Life and Times of Carly B

I Have Moved!

2007-09-20T14:30:00.000-04:00

Well, my blog has anyway. You can click here to go to my new blog. I don't plan to add anything more to this one, so you should bookmark the new one if you are a regular to my blog.

WW - Sunspots and Cuddles

2007-09-18T16:54:00.000-04:00

Joe enjoys 2 of his favorite things: a cuddle with one of his people and a warm "sunspot."

Back to the Cemetery!

2007-09-16T10:21:00.000-04:00

After we went to the cemetery in the neighboring city, I discovered that there is a Frank Lloyd Wright design in that cemetery. It is the Blue Sky Mausoleum. We had to go back to that city on Tuesday, so I took along the camera (of course) and went back to the cemetery.
Here it is from across the spring that it overlooks.

The next three pictures are just from different angles and distances, with the third one being my favorite. I want to go back and photograph it at dusk, as I think it would look amazing then.

This is another of my favorites of the day. It is across the spring from the Blue Sky Mausoleum. I just really like the composition and the colors.

This was taken from the bottom of the mausoleum, looking straight across the spring. Beautiful, isn't it? Whenever I go to this cemetery, I feel as though I am in a park, not a cemetery. Clarke, who designed the cemetery, intended for it to become a place where people could come and stroll and take in the natural beauty and admire the artistic sculptures. I believe his vision has been realized and then some!

After photographing the mausoleum, we drove around photographing other things that caught our attention. This headstone stood out among those around it. If you click to enlarge it, you will see how beautiful it is.

This monument is apparently the very elaborate top of the tomb in which the man portrayed in the scene inside the glass, is buried. There is actually a sign on one side of the monument that says the man is buried below the floor of the structure. I don't even want to think about why it might be necessary to mention that!

This bench Erin is sitting on is one of four that faces the above monument.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just want to scream "what is wrong with you?" at your kids when you suddenly realize that they probably have no clue that what they are doing is stupid? Well, enter the wild turkeys! As we pulled around a bend, we saw two of them. I really wanted a picture, so I jumped out of the car and slowly began creeping up on them. My MIL went with us and was driving, so I had to go around the van to get to them. Well, Kyle decided he was going to get out and take a picture as well. Not understanding that wild turkeys can easily outrun humans, Kyle took off running after them...need I say more? Then when Sarah jumped out running, all hope was lost. I went sulking back to the van, while the two hooligans chased the poor fowl through the cemetery. Kyle managed to get one okay shot. Needless to say, my children now know that turkeys run very fast and that Mom really wants to photograph one and they better not get involved next time!

Grumpy about film!

2007-09-16T09:45:00.001-04:00

I was so excited when I got my first roll of film (that I had recently shot) developed. I was impressed that I could take decent photos. So when we got ready to go to the Irish Festival last weekend, I grabbed my Minolta, and headed out. For some unknown reason I had a difficult time loading the film into the camera. I took a whole roll of 36 exposures and was so excited, until I went to wind the film back on the roll to remove it from the camera. I got about a turn and a half when the film had obviously released from the camera. My heart sank. I had "taken" some really cool shots that I couldn't wait to see. Hopeful that I had just imagined the roll not being loaded properly, I took the film to have it developed, but my worst fear was realized...the roll was empty!
As I was just finishing uploading the pictures that Sarah took at the cemetery, I found these...

The two little girls in these pictures, are my nieces. My sister-in-law came for a visit from out of town. Her two little girls had a great time dancing to the music of the Dady Brothers. My Erin, who took Irish dance last year but decided she really wants to be a hockey goalie, danced for the better part of an hour while listening to the Dady Brothers. She really is good, but for her to do both activities is too expensive and she decided hockey is what she really wants to do.

As you can see from the kids faces, it was a very warm night under the tent. The festival is in a park and they set up a huge circus style tent for all the festivities. There are people selling their wares, food stands, and lots of musical and dancing acts. The temperature outside was tolerable for early September. A bit on the warm side, but not too bad. However, inside the tent full of people, it was unbearable. I was just sitting, or standing, taking pictures, moving around as little as possible, and I kept having to dry the back of my flash because my forehead was resting on it and kept getting it soaked. I had invited my mom to come, but it is a really good thing she didn't make it, she would have boiled over since her body does not sweat for some reason.
Here is a terrific picture that Sarah took of her grandpa.

I was quite pleased that Sarah had taken these photos, since all the picture I thought I had taken, I hadn't!

My bad!

2007-09-16T09:42:00.000-04:00

I started a post several days ago, and well, kinda forgot about it. If you scroll down a couple posts, there is a "new" post about a very cool cemetery, yes another one, that the kids and I checked out last week.

WW Headless?

2007-09-11T23:09:00.000-04:00

Relaxing Sunday Morning

2007-09-09T22:12:00.000-04:00

When I awoke this morning it was rather rainy, but I had promised Kyle a bike ride in the park. We headed out ready to get rained on, and sure enough, we got mighty damp. When we came back, I took a leisurely, warm shower and decided I needed Starbucks. Fortunately there is one very near by, so I hopped in the car and ran up to get a cup of Chai and a coffee for Jeff. Every fall, Starbucks brings back their pumpkin scones. These tasty little treats are one of my favorites. While I was there this morning, they happened to have some, so I got one for myself and a cream cheese danish for Jeff. The danish are my favorite when pumpkin scones are not in season. Upon arriving home, Jeff and I enjoyed our tasty treats and played a game of Rummy 500. It was a very pleasant morning.

Another Cemetery

2007-09-09T21:11:00.000-04:00

We live near a very large, very old Victorian cemetery. It is, in fact, the first municipal Victorian cemetery in the country. On Friday, the kids and I decided to venture through it. We drive past often, but had never been in and were quite surprised by the amount of relief in the natural landscape of the place. The cemetery we went to last week was relatively flat and very landscaped. The contrast between the two is simply amazing!
The first several pictures in this post were taken with my Minolta x-700 film camera. I have been afraid of film since using a digital point and shoot for the last 7 or 8 years. I finally broke down and dug it out about a year ago, but only took a handful of pictures. The film then sat in the camera for over a year when I took it out on Friday and finished out the roll. Here are the recent results...

This was in a very shady spot and silly me, didn't think I needed the flash.

To say there was a gentle breeze on Friday would be a gross understatement, so I was impressed that these are as in focus as they are.

I have a zoom lens for the camera which I am still trying to figure out.

There were stairs like these all throughout the cemetery. Very old and very interesting!

You can see a little bit from these pictures that the landscape is very natural and has a ton of relief. Some of the roads that we drove on were marked as seasonal roads and I totally understand why. There is NO way I would venture down them in snow and ice. One attempting to would be likely to end up off the road and in some headstones.
I was impressed that 1) I can in fact take pictures with film, 2) the film was okay after sitting in the camera for over a year, 3) when I got them developed they gave me prints and a CD. Now how cool is that?
The pictures that remain were taken with the kids Fuji cameras.

Most of these pictures the kids took with their own cameras, but this one I took because I really like the epitaph.

I didn't pay really close attention to what the kids were photographing, so I was surprised when I loaded their pictures onto my computer. Sarah took this one, which I thought was pretty neat.

Because the cemetery is so old and so large, many of the oldest headstones are badly in need of repair. We did see several that were in various states of repair, but their were many others that had not been gotten to yet.

Sarah was apparently inspired by some of the symbolism on the headstones...

As we were walking back to the car, very overheated and ready to go, one of the kids said "wait" and then the others giggled. Thinking they had found something funny, I stopped and turned around. They were still walking towards me, so I wasn't sure what was so funny, so I kept walking. Then they said it again, and again. Getting annoyed (remember I was way overheated at this point) I turned to grumble at them and they pointed to the headstone below. We all had a good laugh.

I am not sure why, now that I think about it, but I was expecting something different; her headstone looks just like the stones of the other members of her family. Nothing fancy, just a simple, unassuming headstone.

Sarah did not take these fungus pictures, I did. I really like fungus for some reason. I don't eat mushrooms if I can avoid them, but I really like looking at fungus. Do you think I have a problem?
I couldn't resist this one with the little berry hanging there in front of the way cool fungus!

I really like the way this one came out. Hmm, maybe I could get a job photographing stuff for science books...hmmm....

Happy 12th Birthday to Sarah!

2007-09-09T13:55:00.000-04:00

Well, all 3 kids have had there birthdays now, so summer must be winding down. Sarah's birthday is on September 6, but we celebrated it last weekend. I was going to post her pictures a while ago, but I had to work 6 days in a row (I typically work 3 or 4) so I was a zombie that barely knew my name by the end of it. I have had a couple days to recover, so here she is...
Sarah is a big fan of Sponge Bob Square Pants....

...lighthouses....

...and taking pictures.

Needless to say, she had a wonderful birthday. After opening her presents she had a little cake...

A Day at the Cemetery

2007-08-29T16:46:00.000-04:00

No, nobody died. The kids all had their annual physicals yesterday, so we went to the next city in order to accomplish that lovely, all day ordeal. Since Jeff works in the next city and his insurance covers doctors there, we decided to switch the kids to a new doc. there. Whenever they need to go to the doctor, I take Jeff to work, take the kids to the doctor, then we hang out until he is finished at work. Yesterday we decided to go to a really cool cemetery that is reported to have a really cool waterfall in it. Well, you all know how I love waterfalls!!!
We picked up a map of the cemetery upon our arrival. Unfortunately, the waterfall was not labeled on the map, just a bunch of grave plots. Can you imagine, my waterfall wasn't important enough!?! A creek and small lake (pond) were however marked, so we parked at the lake. Next to the lake is a mausoleum garden. As I got out of the car, I grabbed my camera and turned it on. There were 3 little dashes, indicating no memory card. With great restraint (from throwing the camera into the pond) I put it back in the car and asked Kyle if I could use his instead. He graciously (feeling pity, I think) agreed to share. His camera takes better pictures anyway!
Kyle took pictures of a couple neat mausoleums.

This statue, "Little Girl," is in memory of all children.

We had to be careful as we navigated around the lake, there were geese (and goose offerings) everywhere.

Kyle took a picture of this Koi in the lake.

Although not a fan of Greek mythology, I thought "The Three Graces" was a neat statue. Apparently these 3 goddesses were supposed to have dispensed beauty, charm, and mirth to mortals. I think they just make a cool statue.

I couldn't find anything on these two little girls. Kyle and I read the plaque on the front, but neither of us could remember any of the details. I guess we will have to go back sometime.

This monument stuck up much higher than the surrounding headstones and I also found the contrast between this very old stately monument and the more modern one, further uphill to the right, amusing.

The Letchworth-Skinner Mausoleum is the most expensive in the cemetery. The interior is apparently constructed of Italian and Egyptian marble on 3 levels. In 1872, when it was erected, it cost $100,000. Seems like a lot of money to spend on the deceased! As of 2001, there were 32 family members buried there.

I just thought this little Mausoleum in the hillside was neat.

My children found the "doorbells" on this monument humorous. They really do look like doorbells.

This is a monument in the honor of Paul Schoellkopf. His family was responsible for providing electricity for street lamps and street cars in the Buffalo area in 1896.

Kyle took this picture of the chapel and crematory.

The day was rather hot, and just as we were running out of steam and getting ready to head back to the car, I spotted this guy. I couldn't resist taking his picture! Isn't he cool? I am not certain of his story, but he is definitely neat!

This is the very small, rather unimpressive waterfall that I set out to find. Unfortunately, the stream at this point is in a rather deep ravine and the brush is very overgrown on the sides, making it nearly impossible to see. It sounded much more impressive. Too bad I couldn't record the sound of it for you.

As we were driving out of the cemetery, Kyle asked me to snap a picture of the geese on my side of the car. I had Jeff's car and his driver side window does not work, so I had to open the door. Apparently that didn't make this one goose nervous at all. I thought she was going to come right in!

