Life in an orange grove

Greetings from an orange grove!  When we started this trip, I had the idea that I'd sometimes like to camp in non-campgrounds, just to experience life around the country better than always being with tourists.  Camping in an orange grove seemed like a great place to do this!  My brother and his wife had picked oranges in Florida and made it sound like something we must do.  My brother likes orange groves so much that he came to visit us here, and it was great to see him!  As I'm typing, I can smell orange blossoms and campfire smoke.  It's a nice combination!

We got to pick our own oranges.  Apparently, the regular workers can harvest a big orange tree in 10-15 minutes.  It took us 2 hours to fill up our bag, but the oranges are delicious!

The particular orange grove we're staying at has 2900 acres of farm, and they do eco-tours of the farm, Florida scenery and wildlife on these huge monster trucks.

Our three boys could not have been happier, because part way through the tour, the guide allowed each of them to drive the monster truck in an open field.  They would like you to know that they drove the world's biggest monster truck.  It had been made from a school bus.

For those of you who think I can't write a blog without including alligators…  our tour guide talked a lot about wrestling alligators and having a finger bitten off.  Our daughter thought she'd see what would happen with an alligator and her head.   Here is the mandatory alligator picture for the week:

This week was full of favorite adventures for our kids, as we also went to Legoland.  My parents had been nice enough to give us our tickets for Christmas.  Our kids were absolutely thrilled!  They had fun rides for each age - B loved the roller coasters and the littler ones had a great time with the more lego-themed rides.  It was also great to see all the things you can make with legos.  We saw the fort in St. Augustine that we'd toured a few weeks ago made out of legos, and we saw a lego space shuttle blast off.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!

I guess this isn't a very deep blog - just everyday life in an orange grove!  We hope you're enjoying your everyday life, and we hope that you all have a good weekend!