Nature Geeks...or Should I Say Freaks...

So yesterday on our way home from Mass we spotted 3 baby deer in our neighbor's yard.  Even though we deer practically every day or evening, I still get excited.  "Oooohhhhhhh......look!  There's deer!!!!!," I squeal, as if this is the first sighting of live deer I've ever experienced.  My younger kids still share the excitement and hop up to look.  The older ones roll their eyes and shake their heads.  Cassie, the young adult, at least grants me a laugh, as if I'm the child and gives me a polite, "oh, yes, that's nice."

But yesterday, oh, we saw these babies and then we saw a baby fox running amongst them.  Well!  My husband pulled the car right over as if we were on the Great Adventure Safari.

"It has something in its mouth!"  We watched the fox eat a....something.....maybe it's a mouse!  "Uh-oh....the neighbor's cat is in the driveway....do you think the fox will get it?  What about the deer?"

This exclaimed by the parents in the front seat.  The kids in the back were begging, "Please, drive!  This is so embarrassing....we are literally staring at the neighbor's house!  We look like creepers!  Go home! "  They were sinking down into their seats.
 
Across the street we spotted the doe.  "Look!  There's the mom!"

Then my husband spotted a fourth baby deer.  "Wow!  There's four of them!  That's unusual."

Luke and Elaina were the only ones still with us.

Later on in the afternoon, we were all gathered to watch Project Runway.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge bird land on a tree outside the window.  Look!  A hawk!  My husband rushes to the window.  No, that's a falcon!  Wow!  Look how huge that bird is!

Another one flies to the limb.  They begin fighting for the space.  These two huge birds, fat legs, vast wingspans, flapping around this tree right outside our window.  Bill and I were ecstatic.

Michele pauses the program.  She patiently waits for the excitement to pass.  She's too cool.

We run to the other window across the house to watch the raptors fly across our yard into the thicket the lines our property.

"Wow, did you see them?  I hear them every morning...the chicks sqawking....wonder what they're feeding them?"

The kids may think they're too cool for this nature in suburbia, but their sense of wonderment and excitement will return when their sharing the natural world with someone they love.