Animal Kingdom in Orem, Utah

A few weeks ago, Spencer suddenly rode his bike into the garage, almost in tears and said, "Mom! There's a snake!" Thinking it was probably just a large worm, I set out to reassure him and said, "Don't worry, I'll come look at it." So we started walking up the sidewalk at which point I saw the snake out of the corner of my eye right before I nearly stepped on it. I then shrieked like a little girl.

And there it was. In a crack in the side walk between our house and the neighbors'. Eeek. In all my years of living in Utah I had never seen a snake like this.

Pretty soon a crowd had gathered.

Once we had confirmation that it was just a garter snake (or "gardener" snake as my kids kept calling it) it was immediately taken into captivity by our 8-year-old neighbor. Who then brought it in our kitchen with Spencer who wanted to know if he could hold it too. (I screamed again and gently but emphatically invited them to do it outside.)
Then the snake proceeded to poop on Spencer's arm. I never knew that snakes pooped or where the poop came from. Now we know. (That poor snake was probably scared to death.)
Later that night we were feeding the ducks at a local park for Family Home Evening where we witnessed some more animal drama. A male mallard duck started attacking a female and biting her on the back of the head while she was trying to get away. (In front of young children, no less!) Then another male duck came and got him off her back and the two 'good' ducks flew over to the rocks. The poor female had a hurt leg too! Then every time the female duck went back into the water the 'bad' duck would come after her again. We're talking some serious drama. It drew a crowd and we had to finally tear ourselves away. So much excitement in one day!