As I said before, the day was very hot but we had brought water with us. Erin is very thin and usually a little chilly even when the rest of us are a little warm. At one point she began complaining of stomach cramps and being too warm. When I looked closely at her, I decided we better make a beeline for the car and try to stay in the shade in so doing. She was obviously suffering from too much heat and a little dehydration. Even though I had brought water, Erin is not a fan, unless she is extraordinarily thirsty. Unfortunately, by that point the rest of us had almost finished the water, leaving her a mere sip or two. As we walked back to the car, I was a bit concerned about her, but figured she would be okay. Suddenly Erin announced that she thought she saw a man that looked like Jesus. At this point I became VERY concerned, thinking she was hallucinating. Then I realized there were several men wearing togas wandering about in the cemetery. This struck me as quite odd and piqued my curiosity. Kyle was too shy to get a good picture of them and I was too busy getting Erin into the air conditioning to bother, so we have no pictures. I did however ask them what they were doing and was informed that they were filming a movie. I don't know about you, but I found that odd (for a cemetery)!

WW At the cemetery?

2007-08-28T23:54:00.001-04:00

Yes, those are couches made of stone!?!

Genesee Country Village

2007-08-28T22:59:00.000-04:00

I took my mom to the Genesee Country Village and Museum last Sunday for her birthday. This post is a week late, as I have been overwhelmingly busy and just haven't had time to post. Anyway, the Village is a wonderful place where 19th century life is relived every day. On the day that we went, there was an Old Time Fiddlers Fest going on, which occurs the same weekend every year. Twenty years ago, Mom and I went to our first one, so this is always a special event for us, but we rarely get to go by ourselves. This time however, it worked out that it was just the two of us and what a time we had. I took close to 100 pictures (my memory card only holds that many) and she took just over 350. I think we totally captured the spirit of the place, at least as much as one can. It really must be experienced for the full effect, and experience it we did!

As my mom did on her blog, I am going to simply post the pictures, without much explanation. Pictures truly can be worth a thousand words. Some of the photos are duplicates, as I was playing with black and white and sepia tones.

Kyle's 15th

2007-08-28T21:09:00.000-04:00

I am having serious trouble believing it, but my oldest just turned 15. He towers over me, not hard when I stand a whopping 5'2", and is beginning to look much more like a young man than an awkward teen. My babies are getting old! Good thing I'm still only 25! :) Yeah, go ahead, I know you all are ROTFL!

Kyle got some cool presents, especially his Fuji Funpix E550 digital camera. It was amusing when he opened it because he didn't know what it was at first. It came in a bright green box that said Fuji on it. I think he thought the box was from something else and had gotten reused for a gift of some sort for him. The look of surprise when he realized what it was, was priceless!

I will post the pics of his celebration with minimal verbiage, enjoy...

I think he's surprised and happy...

Yup...quite happy!

After celebrating his birthday (a few days early) we all went to the local amusement park for a little fun and games. I stayed on Terra Firma, except for a short ride on a bobsled roller coaster.
Instead, I took pictures of the kids on several rides. I will not say much about these either, except for the one with Erin, Sarah, and my FIL upside down. Jeff is terrified that Erin will get hurt on amusement park rides. We had a bad experience with her on one of those pirate ship things in which it looked very much like she would come right out of the thing. Since then Jeff gets very nervous when Erin rides any type of ride...she is after all, Daddy's little(st) girl! She announced she was going on this crazy upside down ride with her sister. They latch you into this ride better than Nascar drivers get cinched in. The whole time she was in line, Jeff looked as though he would be ill. Then when she got on the ride, I thought he would climb onto it and "rescue" she who needed no rescuing! Needless to say, she survived, he recovered, and all had fun. Here are the pics...

The bumper cars taught us 2 lessons...Kyle may not be a good driver...

Sarah should be "Driving Miss Daisy" loosely translated, she drives like an old lady. We had to tell her to hit other cars. She was just cruising very carefully around the outside avoiding any collisions. LOL!

Up...

...and down!

We had a very long, tiring, but fun day. The next day was my Mom's anniversary, followed by her birthday the following day, so I took her someplace special since Mark wasn't feeling well...

Music at the Lakeshore

2007-08-28T20:10:00.000-04:00

On August 15th the girls and I went with my MIL to see the Dady Brothers. I have mentioned them before and they continue to be my favorite Irish musicians. When they perform, they are able to draw in all age groups and all types of people. Their ability to draw people, both young and old, into the music is wonderful, and they are simply funny. This was a free concert by the shore sponsored by Wegmans. There was a sea of people that just seemed to go on and on. I didn't take very many pictures as we were quite a ways back, but I did get a few pictures of the beach and things.

Well, I HAD some nice pictures! I am having serious problems with my camera and I seem to lose pictures on a fairly regular basis. I take the picture, I view the picture (in the camera), then I upload all the pictures, and some simply disappear! That is, when the camera doesn't decide to simply lock up and not take pictures at all!!! GRRRRR!

Anyway...the nice pictures I HAD from the concert are in the thumbnails in Adobe, but the files containing the pictures are gone! I guess the gremlins took them when they deleted the pics from the memory card! So I am sorry for the lack of pictures, but they really were neat. I had a couple of sailboats on the horizon on the lake, one of several Irish dancers getting ready to perform with their brightly colored costumes, and a couple of my girls dancing to the music. Hopefully you have a good imagination!

ARGGGGGG! Can't wait to get my hands on a Nikon D40! I am now officially saving (every penny I can) for one! Since photography has become a passion for me, I guess it's time to bring out the big guns and get the best camera I can in an amateur price range.

WW Erin Eyes

2007-08-21T16:23:00.001-04:00

My daughter, Erin, has amazing eyes.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2007-08-19T07:17:00.000-04:00

This summer seems like such a blur! We have gone so many places and done so many things this summer, that it seems to have gone by with screaming speed. The past couple of weeks have been very busy for some reason and I have simply been too tired to post anything. So now I have quite a few pictures and a few adventures.
Living where we do, we have many great historical and cultural institutions nearby. Last Sunday we went to the George Eastman House to see an Ansel Adams exhibit. As I have mentioned before, I am a fan of black and white photography, so I was very excited to be able to see Ansel Adams' work! For obvious reasons, photos of his work are not allowed, so I only have a couple pictures from the Eastman House. However, a coupon for a free Ansel Adams postcard was included with each admission ticket to the Ansel Adams exhibit. I was able to convince Kyle and Jeff that they wanted postcards (even though they really didn't). So even though I could not take pictures at the exhibit, I did frame my postcards and photograph them...

This picture from the Eastman House is really cool. It is George Eastman in many tiny photos all put together to make a large picture of him. I can't imagine putting this together! Erin is posing in front of the display so you can get an idea of the size of the thing. Near this display is a monitor showing the smaller individual pictures that make up the large portrait, so you can see each picture separately.

There were many activities going on while we were there, many of them geared toward the children. Erin insisted on getting her face painted with a kitten. She then convinced Grandma to take her back for a snake on her arm. She can be very convincing!

We didn't spend a long time at the George Eastman House. We were hungry and the kids were very good about the whole thing, but it obviously wasn't their "thing." We went to a little cafe and had some good grub, then Jeff and I took the kids to the park. The playground at this park is really cool. There is equipment for toddlers, bigger kids, and teens. Most of the parks we go to have signs that say children over 12 must not play on the playground equipment. Kyle was happy that he was able to use the playground!
This is the "big kid" area. I told Erin she was too short to use the thing she is using...anything to prove Mom wrong, LOL!

This is the teen area. The thing that I am trying to reach is like a zip line. It was a lot of fun, but you have to let go at the right moment or you get quite the jarring in your back...yes I tried it! Notice Erin on the "teen" stuff? She really thinks she is a teenager in a small body. She asks us all the time, "Don't I look like a teenager?" Hmmm!?!

I think Erin was trying to get higher on the swings than Kyle, but she just doesn't have the leg power yet...

Notice Sarah's antlers? Kyle found pine needles and tried to put them in Sarah's hat but had difficulties, so I helped. Isn't she cute?

While Sarah and Kyle were chasing each other, Sarah's knee had a close encounter with a bolt. That 'pretty' pattern was visible for 2 days then much of her knee turned a lovely shade of yellow.

After Sarah's injury, I suggested a walk around the pond that the playground overlooked. I needed to take some pretty flower pictures. Unfortunately, most of my pretty flower photo attempts were failures, but I did manage a couple decent pictures...

Einstein - Larger than life!

2007-08-14T23:42:00.001-04:00

Great Contest

2007-08-05T23:19:00.001-04:00

Check out the great contest over at 5 Minutes for Mom. They are giving away a very cool prize, courtesy of Best Buy. You'll have to stop over to see what it is. Trust me, it's worth the click!

WW Kids in lockers?

2007-07-31T16:43:00.000-04:00

Erin's Eighth Birthday

2007-07-31T15:33:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, Erin turned eight! I got up that morning and she and I went to Starbucks for a treat. Erin really likes Starbucks, but doesn't often get anything from there so it was quite a treat. She chose a cream cheese danish (my personal favorite) and an Izze juice drink. When we got back from Starbucks, Erin opened her presents from us.

After she had opened all of her presents, this was her favorite.

Erin told Jeff that she wanted a Starbucks bear. She insisted that they had them in the stores, but we did not find any. Jeff checked online and found that a lot of people have bought them as collector's items and are selling them for exorbitant sums. He happened upon one lady who had a set of bears from Valentine's Day and was selling them for about what they would cost at the store. Obviously, Jeff got them and Erin was thrilled!

Here is a shot of all of Erin's pink loot.

Erin is most definitely our "girly-girl." Whenever I ask Sarah if something pink belongs to her or Erin, she reminds me, "Mom, Erin is your girly-girl, I am your tomboy." So when Jeff asked Erin what she wanted for her birthday, she announced "pink stuff." Well, pink she got! Here is the birthday girl wearing her new, favorite necklace.

After she opened all her gifts and we played a couple hands of go fish with her new pink playing cards, we went to the Build-a-Bear Workshop. I checked my email Saturday morning and found that Erin's bear, Purple, also had a birthday, and her gift was a $5 accessory coupon. So Purple went to the store and got 2 new pairs of socks.
Next, it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's for gift opening, round 2. Notice all the pink again?

See the cute pinata? Not for long...

We were going to hang the thing in our backyard in the newly cleared area, but the kids had other ideas...

Kyle demonstrates pinata hat fashion...

...and Sarah demonstrates her boxing skills with pinata donkey legs.

After opening her gifts at Grandma's, we went out for birthday dinner at Castaways.

Here's the back of the restaurant. We were on the deck, right near the water.

Looking out over the water. It was one of those sort of hazy days, but it was really bright. There was a lot of activity on the lake, so the scene was constantly changing, and the breeze was wonderful.

Nice face Erin!

When we got back from Castaways, it was time for cake. Erin's pretty pink cake with a bear, like she asked for.

Here is Erin stuffing her face with cake.

By the time we had finished the cake, we were exhausted. Both girls spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's, per Erin's request. Erin seems to have had a good time. One birthday down, 4 more to go...

Darien Lake

2007-07-30T23:29:00.001-04:00

On Friday the kids and I went to Darien Lake Theme Park with my Mom, Mark, Michelle, and Ben. The kids rode a couple of rides...

...then the sky opened up. If you click to enlarge this photo, you can see the rain.

During a pause in the downpour, all the kids, except for Erin, decided to go ride a couple of rides. I went with them, while Mom, Mark, and Erin waited for the rain to stop completely. As the kids got onto the Scrambler for a second time, the sky opened up again. I hightailed it to an overhang to watch while they stayed on the ride. Just as the ride was about to begin, the ride operators had a shift change, or something. While the kids are sitting in pouring rain, waiting for the ride to start, the girl who had been running the ride, gathered her belongings, and ran to an overhang. The guy coming to take her place got under the awning protecting him from the rain, told a guy who was under the awning inside the ride fence that he had to leave the fenced area and he could stand under the awning outside the fence. Then he put on his rain slicker...under the awning...before announcing the safety rules for the ride. He finally started the ride. Here's the guy running to the ride.

Ben, Michelle, and Sarah posed for a picture after getting drenched on the Scrambler.

Okay, always a sucker for a pretty flower, I couldn't pass this up with the water droplets on the flowers! As I was taking this picture, the woman running the store that this flower was outside of, appeared and said "Oh, you are taking pictures of my flowers." When she said "oh," I had the camera to my eye and didn't see her, so I jumped about a mile. I am amazed the picture came out!

