OK, so I don't write on this web log - ever - but I'm compelled to write an hilarious account of ANOTHER wildlife adventure for our family.
Background: My 10 year College Reunion was last weekend in Colorado Springs. We were lucky enough to have some good friends invite us to stay at their place on the South side of town. The Hansens (Melanie and Gizmo) live in a great neighborhood, and we knew Gemma would have a ball playing with their little ones, so it was shaping up to be a great trip.
When we got to the Hansen's on Wednesday, we saw six or seven mule deer (doe) grazing in their beautiful neighborhood - what a sight! Gemma thought it was pretty cool, but was happy to move along to playing with the kids. Well, we consistently saw deer in the morning and at dusk, and on Thursday evening when we were returning to the house, we saw a really impressive eight point buck just down the street from the Hansen's.
Dads tend to get excited about wildlife, and this was no exception, so after we drove away, I was still exclaiming, "What a great big buck that was, huh Gems?!" Well, we pull up to the house and Melanie comes trotting out and says, "Carys (one of her two-year-old twins) was just at the window saying that she saw a bear... Oh my gosh there's the garbage can that it must have been going through!"
Sure enough, there was the tipped over garbage can! I thought "Wow! We just missed a bear!" And quietly breathed a sigh of relief because we haven't had the best experience with bears. I set Gemma down, and she makes a B-Line (whatever that is - it seems the appropriate term) to a point on the curb, just to the left of the tipped over garbage can. When a two-year-old moves with this sort of purpose, you know they are excited.
Sidebar: Temporal distortion is basically the phenomenon of a short period of time seeming like a longer period of time, or visa versa.
At that instant, I project my line of vision toward where Gemma is walking, as Melanie says, "The bear's right there!" There, sitting PERFECTLY still, but facing away from us, is the backside of a black bear. Stacey and Melanie will agree with me when I say that Gemma was literally no further than seven feet from the bear.
Dad instincts kicked in - I jumped between Gemma and the bear, snatched Gemma up by whatever I could grab (sadly, I missed one of her armpits due to the speed with which I was moving, and Stacey said she just saw poor Gems' arms, legs, and diaper in a flash), and nearly fell over as we changed direction to get away from the bear.
Fortunately, the bear was startled by our flailing and scampered deeper into the clump of trees where it was sitting. After we got Gemma back into the house, once my heartbeat was out of my ears, and Stacey's kneecaps stopped shaking, we saw the bear had moved on to the next garbage can, and were able to get some pretty good pics and video. Eat your heart out National Geographic!
Gemma 1, Bear 0
THE BEAR!
Me and my Sweetie - Air Force is about to pummel BYU...Background: My 10 year College Reunion was last weekend in Colorado Springs. We were lucky enough to have some good friends invite us to stay at their place on the South side of town. The Hansens (Melanie and Gizmo) live in a great neighborhood, and we knew Gemma would have a ball playing with their little ones, so it was shaping up to be a great trip.
When we got to the Hansen's on Wednesday, we saw six or seven mule deer (doe) grazing in their beautiful neighborhood - what a sight! Gemma thought it was pretty cool, but was happy to move along to playing with the kids. Well, we consistently saw deer in the morning and at dusk, and on Thursday evening when we were returning to the house, we saw a really impressive eight point buck just down the street from the Hansen's.
Dads tend to get excited about wildlife, and this was no exception, so after we drove away, I was still exclaiming, "What a great big buck that was, huh Gems?!" Well, we pull up to the house and Melanie comes trotting out and says, "Carys (one of her two-year-old twins) was just at the window saying that she saw a bear... Oh my gosh there's the garbage can that it must have been going through!"
Sure enough, there was the tipped over garbage can! I thought "Wow! We just missed a bear!" And quietly breathed a sigh of relief because we haven't had the best experience with bears. I set Gemma down, and she makes a B-Line (whatever that is - it seems the appropriate term) to a point on the curb, just to the left of the tipped over garbage can. When a two-year-old moves with this sort of purpose, you know they are excited.
Sidebar: Temporal distortion is basically the phenomenon of a short period of time seeming like a longer period of time, or visa versa.
At that instant, I project my line of vision toward where Gemma is walking, as Melanie says, "The bear's right there!" There, sitting PERFECTLY still, but facing away from us, is the backside of a black bear. Stacey and Melanie will agree with me when I say that Gemma was literally no further than seven feet from the bear.
Dad instincts kicked in - I jumped between Gemma and the bear, snatched Gemma up by whatever I could grab (sadly, I missed one of her armpits due to the speed with which I was moving, and Stacey said she just saw poor Gems' arms, legs, and diaper in a flash), and nearly fell over as we changed direction to get away from the bear.
Fortunately, the bear was startled by our flailing and scampered deeper into the clump of trees where it was sitting. After we got Gemma back into the house, once my heartbeat was out of my ears, and Stacey's kneecaps stopped shaking, we saw the bear had moved on to the next garbage can, and were able to get some pretty good pics and video. Eat your heart out National Geographic!
Gemma 1, Bear 0
THE BEAR!
1 comment:
YIKES! I can't believe she got that close to the bear! I have been scared for my girls to be outside either alone or too many feet away for the same reason. So glad it scampered off the other direction! I am bummed that I didn't realize you guys might be here last weekend (although I'm sure you were busy the entire time!) because we are still in Colorado for a few more days...
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