Butterflies

I could have stayed at the Butterfly Pavilion all day long. So peaceful and relaxing watching all the different types flying around. Except I had my daughters with me, and as with any outing where the youngest is there, there will be some excitement somewhere. We had already experienced her holding a tarantula and petting some starfish. I was sure I could relax. So we go into the garden, explaining beforehand to watch where you step so no butterflies get squished, etc. Really, I thought I had it all covered. Until we walked in and stopped to make sure we had everyone, and a beautiful butterfly floated right in front of my little one's face. And she instinctively clapped to kill whatever it was. I am happy to say she missed. But also, I can say that my emotions were in overload at that point. In between being mortified that she would do such a thing, especially in front of all those people and trying not to laugh hysterically as she tried to explain herself I was a mess. Then she wondered why none of the butterflies would land on her when they were landing on everyone else. Word gets around, baby.










One did finally get brave enough to land on little one's hand, with the help of her big sister. I think she was actually still and quiet for a full minute.

Back to the beginning. Sort of.

4 years ago, my husband asked me if I didn't think I wanted a better camera. I told him the one I had was still working and why spend the money. I worked on things like composition, etc. with my good old point and shoot and was perfectly happy learning what I could with that. He shrugged, and told me he thought I'd really enjoy it, but ok. Then there was the squirrel incident. I had a friend, and I saw a photo her husband had taken of a squirrel. I can still see that photo in my head. I have a link to it saved, as a matter of fact. It was at that moment I realized my camera did need improved upon and I set out on a mission to find out what I wanted. So I asked my friend what in the world her husband used. Which led to my first DSLR. I loved it so much, I am now on my 3rd. Now, even before the squirrel/camera incident, I have always loved watching those things. Chipmunks too, but we don't have those around here. So it really came as not much of a surprise when I got home from our Colorado vacation and I found TONS of photos of squirrels I'd transferred from my cards onto my hard drive. There were lots of other critters, and lots of mountain shots, and softball shots (we were there for a tournament after all). But in honor of that first squirrel photo that inspired me to get a new camera so long ago, I will share a couple of my buddies I met on my trip. The first two are the same little guy. He kept running back and forth while I was taking a break on our hike. He'd go up that rock, then back down to the grass, back up, back down. The last one was at our house. He watched our entire pitching session from the log pile next to the driveway. He sat there, maybe 3 feet from us, for a good 15 minutes. He was NOT leaving that pinecone.