Since it was raining and they were already soaked, the kids decided it was a good time to go to Hook's Lagoon, a water park within the park. When we got there, the area was closed due to a storm cell passing overhead. As we were waiting for it to reopen, my mom happened to look inside a metal cylinder acting as a support for the fence. It was full of garbage, and of course, wasps! I took this picture blindly, as the post was nearly 5 feet tall and I am only 5'3". I thought it turned out rather decent for a blind shot.

Once Hook's reopened, the kids had a good time playing and splashing in the water, until the power went out for the entire park. Here they are coming out of the water. They look like they belong at the beginning of a television show or something.

We spent a few hours at the park, then went out to get some grub. We went to a local pizza shop and got a sheet pizza and drinks. While we waited for the pizza, the kids played on this really cool pirate ship.

The kids took my camera and got some great shots as they played.

Mom and I had a nice visit while we awaited our food.

Here is Ben, who had enough energy for all of us, enjoying a Red Bull.

While waiting for food, Sarah commandeered the camera and took a shot of Erin, sporting her crown from Michelle, and...

a self portrait. There is another one that shows her whole face, but I really like the concentration on her face in this one.

Once we ate, we went back to the park for a couple more hours. Mark was tired of wheeling around the park so he sat in the truck. Mom and I were tired of carrying around "stuff," so we left everything with Mark, cameras included. We didn't leave the park until about 9:30. I did ride one ride with Erin. We went on the Lasso, which is a swing ride. I enjoyed the ride until it stopped and my equilibrium got temporarily lost. UGH! I don't recover like I used to! Another fun day! That makes 3 in a row. I am getting tired!

Ellison Park

2007-07-28T22:33:00.001-04:00

On Thursday I took the kids, and their friend Kelly, to Ellison Park. There we took a mile-and-a-half hike. We stopped a couple times for the kids to play, but it was so hot that we took the whole thing at a very leisurely pace.
The obligatory flower photos. I am too tired to look these up, so suffice it to say that they were pretty.

This picture doesn't do the contrast in colors justice. In reality the red was really red and the green very green. It's still a decent picture though.

As we crossed a bridge over Irondequoit Creek, we thought we say a snake in the water, so Sarah got a big stick to throw in to see if it would move...her mean old mother however, would not allow her to throw it. Instead, she decided to strike a pose for me while Erin and Kelly looked on.

Meanwhile, a monkey, er, Kyle, was climbing the tree. I pointed out to him that the tree was over the water and he doesn't like being in water, and that perhaps this was a bad idea, but I'm just the mother...what do I know? Oh, well...he didn't fall in (I would have laughed if he had...and taken picutres!).

The roots on this tree were primarily in the water, which I thought was quite neat.

More dragonflies. This one was very cooperative, and I love its coloring.

If you look closely, there are 2 dragonflies flying around just above the surface of the water almost in the center of the picture.

The branch sticking straight up on this tree struck me as quite odd. I'm not sure on the type of tree, but it has this great camouflage looking bark. This type of tree is all throughout the park. We really enjoyed looking at them, and the kids even enjoyed climbing in one.

I like these pretty pink flowers, but this bee looks like it must be the mother of all bumble bees! It is HUGE! The picture is a bit fuzzy, but you can get a good idea of the size of it anyway.

Here is a picture of the path that we took through the park. This park is much more "developed" than Black Creek Park. The trails and the shelters are all mixed in together, whereas at Black Creek, the shelters were in a central, more developed area of the park, while the trails were on the perimeter and the land around them was largely left alone.

One cool thing about Ellison Park is that there is a riding stable nearby and they have a trail specifically for horse back riding. This picture shows where the riding trail and one of the walking trails intersect. I like the stone wall.

One of the places we stopped had some inviting "climbing" trees. Kyle went up the tree, then Sarah joined him with a little help from me. Here's Sarah contemplating how to get back down...

Finally, Erin got a boost into the tree. She is my original monkey! Kelly opted not to climb this particular tree. The first step was a tough one so she decided watching from the ground was just as good.

Kyle climbed a bit higher in the tree and actually posed for me. I was so proud of him! For anyone who doesn't know, Kyle does not like to pose for pictures. If you happen to catch him in a photo that's okay, but he likes to make a game of avoiding the camera.

As we continued on our journey, we came to this great "trail" that led up a hill...er, mountain.

There was a wonderful bench at the bottom of the hill under a nice shade tree. I sent the kids exploring while I plopped down on the bench to enjoy the beautiful blue sky and puffy, white clouds. In the picture below, the kids are about 1/2 way up the hill.

Kyle took the camera and got a picture of me, way down at the bottom.

The sandy soil at the top was very soft, so the kids could draw in it, which they thought was pretty cool.

Kelly and Sarah sat in a bit of shade to rest after the long, tedious climb. The soil was so sandy that it made climbing difficult. Their feet kept sliding and of course Sarah decided to wear her Crocs instead of sneakers that I had requested she wear.

As the kids finished their exploration and descended upon my calm reverie, Kyle said it was a good thing I had waited, because the climb was difficult and I would have had a hard time. WRONG thing to say!!! I responded with something along the lines of "Oh, really?" and proceeded to run up the hill. Upon running back down (more challenging in my opinion, and perhaps a bit foolhardy) I reminded him that I am old (in his estimation), not dead, thank you very much!!! Somehow I don't think mid-thirties is all that old, but I guess when you are not quite 15, everyone over 25 is old.

Here is the picture I took from the top of the hill. You can see the bench I had been enjoying.

This one Kyle took from up above the "drawing" spot. Apparently there is a bench up there to enjoy the view. I opted not to climb up there as the soil turned almost totally to sand, and I am a baby about sand in my sneakers.

Sarah coming down the hill after I had run up and then down. She was far more cautious about her descent than I was.

This is the view I was enjoying while lying on the bench at the bottom of the hill, before I was so rudely interrupted with an "old" comment.

This was the end of the photos on this journey. We spent the remaining 20 minutes or so thinking about ice cream and cold drinks. We had brought cold drinks along, but it was really hot and they were long gone by this point.

The kids sat outside and stuck their feet in a wading pool and ate ice cream bars once we got back to our house. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, but next time we need a cooler day or somewhere with water to play in.

Black Creek Park, Part II

2007-07-28T21:03:00.000-04:00

My last post was primarily about the flora we encountered at the park, this one will be more about the fauna.
While on our walk, we discovered that slugs and snails really like mushrooms...
here's a slug on one...

...and here is a snail on one. This little snail was a very pale yellow and we could see his tiny antennae. I really don't like snails, but this guy was kind of cute.

Sarah and I really like dragonflies and we got quite a treat on our walk!
Here is a beautiful blue one (the dragonfly pictures need to be blown up to see well).

This is a pretty red one...

...in flight.

This was my favorite. It's hard to see, but it is emerald green with skinny black stripes.

Here is a pretty butterfly that was apparently enjoying a drink on a stone in the middle of the path.

Although not an animal, here is an animal track that Sarah spotted in the mud. Apparently a deer made its way through the woods.

There were so many cool photo opportunities, that I snapped pictures of all kinds of things. I thought this dead stump with all the moss on it was really cool.

I am not sure what the story is on this fence, but it sure is neat! It ran for quite a distance along a portion of the path.

This vine was climbing up this tree. The kids said it looked like a bear rubbed up against it and left its hair on the vine.

These pretty, little blue flowers were everywhere where there was water.

At the end of our 3 mile walk, this grassy meadow on a hill came into view. It was on the map as a point of interest...I can see why! It was beautiful with the golden color of the grass mixed with the green further off and the blue of the sky. We ran down a path on the side of the slope...

...and looked back up. Hmmm, great place to cross country ski this winter!

About 1/2 way into our journey, I decided I really had to go to the bathroom, but the only one was right near where we had parked. Uh-oh! The girls suggested I go in the weeds, but I had read somewhere that there may be poison ivy, so that was not a very appealing thought!!! When we finally reached the bathrooms, I was soooo happy! Before we left I took this picture from next to the bathrooms, looking out over a pond. That is the top of Erin's head at the bottom of the picture.

Black Creek Park

2007-07-25T17:48:00.000-04:00

Kyle spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house last night, so the girlies and I decided to go to a park this morning. I found a website listing all the parks in the county along with maps and descriptions of any trails at each park. Since we've been on this hiking kick lately, I thought a trail through a local park might be fun. We chose a park fairly close to our house and set out. We were quite pleased to find that the trails at this particular park are actually grassy paths, about 5 or 6 feet wide, mowed, and relatively well marked. We chose a wetland trail because I really like wetlands. As we walked along the path started out in a meadow/forest type area with fairly young trees and lots of flowering weeds.

For a perspective of the width of the path, here are Sarah and Erin strolling along.

I am going to attempt to identify the flora I photographed today...please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! I believe this is a thistle, or at least related to the Aster family. I searched an online wildflower ID site for the better part of 2 hours trying to figure it out, and finally gave up. If anyone knows what this is, please let me know, for now I am curious. The closest thing I could come up with was either spotted knapweed, which I don't think is correct, or showy aster, which is much more likely. Unfortunately, this is not a better picture. The tiny viewing screen on my camera makes it very difficult to tell how clear the picture is!

Queen Anne's Lace Daucus carota

One of my favorite wildflowers, Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta

Milkweed Asclepias syriaca, which I remember liking to play with when I was a kid.

I have no clue what this is but it is more of a grass than a flowering thing. I just thought the little seed pods, or whatever they are, were pretty. It was absolutely gorgeous blowing around in the gentle breeze with the sun shining on it.

There were tons of bird berries in the trees! Red, orange, and green.

Here is another flower that has me stumped. I thought it looked like something that would be easy to identify, however, nothing seems to have that kind of flower and those toothed leaves...hmmm! Help, anyone... Now, mind you, I am a rock and mineral identification kind of person, not a flower kind of person. Even in the realm of rocks and minerals I wasn't that adept at identifying them. I tend not to pay close attention to the finer details. I guess I am a "big picture" kind of gal. These were very pretty anyway, and they really stood out against all that green.

As we walked along on our 3 mile jaunt, the landscape changed many times.
It went from young deciduous forest...

...to coniferous stand.

This picture shows the transition from deciduous to coniferous. It was such a sharp contrast that we stopped for a minute and just took in the view.

Almost immediately upon leaving the conifers, we found ourselves in a relatively dry boggy area. There was a raised platform to walk on, as the ground was mushy, but there was not standing water. It has been pretty hot this summer, so maybe it is usually more wet than it was today.

After walking through this boggy area, we did some more transitions through young forested areas, meadows, and finally we came to a true swamp. I can't say that I have ever been in such a surreal place. As we were walking along the path adjacent to the swamp, we looked over and noticed what we thought was a road. Then we thought perhaps it was a stream, then the girls thought it looked like snow (in July when the temp is 80+? yeah, right!). Turns out, what we were seeing was all the green algae on top of the water. This picture is from another floating bridge/path thingy like the one above.

This is the view of the road, stream, snow?, swamp before we realized what it was.

I have a gazillion more pictures and lots of other stuff to share, but I am very tired and it is getting late, and this post is getting long. I will try to post the rest tomorrow...or maybe the next day as we are planning another adventure for tomorrow.

Backyard Cleanup

2007-07-25T17:10:00.001-04:00

After we gardened and beautified everything along the side of the backyard, the kids decided it would be cool to clean up the area behind the garage to make it a nice place to sit and play. We began the process a couple days ago and didn't think we would ever finish. If you have never seen the area behind my garage, imagine this...

and this (plus 2 more cans full)...

here...

and here.

It looks far better, don't you think? We had tons of weeds, lots of small trees, and wood. Some of the wood had been there since we bought the house, and some of it a friend gave to us. Jeff and his buddies used to get together at our house on Friday nights to grill. One of them would get meat and they would grill it, eat it, and then sit around and burn wood on a small outdoor fireplace until the wee small hours of the morning (very manly, lol). That hasn't gone on for a couple of summers, so we had all this wood sitting out there rotting. I kept some of the nicer long pieces, figuring we would cut them up and we could sit outside and burn them on some nice evenings this summer.

