Snakes, Princesses and New Year's Eve

On New Years's Eve, we went with all of the cousins on the Bean side to the Reptile Zoo in Monroe. My first impression of the place was hot, stinky, and ghetto. Actually, that was my second and third impression as well, but the kids loved it!


Right away, Rebekah, Ryan, Nathan, and Katie all wanted to hold the snakes. They handled them like they've done it a thousand times. Gwen wasn't interested in holding the snakes and I was more than fine with that.


There was a sign that said to wash your hands after handling the snakes. I asked the lady that worked there what exactly can happen if you don't wash your hands. She said that snakes carry salmonella. After that, I was really, really fine with Gwen not holding a snake.


Here are shots of Rebekah and Ryan with the snakes...

Other than snakes, the zoo also had all sorts of other reptiles- turtles, lizards, and alligators (or maybe they were crocodiles. I really can't tell the difference)

Gwen really liked the turtles. I do have to admit, they are cute.

This turtle had two heads

Ryan had this wrapped around his neck pretty much the entire time

Gwen and Tanner were peeking at something

Gwen, Rick and an Asian Water Monitor

Gwen got bold and suddenly announced that she wanted to hold a snake. She was so proud of herself for her bravery. I took about a million photos of her while she was holding it, because the look on her face was so darn adorable. Of course, she got a major hand-washing when she was done.

After Gwen was done holding the snake, we looked around little more and took a few more pictures...

Ryan and Rebekah really wanted to hold the Albino Burmese Python. It cost $5 to hold this bad boy and they were both willing to take money out their allowance to pay for this. They were in heaven...

After our museum trip, we headed over to Jeff and Krissy's house for some New Year's Eve fun. We decided that it would be fun if everyone spent the night so that we could put the kids down and the adults could stay up late and play games. Total, there were 7 kids and 10 adults. It was a full house, but lots of fun.

Rebekah and Katie were really cute with Gwen and let her play with them the whole time. They even all got dressed up as princesses and danced in the living room.

Jason even wanted to get into the action and put on a princess dress. As soon as I pulled out the camera, his man-stincts kicked in and he quickly started backing down the stairs. But, he wasn't quick enough for me.

It was great (but necessarily restful - Gwen was up from about 1 AM until 4 AM) to ring in the New Year with family. Although we were exhausted, I would definitely do it again!