Dreamy Orange Flower

 
Fall is come and chilly air is settling in. I've had a cold the past few days and I've been grumpy about it. I hate being sick. I should take a cue from Jazz. She has the same thing and doesn't seem to notice it. 

Colorado Greenthread

 
My best guess on this flower is the Colorado Greenthread Thelesperma megapotamicum. 

Offering to the Ants

 
Rowan didn't want the ants to go hungry; the ant attacked the invading grass seeds.

Something was definitely going on here, I think a new queen and suitors were ready to make a journey. Darker, smaller, winged ants were at the center of the hole, surrounded by the brighter yellow, larger workers. 

Water Strider

 
Walking on water. 

Purple Flower

 
The purple flower caught my eye. 

Bug Sex

 
Early autumn beetle sex. 

The Yellow Line

I took the boys on another forced march. Li Mei managed to fall asleep right before we headed out, so she stayed home with daddy.

The boys wanted to hang out in the house and play with all of Kai's new birthday toys. I thought they'd been cooped up in the house too much already. The first mile was plagued with a resentful mood, but we got past that and had a nice 2+ miles after that. 

Butter-and-Eggs

 
Checking out my wildflower guide, I believe these are Linaria vulgaris of the Figwort family and also known as Toadflax. These were alongside the Inner Canyon/Lake Gulch Loop path in Castlewood Canyon State Park. 

Baby Toad

 
This baby toad is resting after being held by my boys and four girls hiking ahead of us at Castlewood Dam State Park. There were a number of little toads swimming in the creek (in the mistaken belief that was an escape route). All the kids had their shoes off in a heartbeat and soon were excitedly and lovingly holding unwilling toads. 

Croc

 
We decided to go to the zoo today before we found out about Steve Irwin's death. More people than usual were visiting the Denver Zoo's crocodile.

I only watched Steve's shows occassionally, but I thought he was funny, crazy, a little dippy and enthusiastically vivacious. He was probably one of the first people I'd seen express such excitement for all the generally unpopular animals that I like so much.

Sad. 

Fake Bumble

 
It's a fly, but when you're just passing without paying much attention, you'd swear it was a bumble bee. This fly is huge by the way. It was about as long and big as the tip of my thumb to the first knuckle.