I don't get a lot of time alone...that's just the way my life is right now.  Gracie does not nap and she's a night owl and Abigail is an early bird, so there's just not a lot of hours in the day when both of them are asleep.  Now, part of this is my doing...there have many offers from many people to watch the girls so that I can go do things.  But, there's this integral part of me that says to myself, "I didn't quit work to stay home with the girls so that I could pass them off to other people and go do things by myself."  Probably a little silly, and I am working on it.  And in two weeks, Gracie will be back in school for 1/2 days four days a week and Abigail with be going with her two days a week.  (I osciallate between being secretly excited about having 8 hours a week all to myself and wanting to cry at the thought of sending my baby to school this early...we'll see how all that pans out in a month or so).  Steve does a wonderful job of trying to give me time to myself...He offers, quite often, to take the girls and do something with them, or to watch them and let me go somewhere alone.  The truth is, though, I'm often reluctant to give up family time.  When he takes them somewhere, I usually want to go, too.

The Thursday of zoo camp, when our Water Sprayer Expedition was rained out, we rescheduled our adventure for Friday.  As we were talking about it, over our cell phones, in our matching vans that were being pelted by a downpour of rain, my sister said, "I will only agree to meet you back at the Water Sprayers on one condition."  When I asked the condition she said, "You agree that I will watch all four girls and you go on the nature trail with no one but your camera."  I couldn't have been happier if you'd told me I was going to Disney World. 

So, on Friday, afternoon, while the girls splashed away at the park, I walked the 1.5 mile nature trail, with my Rebel loaded with my 50mm portrait lens and my Canon 40D loaded with my 100mm macro lens.  To be honest, I did not get a lot of fantastic pictures.  I'm still learning how to use that 100mm lens - my shots are nowhere near as sharp as I'd like them to be, but I'm working on it.  And, I don't get a lot of time to practice, so this was just wonderful to able to have an hour to myself to work on focusing.  It was also very, very, very hot that day and I think I probably had about 10 pounds of camera equipment in my backpack .  But, I was actually able to take the walk and revel in the beauty all around me, rather than worrying about Abigail wandering off the trail or Gracie tripping on a board.  To put it mildly, I had a fantastic time.  Here are a few of the pictures:

The bridge at the beginning of the trail:


I came along this spider's web and I tried all different angles to get a good shot (sitting on the trail, laying down on the trail).  Spider's webs are something that I just can not manage to get a good shot of...I thought this one looked cool - I'm not sure what those things in the foreground are, but they were strung on one of the strands of the web:


I had a little bit better luck with this web, farther along on the trail.  This thing was so amazingly complex - I don't think I've ever seen a web like this!


At the end of the trail, you come out of the realtive cool of the trees, into a wide open area and are treated to a wonderful view of the water.  It really is so peaceful...


I stayed for a few minutes in the clearing, chasing some dragonfiles, trying to snap their pictures.  They were just too darn quick, though, and I could never get focused on them...this was the best I could do...



As I headed back into the woods, I saw this little guy scurrying along on the wood.  I'm not sure what kind of spider he is:


I spent the rest of the walk back just enjoying the light breeze and looking around at everything.  As I was just about back to the bridge at the exit, I had the weirdest sensation of movement - the boards of the trail were reverberating slightly.  It had happened a few times earlier on the walk and when I'd looked around, I saw squirrels scampering around the edge of the trail.  This time, though, the sensation was greater and as I looked to my left, I caught the tail end of something, much bigger than a squirrel, running off the side of the trail.  The sweat on my arms turned to excited chill bumps.  It took me a second to focus my eyes on cluster of trees just off to the side.  This is what I saw:



It took my breath away for an instant and then my heart warmed.  The mommy looked right at me and I looked right back at her and said, "I'm not going to hurt you.  I promise."  Okay, I'm a nut - I admit it .  I brought my camera up and started clicking away.  They stayed there, mommy and baby, for several minutes.  They were just so pretty! 

After a few minutes, I heard people headed our way.  I spotted them and put my finger to my lips and beckoned them over.  The man saw instantly what I was pointing to and pulled out his cell phone to snap his own shots.  I left then, giving them some time alone to admire the deer, and headed back to my own babies...

Sister, thank you so much for that time alone in the woods.  I know you know exactly how much it meant to me, because you don't get much time for yourself either, do you?  I love you so much and am so lucky to have you for a sister and even luckier to have you for a friend