Backyard Digging

The girls have been fighting over this "diamond" for a while now, both claiming to be the finder keeper. Amanda is certain that she found the diamond while digging in the backyard around a tree; Elizabeth says she found it one time when we were hiking. I finally just took it away and put it up to stop the arguing. My plan was to just toss it once the girls forgot about it.

Yesterday Jay saw it and asked me where it came from, I told him it was just a rock the girls were fighting over. He seemed surprised that I had missed the obvious similarities between this "diamond" and um... an arrowhead? It does seem obvious now. But on any given day many items pass through my hands at the backdoor checkpoint station. Stick - out! Shoe that was missing for 2 months - in! Dead bee - out! Caterpillars, lizards, feathers... the kids and animals try to smuggle all sorts of things in this house. I don't even remember this coming in, but Elizabeth admits that it was Amanda's backyard find.

Pretty cool find, isn't it? It is back in Amanda's hands and among her trinkets, where it is once again playing the role of diamond.

At Last

You can tell by the look on Sully's face that he is just as surprised as I am. It has taken him almost an entire year to win Moose over. This is the first time Moose has allowed Sully to get this close without a hiss or a bop to the nose. But Moose is 10, and in his defense, his idea of a good time isn't being chased by a dog around the house. Sully has never meant any harm, he just wanted a friend. And now it seems he has one.

Beat the Heat

Beat the Heat - part one of the "Mommy, I'm bored" edition.

We found these fun geography quiz games and Elizabeth is learning quite a lot about geography. It's also teaching Amanda about computers, she is working hard on her drag and drop skills. Truth be told, Jay and I have enjoyed a little friendly competition ourselves.

Here are two games to test your own skills (the pictures link to the game):

The Rebel

One of the first shots with our brand new camera (before reading the manual). This is one of Jay's water towers, and it made for a perfect setting to take the camera on a test run. My excitement level about reading this manual (as soon as these kids go to bed) rivals that of reading Little Women (again, and again, and again). I'm very, very excited. There will be highlighters, notes and post-it tabs involved.

You know how in Christmas Story, Ralphy wanted the Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock and that thing that tells time? Well, my dream has been a Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP Digital SLR with 3" LCD and EF-S 18-55mm IS Lens.

And guess what? Jay's parents read the post about our camera falling into the pool and asked us to meet them at Best Buy. Next thing I know, the dream camera is IN MY HANDS. Then things get blurry, Buddy points at this and that, tells them to ring it all up. Then I'm holding IT in our car, carrying IT into our house. And it's still here. In. Our. House.

We are not worthy, we are not worthy!

I have this feeling that some camera geek in a Best Buy outfit is going to burst in and tell me I have no business with such a kick butt camera and take it away. So I will sleep with it under my pillow to keep my little Reb safe. And I will learn, I will get good, and I will make the Rebel proud.

Thank you Happy and Buddy!!!!!

R.I.P. Kimya

Kimya, one of the adorable gorillas at Riverbanks Zoo, died two weeks ago. This isn't exactly breaking news, but I came across this picture today and realized it sums up the sadness of Kimya's passing pretty well. I don't know which gorillas are in this picture, we took it a few months ago.

Kimya was quite young, and he was simply found dead one Monday morning by his keepers. There were no signs of illness, no clues as to a cause of death. Hopefully the pathology reports will reveal what happened at some point.

Rest in peace Kimya, you were loved big guy.

Salute From The Shore

My brother Mike in his kayak during today's fly over. It was hard to wave and get a good picture at the same time! I was also using a different camera since mine fell into the pool about an hour before the fly over.

It was fun to wave flags and wave to this C-17, and the party stretched across the entire SC coast!

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!

Beach Triple Nap (+1)

Jack's first beach night as a "big boy" - no more pack-n-play beach nights for him! Sully loves all of the warm bodies all in one place, his favorite way to sleep. Due to Sully's growing girth (displayed perfectly in this picture) we've started to be more mindful of his access to floor snacks and cat food. We've also started calling him Mr. Meatball.

We are excited about a 4th of July C-17 fly by happening on the beach in a few hours, and will post pictures of the plane if we can get a good shot! Salute from the shore!!!!