May 29 White Pine Trail, Rockford

Sunday:  Emma and I took a little evening walk tonight out in Rockford on the White Pine Trail. It's so lovely out there with SO much to look at--no matter what season we are in, it's just a beautiful place to be. Emma brought her camera and took some very excellent pictures. She was using her long lens today and was able to capture some very cool shots. I had my camera with me too (!!), but I am not technical about the settings and I am sure I am not getting all that is possible from this camera as a result. 

Here are some of my favorite shots:

The Trail winds along next to the Rogue River for quite a long way. Some day I am going to walk farther north to see what I can see. I always get tired out at right about the 1.5 mile mark (I'm a bit wimpy) and then turn around and walk back to where I started. But I was noticing there are various parking lots along the way ... perhaps I should park in one of these places and then walk further up the Trail that way.

It was a deliciously beautiful afternoon/evening ... nice breeze, and perfect temps. There wasn't a whole lot of bikers out today either.

Both Emma and I got intrigued by the delicate wild flowers blooming along the path and stopped to see if we could actually get a good shot of them ...

I liked this glossy leaf very much ...

I think these lilac, pink and white flowers are my favorite.

Everything is SO lush and green right now--I just love to be outside at this time of year!

Near the end of our time walking, Emma spotted the cutest little critters hiding in the bushes along the pathway. We THINK they were young ground hogs, but not positive. There were two that were playing and hiding in the bushes. Emma kept trying to get a shot of their faces, but they were covered up by the thick brush. However, Emma did get ONE perfect shot of this chunky little critter when the leaf parted and there was its little face! 

So thankful to live so nearby such beauty!  

May 28 Kaity-kins

Saturday:  Kaity and I played hide 'n seek with three of our puppets tonight: Paco (of course), Alfredo, and Oscar. The game was this: one of us would count to 40 (with our head under the soft green blanket so we couldn't see out) while the other one hid the three puppets in 3 separate areas and then ... go and FIND them. Kaity has always loved playing this game! Me? Not so much. Anyway, we played it quite happily for awhile and then Kaity was ready for a hotdog, so I made something for us to eat.

After we ate, Kaity got playing a game on her phone with her best friend, Kenzie. She was super happy doing it. I decided I would read her a few new library books while she was playing her game. She was not opposed!

The first book I read to Kaity was titled, "The Boring Book" -- I checked this out from the library with Kaity in mind! She is my one grandchild who announces "I'm bored!" and expects me to entertain her. This book made my Kaity laugh! She thought it was EXACTLY how she thinks. And actually, the book does a good job of showing children how NOT to be bored, just by using their imaginations.

I picked up a couple more books and read them to her as well. One is a really interesting "fact" book on weird animals--I can't remember the title, and I've already put it in the front seat of my car for Brendan to read on Tuesday. But we also read "Press Here" and "Let's Play" both by Henri Turret -- which were really FUN. Kaity played her game with Kenzie while I read, but now and then, she would ask to see a picture and then she would actually look at the book for awhile--score one for grandma! That was basically all we did, but that was just fine!
 

May 26 Birthday lunch with Dylan

Thursday:  I met Dylan downtown for lunch today. Saturday is his birthday. Since Saturdays are pretty much family days with Kelly and the kids, we decided to celebrate his birthday a little bit early and share a lunch together. I can't remember the name of the restaurant where we ate! We had thought we would eat at the Cottage Bar, but they don't open until noon and it was only 11:00. I had a doc appointment downtown at 10:00, so it worked out that we meet afterwards and have an early lunch. Anyway, the place where we ate had really good "wraps" and "pitas", and we enjoyed about an hour together just chatting one-on-one, which is a rare thing when there are four children usually close by. I sure enjoyed our time together. It's always nice to catch up with Dylan and find out some of his opinions about what is going on in the world. 

Dylan works as an editor at Acton Institute. Based on what he told me Thursday, he is still happy in his position there and is working on various projects that are important to him. He and Kelly are looking to move to hopefully a more spacious house, whenever they can find the right house at the right time at the right price. I've been praying about this for them for more than a year.

I made Dylan this birthday card:

When I was pregnant with Dylan, Nehemiah 9 was the passage I often went to for comfort ... it speaks of the mighty power of God in creation and the worship He alone deserves. "You give life to everything" ... God ordained the life of this child I was carrying in my womb, so close to my heart. I was so thankful to know that, even though life was pretty chaotic around us during that time.