Kyle and I removed all of the small trees, stumps and all. That was a chore! Most of our soil is not really soil...it's clay. Digging in clay is almost as difficult as digging in bedrock, LOL! Fortunately, the one place we have some nice soil is behind the garage. I think we counted 7 stumps that came out over a 2 day period, and my back was relieved when that was over! We obviously have some more work to do, but this is such an improvement over what it was that I keep asking myself, "Whose yard is this?"
The girls really like the new area, especially since Grandma brought over the sand turtle. Here they are hanging out in the tree (no pun intended).

On another backyard improvement note, Kyle's garden gnome can finally see the light of day. He is "stuck" under my lilac bush which until a few days ago was just surrounded by lawn. As I was mulching the garden I thought it would look really mice to mulch around the lilac as well. Mr. Gnome thinks it was a good idea too. This will also make mowing around the lilac easier. YEAH!

WW Joe

2007-07-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

Erie Canal

2007-07-22T20:01:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a short post, since I have been up since 4 AM after going to bed at 11 PM. It is now 8 PM and I have to be up at 4 AM again tomorrow. I just had to tell about our little adventure today.

We have quite a treasure almost literally in our backyard. The Erie Canal runs from Lake Erie, near Lockport in Western NY to the Hudson River in Albany, NY. We live very near the canal, and love to watch boats as they travel along it, however we rarely go for walks along the "canal trail," originally the towpath because large portions of it are quite secluded and probably not entirely safe for the kids and I alone. Today Jeff suggested that we take the kids and go for a walk along the canal. We decided to go to a nearby town that we rarely go to and start there. Joe got all excited, so we took him along.
This boat was docked along the edge of the canal. Curious about the name, I looked it up on Google and found that it is named for the man who played an integral role in establishing the canal system in New York State. Dewitt Clinton was the Governor of NY from 1817 - 1823 and again from 1825 - 1828. He also ran for President in 1812, but was defeated by Madison. Clinton, "Father of the Erie Canal" had opposition who referred to the proposed canal as Clinton's ditch.

As we walked along the canal path, a boat came along that could not fit under the very low bridge in the village. Traffic stopped, a bell rang, crossing gates were lowered, and the bridge was lifted. It is not the type of bridge you typically think of when you think of a lift bridge. The entire deck raises straight up so the deck is parallel with the water. Once the bridge was lifted, the boat was able to pass underneath. Here is the bridge lifted to its full height.

After walking for about 1 mile in the 80 degree weather, Joe was tired out and very warm. We had brought water for him, but he was content, after a long draw of water, to lay on the cool cement for a while.

We had parked on the opposite side of the bridge from where the path is, so we had to cross the lift bridge. It has one of those open grate steel decks, of which Joe was NOT particularly fond. He stuck to me like glue on the way to start our walk. On the way back he sat and refused to go any further. Wouldn't fortune have it that as he planted his butt, the bell rang alerting us to the need for the bridge to be lifted again. I scooped Joe up and we ran across so they could lift it. They can't lift it while people are on it, although they do have sidewalk access for the bridge when it is in it's fully up position. There are stair towers at each end of the bridge, so when it is fully up, you could walk up the stairs, across the bridge, and back down the stairs on the other side.

We didn't walk very far, but we had a good time today. After coming back home, I learned some new things about the Erie Canal.

On a kind of funny note...We stopped at a fast food restaurant on the way to the canal, to get food for lunch. Joe knows this particular restaurant and knows that at the window, food comes into the car and oftentimes he gets a burger out of the deal. Well, I gave Joe his burger, sans bun, wrapping up the bun for later, thinking we might see some ducks. Sure enough, we saw a mama duck and 4 ducklings swimming in the canal. I divided up the bun and gave it to the kids to feed the ducks. The ducks refused to come take the bread. They wouldn't even swim over to look at it. They just ignored us and kept swimming. At this point, Jeff put on his best mama duck impersonation, and said "Now kids, we don't take bread from strangers! Just keep swimming, don't even look at them!" It was rather funny and we all had a good laugh.

I think perhaps I sense an Erie Canal unit study in my children's future. Hmmm...

Tree Houses! (Post number 50!!!)

2007-07-20T17:20:00.000-04:00

Woo Hoo! I have made 50 posts now! I am so amazed! When I started this journey in blogging, I kind of figured I would post a few times and then get bored, or busy, and forget about it. I never imagined I'd make it to 50 posts. I am still loving it and hopefully will make it to 100 and beyond!

A couple of months ago my mother-in-law sent me an email about a guy who builds tree houses in his back yard. I thought it sounded neat, and I even checked out his website. Well, last week my MIL asked if I wanted to go with her and take the kids to check it out. Reluctantly, I agreed. I didn't really have much interest in going to someone's house and watch the kids climb around in trees. I am sooo glad I decided to go! This is one of those places that is cool in pictures, but is unreal in person. Just look at the kids faces in the pictures that follow!

I got as far as the platform where the rope bridge begins before I turned around and climbed back down to terra firma. I'm not afraid of heights, but I don't particularly like things that are up high and sway. Needless to say, a rope bridge tends to sway a bit!

Erin was completely comfortable with the bridges and platforms. She went ahead of Kyle and Sarah and checked everything out.

I think this might have been Sarah's first rope bridge crossing. She looks a little nervous if you ask me.

While the kids checked out the tree houses, my MIL and I sat and talked with the creator of this wonderland. Apparently he not only makes magic for kids, but the animals think he's pretty cool as well. As we sat talking to the owner and his wife, two squirrels came to get a snack. One would come over and take peanuts right out of his hand. I am not usually that fond of squirrels, but this was just too cool! They have named the two squirrels. This one happens to be Throckmorton. His friend, who is not as brave as to take from your hand, is Leila.

This is also Throckmorton. He is cleaning the peanut before running off to bury it for later eating.

We had an absolutely wonderful time visiting with the couple while the kids went through the trees. The kids also thoroughly enjoyed flying through the air on a zip line. At the end they told us we were welcome to come back. I imagine we will probably take them up on it again before the summer is over.

More Gardening Fun

2007-07-19T17:25:00.000-04:00

I had another very productive day of gardening. Last night we got a new begonia to replace the one Kyle lopped off, as well as some petunias that needed to be planted today. This morning I had to get up early anyway, so I got started with trimming the shrubs in front of the house around 7:30. I have electric hedge trimmers, but I figured the neighbors might appreciate the hand clippers instead. I also get annoyed with how the shrubs look when I use the electric clippers. I forgot to take a picture of how nice they look, but they do look much better now that they are all the same height.
After trimming the hedges for about an hour, I got started on the side garden. Here is an overview picture of the whole thing. I know it isn't terribly clear, but I thought it was neat anyway.

I took a couple of 'closer ups' so you can see the pretty flowers. The lavender plant in the back I got in the garden center of a home repair store for $5. It is a fairly large plant and has a wonderful, strong, lavender scent.

These are the last things I need to plant. My MIL brought them to me today. I will have to plant them tomorrow or the next day, as my poor, old back is so sore it hurts to think about gardening!

This is one of my favorite spots in the back yard. It is in between the fence, separating our yard from the neighbors, and our garage. It leads to an open area in the back underneath the canopy of a huge old Maple tree. the kids and Joe like to use this area as a path from the front to the back. It has become a sort of 'secret' pathway. I got the idea yesterday, that it would be really cool to mulch the path for them and then clean up the back area and make it into a patio type thing. Kyle and I raked all the debris from the area and then dug up a sizable tree stump from the middle of the path. Finally we put down landscape fabric followed by a thin layer of mulch. The kids think it is wonderful, and it was a cheap, easy way of making them happy...always a good thing!

Erin chose this little plant the other day. She brought it home, dug a hole and planted it all by herself.

This may seem like a silly picture, but if you had seen this walkway before, you would understand my pleasure at its current state! It was too embarrassing, really, to take a before picture. See how there is a little grass in the sidewalk crack on the left side of the photo? Well, this whole sidewalk was nearly swallowed by weeds and grass growing in the cracks. I also discovered another 6 inches of sidewalk on the right of the stoop. It was overgrown with grass and weeds. I think this is what made my back hurt so much. I sat on the ground for over an hour pulling up weeds.

Gardening Fun

2007-07-18T12:14:00.000-04:00

After our excursion to the Goat Hotel, errr...um the garden shop, the kids and I did some yard work. Kyle and I worked on taming the wild Forsythia in the backyard while the girls worked on digging holes to plant the new flowers we got. Digging holes should be easy, but at my house nothing is every easy! The soil is primarily clay, then add to that tons of tree and shrub roots and large rocks and you have a digging nightmare. In about 2 hours Sarah managed to plant a small lavender plant, 2 very orange begonias (one which Kyle accidentally chopped off), a daisy looking thing, and something else whose name escapes me (see the picture - it's the pale yellow stuff).
Here is an overview of most of the garden. I still have to plant the gerbera daisies and the asters. I also stopped on my way home from work today and bought some petunias and a second lavender plant for Sarah. Once everything is planted, I have some red mulch to put around it all.

Here's the pretty yellow thing whose name escapes me. The low green and purple stuff (left of center in front), also can't remember what it is, I planted 3 or 4 summers ago and it just keeps spreading. Good thing I like it a lot!

I scalped, actually de-limbed, my forsythia bush. I would like for it to look more like trees than a shrub. If we decided to drive one of the cars into the fenced part of the yard, this thing tried to attack the car, scraping the sides with its woody stalks. Now the greenery and limbs are up high so the cars can drive "under" the canopy. I like the way it looks for now, but it will fill back in if I let it! I still need to shape the top of it, but this requires a ladder and mine is super rickety. It'll have to wait for a day when I am feeling super brave (or just plain stupid).

Close up of the asters and daisies. I love these two colors together. I decided that I would try to keep the garden a combination of oranges, yellows, and purples. Then I went and bought pink petunias! Go figure!!!

Wordless Wednesday

2007-07-17T15:08:00.001-04:00

Fireworks!

2007-07-13T23:45:00.001-04:00

I have always liked fireworks displays, but the older I get the less exciting I find them. Kyle suggested earlier today that Jeff and I go "do" something tonight and he would watch the girls. After much hemming and hawing, we decided to go to a laser show and fireworks display that the city does over the plunge pool of a waterfall in the middle of downtown. The river essentially cuts the city in half east/west and the waterfall is just north of Main St. which cuts the city into north/south halves. The display was to start at 9:30, so we got our Starbucks and went to a large footbridge that crosses the river at the level of the top of the falls. The falls faces north and the bridge is north of it so if you look south off the bridge, you can look directly at the falls.

Jeff is not into fireworks displays and is really not into crowds. Fortunately the night was a cool one so there were not too many people. As the display started at 9:30, I realized that there were fireworks at the nearby baseball stadium as well as near the hockey arena. Then the drizzling started. Having never seen this particular show before, I was quite impressed. The show was mediocre at best, with much of it being a hokey history lesson of our city. The impressive part was the 3 fireworks displays all going on simultaneously as well as the effect of the rain on the laser beams. I thoroughly enjoyed all 20 minutes of the show.

Jeff would have enjoyed it much more if the obnoxious camera person next to us had stopped taking flash pictures every 30 seconds. She did not have a terribly expensive camera and she kept taking pictures repeatedly. I can't imagine that any of them will turn out decent, there was precious little light and the low end cameras need as much as they can gather. Jeff told me afterwards that he would have like to have thrown her camera into the river. Fortunately he refrained! LOL!!!

Old Cemetery

2007-07-13T14:48:00.000-04:00

The kids were bellyaching for someplace to go today, when I remembered a coworker telling me about this old cemetery in a quaint little nearby town. I was unsure of exactly where it was, but we set out with directions to 3 different cemeteries in and around the town. As I was unsuccessfully searching for the most likely candidate, I realized their was an extra light on on my dashboard display. My gas light was glowing amber, letting me know that I was on my reserve fuel which, when the car was new, was about 2 gallons. I am guessing that almost 90K miles later, the reserve is less than 2 gallons, and full of "stuff" I don't want running through my engine!

Did I mention this quaint town is in the middle of cow country? Yeah, I was unsure of exactly where I was, so I headed down what I suspected would take us back to the small village, bypassing the circuitous route I had been on. Fortunately my internal homing device/compass was working well, and we found the village rather quickly. Of course, being in the middle of nowhere, I had 3 fuel choices: Mobil (I'd rather run out of gas than go there), Exxon (isn't that Mobil too?), or Sunoco. The deciding factor, of course, was price (and anything but Mobil). Well, all 3 were "competing" at $3.129 a gallon. I put in 3 gallons and went to the cemetery. No, I wasn't going to die...we found it on the way to the gas station.

