before the heat of this summer, we began painting our back deck. we still haven't finished because the heat of this summer. on one day i was painting, this baby deer was sleeping in our pakasandra and let me get really close. in fact he didn't get up until his mom came back for him to nurse. he must have been only a few days old.



july 1st and 2nd were the only two days there was a break in the heat. (i should have been painting). i remember talking to my neighbor suggesting we should let our boys camp in her tent one night knowing they would be in and out of the house a million times, never fall asleep and that eventually we'd have to put the cabosh on it but it would still be fun (for them). the boys were playing during the day in colin's little tent and aiden had filled it with all essentials, then came to me asking, fully prepared for me to say no if he and brady could sleep in it overnight. i shocked him when i said yes.

it ended up being 52ish degrees that night (and garbage night) so my only input was their sleeping bags esp since aiden was donning just his skivvies. i knew they had no food (bears?!) except for the apparently obligatory camper's popcorn my other neighbor unbeknowst to me hand delivered, chatting until the last kernal was eaten and fingers licked clean.

boys actually fell asleep around 11pm ("Aiden! I Want To Go To Sleep!"). brett chose this night to be his first to pack it in before midnight. he wanted to carry them into their beds but i couldn't let him. though i had not been expecting this. no one was scared? no one made an excuse to come inside? they deserved to wake up outside. i pushed the couch close to the window inside the house but about 4' away from them outside. and without them knowing, i slept right there.

at 3am, i woke smelling skunk. i had not anticipated this either! brett told me "you don't go outside when there's a skunk out there..." after i woke him and told him to "...Get The Boys!"

boys and the sun got up together next at 5:30am.


(the window i slept beside is immediately to the left of the birdbath.)

i was pretty proud of them.