Wild Things

Sometime during General Conference this October, Ryan called me to come outside.  I ignored him at first, but he sounded very insistent, so I went out the front door to see him looking at this little rattlesnake (our first so far):
  

  
We used a bucket and a broken hoe handle (now called our "snake stick"), to contain him, then waited for animal control to come pick him up.  Apparently they get multiple snake calls a day, and take batches up the Angeles Crest highway to release them in the mountains.  We had a great time looking at him while he was in the bucket, though.  Three weeks later we saw another, even smaller one - also on our driveway - so hopefully they stay out of the backyard.  We try to always send the dogs outside before the kids, just as a precaution (sorry dogs!)
  

   
Evan's morning routine currently involves waking up at 7am, crying for me, nursing on the couch for 20 minutes (it's totally just for comfort at this point, and I haven't had the heart to wean him yet,) then he goes into his high chair with Cheerios and a cup of water while I shower (or, sometimes, go back to bed.)  Apparently, though, he doesn't always get his fill of dry cereal, because he loves to do this when I'm not looking.
   

Evan's Serious Face

    
One thing Connor's doing for his "Fossils" passion project is digging this plastic skeleton out of plaster.  It has been taking FOREVER, but I guess it's an accurate representation of how much patience you need to do paleontology. 
  

  
Around the same time as the snake incident, Ryan also discovered a tarantula on our front porch.  The spider was a little beat up - somebody had relieved him of two of his legs.  I figured that since we were studying nature and insects that week in Joy School, we'd keep him around for a few days, so we got a plastic terrarium, bought some crickets, and kept "Crawly" as a house guest.  (Thanks, Joy School kids, for the excellent name.)  We read about tarantulas online, and I guess October is their breeding season.  The females (which are larger) stay put in their burrows, and the mature males head out to look for them, so the ones you find wandering around are always males.  Sadly, this is always the last phase of their lives, so Crawly wasn't interested in crickets (although he did drink quite a bit of water.)  I guess they die a few weeks after their mating tour, so we figured we'd let him go.  We wished him luck, then dumped him out near a hiking trail a good distance away.
  

  

Since the Animal Control officer had mentioned the Angeles Crest highway was open, we were excited to take a drive up to see the mountains again.  It had been closed for over a year since the Station fire.  On the way back, we stopped at a scenic viewpoint and decided to take some lovely, picturesque family photos.  That didn't work out at all, but you can see the pictures anyway.
   

   
Oh, and lastly, here is Connor showing off his third lost tooth (and the first one he didn't actually LOSE, so it's in my keepsake box now.)