Front Porch Impressions

A digital lensless pinhole image - attempting to capture some shadows that caught my eye...

Groucho...

Dog
Originally uploaded by mniebuhr.

Sad news to record... Groucho is no longer with us. He had been having some stomach problems and stopped eating.... Miles and I took him to the vet on Saturday and well.. He had a problem with his intestines that we just couldn't do anything to fix. It was hard to handle with Miles and Kate trying to explain that Groucho had died and is now "up in heaven" we guess... Playing around in the green green grass... Almost 2 weeks later now and Kate will still go to the back window and look out and say "where's Groucho ?" in her own inquisitive 2 year old way...Makes me sad and happy that she cares about him... We'll all miss him in our own ways.

My little paddlers....

I had lots of help loading up the kayak for our trip home over the 4th (Back to visit Grandparents in Aurelia and Storm Lake). Soon enough I see I'm going to have some young adventurers!!

Cold Sprinkles...

Cold water on your face in the summer - nothing better!

Still looking pretty...

After a good slide...it's important to look your best!

The finishing SPLASH...

Ok...once at the bottom just look as if nothing happened and you don't hurt...

The follow through....

After you loose it... just go with it... otherwise it hurts!

Kate's a lttle trooper in the Water Slide...

Whoops....eeeeyyyyyyeeeeee!
Ah - summer, to be a kid again and play in the sprinklers!

The Kiss

"The Kiss" - Miles and Rose get into the act for pictures for Amanda and Jordan's wedding...

Miles and Rose (Amanda and Jordan's Wedding)

Miles was just asked to give Rose a kiss on the cheek - you can see the reaction !
We all had so much fun this last weekend sharing in the wedding event for Amanda and Jordan... My little sister is now all grown up!

Park Shelter - Lonely...

My girls with shades !

Watching the water go by...

Miss Kate absorbed...

Salorville Dam outlet

Miss Kate at the Salorville Dam outlet

One of our weekend outings to the Salorville Dam outlet - the water rushing out of the outlet was fascinating to watch - we all ended up enjoying a short bike ride on the paths near the visitor's center...

Seven Years ago....

Lisa and I on our Honeymoon... Many moons ago. Today was our anniversary - we spent the day with Miles and Kate... Visiting the Zoo.... Not quite the same as our Puerto Rico trip, but that's OK.

Discovering Nightcrawlers

I finally got the chance to go Nightcrawler "hunting" with Miles tonight. We had been talking about trying to find "big" worms for fishing - so far we had just dug up little ones near the compost pile... Well after a couple of good days of rain the opportunity finally presented itself tonight. Miles stayed up way past his bedtime so that we could let it get nice and dark out.... It was a so much fun to go out and show him the "big ones"... They laid out stretched around the grass - lots of them in the dark you could almost hear them moving, pulling leaves and seed pods from the Maple in the back yard. Miles was so excited and was amazed at how fast those worms would slip back underground. We would both wait patiently by the garden and back fence where there was just enough light to see the crawlers... Miles managed to sneak up on a couple and I had to show him how to quick grab the worm near the hole and if your lucky slowly tug on the worm until they seemed to resign themselves to being pulled free of the ground... He was amazed at how big they were and we had to keep a couple in a bucket to show Mom the next day. It was great father / son moment ! It reminded me of all the things that I used to love to do as a kid - fascinating. Miles talked about it for days and still mentions it after it rains... So we're on our way to many more nightcrawler hunts and future fishing expeditions I think!

Here's Trouble...

"Here's Trouble"

Miles and Emily on the Porch

Just what is Miles thinking? And could Emily "appear to not care" anymore...?

Fishing - Mary Miss Park

Finally - the release part of "catch and release"....I think they'll all recover.