Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I thought I'd share some of the pumpkins that Antoine and I carved this year seeing as how it's Halloween and all.  It's no secret that I love pumpkins!  I love picking them, I love carving them...everything about them just makes me happy!  Well, except for the fact that they rot, which means I can't keep them forever.  Though if they did last forevver I'd probably have several thousand pumpkins sitting in my front yard and that's no good.  Anyway, this year I went a little overboard on pumpkins!  I think we had eight in all that we carved (I carved six and Antoine carved two) and then a couple smaller ones that we painted, plus an assortment of gourds...

 These three are mine:  a vampire on the left, a kitty in the middle, and Jack Skellington on the right!

 These are two of our larger ones: the one of the left is Antoine's and the cyclops is mine!  Also, in the background is Antoine's other one...though for some reason he decided to rot faster than the others, so he'll likely wind up in the garbage this weekend.  [Insert sad, pathetic face]

A basset hound pumpkin seemed like a must this year [read: Antoine insisted that I do one]

For the kitty pumpkin I decided to carve the front and back (that's why there's so much flickering candlelight in the background of the gif).  This pumpkin is actually pretty small and when I got it I had no intention of carving it, I just liked that it was still mostly green.  But then, when we were carving, it just looked so cute it needed to become a kitty!

 A couple of our gourds.

Two of the pumpkins that we painted; the gold one is mine and the silly one is Antoine's...and I'm just crazy about it!  I also painted a pumpkin for work, which you can see here.

I'll share more on our pumpkin picking adventure later, once I get the photos edited.  Until then, happy Halloween everyone and have a fantastic weekend!

Mohican State Park in September

We've finally come to the last of the camping posts.  After we deflated our air mattresses, tore down our tents, and packed up our cars we said our goodbyes and left the campground.  Before heading home Antoine and I decided to do a bit of hiking in Mohican State Park with Cheese.  We went to the same covered bridge and trail that I had visited before with my sister, but we also checked out the gorge overlook.

View from the covered bridge.

Now to the overlook, which was pretty deserted in comparison to the covered bridge.

Cheese, surveying the gorge.  We put his front paws up there just so I could snap a picture really quick, figuring he'd jump right back down, but he actually seemed to enjoy the view and really took it in!

The area surrounding the overlook.

One of the two overlook spots.

Mohican is a nice little place to spend a morning or an afternoon.  Though it's not my favorite park in Ohio, it's definitely worth checking out if you're in the area and want a breath of fresh air!

Cheesy gifs

I thought I'd share a couple cute, pointless Cheese gifs with you today since posting gifs on Friday has unintentionally become a thing with me.  Perhaps I should include a whole series called "Friday gifs" or "Friday Fun with gifs"?  If so, this will be number 7 in the series...enjoy!

Love that face!

Happy Friday everyone!  Any exciting plans this weekend?!  We're doing one of my most favorite things ever...picking pumpkins!  I can't wait!  I hope you all have a super fantastic weekend.

Ohio Bird Sanctuary

After our apple picking fun we had every intention to return to the campground and then go hiking, but as we were driving back my sister spotted a sign for the Ohio Bird Sanctuary, just down the road from Apple Hill, so we decided to check it out.  Antoine and I are always pretty cautious when we have Cheese with us, wanting to make sure he's allowed to be the places we're going.  We had already called Apple Hill ahead of time and double-checked that dogs were allowed.  But when we got to the bird sanctuary we were happy to see that dogs were allowed, on leash, except in the bird enclosure.

I had never heard of the Ohio Bird Sanctuary before, but it turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the whole trip!

The only other bird sanctuary I had ever been to was the raptor center in Yellow Springs (which I love), but this is much larger and much more interactive.

The sanctuary even had an enclosure that you could walk into and there were a variety of birds like blue jays, doves, pheasants, killdeers, etc.

Blue jays are so obnoxious (as this guy was), but so pretty!

Since the enclosure was one of the two places (the visitor's center was the other) that Cheese wasn't allowed in, my sister was kind enough to look after him while Antoine and I went inside.  Aunt Michelle was also nice enough to offer up some scratches and some lovin'...which Cheese obviously did not turn down!

The sanctuary also had a wide variety of flowers and plants in gardens surrounding the bird enclosures.  And there were a plethora of bees investigating the flowers; I simply couldn't resist...

I'm not sure what these orange bugs are but they were all over this particular plant!

Next up we took turns checking out the small but nice visitor's center...

Lazarus and Milo, two of the Eastern Screech Owls that live in the visitor's center.

A cute fluffy bunny that calls the visitor's center home.

As we were getting ready to leave one of the staff members started training with Diesel, a Red-shouldered Hawk.  After she was done she noticed we were admiring the bird and was kind enough to come closer and answer some questions about Diesel, who is a falconer's bird currently being trained as a program bird.

Then, shortly after meeting Diesel, another staff member brought Lazarus, one of the Screech Owls in the visitor's center.  Laz was actually hit by a car and thought to be dead, but made a miraculous recovery.  He has eye and brain damage which makes it hard for him to focus on objects, thus making hunting for food impossible.

This picture was taken right after Laz noticed Cheese, who was sitting about six feet away and started whining (probably because we were paying attention to an owl instead of him).  Laz proceeded to focus on Cheese, not taking his eyes off him, for several minutes.  The staff member said that was a big deal for Lazarus since he usually couldn't focus on something that far away for that amount of time!

It was so cool to see this little guy up close!  And I think he enjoyed being out in the warm sun for a while.

If you're ever in the area I highly suggest you check out the Ohio Bird Sanctuary!  It's a great place to spend a couple hours, plus it is free and very informational!