Plaster Creek is just across the road from where Dylan and Kelly live. They've been able to enjoy its beauty now for over eight years. We have often walked down this path with one or two of the children. I can remember tossing rocks into the creek with little Brendan when he was SO little ...

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR DYLAN! Rejoicing at God's work of grace in your heart and life. Love you so much. So glad I get to be your mom.

May 26 Hungry Alfredo

Thursday:  Kaity and I were a bit at a loss with what to do this afternoon. It was a yucky weather day! PLUS, just before picking Kaity up today I had walked into my bedroom and heard a LOUD buzzing coming from ... where?!?! I thought it was most likely one of those rather odd-shaped flying stink bugs we seem to have no limit of around here--I am not at all leary of them and can KILL them quite readily when needed. However, as many times as I walked in and out of my room, I couldn't locate the source of the buzzing ... UNTIL ... I opened my shade and THEN out flew the most enormous hornet I have ever laid eyes on. Seriously. And it was angry! Obviously, it did not want to be stuck inside of my house and wanted out, and I would gladly have led it to my door if it were willing--but it was too angry to listen!

I closed my bedroom door tightly and went to pick up Kaity. I told her the whole story as we were driving. You see, I have two fly swatters in my house somewhere--but do you think I could locate either one? So we decided that a stop at Lowe's was a necessity. A very British-sounding staff person led us to the fly swatter aisle, but also showed us this very cool tennis-racket style BUG ZAPPER for $10.98 with 2,750 watts of electrical zapping power! I was SOLD.

We got home with our power zapper only to discover that the gynormous hornet was no where to be found in all of my bedroom! Kaity was a bit queezy to do any searching herself (I don't blame her after my description of it). So we closed my door again and played a game of UNO FLIP (I had purchased it at Meijer earlier in the day). We weren't impressed with UNO Flip. Perhaps we'll try it again another day.

We ate some light dinner and then hung around here for awhile and decided to play with our puppets. We found that Alfredo was hungry in the extreme.

Dear, dear Kaity still loves to pretend--I love this about her so much--and set out right away to find something suitable for Alfredo to consume ...

Look at Kaity's dear face ... isn't she precious?

Kaity went to my bins of pretend food and got started ...

At one point, she had him so full of wooden fake food that I thought his belly would burst ...

His dessert was a piece of cake (below) that he couldn't manage to swallow! 

BUT back to our hornet saga ...

I told Kaity that before I took her back to Jesse, I reallly HAD to find that hornet and snuff out its life or I would never be able to sleep in my own bed later on. She decided she was brave enough to come into my room with me this time and plopped herself on my bed, full body, with her head hanging off my bed upside down and her hair hanging to the floor. Suddenly, she said: "Grandma!" At which time she quickly sat up ... "I saw something crawling on your floor!" And sure enough ... there IT WAS ... no long angry, but kind of sluggish looking. I grabbed my brand new, battery-powered, mighty bug zapper and laid it on top of Mr. Hornet. WOW. Snap, crackle and POP! Fried hornet. There were actual SPARKS. Oh my! Kaity was delighted. I scooped up it's deceased carcass with my fly swatter (which I found immediately after arriving home from Lowe's) and flushed it down the toilet.

In retrospect, I should at least have taken a picture of this guy ... when I looked up HORNET on the internet, they had images and MY hornet looked exactly like those dreaded MURDER HORNETS!! Yikes. It would have been good to have proof ... sigh.

PS  On our drive home, Kaity asked me if I would have nightmares tonight about hornets. I assured her I would NOT. But do you know what? I DID! I dreamed (what felt like an hours' long dream) that I lived in a house with very high ceilings and ledges above all of the decorative windows. And guess what? Yes! A HUGE hornet nest was at the top of one of the highest ones. I walked over to the park office to speak to the manager about having the nest removed, and guess who was the park manager? My MOM!!!!. Isn't that the funniest thing ever? She was dressed to the 9's and said she would take care of the hornet nest immediately (this from a woman who locked herself in her master bathroom because I walked into her bedroom at age 11 in a panic about a black cricket that had crawled and remained on my shoulder) ... ha! 

April 24 Little Cal

Tuesday Evening:  I only stayed about an hour at Dylan and Kelly's last night until I left to come back home. We were treated to Buddy's pizza (thank you!) and I only played briefly with the kids outside. I had already put my camera in the car, but Dylan mentioned that Cal was "blowing" dandelions on the other side of my car ...

