Camping out night for the boys

On Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend we had the nephews overnight. They are now 6 and 5 years old. The 5 year old got a new tent for his birthday, so the overnight camp was planned and Ichabod brought his tent also.

We picked them up on Saturday evening and they set up the tents while it was still light out.


As you can see, Annie supervised the whole thing.







Then there was the fire over which they roasted marshmallows. Couldn't fool them into eating soy dogs.



And, how could you get by without the gratuitous Annie shots?




Chewing on her favorite toy, a stick.


Trying to retrieve a stick that's larger than she is. :)

Thank you Ms. Bucky 4 Eyes

Hey, check out my blog's new look! Bucky set this up for me. Now, not only does it look cool, I'm able to post larger pictures than I could before without all of my sidebar dropping to the bottom.

Let's see how the picture thing works.



Woo-hoo, it works! Thanks, sis!

I should also mention that Tuesday, the 30th, is my little sister's birthday. Everybody go say hi!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

We're roasting soy dogs and marshmallows over the fire in Fruitport tonight. Yes, we're house- and dog-sitting for Ichabod's folks. Two nights in the country, can't beat it.

I've been taking some photos. They will be posted, maybe tomorrow.

In case you don't get a chance to stop back, have a great Memorial Day weekend!

This is weird

This is weird and a bit creepy. I took this for the fun of it and it got me right.

You Are Likely a Second Born

At your darkest moments, you feel inadequate. At work and school. you do best when you're evaluating. When you love someone, you offer them constructive criticism. In friendship, you tend to give a lot of feedback - positive and negative. Your ideal careers are: accounting, banking, art, carpentry, decorating, teaching, and writing novels. You will leave your mark on the world with art and creative projects.

The Birth Order Predictor

Walk along the river

Yesterday the weather was pretty nice. We've been getting a lot of rain, but it was sunny and the temperature got into the 60s. We decided to check out the river. I wanted to see how much flooding there was.

It's fairly high, but it usually is during the spring. Here are some photos that might show the high water level.




This is supposed to be part of the walkway along the river.



And there were no fish on the fish ladder that day. Probably explains the dearth of fishermen in the river.





I liked this big log that was stuck on the ledge in the rapids.



Of course, there was some wildlife along the way.




I wish I'd had these on Mother's Day.




Then there are sights along the way that don't always count as pure nature shots.

You might have to click on this one and choose All Sizes to see the whale bones hanging in the museum window.

You can actually read the words in the large version of this one.

This is the Calder. They use its image all over Grand Rapids.
I'd never noticed this before.

And here's Ichabod. He likes to walk along this little wall and jump the spaces in between.

And, if anyone can tell me what this is, I'd really appreciate it!

Along came a spider

I was sitting at my desk, just minding my own business, when some movement caught my eye. I looked up and this is what I saw getting closer and closer to my workstation.



A nice guy I work came over and killed him for me. But not until after I'd taken three pictures. Blogging has brought out a whole new side of me.

The pen is mightier...

Last night, when I got home from visiting my mother, Ichabod was working at the kitchen sink. I thought that he might be making some cole slaw or something. When I got a closer look, his fingers looked weird.

On closer inspection, I realized that his fingers were blue. He won't tell me exactly what happened, but it looks like he had a fight with an ink pen. And I'm not entirely sure which of them won.

They were more blue yesterday but I didn't get a picture until tonight.

Dogwood and Horse Chestnut

Took my camera out again the other day. I saw a pink dogwood and a horse chestnut that were blooming. And, of course, I thought I'd share.

When I posted dogwood before, it was white, creamy, version. This is a pink dogwood.





I always thought the horse chestnut was an interesting tree from a distance. They get really huge and have interesting-looking leaves and clumps of blooms. But the flowers were much prettier than I realized.

Flowering Tree

I took these pictures last week of these trees where I work. They are so full of blossoms this year. I'm glad I got the pictures when I did. They're starting to lose petals. When that happens it looks like a white carpet. Anyway, here are the pictures. And, as always, they look better when you click on them to see the large size.

Prom night again

Ichabod and I went on Friday night to see the last opera of the season, La Traviata. It was a good show and the female lead had a really fantastic voice.

We decided to go to the Bull's Head Tavern for dinner before the show. It's a good thing we made a reservation. The place was pretty busy, including some kids who were obviously going to prom. Last year we ran into the same thing. But this year the guys were much more loud and obnoxious.

They teased the waitress about bringing drinks to the table. She wasn't amused. Then the boy at the head of the table, who was also the loudest, stood up. He announced that he was going to the bathroom and asked who wanted to go with him.

Okay, we all know how it works. When girls go to the restroom in public places they don't usually go alone. But men do, and they don't announce it to the whole room. So when he said that I couldn't help looking up. He asked the guys again who was going with him and he had this "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" look in his eye.

I was pretty sure they weren't going down there for sex. So it had to be booze or some other, probably illegal, drug. And they made more than one trip to the bathroom together during the meal. I wasn't going to stick my nose into it, but I did say a silent prayer that they all ended up home, safe and sound, that night.

A walk on my birfday weekend

Ichabod and I went for a walk in Lamoreaux Park last weekend. I played hogs of the camera and took all of these with his Sony Mavica.

The weather was perfect. It wasn't hot, it wasn't cold, it wasn't too sunny. It was really nice.

As always, these will look better if you click on them and choose All Sizes and pick Large.


And since spring is here I wanted to get some spring flower pictures. Starting off with flowering trees.

This is called a Juneberry or Serviceberry tree.

I think this one is called a Thornapple.

This is a Dogwood tree.

Then, of course, I had to get some shots of the Grand River.





And I really liked the bridge here.






And the little wildflowers are fun, too.

Not sure what these are.

I believe these are called Spring Beauties.

This one's kinda blurred, but I think it's a Swamp Buttercup.

Just another fun shot.





Warning!!! The next two pictures feature a snake (oh, and Ichabod). If you don't like snakes, then scroll past the next two quickly.





Skunk cabbage.

Just a picture with reflections in a small swamp.

And, for August, a stump covered in fungus.