Grandmommy is here!

My mother arrived on an early flight, 20 minutes earlier than expected, and Jeanne was a pleased as could be.  She babbled at Grandma the whole way home in the backseat.  After some super yummy breakfast we all went for a walk in the woods. There are several state parks here, but a fairly large one is about 3 minutes away from our apartment. 

It was a beautiful day, not too warm, and not too cool under the trees.  Jeanne loved picking up all the leaves on the ground, and carried around pine cones for a while.  Not a lot of forward progress was made in the beginning as Jeanne as walking under her own power, and she was curious about everything around her. ; )

While Jeanne was checking out a tree stump and the moss growing on it, I saw a preying mantis slowly creeping along the forest floor.  It was gray and black, and about as long a my hubbers hand.  We could see his abdomen contracting quickly to get more air after her crawled on hubbers hands for a while.  Jeanne loved this insect, but was upset we wouldn't let her hold it.  I was more worried about the insect then her.  I of course did not bring my camera, so no cool pic of the first preying mantis I've seen in real life.  I was bummed.

We crossed paths with several people, one was a set of women.  One woman had what looked to be a 6 month old in a baby bjorn, and they said they paths were safe for lone woman and their babes, so hopefully this made hubbers less nervous.

Jeanne could only walk for so long, although she did really well stepping over the roots.  While she was on my back I found some some beautiful beetles, hubbers called them June bugs.  Iridescent blue and purple shimmered on their shells, but they all looked like they were dying.  I didn't bring my camera, so I can't show you how pretty they were.

Last, I spied was a fantastic centipede!  About 3 inches long, mostly black body with bright yellow at the bottom of each segment.  He was a fat, fast walker, no surprise.  Jeanne was still on my back, and getting sleepy at this point, so she wasn't as interested as Mommy was.  Did I mention I didn't bring my camera?  Ug!

Oh well, live and learn...

Perhaps today we will go to the museum!  Oh I hope!