the Schrader 5

On Ethan's birthday the boys started the day at Bob Evan's with Pop-Pop and Daddy. My mom and I did the grocery shopping for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners. We all met back at the house and headed back to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. First we stopped to see the manatees. They were mildly entertaining. Chris and I brought out bikes this time and biked the nature loop. It was a lot of fun biking though there and we saw lots of birds and gators. The boys drove through with Grandma and Pop-Pop. Pop-Pop left the doors of the van opened as they drove through so the boys thought that was really cool.

These are the Roseate Spoonbills that always hang out at the refuge. They are by far the prettiest birds there, mostly that is because they are pink and what is cuter than a pink bird??
This is the large alligator that we saw sunning himself.
This guy was a lot smaller. I noticed him while we were biking so we slammed on our brakes. Since we were biking on rocks we slid when we tried to stop. Rather than scaring this gator away it made him quickly approach us. He came full speed at us and I hopped on my bike!
He came right up to the bank where we were standing to check us out. Once he turned and got a safe distance away I posed with him.
After we biked the loop we went to the visitors center and walked around there.