Gma Sites

Gma Sites is in the process of selling her house. Here are some pictures at the house from our last visit. We have many good memories that are related to the house, but it is quite large and requires a lot of upkeep, so her move is probably a good thing. Her new condo is currently being built.

At the pool in May

Here are just a few more pictures of our last visit to Holland when Brian and I joined David and his sons at the pool. It was a very fun day, and it was special that we could go there together.

the black list

Dear sisters-in-law,
Today Brian tried to give blood but was prevented from doing so because he is married to someone who was in Nigeria before 1985. You are both in the same boat as Brian, I'm afraid, so you get to join D,P, and I on the blood donation 'black list' for the forseeable future. Bummer, huh?

new islands

Yesterday as I was sleeping in, I heard a faint banging noise at around 9 AM. I ignored it, since it wasn't that loud and I wasn't really interested in it. Around noon, there was a much louder banging noise. Since I was up by then, I went outside. Guess what I saw? There was a bulldozer in the middle of the street hammering down at the center line with the sharp edge of its scooper. As I watched, the bulldozer broke a large section of the asphalt in front of my neighbor's house. Why? Well, I went out to ask one of the contruction guys about it, and he said that the city decided to put in some islands to slow down traffic. So right now there are a series of holes down the middle of our street. Once all the holes are finished (they are working on a few more down the south end of the street), the construction guys will come back and pour some concrete to put in a nice oval curb structure, and then they will plant some flowers in the middle (kind of like you see in Holland on parts of tulip lane). I think it will be nice when they are finished, but right now it looks messy. I am looking forward to seeing the flowers they plant though. I am also very happy that they did not place one of these islands directly in front of our driveway.

Haircut

I got a haircut this week. Here are the before and after pictures. I like the change, but now I need to go to CVS and get hair stuff for shorter hair, since all I have are large ponytail bands (which was all I needed before.)

Disney 2

Here is the last set of pictures from our Disney trip. I am posing with an alien statue at the main park in the picture above. Can you recognise the movie this alien is from?

We saw many species of animals at Animal Kingdom, but the meerkats were especially nice because they reminded us of a species near and dear to our hearts. This meerkat is striking a very ferret-like pose.

These next two pictures are of Brian and me at Epcot. Epcot has a tour of the world, where many different countries are represented. Here we are in the Asian/Middle Eastern regions. I love the tile-work in Morocco (below).


There are many nice plants at Disney. I especially enjoyed all the charecter bushes, like this one of Bambi.

Grandpa Heazlit's house

Several weeks ago, we visited Grandpa Heazlit's house. We took several walks around his yard, usually followed by a couple of large biting flies. It was nice to be outside and see the trees, fields, pond, etc. Here are Brian and his grandpa by the grape vines.

There is a great birdfeeder that many birds gathered around. I took this picture in the morning--I was testing the zoom on our new camera to see how clear the pictures would turn out. We saw many nice birds at this feeder.

In the evening, we sat on the front porch together, watching the fireflies and waiting for the stars to come out. It is a really beautiful part of the world--very peaceful. A doe wandered into the front yard as we were sitting on the porch at dusk. (Above-Grandpa and me; below-Virginia and Brian.)

Happy Birthday Anne!

In honor of Anne's birthday (technically tomorrow, but it is almost tomorrow right now anyway), I thought I would post a couple pictures of her. Above, you can see Anne and her husband. Below, Anne and her youngest nephew. Happy Birthday Anne!

more from the Holland visit

It has been almost a month since these pictures were taken, but they are still nice to see. Here is Oma and Eli, hanging out on a Sunday afternoon.

Dad and I went to the kite festival up in Grand Haven when we were visiting. It was very windy (good for kites), but also very chilly. The kites were being flown right on the beach, so there was some cold wind coming off the lake. Here I am showing Dad how you can take a picture of yourself.

Josiah is a helpful boy, but it is hard to help your dad read when you don't quite have it down yourself. Still, he is pretty happy about trying. Happy (belated) Father's Day, to all the dads out there.