Incidentally, the cemetery was not anywhere near any of the directions I had. So much for the Internet being any help at finding the place! Anyway, as we drove in the kids got nervous, as there was a sign indicating that the cemetery is NOT a public place and anyone cleaning a site was welcome during daylight hours. It didn't really say anything about the rest of us, but I figured they had put it up to keep out youths and troublemakers. So Joe and the kids and I went for a walk in the cemetery. Yes, I took the dog...some people just have no respect! I didn't imagine the dead would mind a small dachsie sniffing around...

Here is the front part of the cemetery. Looks like most cemeteries I've been to, just small.

The real treat however, is the "old cemetery." The little white sign on this green building says "Old Cemetery" and has an arrow pointing up the path.

As you walk along the path, the trees make a covered walkway. As we started down this path, it began raining, but very little rain fell on us due to the dense tree "canopy" over us.

There were tons of bushes bearing bird berries, raspberries, and pretty flowers.

This swampy creek was (flowing?) along the path. It made for a pretty picture, as well as lots of flying bugs!

After following the path for about .2 or .3 miles, you come to a tunnel that runs underneath a railroad track. Inside the tunnel are several paintings of various religious looking symbols. Some of the paintings were of things with which I was not familiar, and seemed a bit disturbing.

Once you pass through the tunnel, the clearing you come into is breathtaking. It is the type of place that I would like to be buried when I die.

According to this marker, this little, six acre, cemetery was purchased for $900 dollars. About 350 parishioners of the church are buried in it. Many of the stones are nearly smooth with age and weathering, but some bear dates from the mid to late 1800's. It was almost like stepping back in time. In the old cemetery, you cannot hear the sounds of modern life, except the occasional airplane in the distance, nor can you see any "modern" structures. I was in awe as I walked around, looking at the very old headstones lovingly etched with memories.

I was a bit annoyed with my rowdy brood, but then I remembered that they ARE kids and I was the only one bothered by their noise and playfulness. As we were leaving we passed a couple walking along the path toward the Old Cemetery, and I was glad that we were not there at the same time. I can't really explain it, it's just one of those places you want to go alone...not too alone though as it is REALLY secluded.

When we left the cemetery, none of us was ready to return home, so I found a public parking lot and we checked out a "canal" path. I am not sure where the name came from, since there is no canal along the path.
This boardwalk was really neat as it overlooked what appeared to be a dry streambed. At the end of it, there was an old railroad bed. To the right it went over the creek, and to the left it led down a long path.

First, we checked out the view from an old railroad bridge. As we were standing there, a young boy jumped into the water and retrieved the rope hanging from a tree. After bringing it to shore with him, he climbed up a tree and swung out over the creek. I caught a picture of the scene just after he went into the water. He is definitely more brave than I. That water looked gross!

Then we followed the path in the opposite direction for quite a ways. Along the way, I found interesting things to take pictures of...

We finally decided it was time to head back when the bugs got too thick. We hopped in the car and headed towards home, content that we had found new places to explore, when suddenly there appeared on the side of the road...

CHICKENS!

Apparently these "free range" chickens roamed through the brush and down to the road. They seemed to understand that the road was dangerous, but I guess the pickin's must have been good along the roadside.

Fireman's Parade

2007-07-12T22:04:00.000-04:00

Each year we go to the fireman's parade in the town in which my in laws live. The girls always enjoy it, and I find it refreshing to see lots of people in one place enjoying a parade reminiscent of days gone by. Of course my favorite part of the parade is the bagpipes. To my surprise, there were two groups of pipers!

Here are both groups...

As we were watching the parade, I caught a glimpse of a wagging tale on the opposite side of the street. The tail did not seem to belong to a dog or cat, so my curiosity was piqued. I found, after further investigation, that the tail belongs to Chunky...

Chunky, it turns out, is a typical male...he sleeps in the bed, lays on the couch watching TV, and sits on demand for food. His owner tells me he is a happy pig and his tail wags nonstop. As I stooped to take his picture, he came right over thinking I had food. Not typically a fan of pigs, I found something about this little guy irresistible. I hope he enjoyed the parade.

This man has got to be one of the best band leaders ever! He is very animated as well as skilled and I always enjoy his performances. Unfortunately, my very frustrating camera would not allow me to take more than 3 pictures of him and this is the best one. My MIL had some that looked as though they would be good. Perhaps I'll post a better one of him from her pictures.

I can't even imagine getting on this thing, let alone riding it...

Second only to bagpipes, I also like Fife and Drum groups.

This character was sitting on top of one of the firetrucks from the noisiest group in the parade. They were even sounding their sirens as they passed the judges booth. Apparently they were not interested in winning...perhaps they were shooting for noisiest! Once the guy on top of the truck realized I was aiming my camera at him, he decided to pose.

I like old firetrucks, but decided not to bore everyone with the multiple pictures I took of them, so here is just one.

Finally, the Shriners in their mini cars are always fun to watch. I thought this picture was fun since so much of the picture is out of focus due to the motion.

Shortly before the parade started, it looked as though it might rain upon us. Then, as the parade began, the beautiful blue sky showed itself and the air was cool enough to be quite comfortable. It was a truly lovely evening.

Very Busy Day: Part II

2007-07-12T21:36:00.000-04:00

I was so tired yesterday, that I forgot some pictures from our very busy day, and couldn't even think about posting from the second half of our day. So here goes...
I could not resist taking a picture of this gorgeous flower.

As we were walking back to the car, I saw this patch of daisies and little pinkish/purple flowers. It wasn't until I got home and uploaded the pictures that I noticed the pine cone. It almost looks as if I set it up that way.

After we left the beautiful park in the middle of the busy town, we needed to cool off. The temperature was near 90 and although the park was fairly small and near water, it was still stifling hot. We headed to the nearest mall to browse, find a cool drink, and locate good air conditioning. We spent about an hour there and decided to head out. As I was looking at an atlas of the area, I noticed a park near a protected wetland/marsh. It just so happened to be nearby and also between where we were and where we needed to be.

This is what we found...

There was a nicely paved path along the roadway, as well as one within the park itself. The park had picnic tables in shady spots, as well as huge grassy areas, and a small, sort of strange play ground. The playground was a huge platform like thing with walkways and a "car" underneath and two slides.

Here is the path that is not near the road, with Erin and her sourpuss face. She did not want to be walking in a "field."

As we started our walk, Sarah caught a glimpse of a snake warming itself on the paved path. I, unfortunately, could not get my camera out quickly enough and he was moving rather quickly. It must have warmed itself well! I am not a fan of most poikilotherms ("cold-blooded" creatures), but I was bummed that I didn't get its picture.

After walking the short path, I checked out a nearby pond while the kids played on the playground thing.

I don't know what these are, but I think they must be related to lilies (aren't they related to onions)? The white "pods" look like little onions. This patch of plants was right next to the pond.

Here is one picture of the pond, full of algal blooms...

...and another, looking the opposite direction. The bridge is part of the path that follows along closer to the road.

I would love to go back to this place on a slightly cooler day for a picnic.

Very Busy Day

2007-07-11T10:35:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a very busy day for us. Sarah had a doctor's appointment in Buffalo, so we took Jeff to work, dropped him off and took Sarah to the doctor. After the appointment, we decided to go to a park that we found out about in a magazine. I was amazed that this park even exists. I had driven past it many, many times and never noticed it until yesterday. Check it out...
This is looking from the entrance to the park.

On the lower right of the above picture you can see a pond...these guys (and gals) were swimming around in it.

As you walk through the park, you can see an old mill, which I found out was built in the early 1800's. And where there is a mill there is, of course...

water!

As we entered the park, we saw the ducks and I wanted to try to get a couple pictures, so I sat on a rock, and a duck family (Mama and her four ducklings) came right over expecting food. We had brought rolls with us on the trip for sandwiches at lunch time and after lunch we had one left over. When we saw the ducks, Kyle ran back to the car to get it. As the kids fed the ducks, I took pictures. This one is by far my favorite. Now lest anyone think I have a terrific zoom lens that I captured these guys with, let me assure you, I took this picture with my 4 year old Kodak EasyShare with 2x optical zoom. Yeah, I was practically touching the ducks!

The purpose of this picture is simply to show just how close the ducks came to us. Kyle (that's his leg in the photo) was holding the last of the roll.

This is the creek below the waterfall. I thought the purple flowers were really pretty against the otherwise dull earthy tones all around.

I think I am becoming obsessed with photographing moving water. These next few photos will illustrate that...

Apparently some of the folks that read my blog like to see pictures of people. Well, I remembered that my camera allows me to take black and white photos in addition to color and sepia. I decided to try a few B/W photos since I love B/W portraits.
Kyle put his hand to his face about a fraction of a second after I snapped this picture. He was impressed that I actually got it!

This picture of Erin has got to be one of my favorite pictures ever (blow it up - it's better). Her hair had been in her face and I asked her to move it. When she was finished, there were just little tendrils stuck to her from sweat, and then the ends were blowing in the gentle breeze. I think the effect is awesome!

Sarah has such a great smile and loves to be photographed!

I had to try a b/w waterfall shot. I think it's pretty cool. It muddies the background above the waterfall, which is cool.

Speaking of the background above the waterfall, would you believe this beautiful park is in the middle of a very busy Main St. in a very busy large town? As you can see from this picture, we were not "out in the middle of nowhere."

As we were leaving the park, a little chickadee was snacking on this pine tree. I just couldn't resist trying to get a good picture.

This picture is really cool! It looks as though it is black and white, except for the little punches of green spattered throughout the picture...

Chimney Bluffs

2007-06-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

We live about an hour from an amazing piece of shoreline. As glaciers moved across the land, they carved the land and made large deposits of soil, rock, and other debris as they retreated. Some of the coolest (in my opinion) formations resulting from glacial movement are drumlins. These streamlined "hills" of glacial till are easily identifiable and can be seen all over northern, central NY. Today we went to visit Chimney Bluffs. Tall "chimneys" of till reach up from the land. They were formed by wind erosion of the glacial till. The drumlin is slowly eroding and literally falling onto the beach, but it is still spectacular to see. All the rocks on the beach are from the drumlin, so the beach is loaded with all different kinds of rocks. The kids got a good workout, several geology lessons, and some hiking lessons. We all got sore legs or feet and wonderful sights to take in.
We walked along a path that runs dangerously close to the edge of the cliff that drops from the top of the drumlin to the beach. I was very thankful that Jeff was with us. There is something very comforting about having him there in potentially dangerous situations. The path along the top was through a heavily wooded area with dense underbrush, as you will see in the pictures. In most places the path is only one person wide and it is simply a dirt path worn by many feet traversing it. In a few places, the path had to be moved a little to the south to avoid being too close to the edge. Due to the wind erosion, and the till being so soft, the cliff is severely undercut in many places and huge trees are simply holding onto the top by their roots and thick vegetation. Many trees have lost their fight against gravity and fallen down the cliffs and are now laying on the beach with their tops laying in the lake. It is a bizarre scene from above, that makes complete sense from below.
The beauty of the place is beyond words, so I think I'll just post a bunch of pictures without commentary. These are only a small sampling of the over 60 pictures I took today. I would have taken many more, but Jeff and the kids kept commenting (complaining) about my frequent stops to get a picture.

Some of these need a little commentary.
If you enlarge this picture, I think you will understand why I took it. The grass looks as though it is "sparkling."

Jeff dubbed this tree "wicked tree." It kind of reminded me of something out of a fairy tale...something you'd find as you near the evil witch's house!

Jeff "caught" a lobster at the beach. He declined to be photographed with it, but told me I was welcome to take a picture of it if I needed to. Need is such a strong word! LOL!

This photo just struck me as funny. Look at the tree "growing" in the middle of the beach! It fell from the bank above, and there it sits, in the middle of the beach, being beautiful and green. Whoever said God doesn't have a sense of humor, needs to look around. I see His humor in many things!

Well, I am exhausted! I've been up for 18 hours and gotten far more accomplished than a sane person should...hmmm. The fresh air has wiped me out so I hope all is spelled correctly and makes sense for I am far too tired to proof this entry this evening! Goodnight!

