The Shack

Aubrey was a bit young to appreciate the occasion, but if she ever grows up to be an ecologist she can count herself among the lucky few that have been to Aldo Leopold's "Shack" on the Wisconsin River:

Playing on the bank of the WI river:

Camping, Round 2

One week later, 10 degrees colder. Aubrey wakes up just as cheery as the weekend before:And emerges from the tent to find frost! You can see some on my hat from brushing against the fly. Actual air temp was 28. On May 17th. Cold 'nuf fer ya?

Goin' for a Walk

As promised, this is a backstory post about Aubrey's first solo walking experience. Looking back, I guess it's been five weeks already since the First Steps post. We continued on the 3-4-5 steps at a time routine for about a month. On May 13th Aubrey decided she had enough of this assisted walking thing. Maybe we were walking too slow? Or maybe she didn't want to be steered away from all of the really fun (dangerous) stuff that she encountered? I think she was just waiting for the perfect opportunity: the public library. The library has books (she loves to "read"), people (waves to everyone), and long open sightlines (the better to see people and books). How could it get any better than that?

T stops to say hi to friends and looks back to see Aubrey walking down the hall...

...and there she goes!

Mom finally catches up when Aubrey sits down to read a book.

ps. A video from later that day...

Walking!

We have a huge catalog of Aubrey's attempts (from unsuccessful to succesfull) at walking. Here's the finished product. Over the next few days we will try to fill out the story of the transition to walking with more pics and vids. Meanwhile, please enjoy this video from today.

Camping

Last weekend we went camping at Wyalusing State Park. Okay, camping was secondary to birding. And the birding was good: Cerulean Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, and Kentucky Warbler. We dipped (that's birder speak for missed) the Worm-eating Warbler - yes, Fred, I'm retracting that one since I heard it once only and it would be a new state bird for me. A great time was had by all, especially Aubrey as it was her first two nights sleeping in the Great Outdoors.

Waking up in the tent. It was cold for May even by sconnie standards, hence the stocking hats.

Cruising the picnic table.

Family pic at the Passenger Pigeon monument overlooking the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers.

Puff-splosion

Okay, back to more appropriate topics...and to more regular posts (buh dum bum, tish).

Anyways, Aubrey has figured out how to open the puffs container. On a possibly related note, we have been battling ants for the past few weeks. Puffs are out of reach now. Ants are under control.