Duck Tales and Friendly Goats

These past couple of weeks have been really great.



Life isn't always peaches and cream, but when I've been in a depressed haze for six(ish) months and suddenly come out of it, I realize how beautiful life is, how beautiful the earth is, and how beautiful my family is!



I have a lot to be grateful for.



I'm finally taking advantage of having the entire day with my beautiful daughter.  She is such a happy, carefree, spunky little girl. She makes little things exciting.



We've been taking our dogs on walks every day. Not just outside around the grass, but actual walks, over to the community pond, and we walk all the way around the pond.  It takes about 20 minutes total.


Yesterday we were out there for an hour, and we both got a little burned.  I got distracted by a couple of ducks.


When we first walked up, I thought one was attacking the other.  One duck had the other by the neck, and was forcing its head under water.  Just when I was about to throw a sea shell at the ducks, the duck broke free and swam away really fast.

The antagonist chased the duck around, and tried to attack again and again.


Then I realized that it was a boy, and he was trying to mate with the other duck, which I assume is female.


I'm a little embarrassed by how long it took me to realize this.


So then I calmed down, and wasn't so worried about the ducks.  Although, clearly this lady duck was NOT interested.  And that boy should have gotten a clue.

If you look closely, you can see one duck biting another in the neck.

 Lily picked me some flowers.

And she asked me to take her picture.

Today we went to Animal Kingdom.  We don't go there very often because there aren't very many rides for small children. My goal was to not go on any rides and just experience the animals.

We were headed towards the "Affection Section" where you can pet goats and stuff, when we saw.... Daisy Duck!

Seriously. My legs though. Why.
They don't match the rest of my body in any way: Color. Shape. Texture. Oh, and I have a huge bruise that I have no idea where it came from. It's actually mostly healed... you should have seen it last week!

Lily got a Wilderness Explorer book where you earn "badges" after completing tasks and finding certain things.

She.loved.it.

Here she is by a giant "shark." (Lily says it's a shark. It's really a fish, but I can't remember the name of it.)

She wanted to take my picture.

Riding the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch.

Brushing a goat.

Brushing another goat.

After having a major meltdown, we had a snack. Cheetos and lemonade. Yum! (I hate Cheetos.)

She was doing a "backyard scavenger hunt." There were pictures of several bugs/creatures/animals in her book, and she had to circle the ones she found. She loved this so much we had to do it twice!
Here she is circling something she found.

Pointing at something she found.

We had a great day.  There was still a ton more non-ride things to do at Animal Kingdom, but you can only get so far in a few hours alone with a toddler.  Next time we will go on jungle treks and see some tigers and gorillas.  Lily loves animals, and having a little booklet makes her even more interested in them.