Long Walk on Short Legs

2007-06-30T20:56:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the kids and I decided to take Joe for a walk to Starbucks, about 1.5 miles from our house. Joe loves to go for walks, so as we started out, he took Kyle on wild goose chases as he "caught" a scent.

Eventually, he settled into walking along nicely with us and checking out any person that gave him any notice. Once we arrived at Starbucks, we got him a cup of water and sat down at the outdoor patio. Joe laid down at our feet and rested after taking a long drink from his tall Starbucks cup. We brought his water with us for the walk home as it was beginning to get quite warm and being mostly black, he absorbs heat like crazy.

Joe had no qualms about showing us how pleased he was to be home. This is about 6 steps inside the door. He didn't budge for about 15 minutes, then he moved to my lap where he slept comfortably for an hour or so.

I learned the last time Kyle and I walked to Starbucks that I must take my camera with me everywhere, because you never know when you might find a great subject. Well, this time I remembered and took pictures all along the way.
I think these might be flowers from a milkweed plant? I could be totally wrong, but the plants, although podless, looked an awful lot like a milkweed plant.

Although not as impressive as Mom's dragonfly, I think this one is pretty cool. It's in the middle of the picture on the left side of the broad leaf.

These were growing next to the sidewalk we were on. Even though I took all these pictures, it is hard to believe that all of them were taken in the city, most while walking past a large, university medical center campus.

Grimes Glen

2007-06-28T22:14:00.001-04:00

The kids and I went to this great little spot about an hour south of our house. It is a well hidden gem. Off the fairly busy main street of a very small town, is a dead end street with a small parking lot at the end. From the parking lot you can follow a trail up a relatively small stream to a couple of striking waterfalls.
Here is a picture from the footbridge (shown below), looking upstream.

This is also from the footbridge (looking downstream). Check out the tree sticking out of the bank of the stream. As I looked at this tree I wondered why it didn't fall into the stream.

Here is the footbridge. It isn't quite as rickety as it looks, but it does bounce as you walk across it.

This is a cool little rock bridge that someone made, leading to a small, wooden bridge.

A little ways down from the little stone and wooden bridges is a patio. There is a large area covered with large, flat pieces of shale with stone benches around the edge. Kyle and Erin are standing near a small fire pit.

This little guy was hanging out in the fire pit.

This is the first of the falls that we saw. I think I read somewhere that it is 60 feet high.

As we were walking along we saw a lot of wildlife. I almost stepped on this critter as he skittered across the path. He stopped on leaf and let me get a good picture.

This is the second waterfall we came to.

The plunge pool at the base of this fall was much deeper than water at the base of the first one. There was also a cave...

On our way over to check out the cave, Erin and I saw this creepy creature. I am not sure what it is, but I didn't want to get too close.

Here is a close up of the face of the wall near the cave. I love that you can see the layering so clearly in the sedimentary rock. If I was still teaching this would be a must do field trip!

While we were wading back across the plunge pool, two young guys came along and climbed up this "hill." There were ropes anchored at various points that they grabbed onto and pulled themselves up. Kyle was very disappointed when I told him it was too dangerous to continue. There are apparently one or two additional waterfalls further upstream, but the climb up is extremely dangerous as you can see from the picture.

Here's a path across the edge of the plunge pool. I opted for a wetter, but more stable route.

I don't know what these flowers are but they sure were pretty.

The kids had fun just playing in a shallow pool near the "patio" pictured earlier. I guess Kyle was demonstrating that he has rocks in his head. Actually he was hiding from the camera.

Sarah found a horse shoe.

Erin posed as we crossed one of the bridges on the way back...

...then Sarah had to pose as well.

I took this from the wooden bridge looking toward the stone bridge.

Erin found a thinking spot on a stone bench.

Erin being Erin...

...and Sarah being Sarah.

Kyle with the rocks in his head again!

We missed this tiny waterfall as we were walking upstream, but we did catch it as we went back downstream.

The last two pictures here were taken from the edge of the parking area looking downstream.

This adventure was so fun, that the kids actually thanked me for taking them there. They were pretty exhausted though and all 3 slept almost the whole way home.

Last Day of Reunion 2007

2007-06-24T23:05:00.000-04:00

I know this post is dated the 24th and here it is the 28th when I am posting it, but things were a little crazy the last few days. I hit the ground running when we got home. We landed back home at 4:30pm, went straight to my in-laws for dinner, and then I had to be at work at 5am. I worked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. In addition to my goofy schedule, the temperature in my bedroom (where my computer is) has been in the 90's...too hot to do anything! Anyway, without further ado, here are the pictures from our last day at the reunion 2007.

Friday was the last full day that we were all in Daytona. I took the boys to the mall and then I went to the Flea Market with Kristin and the girls. When we got back we hung out and chatted.
Jerry and Irma took Alan and Eli to the Flea Market Friday morning and came back with an iguana that they named Izzy.

Here is Izzy hanging out on Alan's shirt.

Grandma was much more brave than I...she held Izzy.

I'm not sure you could call this "holding" but Izzy spent time with Grandpa as well.

Jerry and Irma also brought back a couple sharp knives for grandma which she displayed for us to see. Hmm, looks a little dangerous!

Irma's new shirt. The fabric looks like it would be wonderful to wear.

The kids went swimming in the pool before dinner and Erin learned to swim!

Chelsea was wonderful with my girls. She took them to the pool and kept a close eye on them. The girls really enjoyed spending time with her.

Irma shows off her Texas style...great hat Irma!

Sarah loves the water, but she got a horrible sun burn even with sunscreen. I saw some 70 spf at a store in Daytona. I guess we will have to go with that next year and put it on every 30 minutes.

Eli enjoyed the pool an awful lot too. All the kids got along so well, it was a very enjoyable vacation. Erin and Eli are pretty close in age and Sarah gets along with kids of all ages, so they all swam and enjoyed each other's company.

At one point, on my way back to our room, I was able to get a great shot of these pigeons. Normally I don't get excited about pigeons, and I certainly never take pictures of them, but these birds were pretty cool. Even if they were just scavenging/begging for food!

After dinner we went to the beach and took pictures with the ocean as a wonderful backdrop. Some of the pictures were silly, while others were more serious.

Here is a picture of the whole gang. Some poor guy took pictures of all of us with 4 or 5 different cameras. He was a very nice guy and patient as well.

A picture of the "kids" and the "parents..."

...and the "kids" families...
Amanda and Jim

Taylor, Chelsea, and Amanda

Taylor, Jordan, and Chelsea

Irma, Jerry, Eli, and Alan

Jim and Amanda with Hannah

My nutty bunch (including me)

David, Hannah, and Jennifer

Steve, Jordan, Taylor, Chelsea, Kristin, and Karen

Crabbing

2007-06-21T18:45:00.000-04:00

Each year several members of my family go crabbing during our reunion. A few years ago, they encountered a rather large crocodile which led them to find a new place to go crabbing. I had never gone crabbing and all 3 of my children wanted to go this year, so I decided I would go and just take pictures. Well, I got caught up in the idea of catching one, so I grabbed the net, stood on a small rock, and fell in. I did catch a crab, or rather a small crab landed on me when I fell, but I managed to cut my thumb open , scrape up both hands, and bruise my back way up high right along my spine. Needless to say, I am quite sore, and struggling to type this with a bandaged, throbbing thumb.
March of the crabs... This is near the area that we went crabbing. These little guys are much smaller than what we were after to catch. When we got too close, they would all disappear into the sand en masse. I had never seen so many crabs altogether in one place.

When we first arrived, Jerry caught a small crab that he let the kids hold. Sarah got pinched so she dropped it and then picked it back up again, along with a bunch of sand. Erin decided that she was going to try to grab a crab herself but instead, one grabbed her. When she pulled her hand back, the crab had such a grip on her finger, that it's claw broke off, but the pincher didn't release, so she had a crab leg stuck on her finger. She was very calm, but obviously uncomfortable, so I called my father over to pull it off. I did not, however have the presence of mind to take a picture of the claw on her finger with either of the 2 cameras that I was holding. I was too concerned for her poor pinched finger. After the claw was removed, she carried it around for a while because she thought it was cool.

This shows a much bigger view of where we were. Just to the left of the center of this photo is a blue heron standing in the water. Great Blue Herons are among my favorite birds.

The jetty where we were crabbing is very near the lighthouse that Sarah and I visited the other day...

This crab did not want his picture taken. I sat very still waiting for him to surface. Once he surfaced, he kept moving and turning just so, so I could not get a good picture of him. He is just left of center in this photo.

Irma was trying to catch a crab using Alan's shoe. She was not very successful in her endeavor. Right behind Irma is where I fell. You can just see that there are a few rocks in the water.

I did manage to get a picture of the guy that I was trying to catch. Fortunately, I had handed my camera to Taylor when I took the net. I really want a new camera, but that was not the way to get one!

This is very similar to the rock that I cut my thumb on in the water. I don't think I cut myself until I tried to get back up. Everywhere I tried to put my hand it was sharp. I didn't even realize I was cut until I noticed blood all over my shirt.

Although slightly out of focus, this gives a pretty good idea of how big my thumb laceration is. The picture is from about 15 minutes after it happened. I had managed to get the bleeding stopped as long as I kept it up in the air. Now it only hurts a little, unless I bump it or forget and put too much pressure on it grabbing something.

Yesterday the kids and I drove to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my friends Gail and Israel who live in Israel. It just happened that we were all going to be in Florida at the same time, so I decided to take the 4 hour trip down to see them. It was a very nice visit and the drive down and back gave me some good discussion time with the kids. Since we got here we have all been doing things with other family members so we have not had a lot of time together as a family. The trip gave us some time together which was good.
Israel and Gail pose for a picture. It was so good to see them. The last time I saw them was about 10 years ago for Gail and almost 20 for Israel.

Family Reunion

2007-06-19T10:06:00.000-04:00

While sitting around the hotel last evening, I snapped a few pictures. Then several of us went to play mini golf and I got some great photos of the gang.
Grandma...

Grandpa...

Karen...

Jerry...

and Irma.

Hannah was enjoying the heights as Jennifer gave her a ride.

After dinner we went to play mini golf.
Alan cheers his mom on as she takes a shot.

Crazy golfer, Chelsea, puts on a smile as she waits her turn.

Jordan gives me a silly grin.

Erin and Eli strike a pose between holes.

The girls check out a waterfall from inside a "volcano."

Jim and Amanda smile over some pretty flowers.

The "noisy" group...

...and the "deadly" group.

Sarah is enjoying herself...

Erin is annoyed at the camera.

I found this pretty flower amid the golf greens. I, of course, couldn't resist taking a picture of it!

After a hard evening of golf, we needed some "nourishment."

Chelsea sports a chocolate mustache...

...while Erin eats what looks like something toxic. It was only Lemon Sorbet.

Miniature golfing can be a dangerous sport. The "deadly" group, of which I was a part, hit each other (and the other group) with golf balls on several occasions. Chelsea managed to lob a ball into the parking lot, and many golf balls went "off course." There was much silliness and much fun!

Ponce De Leon Lighthouse

2007-06-18T16:53:00.000-04:00

Sarah really likes lighthouses, so she and I decided to go to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse today. It is the tallest lighthouse in Florida, at 175', and the second tallest in the US. We were both a little uncomfortable climbing the 203 stairs, which have no risers, so we just went in and climbed a few stairs. We did get some great pictures though. The first few Sarah took.

In addition to liking lighthouses, Sarah is a fan of kitty cats, so when she saw this one sleeping outside the gift shop, she couldn't resist taking it's picture.

These two boats, above and below, are rafts that floated ashore in Volusia county in the 90's. The one above looks as though it would have fallen apart in open water. The fate of it's occupants is unknown. The raft below displays an orange life vest to indicate that the occupants of that raft were rescued at sea. The raft then floated ashore later on.

The rest of the pictures I took.
We took a short "nature walk" while at the lighthouse. Unfortunately, I decided to read the description of it when we were about half way through. The brochure said we might see gophers, armadillos, snakes, and a few other small creatures foraging along the path. Fortunately, we saw no snakes. My screams would have been heard all the way back in NY! We did however see this little squirrel watching us from an overhead branch.

I almost missed this spider waiting in her web, just as we were leaving the nature trail area. It looks like it could be a Black Widow, based on the pattern on her belly. I have never seen a black widow up close though, so I am not sure that's what she was.

I just thought this was a really cool boat. It was built in the early 30's. It's in pretty rough shape, but I was impressed with how well preserved it was.

Inside the Principal Keeper's house, there were several facts about lighthouses and nautical things. A couple of the rooms showed how the house would have originally been. This bathroom was one of them.

Inside the lighthouse...

Looking UP...

Looking down from about 30 steps up.

And looking up from outside the lighthouse.

Another of the buildings had lenses from various lighthouses. This is one of the lenses.

Finally, there were a couple of anchors on display. I thought they were neat.

Central Florida Zoo

2007-06-18T09:27:00.000-04:00

Every summer we make the trek to Daytona Beach for a family reunion. This year, Jeff was not able to go with us, so the kids and I decided to leave early and stay with my grandparents for a few days before the reunion. We arrived on Wednesday and enjoyed relaxing for a day. By Friday, the kids were getting a little stir crazy, so I took them to the zoo. I didn't leave them there, but I thought about it...LOL!

Going to this zoo was really neat because it is not like zoos at home. It is set in a wetland area of Central Florida, and they have maintained the wetlands by putting boardwalks throughout the property for visitors to walk on. Being able to see the natural habitat as you walk through the zoo was really neat.

All the monkeys aren't in the zoo...

This guy is a Hyacinth Macaw, named Zach. He lost his mate recently and craves attention. If you show any interest in him at all, he will come right down to the bars and sing at you. I found him very amusing because he seemed to be posing for me. Each time I held the camera up for a picture he would hold still for me to photograph him, then he would move and pose again.

This Red Shouldered Hawk was with a handler who shared all kinds of information with us about the animals at the zoo. Unlike zoos near us, this zoo allows volunteers to handle the animals.

This croc is 15 feet long. We were very happy that he was in a well enclosed space. I would not want to run into him in the wild!

Yes, we have squirrels at home, but this little guy was so cute. He came down a tree, across the boardwalk, and then around us all the while acting as if we were part of his natural habitat. I thought for a minute that he was going to walk right up and onto me. I decided I didn't want whatever was making him scratch so much, so we moved on.

Sarah and Erin were "shocked" to find a dinosaur in the wetlands! The background of this photo lets you see the natural surroundings. In some areas they even labeled some of the native species of plants. I was thankful that they had labeled the poison ivy since I don't really know what it looks like.

This is the entrance to the sensory garden. If you have ever been to a butterfly museum in the North, you have a good idea of what this exhibit was like. Of course the temperature and humidity don't go down when you leave though. There were some plants to look at, then some to touch. My favorite was the smelling garden. Finally, they had a small water feature with running water to listen to. Each area had different kinds of pretty flowers and plants. Here are pictures of a few.

Some of the animals in the zoo were just plain funny. I think Emu are pretty funny looking birds...

This tortoise was trying to cool off a little I guess. He was hiding under a bush, but I was able to find a place where I could look straight down on top of him.

The elephants looked particularly warm. This one kept laying its trunk on the log as if it was just too heavy to hold up.

Here are the very lazy kangaroos. No hopping while we were there.

Our final stops at the zoo, were the petting zoo and the gift shop. I have a particular fondness for goats. There is something about their personalities that I just can't get enough of. Growing up a friend had a goat that would follow us around the farm like a little puppy. Ever since then, I have really liked goats. These goats were just like other goats I've met...very curious, and very pushy!

He was "head-butting" the fence.

If I participated in the Wordless Wednesdays, this would be my picture this week!

This guy was so curious, he had to get a closer look at a group of youngsters visiting the zoo.

For anyone who is familiar with the Veggie Tales Silly Songs with Larry...THIS is a Zebu!

I have seen many Llamas...at zoos, in fields, etc. I can't say I have ever seen one quite this lazy though!

Pretty Flowers

2007-06-11T16:19:00.000-04:00

Today I went to my in laws to water their plants. While there, I decided to take a few pictures of their flowers. Here again, I am bad with plant names, so I'll just post the pictures. Their yard was professionally landscaped a couple years ago and my mother-in-law has been planting flowers since then. Her gardens are absolutely beautiful!

Jeff planted this Honeysuckle when he was quite young, and now it is huge. The girls cleaned out the area under it, and planted some flowers. They like to go under the Honeysuckle and play. The wind chime is one the girls picked out and it says "Welcome."

This is a great little rose bush. I would like one for my house.

These little blue flowers are one of my favorite hidden treasures. They are "hidden" among larger plants in the garden.

I took this picture looking almost straight up in the air. In the middle, just to the left of the two highest points of trees, is a black bird. He kept yelling at me while I was walking around under "his" tree. It took a couple of minutes for me to even be able to find him up there.

Yard Work

2007-06-10T16:54:00.000-04:00

I don't often find time to do yard work, but the jungle was getting out of control and I decided I should tackle it before we go out of town for 10 days. So yesterday, I enlisted the help of the kids and we got quite a lot accomplished.

I mowed the lawn while Kyle ran the weed whacker along the fence. The girls pulled weeds from my horribly overgrown garden, and then we all pulled out some cinder blocks that some previous owner "planted" along the fence. I say planted because they were sunk about 2/3 of the way into the ground and then the cavities were filled with soil and trees and things were growing up out of the cavities. I thought they were ugly and they got in the way when mowed, so we removed them.
Here are a couple pictures of the jungle that the girls weeded for me. I had to help them a little as some of the weeds were quite tenacious. As I was pulling for all I was worth on these weeds, I imagined weeds disappearing from someone's garden on the other side of the earth!

When all the weeding was finished, we discovered some plants that had been put there intentionally. I am terrible with plant names, so I'll just show you the pictures...

A touch out of focus, but pretty none the less. When I planted it, this was one small plant, now it has taken over a huge part of the garden. I wish it would take over a bunch more, as it is very pretty.

The girls surprised me with this for Mother's Day last year. I came home from work, and there it was planted in my garden. It is starting to climb up the trellis, but I didn't realize it had flowered until we uncovered it from many weeds yesterday.

You can see a bit more of the pretty purple flowers and the trellis, as well as the lower thing next to it. It shoots up these stalk-like things and just generally looks nice.

Here is an overall view taken from a spot close to where I took the "jungle" picture. It looks so much better.

Here are a few pictures of the rest of the flowers around the house. I did not take pictures of the rest of the lawn work we did, as my back was killing me, and I got into something I was allergic to. I took a shower, then Benadryl and was then in no condition to do anything but sleep.

This is my Fushia plant that my mother-in-law bought me for Mother's Day this year. I sure hope Jeff remembers to water it while the kids and I are away! My grandfather always has beautiful, overflowing hanging baskets with Fushia plants. I have always wanted one, but I do not have a green thumb and forget to water things. Since this one is visible from the driveway when I pull in, I never forget to water it, or have Sarah do it.

These rose bushes were here when we bought the house. They try to overtake the sidewalk, and Jeff complains every summer that they are attacking him when he tries to get into the car. So every fall I cut them back almost to the ground, thinking that maybe that will tame them a bit, but every summer they come back bigger and more full of roses.

Here is a "closer up" of one of the flowers. My camera is acting squirrelly since I dropped it a couple weeks ago. Now it only takes good pictures when it wants to, and often I find corrupted files when I go to upload my pictures. Very frustrating!

Wonderful Store

2007-06-08T22:18:00.001-04:00

While driving around south of Buffalo, the kids and I spotted this store. They asked if we could go in, so I stopped. What an amazing store! They had a huge selection of model cars, model trains, Breyer horses, doll houses, model rockets, and tons of other things that we didn't have time to look at. This is another place to which we will definitely return.

Some of the coolest things we saw were a three tiered model train village. There were three sizes of trains, one on each level with buildings and people and mountains, and planes flying overhead. There was also a doll house that was set up as a ranch, complete with rustic furniture and horses outside. The doll house furniture that was available was amazing. Sarah now wants to build a doll house.

Yes, I took more giraffe pictures today too...I know, I am obsessed.

Aren't they cute?

Many Adventures

2007-06-08T21:04:00.000-04:00

Today we had to go to Buffalo to take Sarah to the Doctor to have a cyst on her finger looked at. Her appointment was for mid afternoon so we had some time to kill in the morning. We decided that the Zoo was the place to go. We got there to find 13 school buses that were either in the process of dropping off their students or parked after having dropped them off. We had parked in Delaware Park and walked around the zoo in an effort to avoid the parking fee. As we passed the Buffalo, I had to take his picture.

This guy, or gal, decided the heat was just too much. Yes this character is standing in the "watering hole."

As we neared the entrance, the sound was deafening. There must have been about 200 to 250 youngsters (under the age of 10) standing in line with their accompanying adults. We decided the line was too long (even though we're members and could take the "short" line), and the noise too much. Niagara Falls was second on our list so off we went.

When Ferdinand, my Magellan gps system, nearly sent us over the border to Canada, I made a quick exit and traveled along Rt. 104. I had planned to go to the Falls, like we always do, but signs for Devil's Hole and the Whirpool Park caught my attention, so we stopped at the Whirlpool Park. We started on a trail that runs along the top of the Niagara Gorge.

The girls are headed down to the path.

This is the spectacular view that we enjoyed.

...looking into the gorge...

...and the swirling, rapidly moving waters of the mighty Niagara River.

The girls stopped to take a rest on this cool rock that they said I must take a picture of.

These pretty little flowers were everywhere. Unfortunately this picture does not do their color justice. They added a wonderful punch of color to the hazy day and the green of all the vegetation.

I think the person who owns this abode must be crazy. If you look closely in the middle of the picture, you can see a house sitting very near the escarpment on the Canadian side of the gorge. I would NOT want to live there!

As we walked along, we found this "hidden" stairwell. As we began our descent, we got really excited. The stairs must have been there forever and were obviously made of stone found in the gorge. I think we must have traveled down about 1/2 a mile into the gorge, putting us about 15 feet above the level of the river. The noise of the rushing water was incredible, and the temperature must have dropped about 5 degrees or so as we went into the gorge.

I must add here, that I learned two very important lessons today.
1) Always bring sneakers...you never know when you may need them. Crocs are not good trail shoes.
2) Always bring extra batteries for the camera. This was the last picture I was sure I would get, because the batteries were too low to truly run the camera. I had to keep turning it off and on to get any more pictures.

I had taken a really cool picture of a stone picnic table hidden in a flat spot surrounded by trees. There were 3 or 4 of these tables in different spots along the way. I want to return some day soon and take a picnic lunch.

This was the very last picture I was able to eek out while on our walk. This large rock is sitting in the river and just looks so cool. We were only about 10 or 15 feet above it. Kyle wondered if it was a petrified tree, as it was about the right color.
This was an amazing adventure that I am sure we will repeat sometime in the near future.
Oh, I did learn one other thing today...I am VERY out of shape. When I was so tired I didn't think I could go on, I began counting the stairs as we ascended. We were about 3 "flights" from the top and I counted 87 stairs. I figure all together there were probably 500 or so!

Thermometer

2007-06-07T16:55:00.000-04:00

Yup, I got another Dachshund thing!

I just couldn't resist.

Inspiration...

2007-06-04T15:33:00.000-04:00

...The foundation for all future success.

Those are the words on the plaque that Sarah won at her dance recital yesterday afternoon. She began Irish step dancing at a non-competitive school 4 years ago. The first few years she loved it, but then last year all of her friends moved up to the advanced class, and Sarah was still in the Intermediate class. She felt very bad about it, but never said a word to anybody. I knew it hurt her, but she continued to go to class and work hard. Eventually she began telling me that this would be her last year of Irish dance. The day her teacher announced that 3 students would be moving up next year, Sarah came home more excited about dance than I had seen her in a long time. Her name was announced first, of those that would move up.

By recital time Sarah not only knew the steps to her own solo (the most difficult steps for that class), but she knew the other 8 students steps. Her teacher kept telling me how much she had blossomed this year. At the dress rehearsal on Saturday, her teacher checked with me to make sure we were staying through the recognition and awards portion of the recital. I assured her that we were, and she said "Oh good...don't tell Sarah." At the recital, even though we knew that she was getting the award, it was moving to see the look of surprise on her face and to see all her friends from the advanced class cheering for her. Needless to say, Sarah has decided to dance for one more year.

Here are some pictures taken right after the recital. Unfortunately none of us has a camera with enough umph to take pictures during the recital. The auditorium is incredibly dark except for right on stage, and picture taking is a huge challenge.

Sarah and her instructor. Doesn't Sarah look pleased?

Sarah and Erin show off their certificates and Sarah's plaque.

Erin and her first year dance certificate.

Erin took tap, jazz, and ballet last year, so when she decided to take Irish dance this year, Sarah's teacher told her she could go into the Intermediate class since she knew all the basic steps. She learned most of the basics in tap, as the very basic steps are similar, and the rest her sister had taught her. Even though she was by far the youngest and smallest in the class, she did a phenomenal job in the recital.

Good Music and Happy Mom's Day

2007-05-14T21:53:00.000-04:00

My family left Mother's Day entirely up to me this year, which was fine with me. I slept in, until 8:30, was greeted by Sarah, salad in hand, as I entered the dining room. The other day I was hungry when I got up at 7:00, but nothing really sounded good. So instead of nothing, I ate a salad. Apparently she got the idea that I eat salads for breakfast. Oh well, it was a wonderful salad and I thoroughly enjoyed that someone else made it with me in mind! A few hours later, Jeff and the girls disappeared into the kitchen. Kyle and I were watching programs on TLC about families with many (13, 14, 16) kids. Kyle asked me what Daddy and the girls were doing, and I whispered that they were probably making me something, and we should not spoil it by asking. Sure enough, Jeff, Sarah, and Erin emerged from the kitchen with eggs, turkey sausage links, and tea. I had a very nice lunch for breakfast and breakfast for lunch.

I had to return a movie to the video store, so we took Joe and the girls and headed out for the store. Jeff was getting hungry and smelled burgers. We decided to go hit up the dollar menu of the local burger joint. Erin got a double cheeseburger, as did Jeff, Sarah got a chicken sandwich, and Joe got a plain hamburger. Apparently Joe's burger didn't fill him up because he saw fit to steal a bite of Erin's double cheeseburger, much to her dismay!

When we got home I helped Kyle clean his room a little. Yes, I suppose that sounds odd to do on Mom's Day, but I have wanted him to get rid of some stuff for a while and he was willing, so we went for it. We were almost finished when I realized the Zydeco concert I wanted to go to was to start in just under an hour. We quickly put stuff away, go cleaned up and went to the park. After finding a fairly close parking spot, we walked to the park and listened to the concert. The concert was part of the entertainment for the Lilac Festival, so it was a free concert in the park. The stage is set up at the bottom of a hill, so you get the amphitheater thing going to some extent, but they still pump it through speakers so you can hear it all throughout the park.

I went to New Orleans a few years ago, and had the pleasure of going to an authentic Cajun restaurant where they have a live band and a dance floor. I was mesmerized as I watched this couple in their 80's glide around the floor, and then stop to play the "squeeze box" or spoons. They were more agile and had more energy than most people 1/4 their age. Ever since then, whenever I hear zydeco music, that is what I think of. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to see people dancing to the music last night. There was a feeling that brought me back to that little restaurant in New Orleans. Erin got a kick out of the music as well.

She danced...

and danced...

until she was tired.

After watching the band for a while, we walked around to check out some of the booths. It was getting late, so a lot of people had closed up for the day, but we found a food booth open, so Jeff got the kids a funnel cake to share and a fried dough for us. Afterwards we went home. All in all it was a wonderful Mother's Day. I really enjoyed relaxing and spending the day surrounded by my favorite people.

Lilac Parade

2007-05-12T13:09:00.000-04:00

The kids and I went to the Lilac Festival parade this morning. We had absolutely perfect weather for it. The sun was out, the temperature was around 52, and there was just a hint of a breeze. After navigating several closed streets we were able to find a parking space about 1/4 mile from the end of the parade route. This worked out well since we were planning to just go to the parade today. Once it was over most people headed toward the festival but we went the opposite direction back to the car. Here are some of the highlights, in my opinion, of the parade.

I really like horses, so when the parade started with mounted police officers and then this horse pulling a wagon, I was thrilled.

I thought these guys had cool uniforms. They looked like they were wearing tuxes, without the jackets. Oh yeah, they sounded pretty good too.

Again, I liked the uniforms. I am not a huge fan of marching bands, but parades would be very boring without them.

These dogs are from the local German Shepherd rescue. The white one in the middle was very "talkative."

There is just something about the Red Hat Society that brings a smile to my face whenever I see them. Perhaps its the silly red hats with purple clothing, or the infectious smiles many of the ladies wear. I'm just not certain, but I sure do like seeing them around.

This guy was so funny looking. Its a Shriner hat that is as big as a person. Several small children ran up to him to shake his hand or hug him and I thought for sure he would run them over, but apparently he has pretty good vision inside that thing!

Bagpipes are my favorite part of any parade! The music never lasts long enough, but these guys were great.

Nope, I really wasn't kidding when I said bagpipes are my favorite!

I'm not sure you can tell from the picture what this is...an elephant made entirely of balloons. There were a few balloon creations like this in the parade...very odd! I hope nobody there had a latex allergy.

Just as the parade opened with horses, it ended with horses.

May Flowers

2007-05-11T22:26:00.000-04:00

I like flowering plants in my house, but unfortunately I often forget to water them, and eventually I kill them. Not intentionally, of course, but they do often die. I try to stick with outdoor stuff, that is planted in the earth, or cut flower arrangements on the dining room table, as they require less attention from me.

My girls spent the night at Grandma's house the other day and came home with Mother's Day flowers, even though Mom's Day was 4 days away. They are beautiful! I love the variety of colors among the same type of flowers.

A few days before that, Jeff and I went to the store for a couple things, and Jeff saw these cute little pots of Campanula. He thought I should have one, so that came home as well.

Wednesday, after I took the kids to the park, I was filling in the pictures in Jeff's picture frame, but I was short one 6 inch tall by 4 inch wide picture. Normally I take them 6" wide and 4" tall. The girls have a dance recital in June, and I thought they should have their picture taken in their dance dresses. I was trying to keep the house cool, so I had all the curtains closed and the house was pretty dark. Thinking the light would be better outside, I took them out to the yard. Originally I had them stand near the fence, but the neighbor's ugly garage didn't seem like a suitable back drop. Looking around, I finally spotted the perfect location for their picture! See what you think...

The more I look at it, the more it reminds me of the canvas backgrounds they use at professional portrait studios. The only things that give it away are the fence visible in the lower right corner, and the white from the neighbors house showing through above Erin's head. At any rate, I was quite pleased with this picture!

I have one more flower picture to post, but by the time we finished dinner and cleaned up the dishes, it was too dark for outdoor photos. Tomorrow is another day and now I have an excuse to post then.

Walk In the Park

2007-05-09T15:22:00.000-04:00

We decided to go to the park today to check out the preparations for the annual lilac festival. I'm not sure if Erin was trying to plant herself under this lilac bush, or what, but she blended in nicely.

When I took the picture of this tree, Kyle sighed and said, "I just don't get it." He is a typical 14 year old boy, who just doesn't see the beauty in things, I guess.

This beauty, however, was resting under this huge tree. Apparently this type of tree is native to Japan. I guess it likes our American soil as well, for it is HUGE!

We found this monkey in the same tree Erin was resting under. Hmmm...

I don't usually manage to take nice close ups, but I couldn't resist trying with this absolutely stunning blue pansy. I did manage a decent picture, although I didn't quite get my hand far enough out of the way. There was a little white pansy partially blocking this blue one, so I held the white one out of the way. The gardeners must have just watered the pansy bed and this one still had little droplets on it.

The girls posed in front of a beauty of a tulip garden. There were some other flowers in it as well, but the tuilps stole the attention here.

Erin has always loved to smell the flowers.

Joe was sniffing, and sniffing, and sniffing, when all of a sudden he laid down and began rolling. Judging by the tongue lolling, I think he thoroughly enjoyed his roll.

After meeting a very large, beautiful black labradoodle named Cleo, Joe decided he needed a drink, even if it was from Sarah's very sissyish pink bowl. I wanted to take a picture of Cleo, but she was sitting on my foot to get some lovin', and when I stopped scratching, she would dance and whine. She was a very large puppy and the owner looked as though he was struggling to keep her calm. I decided to pass on taking her picture.

Erin, Sarah, and Joe enjoy some shade under some sort of pretty, weeping tree.

At one point while we stopped for a rest, a male cardinal flew in front of us. I love cardinals, so I decided to try to get his picture. He apparently had other ideas! I chased that silly bird all over the park, and the two photos here are all I was able to capture of him. I really need a camera with a telephoto lens! He is in the center of the two pictures below. Even if you can't see him, the pictures are still kind of cool.

There are lots of animal burrows all throughout the park. Joe must have caught the scent of something near this one, and his dachshund instincts went into overdrive... I had to climb under the lilac that this hole was under to "dig" Joe out!

The girls posed for one last picture under this tree before we hopped in the car and headed home, with the air conditioning blasting. Yes, it is only May, but the temp reached 86 today. A bit too warm for my tastes!

Concert of Music from Around the World

2007-05-03T23:26:00.000-04:00

We had a girl's night out this evening. My mother-in-law, the girls and I went to dinner and then to a free concert at a local college. I really enjoy a variety of music types, so this was a lot of fun. There were three groups that performed: Paulownia, a Japanese Koto group; Son de la tierra, a Latin folk music group; and Agbekor, a Ghanaian percussion music group. I took some pictures, but we were sitting back a ways in the auditorium and as soon as I got ready to take the first picture, they dimmed the lights...go figure!

This is a picture of the Koto group, consisting of 3 women. The Koto is a stringed instrument made from the wood of the Paulownia tree. Originally the strings were made from silk, but now they are made from nylon. The instrument has a very sweet, fairly quiet sound. Although a stringed instrument, it really does not sound like any Western stringed instruments.

After the concert, they invited the audience to come on stage and look at the instruments. My girls took a couple pictures of the Koto. Erin took the first picture, which I thought was a great one because you can see the beautiful grain of the wood in it.

Sarah took this second picture of the instrument and one of the women from the group. This woman also happens to be the wife of one of the members of a band that my father-in-law plays bass in.

This is the Latin group. The man with the flute was the director of the concert. He also played with the Ghanaian percussion group.

Finally, the Ghanaian percussion group.

This group consists of students from the local college, except for the director, who is a professor of music at the school. The man standing at the end, on the left, is a master drummer from Ghana. Erin seemed quite taken by him so she took a close up of him after the concert.

After each of the groups performed individually, all 3 performed together in a very upbeat, interesting "World Beat" ensemble.

As I said, this was a fun event. It is not something we typically do, so the kids enjoyed themselves, even though it was quite late for them. I think they also learned a few things. In addition to each piece of music being explained, the groups each told a little about the history of their music. We hope to go to more of these types of things in the future. Free events are always good!

Middle of the Night Scratching

2007-05-02T22:46:00.000-04:00

My back hurt so badly yesterday, that I spent most of the afternoon and night in bed. I finally got comfortable enough to go to sleep for the night around 1 AM, knowing that I had to be up at 4 AM to go to work. I used to sleep through anything, and to some extent I still do, which is fortunate since we live practically next door to the airport on a flight pattern. Anyway, at 2:30 I heard something in my sound asleep state and shot straight upright in bed. It sounded metallic, but for the life of me I could not figure out why one of the kids would be up at 2:30 in the morning banging metallic objects together. Then it hit me...one of our (unwelcome) resident mice was in the knee wall in our bedroom, chewing on something. It must have been near the heat run bumping it with something, making the faint metallic sound I heard. After that all I could hear was the stupid mouse chewing on what sounded like carpet, although I found no evidence of that. It was NOT the kind of thing one should wake up to in the middle of the night, especially when one has only just gotten to sleep!

When I got home from work this afternoon, I grabbed the kids, stuffed them in the closet and told them to vacuum and clean and look for mouse droppings. We found a little nest under a loose floor board so we piled heavy stuff on top of it. I believe that is where they were getting into the room, so hopefully I have cut them off. I'll have to get a new electrocution chamber, but until then, I hope they find somewhere else to chew in the night!