What is the point of day light savings time? Seriously, it is annoying. I get the kids on a great schedule and now it's all whack! Talan is getting up at 6am again and Levi is burning out by 6pm. On Sunday, we did end up making it to the early service at church since we had an entire extra hour to get ready. After wards, we spent a beautiful Sunday at the deer lease in Sterling City. Our mission...to fix a feeder that had rotten corn in it. YUCK!! Have you ever smelt rotten corn? Wow!!

Yes, I did let Talan climb to the top. He wants to do everything daddy does.

And Levi wants to do everything Talan does!

Of course, our mission took longer than expected. It also involved replacing the timer and the spreader and hooking up to a solar panel...whatever! I thought this would be a great place for a nature walk. We spotted deer tracks & their poop! And some raccoon poop too. Suddenly, Talan says "What's on your leg, mommy?" Huh? As I look down, I see this huge green thing clinging to my jeans! Of course, I scream like a baby and freak Talan out. It was a sweet, little Praying Mantis. Who was kind enough to let us take her picture. This was a great opportunity to show what camouflage means. We compared her body to a leaf & some grass.


And out here you have to walk carefully. Not only can you encounter rattle snakes, but you can run clear into a spider's web. Uhh, the thought of that sends shivers down my spine. And as I researched to see what kind of spider we found, I kept getting the heebie-jeebies. This little beauty is a St. Andrews Cross Spider. Her legs are amazing the way the stripes coordinate to create a checkered look. We made many attempts to catch a grasshopper to show Talan how spiders catch their food, but if we had to live off grasshoppers alone, we'd starve. It's not that they're not in abundance...those critters are quick! So we gave up and decided maybe we'd get lucky on another outing. And after researching this beauty, I found I could have gotten a lot closer for a better pic. Well, I should say that I'd let James get closer :)