My goofy, goofy children...

Global Fest

We dragged the boys out to Global Fest on Wednesday night to take in the fireworks. Jake was absolutely fascinated. At first he thought that they were too loud, and covered his ears with his hands. By the end, he was staring at the sky in amazement. And so were we.

Danny was mildly impressed, but still had a good time.



Jake and his cowboy popcorn.



And the rest of the show....

Wounded Boy

Hello from the sick house. After two weeks of nasty illness, we are on the mend. And to add insult to injury, or rather injury to insult, Danny got smoked in the eye by Jake's golf club. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of the damage until day three, it was that bad.



Day Five:


Yep, that is him asleep with a sucker in his mouth. I am expecting that mother of the year award anytime. Right after I was sure he was asleep I took the sucker out and gave it to his brother. Apparently, the same thing happened when the boys were with their grandma. She gave them both a sucker and then Danny fell asleep with it in the car. Jake asked if he could have it, and grandma obliges. Then when Danny woke up, Jake asked "Hey Danny, where's your sucker???" He was warned about pulling that one again. Oh yes, back to the healing process.

This picture was a week after the first, so a week and a half after the incident.



He was a trooper though. He only cried for a couple of minutes after the whack, and if you asked him what happened, he said "Jake tried to get a hole in one". He has learned to give Jake a wide berth when a hockey stick, baseball bat, or a golf club is being swung.

Nature....

Is this not scary? I hid in the house to take these, as lightening scares me shitless. I'm sure they could have turned out a lot better, had I been outside and somewhere that you could see the entire strike from point a to b. But for my first attempt, I am happy.

This is how is usually goes down...

Danny thinks he is bigger than Jake.

Danny realizes that he is not bigger than Jake.

Mommy wins.

Not for the Squeamish

Hawks are one thing that I have a hard time getting a picture of. They are pretty standoffish as a rule. On my way home from the conquering the fawns, I saw this guy on a post.



There were a herd of magpies on the ground around him just waiting for a chance to steal his dinner away. I've got a hunch that's why he chose to stay on the post and give me the evil eye instead of flying away like countless of his hawk friends. What was for dinner, you ask?



Mmmmmm. Gopher.

Mission Accomplished.

It was beautiful here tonight, so I decided to head out again in search of the elusive baby deer. I am nothing if not persistent. I bundled up despite the heat, bathed in mosquito spray, and headed out.

Maybe two minutes into the walk, I see these guys. I say guys because there was two of them, but you can only see one in this shot.



He didn't look nearly as happy to see me as I was to see him. He was giving me some pretty dirty looks, or what I can only assume were dirty looks. He was getting a little too close for comfort. The video where that hunter is getting his ass kicked (ahh, here's the one) by a deer kept running through my head. That is one scenario I wouldn't want to explain.

Then I scared a mallard off the shore.



I always feel bad when I scare an animal trying to get a picture. I try not to intrude that much, but in this case she surprised me as much as I surprised her.

Then I saw a little chickadee.



It is amazing how friendly these little birds are. They almost pose for the camera. And they will even sit on your hand. It helps if you have a little something in it for them, but I know that you really aren't supposed to feed them. I have trouble remembering that when they are looking at me with their cute little beady birdy eyes.


And no doe, no fawns. Hmmmm. I decide to make one more loop around, as I am losing daylight. And lo and behold, who do I see?



Now this doesn't look like the itchy doe. She is a lot more cautious. I am still a little bit of a chicken after the buck incident, but she is a lot smaller. I could probably take her if I had too. And it turns out, she is a lot more cautious for a good reason. Two good reasons, actually.



Oh, the cuteness. Look how soft and fuzzy they are. And those white spots. And teeny little deer feet.





Then some other people came along and Mama Deer moved her babies along.