Sheep!

We had another lovely day at the park with the Life Learners. Five other families joined us at this very beautiful park that often has big horn sheep grazing the grassy areas. Today was no exception. When we got there this morning, the sheep were there and when we left this evening, they were still there! It was kinda cool to be hanging out with a herd of sheep all day. They kept their distance, but we got to observe big horn sheep behavior. There was one female who must have been in heat because she had a whole pack of males following her and pestering her all day. There were even a few little babies, mostly in the center of the herd, being protected by the adults. I think the little guy in the photo above was convinced he could get the sheep to eat out of his hand. He kept creeping up on them with his arm outstretched, doing a "come here" motion with his hand. It was too cute.

A was keen on doing some hiking/climbing on the hill next to the park, so a few of us moms headed out with the kids to do that. I helped one of the girls tackle her fears by staying close and offering my hand as she needed it. A was way up ahead with some of the braver kids. When they had reached the top, I got this shot of the photo-willing of the lot of climbing kids (they are under a power line tower, hence the metal bars). The lake is visible in the background (one of the reasons this park is so beautiful). Instead of going back down the path, most of the kids chose to head of the edge onto an unbeaten path of their own. I and another mom followed, but soon one of the little boys had to go back up after he fell and was afraid to go on. The other mom took him back up and then down the path to his mom. I was left with seven kids to keep an eye on as we headed down the hill and around to the trail. We all made it down, I'm glad to report. The little ones were total troopers, trying to keep up with the "big kids".

The kids found a dead rabbit, well, only it's head, really. They decided to dig a grave and bury it, putting rocks and a stick with flowers as a grave marker. It was really sweet and they even remembered to handle the head with sticks, instead of their bare hands. Of course all the ants swarming over it probably helped with that choice! They also saw lots of live bunnies at the edge of the grass. They did not let the kids get very close, much to the chargrin of one of the little girls.

It was a very nice day with our friends.