when grandpa came to town

i kind of lost the blogging bug. i think it began during my trip to utah last month and now that i'm so far behind, i really don't want to try and catch up. i just want to nap and be lazy, but because i don't think i could ever deprive you, my darling readers, of seeing pictures of and reading about my glamorous life.......

a couple of weeks ago, grant's dad came out with his family to visit. they stayed up in spring but luckily we were able to see a lot of them. our first outing together was to brazos bend. remember our visit last year? yeah, i don't know how i got suckered into this again. it started out fine. we got there too late for the nature center to be open but a park ranger pointed us towards a turtle (tortoise?) making its way back from wherever it had laid eggs:

behind us was this gorgeous tree covered in spanish moss:

so we took a group picture underneath it. i had never used the timer on our camera before and after several sprints back and forth, we got a good 'un:

left to right: larry holding austin, hazel, grant, moi, lucy and aliyah in the stroller, cami, and her sister, carlee

there were tons of butterflies around (which almost made up for the frights to come...but not really):

this one was by the nature center. we found more once we had driven over to the same trail we walked the last time:

in the white flowers beyond grandpa and hazel, there were dozens of butterflies darting around:

so pretty...and non-threatening...

then grant spotted some semi-threatening vultures and had to spend 10 minutes taking pictures:

it all went downhill from there:

"so happy to be here, endangering my kids..."

'gator numero uno:

dos:

at this point there was a small oasis of beauty found in the tall grass:

look at those sweet little chicks!

hazel was enchanted as well:

'gators 3 & 4:

this is just a picture of #3 who was on his way over to meet with #4......i didn't take any pictures....anyway, #2 came swimming up a couple of minutes later and there was some sort of territorial battle. #3 took off and #2 followed:

(just so it could be as confusing as possible, i labeled #2 as #1 and #3 as #2 in the pictures. sorry. #4 is somewhere in the tall grass beneath the birdhouse looking thing.) #3/#2 parked himself on the next bank and showed his length off:

as #2/#1 swam closer, the growling started and i nearly peed my pants. sure they were on the opposite bank, but they were growling! and they have nasty, big, pointy teeth. it didn't come to a knock-down-drag-out fight, just a lot of growling and finally:

that was the end of that. during all of the drama, i noticed this pretty bird:

it stood there unperturbed by the goings on and this is why:

it was hunting for its lunch. it was kind of crazy watching the bird take on the crab and its pincers. he just tossed it around:

until it had pulled the pincers off. then it was just a swallow away from fulfillment.

we moved on and found aligator #5 sunning itself (well, minus the sun as it was a cloudy day.):

on the other side of the trail there was more watery swamp:

and some very smart ducks:

we then came to a fork in the trail. hazel, austin and grandpa rested on a bench:

to the right is the nasty spider path. i refused to even look down it. instead i took a scenery picture:

i actually captured 'gators 6 & 7 in it. they are on the left, across the water, just to the left of that yellow grass. here's a closer view:

we started heading back to the cars and along the way hazel spotted a saltmarsh caterpillar, at least that's what i think it is:

hazel loved watching it:

eventually we moved on and practically stumbled upon the final aligator of the day:

#8 (who could have been #2 or #3) was on it's way out of the water when larry was walking by. luckily, rather than attack, it unhappily sank back into the water:

i skirted quickly by while everyone else just sauntered. and then probably the scariest part of the trip happened (yes, even scarier than the growling): it hissed. when you enter the park, you're given a map. on that map is a list of 'aligator ettiquette'. the last bullet on the list is, "if an alligator opens its mouth and hisses, you have come too close. retreat slowly; make no quick moves. keep your eyes on the alligator." yikes!

 probably because there were too many of us to eat, it didn't attack. i was mentally freaking out and thanking my lucky stars that lucy was still in the stroller. hazel was out of reach too:

once my heart had stopped hammering and we were past the aligators that we had seen, i let lucy out:

and she took advantage of her freedom:

she found dandelion clocks and made many wishes. most likely, "i wish mommy wouldn't keep me strapped in the stroller all of the time..."

ha! fat chance, lucy.

it's electrifying

on our way home from the beach yesterday (eat your hearts out, utahns) there was a huge lightning storm north of us. it lasted for ages and by the time i decided to get some on video, we had gotten off the freeway. hence the many trees.

{yesterday}

i did this:

before:

about to start:

and 34 minutes, 3 seconds later:

don't mind the sick look on my face. i thought for a minute i was going to lose the little breakfast i had eaten but luckily for that volunteer cutting off my timing chip, i didn't. and the rain was much appreciated. no, really, it felt good.

p.s. i'm grover.

{not} feeding ducks

as i mentioned briefly in my previous post, last wednesday evening the girls and i picked grant up from school and headed for hermann park. it was later than usual because his final paper had taken longer to finish causing him to start his long greek final late. it was a nice evening (other than a lone fire ant deciding my foot looked worthy of a chew) and the sunset made for some pretty pcitures. in my hurry to leave, i forgot to bring bread for the ducks. i had grabbed it initally but when i ran back inside to get water for the girls, i put the bread down on the table and that's where it stayed. oops.

first things first, i made the girls stand still:

cute, eh? after this picture hazel took off and lucy had a thoughtful moment:

then it was time for the kids to scare the parents:

mission accomplished.

hazel bolted around the pond to find the largest congregation of ducks.

and i had to explain again that i'd left the bread at home. she tried to get the ducks to come anyway:

it looked like it might work but then the ducks realized that they were in range for the flying bread and that it wasn't coming:

poor hazel. snubbed because of her mother. how often will this happen in her life, i wonder?

once hazel recovered her composure, we headed round to cross the bridge:

what are they looking at? these:

a mama turtle and baby turtle playing. precious.

and just after the sun completely set:

 hazel found a nice platform from which she declared, in the form of a song, that she is the leader:

don't mess with her.