Swamp Nature Center minus the Swamp

As we all know Tuesday was election day. My mom watched the kids so Joe and I could vote together. (Thanks mom!) Once we picked the kids up Joe was going to head off to work. He works for the state and mention since it was a state holiday no on was really going to be there but he was going to get some extra hours. We decided that we could manage him having an extra day off and spend some family time together. Joe had a great idea to visit the Baton Rouge Swamp Nature Center off of Bluebonnet. We've tried going there before but for some reason it was closed. Well we didn't call before hand and just hoped it would be open when we got there and luckily they were! It was another beautiful day to enjoy the outdoors and the kids had a blast running on the wooden bridges that made your way through parts of the woods. At the visitor's center they had lots of snakes, turtles, alligators and lizards to look at. The kids had a lot of fun running around and looking into all the different cages and of course Kalli was still scared of the snakes. This one lizard was going crazy trying to get out of his cage. He kept trying to crawl up the glass anytime we were close by. Poor little guy he just wanted a friend! Kalli's cleft palate. She ran or was pushed into Lisa and Aaron's ottoman on Halloween night and got this lovely cut. I think its kind of funny that it does look like a scar from a cleft lip.The outside area was really pretty with some fun trails to go through. Lots of shade and like I said the kids had a blast running on the bridges. The only thing is it's been so dry here that the swamp dried up! Kind of unusual but it happens, I guess. So we plan on going again in the spring when there's actually water!

This was the extent of the water we saw. It was a little muddy puddle that had hundreds of tad poles! The kids like looking at them squirming around and they both got to 'pretend' they were being dropped in.

There were a lot of trees down in the forest due to the hurricane and this one had to be cut b/c it was in the middle of the path. We thought it made for some cute pictures.