Reptiles and boats!

We had an eventful weekend. We visited our local reptile expo. I have so much fun when we go. They are small, with only about 10 or so vendors. But they have lots of snakes and lizards to look at. This time around I got to hold a big male ball python that was sweet as sugar. Wish I could have brought him home. And all of us got to hold two different crested geckos. We love those guys!! We ate at McDonalds afterwards and then headed to Bass Pro. The kids love going and sitting on all the boats and four wheelers. Speaking of boats, our final destination was to go view a pontoon boat and take it out on the water. If we liked it, we would buy it! So the kids got new life jackets at Bass Pro. They were just so excited! So the boat... We met the fella and my immediate impression was.. meh. I didn't like the looks of it much. We knew the boat was old, it was a 1991 model. But it was much older looking than I liked. The seats had cubbies underneath and they were all full of cob webs and dirt. One even completely fell off because the hinges were broke. The motor looked ancient and we were told it was original to the boat but had been rebuilt. And the trailer was dunky and looked way too small for the boat, plus it had a flat tire. We just weren't impressed. We decided to go ahead and test it out on the water though. We followed the guy to the lake. The kids got their life jackets on and we were just waiting to get on. But the guy couldn't even get it to start! We stood at the edge of the water for about 15 minutes waiting for him to get the thing started. He finally got it started and as we started to walk to the dock, it turned off and he never could get it going again. We knew this was a big huge NO!! I felt bad for the man, I'm sure he was embarrassed. But I also feel like he knew this boat was in bad shape, like he was trying to pawn it off onto someone else. That's the way the world works, but it's so rude. We won't be getting that boat. Nick found another one that is a little newer. He feels pretty excited about it because the man who owns it used it to take his grandkids out on the water. He bought it from his friend who bought it brand new. So hopefully everything works out and we can get it. I just don't want to be wasting our time and money! Nick's always wanted a boat though and now that we are able to handle the cost of one, we've figured why not! Fingers crossed! These pictures are from a recent birthday party we went to and from our trip this weekend. My how these kids are growing!!