A Nature Walk

A couple weeks ago the kids and I packed our water colors and paper, bird book, and water and headed over to the King's Park. I have mentioned this Park a lot in my posts because we go there pretty regularly, it's cheap, and beautiful! Before heading out the door, I called our teammate and friend "Aunt" Melanie (as the boys call her) and asked if she wanted to join us on our adventure. She heartily agreed to come along and so we were off to explore the beauty of the Park.

Once we parked and started walking along, Aunt Melanie mentioned that she hoped we would see a monitor lizard since she had never seen one before. She shared how "Miss Aunt Becky" (another teammate and friend who has since left Thailand) used to see them all the time while running in the Park. We were amazed that Aunt Melanie had never seen one, so we prayed for God to give us opportunity to see one of these fascinating creatures. No sooner were we done praying than we looked up and saw a white egret and then a few minutes later a monitor lizard came sneaking out of the water up onto the sidewalk across from us. It was an amazing answer to prayer! I tried to get a picture of it, but the one I got the lizard is really hard to see.

So, then we kept walking along and as we were going up over a little footbridge, two little Thai boys emerged from a hedge holding a very interesting creature. We asked if we could see it. They agreed. This beetle is ready to do battle, I do believe. My boys thought it was really cool.

(barefoot and all...isn't he sweet, the boy, that is, not the beetle!)

After we walked a little more, we stopped and took out our water colors under the shade of a "sala" (Thai word for pavillion). The boys painted some beautiful artwork of all we saw that day as we enjoyed the shade and breeze that the big pond there gives off.

The boys are trying to sneak up on an egret near the big pond...they weren't successful!