Our SB Vacation

We were in that part of Texas at the right time of year to see the whooping cranes in their wintering grounds in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. It is estimated that there are only around 400 whooping cranes, give or take a hundred, left in the world. That includes both cranes in the wild and in captivity.

We booked a tour that would take us into the wildlife refuge via the bay. The boat was able to get to places we could not visit on our own. We saw a ton of different species of birds. We also saw at least 40 whooping cranes. The captain knew his stuff and was a good source of information about the local birds. We also saw several dolphin. We had to wait until we drove through the park later in the week to see the other wildlife. Here are some pictures from our tour.

 

Short billed dowitchers

Reddish egret



Black bellied plover in his winter plumage (I think)

American avocets

whooping crane

Roseate spoonbill

Snowy egrets, American avocets, & spoonbill

Lesser yellowlegs & whooping crane

Black necked stilt & spoonbill

 

Juvenile ibis & mottled duck

whooping crane

Juvenile whooping crane with an eel

Juvenile whooping crane with an eel

Osprey

American oystercatchers

Brown booby

 

 

 

Danielle was the only one who seemed noticeably bored at one point. We sat at the top of the boat with the captain and a couple people who were with a conservation group. Everyone else sat in the cabin below, so it was almost like we had the boat to ourselves. We got back around lunch time and walked next door for lunch on the back patio. We amused ourselves with the barstools. It was a good trip.

Our Spring Break Vacation

Since our summer is filled with softball, diving, and band camp, we decided to take our family vacation over spring break.

We wanted to go some place warm that we hadn't been to before, so we picked Texas. We focused on the area between the gulf and Corpus Christi and ended up finding a beautiful house in Rockport to rent. Hurricane Harvey made landfall in this area in September, but most of what we wanted to do was unaffected.

Our house had an unheated pool. I'm sure it would have been nice in the middle of a hot Texas summer, but it was still way too cold in late March. This was as far in as the kids got.

The deck and boat slip at the house were the main things that were destroyed by Harvey. They rebuilt both before we got there, and everything was perfect. The house itself was beautiful.

We spent a lot of time on the dock. It was exactly what we were hoping for.

 

 

 

 

Yes, We're Still Here

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted anything! We are alive and well. Part of the problem is that I am rarely on my laptop anymore, and the web browser on my phone isn't compatible with blogger. The other part of the problem is that I'm old and go to bed early. (That's probably the biggest part of the problem.)

Since my last post in March, we had spring break and went on vacation to Rockport, TX. We had a great time! I'm still editing pictures from that trip and will post some eventually. School softball started. I'll post pictures from that eventually, too. The weather has been very uncooperative for softball and just about everything else.  It snows, blows, warms up, cools down, sleets, hails, storms, and gets quiet again sometimes all in the same day. And we are counting down the days of school left until summer break (29). That pretty much gets you caught up on the highlights of life around here. (You really haven't missed much.)

I'll try to post some vacation pictures later this week. In the meantime, here is one of my favorites.

Happy 1st Day of... Spring??

The first full day of spring was kind of a bust. No one told Old Man Winter his services were no longer needed. He left us a couple inches of snow overnight. I really like snow in December. I mostly like snow in January. I kind of tolerate snow in February, but I strongly dislike snow in March. It's not fun any more. And to top it off, we had a snow day today. We are out of calamity days, though, so that means we lose a day of spring break. Very not fun any more. (And I just know that day we have to make up will be sunny and 70!)

In addition to being the first full day of spring, March 21st is also Tyler's half birthday. I mixed things up a little this time because we are leaving for vacation soon and I didn't want to make a cake right before leaving. I bought the kids bundlets, which is really more like 1/4 of a cake rather than a 1/2 anyway. It was a tight fit to cram all the candles on there though, so I ended up omitting the 1/2. He had forgotten it was his 1/2 birthday, so the cake was a pleasant surprise...which was the whole point of "celebrating" 1/2 birthdays in the first place - to add a little happiness to the otherwise dreary months of February and March.

I told him we aren't recognizing this date next year because 17.5 is way too close to 18.

Sitting in the Sunshine

 

I can see why Clara enjoys it. :)

Reaching New Heights

I now look up (just a smidge) to Danielle.

The Best Superlative of All

At school this week the 8th graders voted for the "8th grade superlatives": most athletic, most school spirit, most funny, most helpful, etc, etc. I think there were about 8 categories. Danielle said they voted on the computer. Each category had a blank answer line so you could type any name that came to mind. They do this every year for the 8th grade, and the winners are always pictured in the yearbook. The evening after the voting, Danielle told me how frustrated she was with things like this because inevitably they seem to be a popularity contest. She was afraid the people who truly exhibit those traits would be overlooked for the kids who are the most popular, and she didn't think that was fair.

Danielle is not popular. She's not unpopular. She's just Danielle, and that's good enough. She goes out of her way to include others. She's considerate and thoughtful and pleasant to be around. She has a good group of friends, and she is a good friend. She told me the other day that someone asked her why she's so nice to everyone. She said "I told her because you don't know what someone else is going through. They might need someone to be nice to them."

It turns out Danielle should have had a little more faith that her classmates would take the voting to heart. Her peers voted her the most friendly. I think it's the best superlative of all. Being athletic is nice, but it doesn't make someone feel less lonely. Having school spirit is nice, but it doesn't brighten someone's day. But being friendly can change the world one person, one heart at a time. Although the "award" won't change how she behaves or treats people, it was a nice affirmation that people notice and she does make a difference in her little corner of the world...or the 8th grade.

Conversation with My Son

Tyler has been complaining about ringing in his ears, so he had an appointment with an ENT today to rule out any problems. We were both surfing on our phones while we were in the waiting room. I ran across a post on FB about things teens think their parents don't know about social media and showed it to Tyler. While we were talking about it, I asked him if anyone had ever asked him for or sent him "nudes" (as the "kids" now call them). He said someone actually had asked him a few weeks ago, and he took a screen shot of the conversation. He pulled it up on his phone and showed it to me. I was so proud of his response...and I laughed so hard at it...that I asked him to forward it to me so I could share it. This is most of the text:

Was the sender serious? The person who asked him is someone who used to go to his school but doesn't any more. She claimed her boyfriend sent the text and was just joking around. Tyler said she's the kind of person that would see if she could get you to respond so she could humiliate you. So, I don't know if it was meant to be a serious request, but I absolutely love how Tyler handled it.

As far as Tyler's ears, everything checked out normal. We'll wait a few months and see if it goes away on its own. It's possible his brain is just louder than most. :)

 

Dancing & Fishing

Danielle attended a dance at her school Friday evening. I don't think she does much dancing - she gets her 2 left feet naturally - but she enjoys hanging out with her friends and watching them dance. I love the dress we found this time. We have a hard time finding dresses that are small enough to fit her without being so short she can't bend over. Thankfully she is very modest and we never have to battle over issues like that. We just have to keep looking. This dress was perfect, though, and happened to be the first dress she tried on! I thought she looked very pretty.

Danielle and her BFF

Ron is out of town on business this week. He decided to treat himself and added a day onto the beginning of his trip so he could charter a bass fishing trip. This is something he's wanted to do for a long time, and I'm glad he got to go. He said he caught several fish and he enjoyed the trip overall, but his guide was not very friendly. That put a little bit of a damper on things, but he's still glad he got the chance to go. I was jealous of the beautiful blue skies when he sent me these pictures yesterday, but we were blessed with them today!