Wildlife Camera--There's Just No *End* To The Fun!

We are always seeing wildlife in our backyard, from deer to skunks to bears, so I was excited to get a game camera. I think these type of cameras are generally used by hunters, but I thought it would be really cool to get pics of our wild neighbors with it.

You strap the camera to a tree and it has a sensor that is triggered by motion. It has a flash for night photos too.

So far this is what we've captured

Dog butt--center of picture, tan, curled tail

Dog butt---black and white, possible border collie mix

Dog butt--our dog's. Checking out smells from other dog's butt left in her yard.

But wait, there's more. Here are some shots of me and the girls trying to herd cats. We always make sure all the cats are in at night, but last night two of them were being very "playful" and wouldn't come in. I'd just get within reach, and they'd take off. It was such a fun game to be playing at 10 at night, and then add to that the flash from the game cam going off every time I moved.

The glowing orbs are Princess's eyes, and just to the right you can kind of see a gray Jo-Jo running away from me. I'm pretty sure he's laughing. And because no photo is complete without a butt, we have a picture of mine this time.

Here the girls came out to help me. I like how Sis has glowing eyes in this one, and of course we have the obligatory dog butt again.

I think our next plan is to put the camera up in the forest across the street from the house. Hey, we may even get lucky and get a picture of a deer butt! Wish us luck!

Favorite Wildflowers and Stick Horsie

This is my favorite wildflower

the Leopard Lily.

I'm fortunate to have them growing in my backyard right now.

I have fond memories of seeing these flowers on hikes with my dad. He was big into identifying plants and flowers, and I think this was one of his favorites too.

Dad always called it a Tiger Lily, or "tagger lily" as he would say. I still call it that as well, and was kind of disappointed to know that it had a different name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here is our little Nat. Our friend had this old broom when we were camping and told us just to throw it away when we were done with it. That was all well and good until Nat saw the potential of a stick horse in it.

She gave the broom a bath and then created the face, mane, tail, reins and even a saddle out of paper, and transformed it into Cupcake the stick horse.

I was proud of her ingenuity. What a funny kid!

Camping, Finally!

I swear, with my schedule it is so hard to go anywhere, but we finally were able to make a camping trip.

Such a gorgeous lake!

My friend made Pineapple Upside-down Cake in her Dutch oven. It was fantastic!

And no, my dog isn't dead, she's sunbathing. I'm surprised there weren't buzzards circling! She's such a freak!

Of course we did lots of kayaking. We explored the granite islands, and saw a bald eagle and lots of osprey. The waves and wind challenged our paddling skills which was fun too.

And we went for a hike. What a wonderful few days.

Fellow Bloggers....Help!

I keep getting comments in an Asian language. Possibly Chinese. I am not sure. I think this person is really a devout follower of my blog because they never miss commenting on a post.

Anyone else have this happen? I finally have changed my comments to moderated so I can choose to reject them. It's not that I dislike my Asian admirer, but because this is the internet and my blog is rather mundane, I doubt the commentors intentions are pure.

Does anyone know if this some sort of scam or spam or phishing or whatever else? Does anyone else have such an avid foreign admirer? Help please!

(Oh gosh, what I would give for an interpreter to read the comment I get from them on this post! Although I deeply expect the comments are trying to get my to buy a penis enlargement cream.)

Good News, Bad News

We were at a river on Monday for a picnic, and there was a campground nearby. I took Nat, who has always had a flushing phobia, to the bathroom. It was a pit toilet.

She wasn't that thrilled about that prospect at all, so I told her, "The good news is you don't have to flush!" Which she did really appreciate, and it made her experience more "enjoyable", shall we say.

Then I broke the bad news to her, "The bad news is nobody else had to either." And then I was regaled with lots of "Ewww! Gross mom! Don't say that! Ewww!"

Oh, man, how I love a set-up like that!

Baptized on the Fourth of July

Well, Nat got baptized today. She is such an awesome little kid. When asked just before if she was nervous, her response was, "Nope!" She was just ready to get the show on the road!

Nat in her 4th of July baptism dress

(Here she is in her church-issued jump suit ready to take the plunge!)

