NEW FLORIDA RESIDENT BLOG

Welcome to Paradise. Before I was a dad, I thought that kids were kids - pretty much all the same.  Then my son Rocky was born.  From the earliest of ages all he wanted to do was be outside and be riding something.  It started with a scooter and balance bike before he was two and he's never looked back.  That's awesome, however as he became more mobil we quickly learned we needed a bigger house, near the beach with a huge backyard. Not as difficult as it sounds. Before Rocky's second birthday we bought a house 11 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico with a 500 Acre backyard.  To be fair, the yard isn't our private 500 acres, we live on a golf course by Siesta Key in Sarasota so our backyard gets HUGE as soon as the golfers go home. So we get to live in a place with a 500 acre backyard that we never have to mow.  I'm thinking no matter what kid of kid you have that's a good deal. In the "backyard" Search Golf Course Homes

Welcome to Paradise. I hadn't been in Florida long before I was bitten by several Fire Ants and needed medical attention.  My doctor tells me I have an underlying allergic reaction and I shouldn't be embarrassed that I ended up on crutches.  But let's be honest, NO ONE wants to admit they lost a fight with a bunch of ants and had to go to the ER. When our son showed up I did make all sorts of effort to ensure he didn't get set upon by this underground monster.  Needless to say by year three he had been attacked, in front of his mom, who swears to this day there were more than 200 bites.  In her defense, she is probably right.  It was a bad scene. But there were worse incidents. One year ago we were swimming in a lake and a gator popped up next to my son. One of his best friends has survived an alligator attack and I think Rocky wants some gator scars; and that's probably the only thing in my life that keeps me up at night. At any rate he left the water and the gator