the Girls are Out of Town!

Vera sighting!

Just call me Vera (Cheers fans will get that one...) Since I'm always the one taking the pictures, I am rarely in them, (which is fine with me) but every now and then I'll say to Mike, "Take a picture of me with the kids so they'll know who their mother was."

This one is cute because Austin is actually smiling and showing his teeth! I've also been playing around with borders in photoshop, so I thought it would be nice to post this.

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. Just like real photo albums or scrapbooks, they're hard to keep up with. I've been so busy trying to learn my new camera and posting to my photography websites that I've let the family blog languish. To allay my guilt, I will most likely toss a few photos up here and there without much consideration for the artistic value of them. But that's what my other endeavors are for anyway, so if you're looking for "pretty" pictures, best check out my other site, There is something in my eye.

Birthday Boy

Boys and their guns.... he's 13 today, so I'm trying to loosen the reigns a little, which means I let him play on the football team again (ok, so I started loosening little last year...) and I let him play with guns. NOT real guns of course, but it's still a big step for me. The look of mischievous joy on his face is bittersweet, to say the least!

He had 5 of his friends for an all-nighter in the basement, and I must say they were all very good. At one point they were stomping around the entire house pelting each other with the Nerf "bullets" when I had to leave. All that testosterone and noise in this tiny house was more than I could take. (Plus I promised I would take Emma to the mall! Smart, huh?)

Letterboxing Day

The day was in the 80's and perfect for a bike ride, when it rained. We decided to make our 3rd attempt at finding an elusive indoor letterbox that we've been hunting for over a year.

Unsuccessful yet again at finding Do You Copy? , the three oldest B's decided to take youngest B to see the first ever found letterbox by The Busy B's (that's us, in case you're confused!). This is Emma's encounter with that letterbox on the page where we originally stamped (Emma wasn't with us that day). She got to stamp her own home-made stamp this time. She was freaked out by the location of Smithsonian Beginnings and so the look on her face in this picture.

Jackbear is the planter of these two letterboxes, and a master at that. Finding Smithsonian was a treat and was what got us hooked on letterboxing. I know we won't be disappointed once we find Do You Copy ~ it will be worth the time and energy.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!

It's really hard to make football pictures interesting, but here are my best shots at it.




Well, Austin had his 2nd game today, and they killed the opponent 57 to 7! Yikes! He played a lot this time, and even was sent out to catch a pass play that the QB ended up running in. I was very proud of him, and I hope he gained some confidence today.

Austin's First Game

Austin had his first football game of his 8th grade season Saturday, and they killed the opponent 50 something to 13!

Here's his "Awww mom, cut it out!" look. His number is 81 - he was very happy about that! This picture looks great in black and white; I'll end up posting it on my photoblog soon, so check it out over there.

Summer Vacation

Long time no posts - almost a year, and so much life in between.

This summer we spent 2 weeks traveling in Maine and Prince Edward Island. First we drove to Maine, and stayed at a lovely home in the tiny town of South Addison.

We were on a quiet bay (actually, they're all quiet!) and had many places to explore.Our wonderful hosts even took us out on their lobster boat one beautiful morning.

Christmas Vacation

Snapshots from our Christmas vacation in St. Louis with Mike's cousin Brynne and his wife Lisa, their kids Matt, Audrey and Allison. We had such a wonderful time, and the S's were the most gracious of hosts! Check out all of the fun things we did!

Are you ready for some football?

Brynne was able to get club level seats to the Rams vs. 49'ers game on Christmas Eve afternoon.

It was a very different experience to watch a game inside - certainly didn't miss the drunks that attend the Bill's games!

The Rams lost the game - bummer! Thanks for the Primo seats, Brynne!

On Christmas day we caravanned to Grafton IL to the Pere Marquette State Park.


We hiked up the Dogwood Trail to McAdams Peak, where we had a snowball fight and took the family picture below. The Illinois River is in the background.

Christmas Evening at the Pere Marquette Lodge

Allie, Audrey, Matt, Brynne and Lisa cozy up in the lodge.

Mike and Austin warm up near the huge fireplace.

The boys enjoyed challenging each other to a giant game of chess.

Up the Arch - Emma's Dream Realized!

Ever since we brought home a National Parks matching game for the kids 4 years ago, Emma has wanted to visit the St. Louis Arch.

Known as the Gateway to the West, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is better known as the St. Louis Arch or the Gateway Arch.

A view of the St. Louis historical Old Courthouse from the top of the Gateway Arch.

The ride to the top of the Arch takes only 4 minutes, but it seems alot longer with 5 people sitting in this tiny "pod". A train of 8 cars make the trip together.



As the train of pods navigates the increasing arc of the Arch, the pod stays level a bit, and then tips a tiny bit before "kachinking" and evening out again. On the way up you can look out of the car through the tiny windows and see all of the guts of the arch - bolts, scaffolding and (just in case!) a stairwell.




Mike and the kids looked dwarfed next to the giant base of the Arch.

Once at the top of the Arch, the area is about the size of the inside of an airplane. In order to look out the windows, you have to lean against a wall and it feels like you're going to fall since the base of the Arch is actually behind you.

This is looking out the windows at the top of the Arch. The base of the Arch is actually behind you at this point. Our car is in the parking lot below. Notice how tiny the people are!

A view of our mini-van (on the right) from the top of the Arch.

A view up and down the Mississippi River.

Good Bye to GG

On Wednesday, December 14, my Grandmother Helen Nichols passed away. She was 97 years old. She was a very strong, kind, and patient woman. The story of her life was an incredible one. Many of my most treasured childhood memories were made with Gram. She will be sadly missed.

