Bug Catching and Butterfly Watching

Our intrepid explorer asks daily to venture outside to hunt for bugs with her Daddy. We have her bug catchers within easy reach and you can bet she'll grab them and ask her dad for her daily adventure. She has brought a number of interesting little creatures into the house to show her mommy on more than several occasions and I must control my urge to run wildly in the opposite direction in order to admire her catch. They are then all released, of course, back into their natural environment. T has created a wonderland of plants that attracts birds, butterflies and if you look in just the right places, bugs.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer and managing to have fun despite the wicked and miserable heat.

9th

Jia, your mommy and daddy have now been in love for 9 years. We fell in love the moment our eyes met. Seriously. We met on July 3rd 2001. Our dear friends were having a 4th of July party. My friends, his friends - who happened to live across the street from each other. I drove from Washington DC and your daddy drove from Hampton, VA. I was visiting with Carlos and JR and they said that there was a really cute guy across the street visiting Beth and Mike. I said, yes, they are ALL cute. But then I walked across the street and there was your dad! He WAS (and is)cute. But there was also some crazy magic that happened that night. I'm including some pictures of our days together. Not quite "the first" meeting but a few from early in our lives.

We never dreamed that just 7 years later you would become our daughter. How truly lucky are we!