Hiking

So this weekend was Brad's mini break between finals and boards. We decided we wanted to go hiking, but only had a couple hours between soccer and the ward talent show to do so. We found a nature center less than 1/2 hour away and decided to scope it out. The nature center had different little loops that would take you to different habitats (meadow, woodland, marsh, beach). We ended up hiking almost ever loop they had, but it made for a fun hike. The most exciting part was finding the wildlife, as we said to each other on the hike who knew we would actually see wild turkeys in our lifetime. The only time we saw turkeys growing up was thanksgiving. We know living out here that they have a lot more moisture than back west, and this is included in the hiking as we had to wade around mud puddles every 20 feet in the trail.
We saw frogs,

wild turkey,

a deer,

sleeping ducks,

turtles,

and birds.

There were also lovely flowering trees every once in a while that smelled wonderful.

With so many loops we were always hitting slits in the trail and having to decide which direction to go.

Here is my way of crossing the mud puddles and Brads way.

We found this random door and decided to explore the secret forest on the other side.

One of the many towers they have so we could see the view over the trees.

Brad showing off his rock skipping skills.

Backyard Deer

So yesterday I was sitting in the car in the driveway after my long day of work, writing in Brad's card for our anniversary (yes very last minute), when I looked up and I noticed a deer sitting in our neighbors backyard. It seemed that she was staring strait at me, but didn't even budge when I opened the car door and made a move for the house. I decided then that I wanted to see how close I could get with my camera without her moving. So I dashed for the camera and back outside. I snapped a million pictures as I slowly moved closer and closer to her. Hiding behind my camera seemed to camouflage me since she continued to stare in my direction without movement. It wasn't until Brad decided to come out and see when suddenly she decided the situation had become unsafe and made her move to leave. Don't worry we weren't too mean, we decided to back off and ten minutes later she was found sitting again enjoying the shady grasses in our neighbors oasis.