Fall Adventure

Adoption updates first: We received a Court Date yesterday of November 26th. That is a lot later than we had hoped and may mean that we do not get to travel until January. Super dissapointed, but not much we can do about it. Keep praying for us! We have been super blessed with gifts for Zion Degamo, also, our finances seem to be falling into place so that is good.

This past Monday was suppossed to be one of the last warm days for a while, so we took off and went to a local lake. So wonderful. The kids (including Curt) played in the sand, we ate a picnic lunch, went for a hike that included many discoveries, and did some fishing. The fish were biting so much that before the bobber had landed completely, it went under. We caught around 8 bluegills in a 45 minute period. Enjoy some shots from the day.


Bucket of Snails (catch and release of course):


Daddy, I am coming up your mountain!

Daddy is soooo King of the Mountain~!
Click on the pictures to make them bigger, you have to see Curt's face!

More pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gratzmom/

Blooming Butterflies!

Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison has a butterfly event every year and we have taken the girls to it since Emma was 2 and Abi was a baby. So today was the day to go this year. We have had butterflies and moths on the mind lately as Aunt Mandy has found 2 different caterpillars for us in the last week. A dear friend had given Emma a wonderful butterfly barn for her birthday, and we weren't sure that the 2 caterpillars could cohabitate, but they are handling things quite nicely. The first caterpillar received he name "Junior" and made a cocoon overnight right after we got it. We did some research and found that it is an American Dagger Moth caterpillar. They like to eat maple leaves. The second caterpillar, Mandy and I found at her house, on the milkweed. The allusive monarch caterpillar! So exciting to everyone. (If you are not excited, just pretend). She is named "Laura." It ate a ton of milkweed the first day. Pooped A LOT (Abi's observation). Then yesterday, it "glued its butt" to the screen on the butterfly barn. This morning when we checked, it was still just a caterpillar glued to the screen and by the time we got home from seeing the butterflies at the gardens, it had formed its chrysalis. The girls were pretty pumped and we just hope we will be home to see it hatch out. God's creations are amazing!

The one on the left is a mini Monarch and the right is a Julia. The gardens had pamphlets this year that the kids could carry around so they could identify the butterflies they saw. We also saw a Queen butterfly and a Zebra butterfly. Abi was especially pleased to be able to lable each of them.

Abi as a leaf that is about to be eaten and Emma as a chrysalis.

My friend the dragonfly.

Zinnias as big as my hand and RED. OH MY!!!

This would be my children testing their limits. The sign directly behind Abi says "please do not touch the pebbles in the pool." Emma, whose reading skills are rapidly improving, read the sign and quickly said "it doesn't say anything about touching the water." That is true, Emma.

Emma is learning how to use the camera. This is her photo of her shadow. :)

The chrysalis we found when we got home.