Swap Shop!

I've been to one swap meet in my life. It was when I was probably seven years old, in California and I bought myself a little latina cabbage patch doll for $8.00. I loved that doll. Dark hair, dark skin. She was beautiful. A year or so after I got her my younger brother and his best friend Tommy were racing my cabbage patch dolls down the stairs (throwing them down the stairs as hard as they could and would see which one hit the ground first). Needless to say, my little latin love did not make it through. She came out with a giant crack all the way through her head. Poor thing.
When we moved to Ft.Lauderdale, on occasion we would pass a place called the Swap Shop. It is the biggest swap meet I've ever seen. It also has carnival rides, an arcade, a farmers market, a car museum and an indoor mall. Oh and a drive in movie theatre. How could this place not be amazing? I had fond memories from my last swap meet so Tyler and I got up oorn Saturday morning and figured we would go check it out and see if there was anything there for us. Like perhaps a replacement for my beloved cabbage patch?

I guess I didn't really remember what a swap meet was like. I was expecting something like the fair, not like a giant yard sale but that is what we found. Just a few examples:

Cars with people selling stuff out of the trunks

Lingerie anyone? Really? Do people by lingerie from a swap meet?

Toys from someone garage. Owen loved it.

These actually would have been so fun but they were pretty trashy.
I think we'll wait to get one from an actual store.

I don't even know what this is. Just boxes full of someone's crap.
This was what most of the swap meet was.

We also checked out the mall. There were some super fun things found there as well. Like this perfect purple suit:

Or these dolls. How crazy are these? You just take a picture in and they put the person's face on the doll for you. I know what Tyler is getting for his birthday this year. He could take me and Owen along with him on every trip he goes on:

We hit up the car museum while we were there. I was pretty dang impessed with these cars and I don't even know anything about cars.

While inside we ran into this guy:

This is Uncle Bernie. I think he is supposed to make you excited about the rides outside. Owen loved him. He totally creeped me and Tyler out.

I guess seeing him worked though, because next stop were the carnival rides. Owen was loving them:

There was also a water ride. We didn't ride on this one:

One last thing... what is a swap meet without a large icee? mmmm... yumm.

Unfortunately there were no cabbage patch dolls in sight. Still... I think it was totally worth checking it out.

Wait...

Did I say the basketball thing was my new favorite thing? Because I may have been mistaken. I think this is my new favorite thing. He does this every day... plays on the guitar or drums or finds the microphone to sing into. Thank goodness for Rock Band instruments.

Best part, him partially closing his eyes when he really get into it. My son might be a rock star when he grows up. Just sayin.

My new favorite thing...

Is the night Tyler goes to play basketball. Not because I like when Tyler is gone at night... I really hate that part but I LOVE right before he goes and Owen feels it necessary to do all of the stretches and warm ups with his dad. So cute.

He's been loving basketball lately. We bought him his first basketball hoop and he can't get enough. It's been rough for Tyler because all Owen wants to do all day is have his daddy shooting hoops with him. Unfortunately, Tyler can't just play all day, he has to work so Owen has to settle for me playing with him. Have I mentioned that I actually did play a little b-ball in my youth? I remember two things about playing. One time my team mate threw the ball at me and I was too busy fixing my banana clip (yes, I wore and loved banana clips at one time in my life) to catch the ball so it just hit me in the stomach and I kept fixing my hair. The other time I actually did catch the ball and dribbled down the court, nobody on me, made a perfect shot and then realized it was in the wrong basket. Oops...

Hopefully Owen will inherit his dad's basketball talents not mine right?
Man, I love these boys.

Free weekend fun? Ok. We'll take it!

My good friend Katie told me about a Carnival they do every year at Nova College (the school most of our friend's husbands are currently attending) and mentioned that everything at the Carnival is FREE. Yes People... free. The food, the crafts, the fun, everything. Free. I typically don't jump at just anything because it's free but a free carnival? I was ready to jump the second she mentioned it. And let me just say, it did not disappoint. And not only because it was free. But because they had things like this:

Owen loved it for a minute until Tyler thought he would gently bounce him and the bungee's had a lot more spring than Tyler or Owen were expecting. Oops...

And things like this:

Sharks and slides combined? Is there anything better for an almost two year old?

Free snow cones? mmmmm.... yummy. Oh and lots of free other food too.

And how about a  play area just for the little tykes filled with cars to drive around and springy horses to ride. We'll take some of that.

So funny, Owen was loving the teeter totter and saw someone sitting on one end so he went and got on the other end. He didn't realize the little girl was using it as her reading spot and just started going to town while this poor little girl was trying to get in a good read. Luckily she looked at me and Tyler and said "I don't mind" when we realized what was happening.

After a couple of hours we decided to head out. Such a good time. Thanks for letting us know about it Katie!

That wasn't the only free fun we were in store for this weekend. We've got another buddy who has some hook ups at the Dolphin's stadium where they were holding a Monster Truck Jam last night. He was kind enough offer us tickets and we were quick to accept the offer.

I seriously don't know if it's the fact that I met a driver of a Monster Truck when I was at Cherry Hills once as a kid (even got a signed autograph on a piece of brown paper bag) or if it's that I grew up with all brothers  BUT I seriously love Monster Truck shows. I think more than Owen even did, although he thoroughly enjoyed it too.
Some of my favorite shots:

How nerdy that I was excited about some of these shots, really thinking like "whoa, that was an amazing jump!" or " Can you believe that guys wheel came off in mid-air?" but really, that what I was thinking. Loved it.

This is Owen telling me about the truck crashing and the wheel coming off. He loved it too.

YAY for friends with free hook ups. Love you guys, and not only for your free stuff.

Everglades!

Tyler and I were feeling like doing something a little different this weekend so when he suggested we take the boat out the the Everglades and check it out I was all for it. We've been out to the Everglades before to go to Shark Valley to check out the alligators but we thought it would be fun to go to a different location and check it out on a boat rather than on foot. We had such a blast! YAY for living in Florida where you can take a boat out in the beginning of February.

When my mother-in-law visited in November she kept saying that when she pictured where we lived, she pictures swamp lands. While we were cruising around yesterday, I couldn't help but think of her because I knew what we were seeing was most likely exactly what she was picturing.

It was a succesful trip too... we saw a couple of alligators:

 a turtle (or "udla" if Owen is telling you):

and a big snake that I didn't get a picture of. Owen loved all of it:

We decided to check out the RV park that was on the premises and found some pretty fun stuff there as well. Like some crazy RV set ups like this one:

or this one:

My favorite thing about this set up is that the guy is an artist and he sells his art at the RV park from this little stand:

We also saw a ton of peecocks and other birds.

Owen took the chance to take some bread from a nice lady who offered it up and throw it at all of the birds, not gently feed it to them, throw it at them. They weren't picky though, they were still more than happy to eat it. 

Unfortunately, when there are so many birds around, things like this happen (take special notice to his left shoulder):

Poor Ty... but at least it was on his back and not in his hair (that happened to me once when I was 12 and at soccer practice. I got a ball to the face so I had a bloody nose and as I was walking into the school to go to the bathroom, a bird pooped right on my head. Oh and did I mention that when I got into the school to go to the bathroom they were having a concert there so there were a ton of kids walking the halls? It was embarassing at the time. Luckily I got over it.)

Anyway, after the poop incident, we took one more quick look around and decided that was our cue to get out of there. So much fun to have a place like this a half an hour away.

Chris (mother-in-law), I promise next time you visit we'll take you there so your original expecations are met. You won't be disappointed.