Back Among the Living!

When I was on bedrest, one of the things I missed most was going to the park. Earlier in my pregnancy I went to the park every day during my lunch break, especially during the fall when the leaves were changing. Today, on the cusp of Memorial Day weekend with the sun in the sky (because of course it's supposed to start raining tonight!), I went back to the park. My favorite one has a huge, beautiful pond and a short hiking trail. I didn't risk doing the trail back when I was pregnant, but I've been wanting to, so today was the day.

When I got to the top overlooking the pond, I saw one of these.

I stood and watched him as he climbed over the rocks. Then these started emerging.
The big lizard with the orange head started chasing the small lizards with the blue tails. Then the big lizard disappeared under a rock. I watched the small lizards for a minute and was about to leave when the big lizard reappeared with one of the small lizards in his mouth! I tried to scare him to "save" the small lizard, but he just kept dragging it back under the rock. When I got back to the office, I googled and found that Missouri lizards only eat insects, so maybe this was some kind of mating ritual? As disgusting as that is, I'd rather it be that than lizard cannibalism!

After the trail I walked along the pond, looking for turtles. I counted five of them floating and swimming around. Then as I reached the end of the pond, I spotted a snake that looked something like this.
The snake was much smaller and slightly different from this one in color. He was swimming along the edge of the pond, and he was really cool. I kneeled down beside him and watched as he slithered through the water. After a while he disappeared, so I got up and watched the fish swimming for a few minutes.

There were tons of families at the park, many of them feeding bread to the geese. The geese have gotten so friendly that they'll actually catch the bread in their beaks. I can't wait until Jonah is big enough to go to the park and understand what he sees. Those will be really fun days.

Happy Memorial Day!