Fishing on Shoshone River

Vance was determined to catch a fish in Wyoming. We made several trips without a lot of luck. The conditions were working against us because of a late runoff, but we had a good time trying. It was beautiful there and except for some wind (go figure--wind in Wyoming!!) the weather was great!

McKaylie, our little fishing-girl Vance--trying to be patient Myshel--our not so fishing girl Vance--still trying Noah--trying his luck Chad--showing them how it's done I love this picture of the 4 of themVance was very determined He was even willing to get wet All his hard work paid off in the end. On the last morning out he caught a nice fish! Yay!Just over 15 inchesHere it is, with my very proud boy, getting ready to go in the pan . . . . . Grandma Jo helped cook it for Vance. We all got a little taste, which was plenty of trout for me! I'm proud of Vance for hanging in there and not giving up! I'm also very glad he caught at least one fish!

Maine Wildlife Park

When Chad was home in June we also went to the Maine Wildlife Park. We've been there before with Debbie and really enjoyed it then, too. The park is full of animals from around Maine that have been injured or were sick. Here's just a few of our favorite animals we saw.

The moose, of course, the big bull moose was off in the back hiding, though. These little guys are everywhere, but what makes them so fun is their fat little cheeks. They'll gather up the corn, or feed until their little cheeks look like they'll explode! They were so cute! This one hardly cared that any one was around him. He was just too busy! The bears. We fed them dog food and they ate every last little piece we threw. I love the turtles. They were super cute in their little pond. This eagle is beautiful. It makes me sad that he can't fly. This little porcupine was the cutest! He's albino and he was just laying there on this log, legs dangling down, napping---not a care in the world! I love this picture of the kids at the fish hatchery. You had to shade your eyes to see inside and they would look, run to the next door, look some more. Chad and I strolled along behind at our own pace. It was fun to watch them. I don't know how well you can see them, but all those brown spots in the water are fish. It was really cool to feed them. You'd throw the feed and the water would just explode with fish. McKaylie and Noah--humoring mom! It was a fun day. We missed Myshel, though. She chose to stay at home.

Maine Wildlife Park

We also went to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray. It turned out being a really great day for it, too. The weather finally started clearing up for us on Thursday. They had some really cool animals to see and there were some that we could even feed. We were hoping to get a closer look at the moose, but they weren't cooperating. But we did see bears and we threw dog food down for them. When we fed the bears, chipmunks starting showing up. They were so cute. They'd fill their little cheeks so full of the dog food. If you look close at the picture or click on it, you can see his chubby little cheeks full of the food. Too cute! There was lots of deer, but my favorites were the baby deer. They'd been found and brought in to rehab. They had 7 babies there. The fish hatchery was lots of fun, because we could through fish food pellets into this tank and the fish would just go wild jumping around to get it. We all thought that was pretty cool to watch. I believe these fish were brook trout. The geese just wandered around through the park. These are a mama and and daddy with their babies. You can see where they're losing their grey down feathers on their necks. There was a gray fox and a red fox. The red one wouldn't hold still long enough for us to get a decent picture, though. The woodchuck was super cute, but this is all he did. The turtle pond was fun too, even though we see them all the time. These were easily my favorite animals there, the baby moose. We were only able to see them for a minute, though. The workers came out with a bottle and they ran inside to eat. I wish we could have gotten a better picture. They were also found and brought to the park to rehab. They were adorable, really! We saw tons, tons more, but this is already getting too long. McKaylie told me this it was her favorite thing we did--that's not surprising coming from her, though. It really was a very fun day. Here's the cutest little animals we so that day! (Debbie and I even had a little adventure trying to find our way home............)

For Grandma Jo . . .

We not only have frogs . . . snakes . . . and black flies here. We have . . . salamanders! Boy I love being a mom to boys!

Autumn Colors

One thing that I love about Maine is the beautiful fall colors. Everywhere you go, you see bright oranges, reds and yellows! This is my favorite time of year. I love it when the air gets cooler and you can go for walks in your cozy sweaters. I love the colors and the leaves falling off the trees in the breeze. It's just beautiful and peaceful!

I Gotta Go, Gotta Go, Gotta Go To Mexico.......

Last year in second grade, McKaylie learned all about Monarch butterflies. Besides the obvisous science connection, there were 2 reasons for them studying monarchs. One, the entire school was also learning all about Mexico and since monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico it made sense. The second reason, Maine has lots of monarch caterpillars. They studied them in depth and her teacher even had a few chrysalis in the classroom that became butterflies.

McKaylie was/is our resident expert. She knows everything about them, from caterpillar to butterfly. Her favorite book last year was one that her teacher read to the class and let McKaylie borrow for awhile. I think it's called "Gotta Go". It's a book about a little monarch caterpillar, that changes to a butterfly all the while saying, "I gotta go, gotta go, gotta go to Mexico". It really was a very cute book.

This year, Vance's science teacher taught them a little about the monarchs, too. So, for several days, Vance and McKaylie went on the hunt for monarch caterpillars. They were both really excited when they found one, too. They made a nice little home for it, filled with milkweed and they waited, and hoped....... Sure enough, that little caterpillar started doing what little monarch caterpillars are suppose to do....They were both so excited to see it go into it's "J", getting ready to start it's crysalis.I have to admit, it was kind of exciting. It was hard not to get a little excited about what could/would happen.....by the next morning it was in it's crysalis and they were even more excited (and so was I)


McKaylie told us that right before it comes out of the crysalis, it would turn clear and that we could see the butterfly inside. Exciting huh?!? So, we waited paitently.....and then we waited somewhat patiently.....and then we wondered if anything was really happening in there.....and then we got down right impatient....But, that's about when we started to see signs that things were happening......

Which made us really, really excited. I mean, I'd never seen this happen before! How many people really get to see a butterfly come out of its crysalis? Plus, it was so fun to watch the kids. It was like waiting for Christmas morning, they were so giddy about it. Can you see the butterfly inside the crysalis? Amazing isn't it! This is what it looked like when we went to bed last night.This morning Vance came running up the stairs. (I heard him before I saw him) "Mom, mom, it's coming out of the crysalis. There's a crack in it!" So we hurried downstairs and sure enough it was coming out. I didn't grab my camera in time to get a picture of it until after it was out, though. You can see what's left of the clear crysalis next to the butterfly.It's beautiful isn't it, but that's not all of it. It hasn't stretched out it's wings completely yet. Vance told me that it's wing span would be 4 times as long as the crysalis. I was skeptical, but, he was right.It spent quite a bit of time (hours) drying out it's wings. It stayed on the branch just like this. Every once in awhile it would lift it's wings just a tiny bit. I had to keep reassuring the kids that when it was ready to try and fly, we'd know. Chad and Myshel left for school and McKaylie and Noah kept watch....... Just a short time before the bus came, it started to walk around and crawl to the top of the branch. It also started spreading it's wings more and our resident expert informed us that it was a girl! (Boys have one round black spot on the orange of their wings) Oh they were excited. "It's ready, mom! It's ready! We have to left it outside now!" They were right, it was ready, so, outside we went.While we watched the butterfly flutter around and get ready to fly, the kids decided to name it. Her name is Crystal, because she came out of a crysalis. I thought it was very appropriate.We left Crystal sitting on this stick and went to the bus stop. After the kids were off, I came back and checked on her but she was gone. We never did get to see her fly, which is a bit disappointing. We did get to watch her change from a caterpillar to this beautiful butterfly, though, and that's pretty amazing, I think. Besides, she's a busy butterfly......She's gotta got, gotta go, gotta go to Mexico!