Note To Self....

Never charge into a gaggle of geese. Especially with your baby.

Claire and I spent an afternoon scouting out locations for her first birthday portraits to be taken. One of our stops was at Bethel Mill Park. The leaves had just started to change color and Claire clapped and clapped as a few of the leaves fell from the trees and onto her head. It was so sweet. Her first Fall! (Well, kind of. She was too little last year, right?) Claire's excitement continued to grow as we walked along the paths. She squealed at the squirrels scurrying from tree to tree and was absolutely beside herself when we came upon this group of geese... Would that be a gaggle? :)

I thought it would be funny to charge into the group (sorry can't bring myself to use gaggle seriously) and catch Claire's expression as the geese scattered. What I didn't expect was the geese to turn on US! I charged into the geese and ran a few steps away with my camera. A few of the geese scattered, but a few defiantly turned and started hissing. I made a move towards the stroller to get Claire out of there, but this one nasty goose started ruffling its feathers and causing quite a commotion. It locked eyes with Claire and it was obvious it wasn't happy with my baby girl who kept pointing and yelling at the top of her lungs "DUCK!" "DUCK!" "DUCK!"
Eventually I got up the nerve to rescue poor Claire from the angry hissing goose. I'm not sure if Claire will remember her first encounter with a "Duck", but I know I won't forget it!