NC Zoo

The boys and I went to the NC Zoo yesterday. It was a great time like always. Joey was a little upset that we didn't have any company, but he got over it. Whew... We were treated to a very close elephant, the gorilla up and walking about, bison very near the observation platform, beautiful yellow flowers and a few butterflys throughout the zoo, and feeding time with the seals. I guess we were there about 5 hours. Good exercise for mom for sure. Here are a few of the best shots. Here is a link to the album.

Boo!

Rick and Joey put up the rest of the inflatables yesterday. We're just about decorated for Halloween. I know Joey will be frustrated that the decorating fun is over. I just have a couple of witches left to put out...one that runs into a tree and another that runs into the window over the garage. There's more stuff, but usually we reserve that for Halloween night if we have time to put it out. We'll see what this year has in store.

More pics of what the kids and I were up to today are here.

Fun with Beads

I used plastic beads today to take some abstract and colorful pictures. I've been collecting clear glass plates and bowls from various places. I buy ones with interesting patterns on the bottom. Today I was using a star, basket weave, and one with lots of distinct star points. I think the effect is pretty cool.

You can see a few more of these shots here.

Fall Festivities Continue

I awoke to the, "Mom, can we get more Halloween decorations down?" request today:-) I knew it was coming. We'd talked about it. "Sure, but let me wake up a bit first, OK?!?"

The Starbucks finally kicked in so that I felt safe to climb on the pulldown stairs. We got down our scarecrows and put them out. Poor Joey, he wants to be 10, but he's only going on 6. By that, I mean that he was so frustrated he couldn't put the scarecrow stakes in the ground by himself where he wanted them. Soon, son, soon. And, while you're at it, mow the grass too, OK?

I put up a new ghost globe inflatable too. We had fun. They got their decorations. I got my pictures. We all got a few mosquito bites.

Rest of the pics are here.

Day Out With Thomas 2008

Wow! I think this is our 4th year going to Day Out With Thomas (DOWT) down in Spencer, NC at the NC Transporation Museum. This is the first time that it rained while we were at the event. Thankfully, it was mostly just misty and not really coming down. We never used an umbrella. I'd say this year's event was just as much fun as all the others, but it seemed slightly more low key and less crowded today probably because of the weather. The only thing we missed was that they did not have the Norfolk and Southern diesel engine that we could walk inside of today. We enjoyed our train ride and the roundhouse and the boys had a blast with the Thomas inflatable and putt putt. Enjoy the pics. I've included a few of the best here, but the rest of are here. You'll see Johnny driving a real fire truck, the view from the train ride, and some other cool things.

From 2005. How times change and stay the same...

R2-D1 is here!

Well, actually, it's more like a combination of R2-D1 and R2-D2, but Joey calls him R2-D1. He wanted to make up his own droid instead of just being R2-D2, but after we built it, we discovered there was a real R2-D1. Oh well.

Here are some interesting droid links we just enjoyed:

link1

link2

link3

And, not to be left out, here's Johnny practicing for his Halloween debut as Mr. Incredible.

Yates Mill Pond Revisited

The boys and I were back at Yates Mill Pond today. It was the 3rd weekend of the month, and they were running the water wheel and giving tours. I went with tripod in hand to try to get some different shots of the water spilling out over the wheel. The goal was to get a misty effect. I think the shots I took turned out pretty cool. If you can fast forward through them, it's almost like you're watching it happen all over again.

I also tried to get some more stained glass type shots today with a new clear dogwood flower etched (heavy) plate. It's fun to play with the glass and marbles (when they aren't sliding off the plate onto your head).

The best shots are here.

All the shots are here.