Family – Page 22 – M. Sullivan Photography

September 15, 2013 M. Sullivan Photography Animals, Birds, Daphne, Family, Photos, Weather

Wildlife

Sophia and I enjoyed the last weekend of “official” summer with a walk/bike ride. We brought Daphne with so that she could enjoy the warm weather too. The forecast of 71 degrees happened early in the day. It cooled off later in the afternoon and then the rain began during the evening. We spent an hour or so enjoying the weather, picking up fall leaves, acorns and other items for Sophia’s craft project. We also enjoyed seeing some of the local wildlife. No bears this day, thank goodness!

The first of the wildlife was a pair if deer in a yard about a half a mile from our house. This doe was rather curious and watched us for a while before bounding off into the trees.

We saw a group of ducks including some nearly full-grown ducklings. The colorful feathers on their heads had not filled in yet.

We also saw this heron standing completely still in the pond.

When the bird had enough of our picture-taking, he/she flew off.

When we went around to the second pond, we saw him/her again.

The geese spotted us and made their way over across the pond looking for hand outs. We forgot to bring food with, so they lost interest after a while.

Along the road on the way out Sophia stopped for a quick picture.

We noticed that some of the branches on the trees were sporting fall hues.

Today’s weather is cold, windy and rainy. We are glad that we got out yesterday to enjoy the last few hours of warmth.

September 9, 2013 M. Sullivan Photography Family, Photos, School

First Day

The new school year began for Sebastian this past Thursday. It was a cool, but sunny morning. The bus was several minutes late, but he didn’t mind waiting at the bus stop talking with a former baseball teammate who is also in 7th grade. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures other than a couple at the house, but I did sneak an iPhone picture of the bus as it was headed towards the bus stop.

Sophia’s first day of school was today. Her school was closed for a year of renovations and last year she attended classes at an old middle school that is now closed. School started a couple of days later than the rest of the district so that the teachers would have extra time to get moved into their newly renovated classrooms. The school has a beautiful new entrance, new gymnasium, updated cafeteria, school grounds and parking lot/drop off area. Sophia’s morning began early today – 6:20 a.m. Her bus stop is at 6:59 a.m. It’s going to be a struggle to make the bus each day. Mike and I walked her down to the bus stop in foggy, drizzly weather. We took a few photos along the way and had hoped to get a few pictures at the bus stop, but the bus arrived early. She quickly got on, turned and smiled and then headed to her seat. She waved out the window and was on her way to the first day of fourth grade.

September 7, 2013 M. Sullivan Photography Family, Photos, Weather

Cousins At The Cabin

The Sullivan cousins enjoyed a warm Labor Day weekend at the cabin. It’s so much fun to watch the kids, ages four to fourteen, hang out together and get along so well. They stayed busy with swimming, boating, tubing and fishing. The weather was gorgeous Friday and most of Saturday. They even put on their swimsuits and continued the water activities on Sunday when the temperatures were only in the 60’s and the kids next door were in sweatshirts.

The weekend began in true Sullivan style with a bit of drama on the way to the cabin. We left early Thursday evening and came across some nasty weather. Fortunately, we were slower leaving our house than we had planned and came across its destructive path after the fact. The system went through a rural area and a small tornado knocked down trees and did some minor damage to buildings. We saw some amazing skies and although I wanted to stop and get my camera out to take photos, Mike didn’t pause our journey for picture-taking. I did catch some of the clouds on my iPhone while we were on the move including this one of dark clouds looming over a farm.

It was completely dark out by the time we got to the cabin. Mike swerved around branches and debris on the road. We also had to stop on the dirt road to the cabin to pull tree branches off our path from a fallen tree. We also saw an owl catching a small rodent and fly up into a tree. Quite an eventful evening and the weekend was yet to begin.

The first morning when we got up, Sophia found a very small frog.