Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Happy Bday to D!

We celebrated Danielle's 15th birthday last week. It was a rather low key day, which is probably because Danielle is a rather low key kid. She wanted to go to lunch with her best friend and then have a few friends over to spend the night. We squeezed dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and birthday brownies in between the two events.



She's been licking the brownie batter bowl since she was 2.

 
The traditional post-present birthday hug.
 

We enjoyed dinner on the restaurant's patio.





Danielle is a pretty special kid. I hope she's blessed with a daughter like her some day. (And I don't mean that in the mom-curse way at all!)

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Along the Way

I have been trying to walk a lot lately. My favorite places to go are our nearby metroparks. We have such a nice park system. The sun is setting earlier and earlier, and before long it will be too cold to do much walking outside, but I am enjoying the summer evenings as much as possible while I can.

One reason I love to walk at the metropark is because there are so many distractions along the way that's it's easy to walk farther than you realize: the flowers blooming in the prairies, the butterflies, the birds, the baby turkeys waddling after mom & dad, the turtles in the wetland, the clouds changing color as the sun sinks lower, the deer...I could go on and on. I especially enjoy counting the deer every evening. I saw 10 one evening last week. That was my highest. It doesn't matter how many I see, I have to stop and look at them every time. I don't understand why everyone else just keeps on walking. Those little spotted fawns following their mama are too cute not to enjoy for a minute.

I don't take my camera with me because it's too heavy, but I've taken a lot of cell phone pictures and videos this summer. I thought I would start sharing some of the things I see along the way.

I was a little later than usual getting to the park yesterday evening. By the time I finished my walk, the bats were performing their acrobatics. I enjoy watching them, even when they fly right at my camera.


The clouds were pretty last night, too.

Saturday, August 04, 2018

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Day Trip

A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a very rare softball-free weekend. (Sadly we had to lose early in the tournament to get the softball-free weekend, but that's beside the point.) We packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed a day trip together. It was kind of crowded, but it was still very enjoyable. It seems like we never have the time to do this kind of thing any more - we had such a nice time!!

















Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Father's Day

We spent Father's Day on the softball fields again this Father's Day weekend. And, like last year, Danielle's team won the tournament. I think that should be our new Father's Day tradition - winning a tournament and getting a trophy picture with Dad.


After the tournament Tyler joined us for dinner out.


Ron is our voice of reason and our constant. He's strong when we need him to be, yet is also kind and tenderhearted. He's the perfect example of what our daughter should look for in a husband and father and the kind of man our son should aspire to be like . We are lucky he is ours.

Friday, June 22, 2018

A "Walk" in the Park

Sometimes Danielle will go with me to the park to look for tree frogs. Sometimes Tyler will go with me. The other day I managed to talk both kids into going with me. Of course, once I was there I wondered at the wisdom in that. It is much more peaceful by myself.



At one point I was behind the kids while we were walking on the boardwalk, so I thought I would get a nice picture of the two of them walking together. Even at 16 and 14, that's nearly impossible. Finally I said "I just want one nice picture of the two of you together." Tyler said, "What? Should we hold hands and skip?" and then grabbed Danielle's hand and they skipped off. They thought it was funny that I took a picture of that. Sometimes you have to settle.



And sometimes you get lucky.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

A Walk in the Park

I've been able to enjoy some time at the park this summer. Usually I go by myself. Sometimes I get lucky and no one else is there. Then it feels like I have a really big backyard all to myself. A lot of times I go just so I can walk. When I do that, I don't usually take my camera because it weighs a lot! I have managed to get a few pictures, though. Here are some of them.