Sunday, August 15, 2010

Tucson Lightning

Dave caught some awesome lightning shots from our backyard. 

Aren't these amazing? 

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Ward Campout

We had a great time at our ward camp out last month!  It was great to get up in the cool air and hang out with awesome people!   

The kids were in heaven of course... sleep in a tent, free to run wild, get as dirty as they could...and with friends!!  The only thing that could make that story any better would be  if they got to eat candy all day too!  lol  

Check out this little cutie...despite the slight frown he really is a natural in the natural world!  

Friday, August 13, 2010

The Spider & the Katydid

This is Dave posting. If you couldn't tell before, you'll be able to tell shortly. That's because Amber would never take pictures like this and, if she did, she would never post them.

That said, a few nights ago our kids notices something on our back door:
What's that, you say? You can't see what's in the picture? Ok, look here then:
That's a no-flash shot, so there's a bit of blur. The markings on his back are pretty clear, and we were able to identify this as a giant crab spider. They're about 2-1/2 inches across. They don't spin webs, but they climb well, move quickly, and hunt pretty much anything you don't want in your house. Their bite "isn't harmful to humans", but is supposed to be painful. To me, that's harmful. But whatever.

Luckily for me, I had a couple of inches of glass between me and him. A short while later, he flipped around to give me a better view of his underside:


And so we sat for some time, me reading my book and him eating small moths, occasionally pouncing hard enough that I could hear a 'tap' on the glass. Come to think of it, I'd heard these taps from time to time over the last couple weeks and wondered what they were. Now I know!

Eventually, a Katydid came up to the glass just around the corner from the G.C.S. (Giant Crap Spider). From what I think I know of these bugs, they're also hunters, and it appeared that he started chasing some moths as well. Had I my wits about me, I would have started filming him. Alas, I did not.

Sure enough, the Katydid got closer and closer to the spider, seemingly oblivious to the imminent danger. The G.C.S. set himself up and POUNCE!

He snagged himself a nice, big meal!

That picture, by the way, is worth seeing in all it's detail. As is the next:

After the Katydid stopped struggling, the G.C.S. brought him over to the other side of the glass and just kinda held him there for a few hours.

It's the CIIIIiiiiiircle of LIIIIIIIIFFFEEEE! And it moves uuuuusss aaaaaalllllll!

And to finish out, here a video of the G.C.S. moving:




Don't you love Arizona?!?