Disney 1

Okay, so I know we visited Disney a long time ago, but we have had a lot of computer movement and installation stuff that has delayed the posting of these pictures. But they are still cool, so I will share them now (better late than never).

The top two pictures (above) are of the whole family on a ride at Disney. The seats are for groups of 2 or 3, so we had to split up.

Disney isn't all just fun and games--there are some learning activities too. Here we are in a building that was kind of like a hands-on science museum. Above, Brian is hanging out by some large molecular rods that I think are supposed to be carbon. Below, I am constructing a basic molecule. Can you guess which one? (Hint: carbon is black and hydrogen is red.)

deSoto field school

The past couple days, I have been volunteering at the deSoto excavation, which is an FSU field school here in town. Most of the field school occured in May when we were away, so I was not able to participate as a member of the staff. I have enjoyed my time there though. Today and yesterday I was water screening, which is passing all the excavated soil through screens of certain sizes using water from a hose to wash the dirt through. Artifacts that are larger than the screen holes remain on top of the screen, and become visible as the dirt is washed away. We have been using 1/4 inch and 1/16 inch screens for this process.

This week is the last week of excavation, so it was enjoyable to go see what was going on and visit the people I know there. Even though I was not getting paid, it was nice to get my hands dirty doing some archaeology for a few days.

For more info on the excavation, here is the blog they are updating: http://msbar.blogspot.com/

Tallahassee visit

When Brian's family was in town, we went to see some of the local landmarks. One huge building is the FSU football stadium, which you can see only part of in this picture. This giant statue shoots flames out of his spear when FSU scores a touchdown (I am told). It is quite impressive, even without the flames.

The back side of the state capital (shown here) is what Brian can see from the Supreme Court. I like the dolphin statue--it really shines when it is sunny, and it is a fountain as well as a statue.

This close-up of some of the dolphins in the statue/fountain includes (brother) Dave, with his camera.

Looking out from the dolphins, this is what you can see. Yes, this is the Supreme Court. Brian spends lots of time here, working hard.

visit to a Holland park

While we were in Holland last month, we went to a local park with D,R, and J. David and Brian played tennis, while Rachel, Josiah, and I just played. Here are the tennis partners.

I post this picture because Rachel liked it a lot. Josiah really enjoyed the tube slide. Here he is at the bottom, looking back up it at me. What a nice big grin.

After a while, Josiah went looking for David. When he found him, they worked on Josiah's tennis skills a little.

This picture is my favorite from the park. Josiah is in that same slide, but I am on the ground in front of the slide. He went up and down this slide many times that day.

Brian's family visits Tallahassee

When Brian's family visited Tallahassee, we took them to Wakulla Springs. Here we are in front of the main building, the Lodge. The simulated moonscape comes from the rock that the camera is sitting on. As you can see, we were in two teams: the blue team and the green team. :)

We saw some incredible wildlife on the boat tour. Here you can see a deer eating leaves at the edge of the river. I had never seen a deer at Wakulla before.

Here you can see a group of turtles sunning themselves on a log. This is a common sight, but it shows how our new camera has a lot better zooming capabilities than our old camera. Turtles are cool.

Florida is known for its aligators, and here is a prime example. This gator is also sunning on a log. When they do that, it makes for good pictures because they are very visible.

These ducks may seem unimpressive after the last couple shots, but they are my favorite species to see at Wakulla. There is one duckling in this shot, between the two adult ducks. Nice!

We have some catching up to do...

So we finally got our pictures off the new camera and onto the computer. The next few days, I suspect there will be several new posts with pics of various events.

Here is Josiah with David and Brian at the community pool. They have a pretty cool interactive fun center for kids, and I think Joey had a good time climbing all around, turning knobs and throwing balls, etc.

This is a picture of me with Eli. He cannot swim much yet, but he still likes being in the water. He was a happy baby when in the pool, splashing and smiling and laughing.

Here we can see father and son 'reading' on a Sunday afternoon. Josiah is a much faster reader than his dad, and so he is almost finished with his book already.

Brian and Eli--just hanging out.