Summer Wildlife Roundup

This summer, I've been riding my bike home from work most days. Along the way, I've seen quite a bit of wildlife. I took a few pictures (with my phone, so the quality isn't great). I saw about 10 to 15 deer total, and here is one of them:

You might have to look hard, but it's in there!

I also saw two coyotes, but I didn't take pictures of them. One was running under a fence and was only about 10 feet away from me.

Today, as I was cruising up a gentle hill, I saw a snake on the bike path directly in front of me. I saw it just in time to skid to a stop with my front wheel about 3 feet away from it. It was a rattle snake! It coiled up but didn't try to strike. You can just barely make out the rattle in this picture (click for a larger view of this and all the other pictures):

After I took the picture and calmed down a bit, I decided to detour around it through the grass. Here are a couple more pictures from the other side. You can see some skid marks above it in the pictures where I came to a stop. One of those is mine. I don't know if the other one is an old one or if someone else did the same thing.


To give this a sense of scale, I'd say the path is about 6 to 8 feet wide. I didn't try to stretch the snake out and measure it, but I'd say it was about 3 feet long.

I'm pretty sure I saw another rattle snake in this same area a couple of years ago, but that time I was going downhill and I just swerved around it and kept going.

So that's my wildlife roundup. Maybe next summer I'll start carrying around a better camera for some better shots!

Grandpa Schumann

"God saw you were getting tired
when a cure was not to be.
So he put his arms around you and
whispered, "Come to me".
With careful eyes we watched you.
We saw you pass away.
Although we loved you dearly,
we could not make you stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
hardworking hands to rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us,
He only takes the best."

-Author Unkown

Dear sweet Grandpa Schumann passed away last night at home. We will miss him so much. He was such a fun and loving man.

Spencer and I have been reminiscing about some things that we remember. I think the favorite memory of ours is when we had a "spoon on the nose" contest. It was so fun. Spencer, Ryan, Cami, Addie, me, and Grandpa all put spoons on our noses after some big dinner at my in-laws. We all had a contest to see whose spoon would stay on the longest. Grandma Schumann sat there saying, "Oh Henry" and we all waited to see whose spoon would stay on the longest. Grandpa won by a long shot! I have NEVER seen anything plastered on so tight in my life!! He would shake his head and that poor spoon was stuck on his nose until he pried it off. We were all laughing so hard, except Grandma of course, but we all had such a fun time with that. I tried to find the picture but I can't find it.



This picture was taken when we went to Utah for Ryan's farewell. The girls had so much fun with the dog. They ALWAYS loved to see Grandpa move his little "finger". (He was missing a finger on his left hand, you can see it in the picture.) Anyway, they always asked him to show it to them. He will be missed.

We love you Grandpa! We will always remember your laugh and your love of family.

(I love the song I put on our blog for Grandpa. Especially the last verse, I think of him when I hear it.)

Ballet Recital

The girls had their Ballet Recital in June. They both did so well, we were SO proud of them! This was Avary's first year and CJ's second. I LOVED their costumes. Avary's dance was to Celine Dion singing "What a Wonderful World". CJ's dance was to Tim McGraw's "My Little Girl". They were such beautiful ballerinas and the songs just fit them both.

This picture above was taken before the recital. They were so precious!

Avary's dance was first:

A few dances later it was CJ's turn:



They did so good. After ward I went backstage to get them. When I found them they both had been crying. CJ, because people were being too loud and she had a head ache from allergies, and Avary because she wanted me, I guess she missed me.

Spencer gave them both flowers. CJ was funny because she kept telling him not to forget her flowers. It wasn't too much of a surprise but they really enjoyed them. The flowers stayed around for a while too, I was really impressed! Anyway, we got a DVD this year, but it wasn't as good as last year's. At least we have it though.

More Updates - Preschool Graduation

So, back in May Avary graduated from preschool. It was quite an ordeal. I was really impressed and happy with the preschool that we chose. I am definatly going to go there again. Anyway, for graduation the kids put on a "Music Show". It was one of the cutest things I ever did see. They sang and danced and looked awesome. They told us to dress the kids up like American Idols. It was really fun dolling Avary up.

She sure had a lot of fun, I was so glad.

Her teachers just loved her, who wouldn't. Here are some pictures of her teachers.

This is Ms. Teddybear. They give fun names to themselves so the kids remember their names. I don't even remember their real names!

And this is Ms. Jellybean. It was funny because her actual license plate said "JellyB".

It was a lot of fun. They even had root beer floats for us after ward with some snacks, Spencer was ALL over that!!