One of the most pleasant surprises at our new house was our new pets: a fine family of deer who would come to visit every day. Sometimes they would arrive early in the morning and nibble on some of our freshly watered leaves. At other times they would come during the heat of the day and rest in the plant beds under the shade of our trees. Most occasions were just the mother doe and her new fawn (or fawns) but we would sometimes get the entire family.
Summer seemed to go by in no time this year. Part of it was occupied with moving and the remainder was getting settled and establishing new routines and learning our way around.
Did you ever wonder what might happen if you put your iPhone on the hood of the car and then started driving down the road? Well, wonder no more! Thankfully with insurance from Verizon and regular backups we had a new phone up and running in no time with no loss of data.
Emma and Henry both lost their first locks at the age two. (Henry Has A Haircut and Emma Has A Haircut) Cora’s pretty curls lasted a whole year longer before succumbing to the inevitable blades of the coiffeuse.
A few weeks ago we spent the afternoon with the Cub Scouts shooting off rockets. What a blast! (Har har!) It had been 20+ years since I shot off rockets so I was excited to do this with Henry and introduce him to it.
On the way home from our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Henry and I stopped at Marina State Beach. While we’d hoped to spend some more time hopping on rocks and exploring tide pools the wide, sandy beach and giant dunes (apparently among the tallest in California) proved to be just as much fun.
Henry has only been in Cub Scouts for a few months but our list of activities keeps piling up. At the beginning of November we were able to go on an overnight trip with the Scouts to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We are no strangers to aquariums, having been members at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Staying overnight, though, was a whole new experience. We had the place virtually to ourselves, which made for a very leisurely visit.
“Daddy, can we go home now? I’m cold,” says Henry after plowing straight into the water. Sounds just like my first visit to the Pacific 20 years ago… Some lessons can only be learned first hand.
In the left corner, weighing in at, uh, next-to-nothing is Araneus diadematus…
Just before leaving for soccer last weekend we noticed a pair of spiders duking it out in the front yard. I rushed back in the house to grab my macro lens and tripod and snapped away. I assumed this was a fight to the death but after reading up a little bit online it looks like this may have been spider mating behavior.
The two explorers prepared to enter uncharted territory.
