a cool fall morning...

I started this post a week ago. It was originally to fill you in on our week of Thanksgiving. I was unable to finish it and so, I have abandoned the idea of sharing our Thanksgiving week in detail. I figure at this point, the week of Thanksgiving is old news.

So, instead I'm just going to focus on one of my favorite memories from that week. We took a day to do a little exploring here in our small town of Belton, Texas. We really like this town and enjoy driving around the downtown area looking at the historical homes and dreaming of one day owning one.

On this day, we skipped the houses and went looking for Nolan Creek, which runs through downtown Belton. We had heard about the Creek but, didn't know where it was.

After short drive (very short, it was only like two or three miles from our house) we found the creek and stopped at a nice little spot for a closer look.

The white things scattered everywhere are duck feathers

It was a cool, cloudy fall day and the rains had just cleared out, so the creek was abandoned except for a few fishermen and some grumpy old ducks. We sat by the creek enjoying the cool fall air, which is rare here in Central Texas. We usually go straight from the heat of summer to the cold of winter and don't really get to enjoy a fall. But, this year we have and it's been very nice. The trees, bushes and other foliage have turned colors; beautiful oranges, yellows and reds! Fall has certainly brought beauty with it this year!

I secretly snapped a picture of the fisherman. The picture is from a distance, so they're only in the background. I hope they don't mind but, I thought it was a "Kodak moment" with them on the edge of the creek, fishing on a cool fall morning.

I just wish I could have gotten up the nerve to go ask them if I could take their picture closer up.

and here are the grumpy old ducks.

I think this one was warning Madi ~ "hey kid, you better back up!"

I think somehow the ducks knew what would end up happening, knew that the combination of a child and a dog was not good because....

Madi gets this idea She's looking down the creek at the ducks and starts forming this idea of hers

She turns to us and asks if she can "run down there" - in other words, chase after the ducks. Jack tells her yes and she takes off laughing Bella, who has been sniffing the ground the entire time, takes off along side Madi. At first she's just trotting along, sniffing as she goes

still trotting, still sniffing... here's where Bella figures out what's going on... she sees what's up ahead and takes off... leaving Madi behind...

The ducks figure out what's going on....

and clumsily flop their way into the creek. Madi looks back laughing. Bella's looking after the ducks - she doesn't like water, so she wasn't going near the edge of the creek. So, the duck live to see another day!

Meanwhile, Jack and I watched, enjoying the moment and the sound of Madison's contagious laughter. We had a good time and created a few funny memories. Everyone seemed to be happy on the ride home...everyone except Bella...

she was pouting....she really wanted one of those grumpy old ducks!