See Ya Later, Alligator

I envisioned at some point, while living in Texas, I'd find myself in a dangerous situation, with large, scary animals lurking in close proximity to me.  I kind of figured it'd be rattlesnakes or tarantulas, or perhaps cockroaches.

But, while in Houston, I put myself in the dangerous situation, with somewhat large, scary animals lurking in close proximity to me.  And I shot them...with my camera...and I wasn't scared at all.  Seems that being reassured that there have been no issues with these large, lurking animals in the last 26 years brings out the bravery in me.  That and the fact that they really did seem to be harmless and cute...ish.

So, what did we see?  Nine alligators.  Where?  Brazos State Park.  We also saw a bull frog, a tortoise, lots of really cool birds, and lots of really weird spiders on really big webs.  Oh, and dragonflies, several of which my kids are convinced were "eating each other".  They weren't eating each other but I wasn't about to have "that" conversation with seven kids listening.  So, in case you hear, there are cannibalistic dragonflies at Brazos State Park.  For real.

(oh, and if you're not in the mood for pictures galore with lame captions, I'd skip the rest of this post...)

View into the lake

Our happy family

Clint and Karen, the hosts...thanks guys!

The cannibalistic dragonflies.  Yes, I took a picture, don't judge...

the tortoise

We also got to pet a 10 month old alligator and a huge, ginormous rat snake.  My kids had no issues with either one of these animals, which made me really grateful to have so many adults along with us, in case one of the kids wanted to pet the larger, less tame alligators.  Luckily there were no issues, the kids lived to see another day and Brazos State Park can continue to boast a perfect injury-free record.

the baby alligator

it's about 10 months old

it was cute, I totally would have taken it home with us

the rat snake, also cute, but I would not have taken it home with me

Old man's beard in the trees, pretty, but apparently bad for the trees

part of the group, I just love how Lyndon and Savannah were holding hands

can you see the bird?

another bird

a duck

the head of a loon

another pretty white bird

ducks on algae

big bird on a stick

big bird on a log

more weird ducks

the bull frog

another view of the lake

another bird

an alligator, cooling itself with it's mouth open

alligator

can you see the alligator?

alligator

alligator

alligator

I didn't really have to zoom for this alligator, he was right off the path, just waiting for one of our kids to venture too close...had they been any grumpier I don't know that we would have argued...