looking at.  Palmettos.  Ick.  And a lot of sand!  

We made a friend!

So green.  Luscious and incredible.

MJ loved these flowers.  They were attracting butterflies.  :) Plus, they are purple.

Sitting down by the creek.

The kids play in another part of this creek in the summer.  We look for shells, sharks teeth and crawfish.

So greeeeeeeeeeen!!!!

I only included this one so you all could see just how green it is here.

Can you spot the butterfly?!

I hope to get a mini post up here in the next day or so. I got a bunch of stuff in the mail that I want to show you and I am dying to get some work done.  Life as a mom and wife of a business ownery type person, makes me quite busy!

On another note, MJ is so proud of Jazzi to be nominated for About.com's Readers Choice Award.  She is making campaign signs now.  Remember to go vote here, for there are many fabulous bloggers that are nominated along with Jazzi.