The Hutchins: The squirrel incident.

Before I explain, first let me share some precious pictures of Blake from this week. This was taken while he was running, thus its blurry. See a short video clip next of the running. If I remember correctly, he was so tired that he was very giggly and running around to try to stay awake. I love his naked belly. =)

And here is a cute picture of Blake with his grandparents,who came to visit this weekend. Can you tell he's loved? =)

O.K., so the squirrel incident. =) Last week, I walked Dakota to the back door where we let her out to do her business in the backyard. On the way, she stopped in the back room to sniff at this vent that's close to the floor. She seemed very interested in this vent, and suddenly, she decided that she didn't want to go outside anymore (very unlike her). I tapped on the vent and heard something move, then immediately screamed for Dalton to get there quickly. Luckily, Blake was at daycare.

So Dalton gets a flashlight and looks inside the vent to find a furry little creature (eek!). Last year, we had a squirrel who lived in a holly tree in our front yard, so we kinda adopted him and called him Nelson. I'd see him everytime I was leaving the house or coming home, and I'd always say hello. =) Now any squirrel we see is "Nelson." Just something we do--we never know if its really him or not. So I asked Dalton, is it a rat?? He says, "no, its Nelson." =)

We left it alone for a few hours, hoping it would find his way back out through the air vent that it fell threw to get there (still working on figuring out how to keep the critters out of our vents!). When we came back, Nelson was still there. So we strategized. We had just spent most of the day cleaning out a room full of boxes (stuff that had been there since we moved in TWO years ago!). I brought in one of the empty tubs and luckily it fit perfectly around the vent. Dalton unscrewed the vent cover, and both us held the tub up to the opening, hoping Nelson would run in, then we could slide the lid across and close it in (oh, and I put a little granola in the box as bait). He didn't budge. Then Dalton got a broom stick and poked around while we held the box tightly in place, and BAM!! It flew out of the vent and into the box--I moved quick like lightening and slid the lid across to block him in. We caught it! Then started laughing, nervously. =) Hilarious. It would have been funny to measure our heart rates, as well as Nelson's. Then we decided to let Dakota say hello before we released him back into the wild of our backyard. She tries everyday to chase squirrels but never catches them. This was the closest she'd ever been to a squirrel. Below are a few pictures as well as a video clip of Dakota meeting Nelson. =) Enjoy.