Chameleons & Croquet

Today we had Stake Conference, so I got up and got dressed and hurried over to the church at 8:30 so I could try and get a nice padded bench instead of having to sit on the hard metal chairs.  I scored a bench and was so happy!  Autumn stayed home w/ Nick b/c I didn’t want to fight w/ her for 2 hours and try to keep her entertained.  I have to admit that Stake Conference was just OK, but nothing special.  Maybe it’s b/c I had heard such incredible talks last weekend at General Conference and then yesterday at the Single Adult Conference.  Anyways, after church I came home and changed, picked up Autumn & we went to Mom & Dad’s house.  Mom had to stay after for a Scout Meeting, so we waited for her to get home and then had lunch.  After lunch, Autumn said she wanted to go out in the garden to find things for her collection.  Mom said yesterday that she was trying to start a collection of acorns, but ended up collecting bunny terds w/out knowing it!

I went out in the garden w/ her and we didn’t find anything to collect.  But, we did see a LOT of grasshoppers.  In this picture Autumn was getting ready to throw a bowl over one of them.  I don’t know what she thought she was going to do w/ it once she caught it.  But, she missed and the grasshopper got away.

Dad came outside to throw the compost bucket into the garden and said to hurry and come look at a lizard he found.  It was holding onto this wire thing Dad has up, and we noticed he blended right in.

He crawled up onto the white box and turned green!  We figured out he must be a chameleon or some other type of lizard that can change colors.  It was really cool to watch him change!

Autumn wanted to stay outside and play b/c it was so nice outside.  So, we went out in the backyard so she could play on the fort.  I noticed this pretty yellow weed and it had little baby wasps on it.  I stayed far back and just zoomed way in w/ my camera.  Pretty cool.

We decided to bust out the croquet set Dad got for Christmas a few years ago (I didn’t even know we had one) and play a game of croquet.  Luckily, he knew how to play b/c none of us ever had.  We thought he was making up the rules as he went, but he said they used to play croquet all the time as kids, so that’s how he knew all the rules.  It was funny to watch Autumn swing the mallet b/c she’s miss 2 or 3 times and then finally make contact.  She did pretty good & won both games (w/ a little help from Papa).

The set was old and cheap, and the croquet balls kept coming apart when Dad would whack one.  He had to keep getting a new ball b/c his would break.  At least we got a good laugh out of it.

It was so much fun to play the first game, that we stayed outside and played a 2nd game.  We need to do stuff like this more often.  It was so pleasant in the shade and we were making memories and spending time together.

This picture of Nick cracks me up b/c he said he was going for the look of a sophisticated polo player.  While we were playing croquet, I couldn’t help but think of the scene where they are playing croquet in Summer Magic.  Good times!

Mom & Dad got Aunt Jeri a big puzzle at the Coca Cola store when they were in Vegas.  We busted that out and started working on it, while having football on in the background.  Mary called to see if I had just watched the most recent episode of Downton Abbey.  I hadn’t b/c we were doing the puzzle and she said it is SHOCKING!  I couldn’t watch it b/c Mom & Jeri hadn’t seen the last one, so Mary said to come over and she’d watch it w/ me.  We huddled around her laptop to watch while she worked on a mum (which is why her counter is covered in crafting supplies).  I agree w/ her…it was a SHOCKING episode.  I’m so sad that we only have one more episode left this season!!!  As soon as it was over, Autumn & I headed home so I could get her to bed.  Why do weekends always go by so fast?