After taking well over 700 photos at Glacier National Park, I slacked off on photography a bit this past week. (By the way, my Glacier photos had the most views of any post on my blog – times about four!) I did snap a photo of this adorable little guy at my nephew’s birthday party this weekend.
We got to welcome a new baby into the family this week! My cousin Holly, and her husband Adam, were blessed with beautiful baby Samantha on Monday, June 11. You can tell she’s going to be a huge MU fan, right? 😉
My good friend Lindsey and her husband Aaron welcomed their first baby boy into the world on Tuesday. I had the pleasure of hanging out with Lindsey and baby Colton at the hospital Wednesday evening. He has the most gorgeous deep blue eyes and blonde hair. Once you meet him you don’t want to take your eyes off him!
I took the day off yesterday to meet up with some good friends that I don’t get to see very often. Of course, 8-month-old Leah was the star of the show, as it should be! This little girl is already pulling herself up and walking around holding on to things. I predict her to be a child prodigy in a few years.
One of my closest friends lives across the country, but I’m lucky that she travels back home frequently. Even when I see her every couple of months, her baby girl looks so different each time. Here are photo #1 and photo #2 from earlier this year.
I had to post two photos for Saturday. Saturday morning I had the privilege of doing family portraits for Bobby, Sarah, and baby Elise. I love this photo because it seems so real and natural. On Saturday evening I attended my former high school marching band’s “Electric Light Show.” My dad is the assistant band director there. I had a great time shooting photos of the band all lit up at night.
Big surprise … we were on the go this weekend again. Friday evening we stopped by a tattoo parlor to get a price quote, because my husband and his brother are getting tattoos for their birthdays here in a few weeks. Saturday we drove down to Joplin, Mo. to see Jerod’s friend’s new baby girl, Tynlie, who was born that morning. After a short visit, we went to a bonfire at a family friend’s house in Southeast Kansas. Sunday we celebrated Jerod and Jacob’s birthdays with the family. (Did you know Jerod is a twin?) As usual, we were thoroughly entertained by his niece and nephew. After a long weekend we finally made it home by 10 p.m. Sunday evening, just in time for bed.
When I left for work yesterday morning, I was a little worried about Nemo, the aptly named runt of the baby barn swallows living on our patio. He had managed to get out of the nest and was lying on the concrete. I put him back in the nest with the others, but he was having trouble even standing. I hoped he was just “playing dead.” But when I returned that evening, I could tell immediately that he hadn’t survived the day. I don’t know if he was injured from falling out of the nest, or if he was just too small, and mama bird only fed the stronger ones. Either way, I felt horrible. When I removed his body from the nest, the strongest baby – the one that flew into the pond – flew off. His mom followed him, so I hope he was strong enough to survive on his own. The fifth bird was nowhere to be found. After having a proper burial (hey, I even buried my pet fish as a child), we found the missing baby bird laying dead just off the edge of the patio. He must have died a day or two before without us realizing it. The two that remain in the nest are getting stronger and stronger, and I bet they’ll fly off soon. I guess 3 out of 5 is pretty good odds in nature, but I still wish I could have saved them all.
Yesterday morning I went outside to water my flowers, and a few seconds later I was frantically waking Jerod up. One of our baby barn swallows had fallen about 12 feet out of its nest onto our concrete patio. Since it wasn’t moving I was sure it didn’t survive, but when I got closer I saw that he was still breathing. So Jerod very willingly crawled out of bed, grabbed some flip-flops, work gloves, and a step-ladder, and we coaxed the baby into his hands to return it to the nest. It took quite a while to figure out how to pick it up and slide it into the nest without harming it, but a few minutes later the mamma bird was back at the nest, and all the babies were chirping away like nothing happened.
Yesterday I posted a photo of a baby bird, today it’s a baby carrot. This little guy was about a tenth the size of a typical baby carrot. Isn’t it cute? (I know…you’re thinking I’m a little weird. But I am on Day 208. Some days there just isn’t a whole lot going on.)
Photographic Rhodes 