The last day here

Today is our last day - me and michael's last day - and it's very hectic here. We're all trying to pack, me and michael, and getting everything ready. we don't waat to forget anything important.
Some poeple were wondering why my blog's url is Skippy trip and i just wanted to tell you. When we last came to Florida i saw an alligator as a resturant named Spanky's. I named him Skippy, and I was hoping I'd see another skippy on this trip. I did see one, but i wanted to tell you why it was called that. i will write another blog later about a reflection on the trip, but right now, my dad's telling me we are leaving in a few minutes, so BYE!!
-->annalise hiskey

THiS iS NEWS!!!

My mom was right the other day!!

GAMES GALORE

This is my first blog ever, so you have to excuse me if I don’t know what I am doing!!
I just thought I ( Carolyn) would share about some of our activities here in Florida.
We play games! We have tried our skills at shuffleboard and pool, and discovered that Annalise and I are truly amazing tennis players( not really, but we try!) Michael and Pete are the serious pool sharks, but we have had several contests and Annalise has snuck a few games in on both of them, while I am still trying to learn how to “break” on the first shot. In the evenings, we often break out our cards and play Rummy or Poker or Uno.
At home, we definitely don’t play as many games together so it has been fun to laugh at ourselves and listen to Michael’s victory chants and watch Pete or my winning dances. Annalise enjoys her victories more quietly, but she does like to rake in her poker winnings! Unfortunately or fortunately, all the money goes back in the pot at the end to be used again next time, so really everyone wins!
Another activity that has been fun and memorable has been bikeriding. Pete bought an inexpensive bike on Craig’s list when we first got here to give him a way to get to the beach and to the seminary to study. Soon after, I noticed the many bikes “abandoned” and piled near the maintenance shed, so I asked if we could use a few and they said, “No problem!”
There is nothing fancy about these bikes- they have no gears or hand brakes- just basic beach bikes, but it is fun to ride for variety ( we don’t do that much at home either). Annalise actually said she did not know how to ride a bike, but I am glad to say that has been proven untrue! Riding bikes to the beach with Pete with our towels and books in a back pack and a blanket in my bike basket, made me feel like we were back in the dating days! Sweet!

This doesn't really have anything to do with my blog,
but I just like this sunset pic we took in Key West!

Penguins vs. Panthers

I really love ice hockey and my favorite team is the pittsburgh penguins. They were playing with the Florida Panthers. And my dad got us tickets!!!!!! We went, yesterday, and it was a blast. We were high up, and i hate heights, but it was a good seat. We got a great deal, and we got to have a great time. Here's some pictures.

Me and my dad.

Me and my mom with my penguins' shirts on and a great pose of my dad in the background.

The penguins sitting area.

The arena.

This is how it ended! the penguins won!

It's the best when you go to a game and your team wins!!!!
I loved going and i was glad we got to go.
Thanks Dad.
Love,
Annalise

Alligator pictures

These are the long awaited alligator pictures from the Everglades. Sorry they took so long.

ZOO

I always want to go to the zoo.Yesterday was my chance. Weird how i always write about something the day after it happens. Strange, but it's probably because I'm doing the thing and don't have time to write about it. Anyway, we got to see tons of fun animals!

There were three otters but they were so fast or they were sleeping. This one is the only picture i got that is not blurry and he's yawning.

This is a while alligator. i know that's weird, but it was real! These alligators have a mutation that makes their skin white and they have to be kept in zoos. There was only this one white alligator at this zoo but there are others elsewhere. The white skin is hard for the alligators to camouflage so they can't hunt prey but prey can hunt them. That's why they have to be kept in captivity.

This groundhog would not smile when i asked it to, he just sat there, but it is a good picture.

There were normal deer there, and my mom said, Hey those live in our back yard, but people that live here in Florida probably think the same thing about alligators. Anyway, this deer is called a mini-deer or at least that i what i think it should be called. it was imported from China so i forget the name, but it was small and cute.

The black bears. They were really close to the screen and close to each other. You can see both of them in this picture which is why i chose this one. They were cute, and when we visited them again, they were asleep. Most of the animals slept sometime when we saw them.

Kangaroo! These animals were one of the reason we went. I had never seen one before and wanted to see one. Although i thought Kangaroos had to hop but these ones just crawled and it looked uncomfortable. Their legs are longer than their front legs so it looked painful. I still liked them.

It's Yerdle the Turtle from Dr. Seuss, but this one is cuter. I love turtles and they sure had a couple of them here.

This animal was not as cute as the other ones but it was interesting. An anteater, and it had a huge tail. I always thought they looked different, but now i know.

RAWR! A tiger was prowling the jungle for prey or strutting for pictures! It was really cool to see a tiger, as always seeing any animal is cool, except for the cage in the way of the picture. i am glad it's there, but i don't want to be at a zoo where a tiger runs wild!

My favorite and it was saved for last. You can kind of see what a fennec fox looked like in this picture, but if you need to see one clearer, look it up on google! Right when we got there she was walking around and digging, but soon fell asleep, we visited her a few times and she was somewhere else in the cage - sleeping. These desert animal sure sleeps a lot but it was cute.

There were other animals there but i can't put that many pictures up, and i didn't take good pictures of all the animals. Some were sleeping, but the zoo people were playing this peaceful music, so it was a wonder that they were sleeping! We saw some birds, lots of birds including flamingos and peacocks. Then we saw a jaguar, a panther, an ocelot, and a multi-colored squirrel. i took a picture of it, and I'm going to show it to Bailey and see what he does. He probably won't be able to tell what it is, but I'll try anyway. We saw tons of animals and it was quite an adventure. Did I mention that I went with my mom? Well, i did, because Michael is going on a field trip today, maybe he'll even write about it. We'll have to see. I also was wearing my necklace my dad gave me. i hope i talked about that earlier but if you didn't read the others ones I'll tell you again! (i don't think i ever mentioned it, oops!) It's a granite necklace that had a big peace sign on it and i love it! Sorry Bekah, but i have it, not you. HA! I loved going to the Zoo and i was glad my mom could take me. THANK YOU!!!!!
LOVE, annalise
ps. i got an bean-filled (like sand) alligator from on of the zoo giftshops, and i named him Zooligator, (Zooy for short.)

ChEeSeCaKe

I know that title is intimidating, but you're still reading this blog wondering why, or maybe the title drew you to come and read it. i don't know, but you're reading this...

Yesterday we went to some little "quirky", as my mom put it, place with little stores and restaurants, but everything was closed and there were a few people there. We got to see the bridge go down for the train though and then the train came twenty minutes later and we had left by then. i think the place was called the River Walk, but on a Monday night it was boring. We decided we might go again some other time.

Since the River Walk was not as my parents planned it would be, we went to the cheesecake factory (does that explain the name for you?). I have never been to the Cheesecake Factory so it was exciting. I have never liked cheesecake since four years ago, but since i was there, i decided to try some. We got two slices to share amongst us: they got a peanut butter cup fudge ripple, and i got chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake slices. I'm sorry if this is making you hungry, but I'm not hungry so i can write about it. HA! The cookie dough was good, but i didn't like the cheesecake part too much. Oh well, it was still worth it. When i was done, i told Michael he could have the last part and in came the forks. Everyone was attacking my little cheesecake with forks. it was funny, but you might have had to be there. Right as it slipped out of my mouth, their forks started stabbing, maybe that's why it was funny. I couldn't stab much, because i had a spoon.

Can you guess where they were?

i didn't like this picture much, they were shoving it in my face!


Well, i hope you enjoyed this blog. BYE!!