When she went a couple weeks ago to see the bishop for her interview before getting baptized, he told her she could choose anyone who was a priesthood holder to baptize her. We made a list of all the men in church that she knew. She looked at the approximately 12 names, and immediately narrowed it down to 2. One was our home teacher, and one was our former bishop.

Since the former bishop's health isn't that good, I suggested our home teacher, and she was very comfortable with that choice. We asked him, and it was a go.

I absolutely love our home teacher and his wife. He's been visiting us now for about 6 months, and he is so diligent about seeing us every month, bringing a lesson, and saying a prayer for our family. It's just wonderful. His wife is very spunky with a dry sense of humor and a sassiness I didn't expect, and we hit it off immediately. I was surprised to find out that he was 81, because he certainly doesn't seem that old.

At any rate, when we were at our ward's 4th of July party I found out from someone else that our home teacher was so excited to be asked to baptize Nat. They said he was just beside himself, and that this was his first ever baptism. That was so cool. I'm so glad Nat chose him and gave him that honor.

I French braided Nat's hair, just like I did with Miss Moo on her big day. That way it eliminates the issue of hair not going fully under the water,which would mean getting dunked again, and it also makes it easy to just dry off and go back for the rest of the baptism ceremony. In fact, she was the first one dressed and back in the chapel. She beat the young boy who was baptized and the two men who did the baptizing. No one's going to wait around for that girl!

Our former bishop was the one who did the Confirmation after her baptism, so she was able to have him participate in an important part of the ceremony as well.

It was a great day and we're proud of our little girl.

Psychic Dreamer

We have been looking forward to going to our ward's 4th of July pancake breakfast and pool party all week, so it wasn't too surprising that I dreamt about it last night. However, it was one of those dreams where I was trying to get somewhere and it just wasn't happening. In my dream I was trying to make it to the breakfast, but I ended up running late and I was driving on dirt roads with lots of forks, and couldn't find the right road to turn on. It was very frustrating.

This morning the girls and I got up and headed for the ward breakfast. I knew ahead of time that part of the highway would be shut down for the town parade, but I figured I would be able to get to the detour and get around just fine. Well, no such luck. I could not get out of my own little neighborhood.

I asked one of the guys at the road block if there was a way around to the detour, and he said, no, you're just going to have to hang out for an hour and a half. Easy for him to say! We had pancakes calling our name!

I did some quick thinking and decided to drive on the back roads up the hill to the next town (some 10 miles) then drop back down into our town, hit the detour and make it to the party.

As I was driving on these DIRT ROADS and RUNNING LATE I remembered my dream. Kinda freaky really. It was pretty darned accurate!

Well, we were only 45 minutes late, there were still pancakes left and we had a great time. I don't ever recall having a dream that close to predicting real life though. Weird.

Fourth of July Baptism

We're planning a Independence Day baptism. I'm really excited for my little Nat. She finally made the big decision to be baptized.

She didn't take this decision lightly at all. We had talked about it as her 8th birthday approached, and she really wasn't sure. I tried to nail down what the issue was. When she was 6 and Miss Moo was baptized she said she didn't want to when she turned 8 because she was afraid of water getting in her nose. I asked if that was still the reason, and she said no.

After much prodding, she finally said, she didn't want to because if she got baptized she would always have to go to church. Smart girl. She knows it's a commitment. (Also there has been a lot of changes in Primary lately, and Nat doesn't always adapt easily to changes. One of the biggest changes is that I'm no longer in Primary with her. So, with all that church isn't as fun anymore.)

I then explained to her, that baptized or not, as long as she was under my roof, she'll be going to church anyway. Then I told her that I didn't go to church for a very, very long time, but because I was baptized I always knew Heavenly Father was with me, and that I was a member of the church, and that got me through some tough times.

Well, last week we were offered to participate in a double baptism with our former Bishop's grandson, and that's when Nat decided to "take the plunge" as it were.

I'm proud of her for thinking this through, and not taking it lightly. I think her baptism after church on our Nation's Independence Day will be a wonderful day for lots of reasons.