This n That...

This is a post of random pictures from the last few days. We spent a fun evening roasting hot dogs and such in AJ n Ruth's back yard for AJ's b-day and  a Father's day get together Saturday evening. But of course I forgot the camera... Anyway here are a few things I've captured over the last couple days.

 Sissy  with Bubboo enjoying a ride in her dolly stroller. 

These two spend a lot time hanging out together.

 This is the 'making cookies" crew. Marcus is there with his ever present bike helmet. ..He wears it almost continuously these days, from AM till night except meeting time. .It probably looks a little strange in the grocery store but someday he will look back and laugh about it. :) Yesterday he found Daddy's hardhat and that is the hat of choice for today..

 I love the view from this wheat field.

Yesterday evening after a day of mixed thunderstorms and scattered showers we enjoyed a beautiful evening, without even the ever present breeze we usually have.

 It was Ethan's turn for some pictures.

The colors were so vibrant as sunset was nearing.

 His hardhat and bits of a robin egg he found.

 This road leads to the empty hay field...

Phi bought himself a "new" baseball at a garage sale last weekend and he was excited to be able to 'try" it out.

 The large open field gave great opportunity for that.

 Almost got it!

And here is our overgrown puppy Ivan patiently waiting for us back at home.

Enjoying Psalm 37 for today:

Delight thyself also in the Lord;

 and HE shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Commit thy way unto the Lord;

trust also in Him and HE shall bring it to pass.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently or HIM...

A Rainy Day Walk...

 We had our first rain showers yesterday after a good two weeks or more of sunshine. Ethan fell asleep at the table after pulling all the table cloth (it was cleared thankfully) off the table onto his highchair. So he got to stay home with Daddy.

 The rest of us headed out between showers for a rainy day adventure and to see how many golf balls we could find.

 We just replaced our camera with a basic model  Fuji that is waterproof, dust proof and can be dropped from about 15 feet. All more important than fancy zoom and such for now. :P

 My favorite pass time is macro shots so I wanted to see how it performed on those as well as basic shots.

 It does well!

 Marcus's sudden exclamation/screech of "lookit mommie" drew our attention this yellow racer, who quickly hid in the tall grass.

 Brown wet field grass, with more storm clouds brewing in the background.

 His Orneriness with a handful of wet grass seeds.

A faint rainbow over the golf course.

 They just took the hay off this field at the beginning of the week. Seems like the season is early this year. It yielded quite a few golf balls since no one's been in it for at least 3 months.

 Tho' our search was cut short when we noticed these storm clouds moving in from the west.

 We quickly started the trek for home.

 The mark of a rainy day biker.

 The clouds getting closer, but so is home.

 Some quick photo attempts in the wheat  or barley field.

 Jul's was the most stationery subject of the day apparently so she ended up with the most pictures.

And the pouring rains caught us as we entered the yard so our walk ended with a run for the door!

Bits of May...

We found these little red wing black bird babies on our walk along the golf course which has a lot of ponds. All the kids took a turn being lifted up to see the nest in the arborvitae hedge.

 Sadly on a walk of few nights later, the nest was torn down and the birds gone, eaten by a cat or raccoon. a first hand lesson on the realities of nature.

The neighborhood watch. :)

 We got new neighbors last month and there are two boys to play with  now. This is before they moved in, actually I think they were observing a load they had brought.

 Ethan, deep in thought, as he rides along on an evening walk.

 These photos crack me up, this "poor" hen does not seem to mind being caught and carried around the yard.

 She is actually penned up now  since we got some garden in and she and the garden do not get along peaceably.

 Or I guess to be more accurate she and I don't get along peaceably when she is in my garden.

 She is not getting along well with the new chicks either, but since there is one of her and 11 of them she may have to relocate or come to some agreement.

 Ethan finally switched from crawling to walking in May. Before he could walk tho, he would still push this chair or any other around the kitchen and climb up to help himself to whatever was within reach.

 They were overjoyed to dig out the slip n slide again as we've had two weeks of pure sunshine.

 This final batch of chicks are doing well, and growing quickly. It will be fun to have eggs again in a few more months.We have a mixed flock so will have a variety of egg colors as well. Looking forward to that!