These are just a few quick pictures I took of this darling little one ...

Isn't Cal such a beautiful boy?

 

May 24 SO MANY pictures at Altitude!

Tuesday Afternoon:  We picked Kaity up at her bus-stop (we had pre-arranged this with Kaity and her mom) and then drove over to ALTITUDE to play. 

I can't say enough GOOD things about this place! It is such a blast. Kids run, play, jump, laugh, challenge each other, meet new friends ... it's absolutely wonderful. I wish I could work here--honestly!

Here was the first BATTLE of the afternoon: Aidan was really enthused about pushing Kaity off the walkway ...

... but he got knocked off (not without a pretty good fight though) ... and cracked up!

THEN Brendan challenged Kaity. This was a more even match, and I thought Brendan would win for quite awhile, but ...

... down he went!

Here is Aidan being a little GOOF ... pretending he just can't get off the floor, rolling his eyes at me, etc.

All of the kiddos jumping ....

They can jump pretty HIGH! Kaity has perfected the "art" of jumping high enough to almost land on the short wall at the end there ... she does quite a fast maneuver and is up there in a jif ... Brendan has been watching Kaity (and other bigger kids) do this and wants to be able to do it too. He got super close to acomplishing it today!

Aidan wants to be able to do it too, but he has a way to go yet ...

In theory, there is only supposed to be ONE child per trampoline ... but this place is HUGE and it's difficult to monitor that sort of thing. 

I was standing on a high cubicle to take a few pictures ...

Look how high Brendan and Kaity can jump ... Kaity was landing next to Erin and sending her flying (which is probably WHY the rule about only one on each trampoline) ... but Erin was cracking up hilariously every time Kaity did this ...

Brendan now and then would "crash" and just lie down on the floor ...

But two seconds later would be up and jumping very high once again.

Erin was Kaity's shadow the entire time we were there ... she adores Kaity.

The Trapeze:  Finally a staff person came to "man" the trapeze area. Kaity and Brendan "flew" on the trapeze dozens of times!

See the little guy the arrow is pointing to? He wanted SO badly to have the courage to use the trapeze. His sister (you can kind of see her) kept encouraging him, the staff guy was super kind and waited ... all of the kids in line were patient and kind and would "show him" how much fun it was ... but he was just to frightened to actually do it. He was watching me cheer kids on from down on the floor ... see him looking at me? 

Well, later in the afternoon we once again met up with this "little" guy and he was all smiles. He approached me and asked if I had SEEN him do the trapeze! I sadly told him that I missed seeing that. He was smiling from ear to ear and I said: "Good for you ... SO brave!" He smiled back. I think it's cool that he wanted me to know he had accomplished it. 

Dodge Ball:  This area is super fun! It's BIG and there is a giant net that separates it from the other areas so that the dodge balls don't go where they shouldn't go.

These guys LOVE being chased and their sense of adventure really comes alive when they are being targeted by another child holding a ball ...

We met a very interesting young man by the name of MADYX (see below), who took a liking to the four kids and played and played with them. He was one of those kids that you like right away! He was fun and easy to talk to ... and VERY good on trampolines.

Brendan shows himself a very capable dodge ball player ... I love to see him come alive like this.

Even Kaity-Girl has to "crash" at times ...

Kaity and Madyx battling ...

Madyx and Brendan battling ...

Ultimately, Kaity declared herself (!!) the grand champion of all battles!

Look at Kaity's hair when she is running!

There is a HUGE soft bouncy place at one end of Altitude that is next to trampolines. Kids jump on the tramps and hurl themselves into the soft pit. Sometimes, you can get yourself in a bit of a tough spot in this pit ... !! (see Kaity? Erin was quite stressed about this).

Here is Kaity hoisting Erin into her arms, running with her across the trampoline and then heaving Erin into the middle of the soft pit with Erin screaching from the JOY of it ...

... and then Erin would run back to Kaity and do it all over again!

Aidan decided he would make a "patterned foam bed" and he did just that ...

That looks quite comfortable, Aidan!

One more shot of Aidan in the dodge ball area ...

SO THANKFUL these guys all have memberships to Altitude. It sure has been fun so far and I am certain we will get a lot of use from this place for a LONG time!