Charlie's New Tricks

Charlie has picked up a few new tricks the last couple of days. The first video is of him almost getting in a crawling position so he can stretch out and reach his toys. The second is of him making a lip smacking noise that he has become a fan of. Enjoy!

Oregon Trip

Here is a smattering of pictures from our trip to Oregon. I had to attend a training for work, so the family came with and we stayed a couple of extra nights to explore the coast.

The Pumpkin Patch

Our nice little Sunday at the Pumkpin Patch!
Matt heading into the corn maze. All that work for only one ear of corn per stalk. Wow.

Charlie was sizing up Matt's pumpkin - and Matt could not stop laughing at him! Of course, Charlie did his little thumb twirl on the pumpkin. :)

A little starfish baby happening in this one.

The grounds!

Our little pumpkin amidst the big pumpkins!

So. Adorable. :)

Totally looks posed, but we didn't do it! I love it. I love him.

Me and my son.

Riding in the wagon with the pumpkins. Ok, sitting in the wagon with the pumpkins.

Ah, fall. You're finally here. Kind of. :) The leaves are changing in Canon! We're getting some really nice yellows, and the tree right outside our house is a nice shade of red. What a treat! A few of Matt's coworkers asked us to join them at a local pumpkin patch, so we spent a few hours there this afternoon. Though it was 83 degrees, it felt fallish while we walked through the corn maze, picked out our pumpkins, and took a hayride around the farm. It was so much fun! We got some great pictures of Charlie, who happened to be in a really smiley mood - despite the fact that he was running on a 10-minute nap. What a little ham! I was really impressed with the pumpkin patch; a food stand, lots of gourds, squashes, and pumpkins to pick and purchase, games for the kids who were walking through the corn maze, a "cornbox", and various fall snack items available (pumpkin bread, leaf-shaped frosted sugar cookies, apple cider, etc). I'm already looking forward to returning there next fall. It was wonderful!

Hunting in South Park

I went duck hunting on Friday and Saturday morning on the only public wetland in South Park. This place is on BLM land within my resource area, and I had driven by earlier in the week and counted at least 40 ducks on it. I snuck down on Friday morning on my way to Rifle to winterize the house. The pond had a lot of ducks on it when I got there, but I didn't scare one while I was setting up my decoys. Unfortunately, because it is one of the only true wetlands for several miles, there weren't a lot other ducks flying around. After sitting for more than hour, I decided to try and stalk some of the ducks. South Park is basically a high elevation short grass prairie between two mountain ranges; which means the grass is only about ankle deep, and not good for stalking. I did the best I could and ended up getting a shot at a duck. That scared up everything else and most of the ducks took off. After sitting for a short time, many up the ducks started coming back, which is how I got my four ducks (2 mallards, blue-winged teal, and scaup).

Here is a better shot of what the area really looks like. It had snowed a little bit on my drive and you could see the mountain peaks had a significant amount of snow as well. I don't think you can see the mountains in the background all that well, they are kind of in the clouds, but it is a really pretty place to duck hunt.

This is a picture of the one duck (mallard) I got on Saturday morning. This time when I set me decoys up all the ducks took off. Only a few came back though. I could have had a couple of more ducks, but they flew into my decoys before legal shooting time.

Colorado Duck Opener

Here are a few pictures from the Colorado duck hunting opener last weekend. I went to Blanca Wetlands with Dave Gilbert, the fisheries biologist at the BLM. We ended up with 11 ducks (2 mallards, 2 pintails (one banded), a gadwall, 2 blue-winged teal, and 4 green-winged teal). We hunted Saturday night and didn't fire a shot. I was a little worried at that point, but Sunday morning ended up to be a great hunt. It was a blue bird day, but the birds were flying well. Good times!

Here is Ruffus, Dave's 5 month old yellow lab, Dave and I. It was Ruffus's first duck hunt and he did very well. He was a little confused as to what was going on at first, and attempted to retrieve a couple of decoys, but when he got on line he retrieved every duck.

Here you can see the banded pintail on the top of the stack. The temperature started out in the 50's then warmed up to the mid-70's by the time we took off. The only thing that saved us is we had a good wind at our back, which set up the birds nicely.

Here you can see the Sangres in the background.

Winter, Spring, Summer, Summer, Summer....

Yep, in a tank outfit on September 28th. We're ready to be done with the 90+ weather and onto some more appropriate fall temps! Time to say goodbye to the extended summer and hello to fall... hopefully soon.

Did you know we have No-Pants Tuesdays at our house? Just kidding. Or am I?! Stop over on a Tuesday and find out!

Like Father (and Grandpa!), Like Son

I see hunting in his future.... the very distant future. If he gets a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, I'll wet my pants.

Charlie's First Swim

There's an athletic center in town that has a pool, so Charlie and I decided to check it out one day last week. The water temp was pretty good, but I was still concerned that Charlie would get cold since we run his bath water really warm. He didn't get cold, though! After swimming for over half hour, we got out because Charlie had one too many swallows of the water (it was salt water) and his fingers and toes looked like raisins. It was fun - we had the pool all to ourselves! I even brought a few toys to chase after in the pool, but Charlie wasn't interested in the toys. He was having so much fun just looking around and taking it all in. It was a bit difficult to take pictures, hold him, and not drop the camera in the water, but I managed. Thanks, Auntie Katie, for the cute swimming trunks!
Ugh. My huge nose made it into the picture.

Charlie kicked some when I had him on his belly, but he didn't splash his hands around as much as he usually does in the bathtub. In the tub he's a crazy thrasher!

My lil' fish out of water!