Family afternoon

I took the day off today, having worked a week ago Sunday, and ended up spending part of the afternoon at my parents' place. Which, naturally, means bird photos for you.

A male Cardinal in what I believe is a type of willow:





Because there were a bunch of us outside (more on that in a bit), this female Cardinal was a bit skittish about coming in and landing on the feeder; she made quite a few passes overhead, and would approach the feeder only to flutter nearby for a moment before retreating to the trees once again. Although she might not have gotten a lot to eat, I ended up with some nifty photos:









After a while, some male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks became acclimated enough to the human activity to take their own chances at the feeder:







Today I wasn't the only family member visiting my folks for dinner: Melissa, who lives with my cousin Michael, came by with their three kids Jared, Nathan, and Kyle. The boys had a lot of fun playing outside with some of my brother's old toys as Kaylee tried to keep an eye on everyone—I have little doubt once she lays down to sleep tonight she won't budge again until tomorrow morning. And even then it'll only be to take care of the necessities.

At any rate, first up are some pictures of Jared coming through the tube attached to a small tent Mom and Dad got for he and his brothers to play in:







Next is Nathan, aka the Toddler Without Fear. Seriously, you turn your back on him for two seconds, and the next thing you know he's halfway onto the dining room table:







And Kyle, Nathan's fraternal twin:







This was one of the few times the entire afternoon/evening that the three of them were all within the same frame and were still enough to photograph; note that Nathan is already working on escaping his chair:



Finally, today's dose of Kaylee goodness...

Giving Nathan the sniff test:



Watching me very carefully in case she and her bone need to move out of my reach:



Demonstrating her omnivorous appetite by munching on a carrot:



Getting loved up by her mommy:



And to close things out, a shot of Kaylee sort of backlit by the afternoon sun: