Maybe Next Time

We were at the Milwaukee Zoo yesterday to support our nephew on his first Down Syndrome Awareness walk. So we were on the walk portion of our day going by this foresty area that seemed like a great place to take a photo of the kids - you know, maybe for the annual Christmas card or something. I made the mistake of taking my sunglasses off while shooting the photos so I could see the light better, but duh, didn't put on my regular glasses so I really wasn't sure what I was shooting since it all looked blurry to me. Then there's Mike, ever the not helpful photographer's assistant, telling the kids to say cheeseburger or pizza or something stupid like that. All I wanted was a cute photo of the kids. THIS is what I get instead......

Family Vacation

Here are a few more photos from our trip to Puerto Vallarta.

Dad and Candace

The family - what is up with my kids?

I think this is only photo of me except one Mike took looking down my shirt at the Phoenix Airport. Not sharing that one of course. ;-)

Mike in the roof-top pool

Mike tries the waves

Our second favorite past-time while on the beach - dodge the waves

(First favorite past-time was sipping Coronas!)

Mr. Safety surfs safely

Still has the most awesome eyes ever!

Charlotte with her new friend from Montreal. The fact that neither could speak the other's language didn't deter these two from having a fabulous time together.

Posing after lunch with the Mexican Dancers sculpture on the Malecon

Dodging the waves

Scenic Puerto Vallarta

At the end of July we left for a week-long trip in Puerto Vallarta. We joined my Dad and Candace who were already there at the condo-on-the-beach. Here are a few excerpts from the trip.

A famous church that I never got around to going inside to see. It's supposed to be really beautiful, but I gotta admit by the time we made it down there on foot we were dying from the heat and humidity, so a passing photo of the steeple as we headed back to the pool was about all I was able to manage.




Every morning the 'Muffin Man' came by with his tray of fresh-out-of-the-oven muffins and pastries. He knew where to find us on our 4th floor balcony. Here's Dad, Mike, and the kids making their choices. I'm dreaming of an apple custard pastry right now.



The view from the roof (pool deck) staring south down the beach.



The view from the back of the condo where we were staying.



The view from the front of the condo where we were staying.

T-Ball Round Two

Just 4 short years ago we were on these very fields for T-Ball when Eric was in the league. This year Charlotte chose to take a break from gymnastics and try out T-Ball.

Warm-up before the game

In the dugout looking a little warm (it was 90 deg or something the day I took these.)

This is being "baseball ready" (aka pay attention so you don't get bopped on the head with a ball)

If this isn't a "girl throw", I don't know what is!

Can you tell this child was loving having the camera on her all during the game?

Yes, You're At The Right Place

I just made some changes to my blog look. I wasn't planning on it since I hardly have time, but what I was using (from some free site) has apparently been deleted and is no longer available, so rather than have readers looking at a white background with "this image is no longer available" plastered all over the page, I chose to spend some time today to find another look. Blogger has come a long way in their offerings since I first started blogging, but so many of the backgrounds are nice to look at but make it difficult to read text. I think this one may border close to the edge of "not quite readable".

The Big Reveal

Three summers ago Mike and I whacked down all our bushes out front. The yucky evergreen type trees had met a similar fate in a previous year. We made some major changes out there and this summer it all finally came together. Now it's a matter of waiting for everything to mature.

To read the initial post I made about this journey, you can read that here. If you don't really care and just want to cut to the chase and see the photos of before and after, keep scrolling down.

BEFORE

We got crazy

We planted a new tree

If you look in the above photo you can see my white spray painted line of what my plans were. Lets see how I did.

Ta Daaaah.....

Notice the fence is gone, the whole garden area is outlined with interlocking brick (the kind that are buy two at .89 and get one free kind), and there's always something blooming. Right now it's daylilies, hydrangea, and asiatic lilies. If you click on the photo to enlarge, you'll also see that I relocated the bird bath. Now the birds can splash around right in front of the window and torture our cats.

There's an assortment of stuff in there - balloon flowers, lupine, iris, hosta, couple different kinds of daylilies, two bushes, cone flowers, poppies, bleeding hearts, spider wort, and some other stuff I don't even remember what it's called. It's taken 3 summers to put it all together - some came from friends' gardens, some were rescued off the October clearance rack, and other stuff came from honest to goodness nurseries.

Much improved, eh?