Cool bug! Pretty Bug! Another post for Grandpa Payne!

The girls and I found this bug in Grammy's backyard here in Farmington, NM. It was about 2 inches long. I ran inside to grab my camera, but it was gone before I got back outside, so these are from an image search . It moves VERY fast, like a dragonfly. It looks like a flying ant, but indeed it is another wasp!!! It's scientific name is "Chlorion aerarium" AKA Steel Blue Cricket Hunter. I know because the girls wanted to look it up on the computer and after a half hour of searching we finally found it!! You'd think that "Giant metallic blue bug" would get a lot of search hits. Not so, the search results were all beetles. So there's our science for the day!

Hunter in action!!!

Fighting on Father's Day!!

We had a stupendous water fight for father's day this year. The girls and I gave Eric super soaker squirt guns for father's day and his dad got in on the fun as well! It was a BLAST!!!! We are so blessed to have the best daddy ever!!!!! We love you Eric!!

Chris and Lou

Our very interesting, chain smoking, RedSox fans, upstairs neighbors: Chris (rt) and Lou(lft). Dispite their crazy and unusual habits we became very good friends. They were our only friends to exclusively use our front door and the reason we told our other friends to use the back door (the front wreaked or cigarette smoke). 2-3 times a week they would knock on our door bearing the only gifts they could afford - canned goods from the food pantries. Eric and Chris often bantered about the Red Sox and Yankees baseball games. "You're in Red Sox Nation! You shouldn't cheer for that Chicken Cheatin Jeter Crybaby!" Eric would encourage her to admit she has a crush on Derek Jeter! So funny!
Lou claimed Brielle had a crush on him and indeed she was fascinated with his blind but briliantly blue eyes. And his New England big nose and poofy mustache drew her curious attention as well. They both had heavy new england accents and talked about life in New Hampshire and what it was like to grow up with large families. They weren't married but Chris would take every opportunity to inform you that they act married! TMI Ha Ha she was a hoot!

Allison is 4!!!

We had a great party for Allison complete with another princess cake! I love all of the expressions she has for each moment! She for sure is very full of life.