Life is GOOD!

Thursday July 21, 2005 Kings Canyon Natl Park
Today we headed into Kings Canyon Park, which is a separate park from Sequoia, but they are run as one. Mike did NOT want to drive the twisty road again to get to the Kings portion of the park, so he took a “shortcut” back road that he thought “didn’t look that twisty on the map”. Of course it was twisty, how else can you get around a canyon?

So we entered through the Big Stump entrance, and proceeded to the Grant Grove Visitor Center and village. Located here is the General Grant Tree, measuring 267.4 feet tall and 107.6 feet around, it is the earth's second-largest tree. We purchased the trial guide for $1.00, and walked the short loop learning about the habitat of the sequoia trees. On the trail is a fallen monach tree, in which the calvary used to stable their horses in the 1890's when they used to guard the park. Others of the trees are named after states, for various reasons.

Sequoia National Park, CA

Wednesday July 20, 2005 Sequoia NP

This is such a beautiful park, with granite cliffs, a crisp blue-green running river, meadows of wildflowers, rolling hills to one side, and forests with gorgeous giant trees. There are no shuttles, which is great because then you can come and go as you please at your own pace, but driving the winding road is exhausting.

A beautiful Sequoia Tree

Before we could even enter the Visitor’s Center, we heard a Ranger talk on black bears. Apparently Sequoia is a great habitat for black bears, and if you’re lucky, you may even see one grazing in one of the meadows and not at your picnic table! We learned that they will break into your car, even with the windows all the way up, to get to any food you have. Bears can even recognize what a cooler looks like and break in to get to it. Did you know that black bears can smell food up to 5 miles away!? But they can’t hear worth a squat!

The park road is narrow, very curvy and steep, with many, many switchbacks. By some miracle Austin didn’t get car sick. Our original plan was to drive from the Foothills section where we entered all the way to the other end at General Grant Grove, to which Sue’s Frommer’s book said would take 2 hours. HA HA! There is no way, even if you didn’t stop, and even if you drive like Mike. We only made it 1/3 of the way, not even making it to the Lodgepole Visitor Center.

Our first stop was at a place called Hospital Rock. I don’t know the story behind it, but it had these red rock art pictures, the red paint probably symbolizing blood. Maybe they tended to the wounded under the rock overhang, either that or left them there to die!

Emma trying to find the deepest hole

Right across from Hospital Rock is a giant boulder with a bunch of holes in it that were used with a pestle to grind acorns into meal. We thought that was pretty cool.

This blue-green container is a bear trap, located in the Hospital Rock parking lot, along with a lot of warning signs about bears. Our bear talk this morning taught us to do the bear dance, that is, if one approaches, make lots of noise, stomp around and wave our arms while screaming. Sounds like Emma having Diva moment to me...(since she's had a few of those on this trip already, I don't anticpate that we'll have any problems with the bears).... Now her, on the other hand...maybe we can put her in there instead...

Continuing up the twisty road, we headed to the Giant Forest, checking out the museum and walking the Giant Tree Loop. At the beginning of the trail and right in front of the museum is a tree called The Sentinel. This thing is MONSTROUS, although according to the placard, is average for the giant Sequoias! The trees are so big and thick, that they don’t look real. The base of this tree is 21 feet wide, and it’s 278 feet tall. It’s estimated to be 2,000 years old.

The Tree Trail circles the Round Meadow, and walking this trail is simply magical. The trees are so amazingly beautiful. The older sequoia giants are scattered throughout the forest, with stands of 4 or 5 together every now and again. You can’t believe the wonderful smell, almost like a mixture of pine and cinnamon, with a hint of cedar. Sprinkled among the trees are boulders and fallen sequoias, and the meadow is filled with wildflowers and lined with soft ferns where little streams trickle in from the hills. I could just see myself living in this wonderful place, getting lost in the beauty everyday. It’s so peaceful, yet so awesome in its scale and presence. All of the world’s cares can’t help but fall away. It is by far my most favorite place so far.

After making lunch, we headed to Moro Rock and climbed the 400 steps to the top of the granite dome. Emma only made it about 1/3 of the way, which is a good thing because I would have been a nervous wreck with her by the time we made it to the top. The view is beyond magnificent. I was so moved that it brought tears to my eyes (maybe the fear of heights had something to do with it…). I was so glad that Austin climbed back to the top with me and that we could share such an amazing experience together. The view is like a buffet for the eyes – snow capped mountain peaks, jagged rock formations, smooth boulders poking from rolling hills covered with green trees, and a valley with a river that flows out to infinity. Inspiring. I didn’t want to leave (maybe the fear of climbing down had something to do with that…).

Making one last stop, we mugged at the kitschy tunnel log, a fallen

sequoia that you can drive through the width of (the kids were
disappointed at first because when I told them you could drive through it, they thought that meant you could drive down the hollow middle of it!)

It was a blissful 79 degrees on the top of the mountain. Placing our bets as to what the temp would be when we pulled into the hotel parking lot, we headed back down the forever long and winding road. Poor Mike, he was so mentally tired from driving this road. I said a silent “thank God” to myself that we didn’t stay into the evening hours.

Pulling into the hotel, the temp was 102 degrees at 6pm – Emma and Daddy tie for the answer. Argh! Pool, here we come. The water had to be 87 degrees, but at least if felt cool once we got out.

A view from inside a fallen Sequoia. The tree was hollowed out and used as a horse stable.