Gainesville with the Reboul's

Wednesday we headed to Gainesville to meet up with our friends the Reboul Family.  Our first stop was the Devil's Millhopper.  It is basically a huge sinkhole, that has rainforest qualities.  We thought it was a hiking spot, so the kids finally brought their hiking sticks.  They got them for Christmas, but we always forget to bring them with us when we go hiking.  This time, Caroline made me write myself a note to be sure to bring them.  Here they are excited to go on our hike.

As you can see, we didn't need the hiking sticks, so we ended up leaving them in the car.  At least they are out of the package now.  Baby steps!

Here are Lauren, Caroline, Kevin, and Laney at the end of the boardwalk at the base of the sinkhole.

Since that took just about 10 minutes to complete - 3 minutes to walk all the way down, 3 minutes for the kids to go back up, and another 4 minutes for the kids to wait for the mommies to huff and puff our way up all the stairs, we decided to walk along the short trail around the sinkhole.

The kids were so happy to see each other again.

As we were leaving, the Park Ranger asked us if we wanted to get a picture with the creepy, stinky stuffed  fox squirrel.  Ummm OK.

After quite a bit of Purell and some lunch, we headed to the Butterfly Rainforest and Natural History Museum.  We got there in time to see a butterfly release.

Then on to the museum.  They had a special dinosaur exhibit that we had never seen before.  The kids set out to uncover some fossils.

Kevin posed with the triceratops bones.

Then we headed into the kids play area.  Usually we stop in here for just a couple minutes, but the kids had a lot of fun playing, so the mommies could sit and talk.  Here are Kevin and Laney playing with the animals.

Caroline found a box of thin blocks and started building some towers.

Lauren joined in and they built the tallest tower.

Afterwards we stopped for ice cream at a local place.  It was super yummy.  Then it was time to say goodbye.  It was so great to see our friends.  We miss them very much.