Memorial Day Parade

We went to the Memorial Day parade in Shreve this year. It was great for Daniel and all little kids (especially boys). There were tractors, horses, goats, a cement truck, a tow truck, fire and rescue trucks, police cars, a high school band, majorettes, a monster truck, and others I can't recall. Only once did a vehicle blow a loud horn, so the little kids weren't scared. We loved it and so did Daniel, though he doesn't look like it in the picture. I put him in his patriotic t-shirt and gave him a flag. He was quite the all-American boy.

Strawberries......

We have loads of strawberries right now. Our plants are three years old and producing wonderfully. I picked several large bowls full and one day a nearly full 5 gallon bucket!

I've made 24 cups of jam and frozen some whole berries. Unfortunately, I am strawberried-out and they are starting to go to waste. I'm giving them away to anyone who wants to come pick them. Any takers??

Summertime Fun in the Clear Fork River

The Mommy gang (Holmes', Ackers, Foxxs) headed over to the Clear Fork River in Mohican State Park one recent hot, muggy day.

We all waded and played in the clear, cool waters and had a picnic lunch on the banks. What fun! We already plan to return a few times this coming summer.

Mother's Day Weekend

We headed up to Whitehouse for Mother's Day weekend.


There was a lovely lunch at Grandma's for all the ladies catered by the menfolk. What a treat! Afterwords, Daniel got to ride his first horse at Great Aunt Rita's house. He seemed to enjoy it.

She also had pigs, sheep, and a few goats. The pigs were his favorite. Just like at our county fair last fall.

Veggie Scraps

The girls love compost. When I walk out of the house with the compost bucket, they start running towards me. If I'm headed to the compost pile, they race me there. When I see the girls in the neighbor's yard, I can just call them and show them the bucket and they come running home. My girls are so funny.

Happy Easter!

Now that he's old enough, we took Daniel to an organized Easter Egg Hunt at Church of the Saviour.
There were a lot of children and the older ones were "experienced" egg hunters. By the time Daniel got into the room with the eggs, many were already gone. But, he knew what to do and ran quickly over to a small pile of eggs and picked one up.

He was very interested in opening it up and seeing how the plastic egg shell pieces worked. I told him to hurry and pick up the other two in the pile before someone else did! So, he found three eggs and was happy.
On the way home he ate a Hershey's kiss that had been in one of his eggs. What a mess! Fortunately, he didn't touch much and we were almost home.


On Sunday after church, we had our own egg hunt. I filled twenty plastic eggs with strawberries and hid them around the flower beds in the backyard.


He grabbed his bunny basket and headed out to find them. Once he opened the first egg and found a strawberry, he was quick to look for the others so he could fill his belly with berries. It's hard to hold a basket, a strawberry, and look for more eggs.



We also gave him a few things in his Easter basket including a soccer ball and a sticker book with airplanes.


Daniel loved everything.

New Hampshire

Helena and I took Daniel to New Hampshire the week of February 6th-13th. It was Daniel's first plane ride and he did really well. I think he was scared during take-off, but during the ride he was fine. We flew into Boston from Akron and then rented a car to drive north to Jackson, NH, where Jessica and Chris live.




We were busy the whole time and I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. I'll try to get pictures from everyone else and add them as I can. Here we had gone for a short hike up the mountain behind Jess and Chris' cabin to see the view. Daniel was all bundled up, but he didn't seem to mind.


Back at the cabin, we had lunch together. We stayed with Jess, at the AMC Highland Center where Jessica works, with Chris' Mom and stepfather in Portland, ME, and with my parents at their new home in Bartlett, NH.


As a result, we spent a lot of time driving and Daniel started to protest when we put him in the car. Fortunately, we did the longest drives during his afternoon nap, so he was able to sleep.


We had several beautiful winter days with blue skies and amazing views of the Presidential Moutnains.


This is the Portland Headhouse in Portland, ME. It was Daniel's first trip to the ocean and he kept trying to say, "ocean". The fog horn was blowing, so it was a little loud with the crashing waves too. He enjoyed the commercial harbor with all the cargo ships, tug boats, ferries, and fire boats. On top of that, we saw several airplanes landing at the nearby Portland airport. A little boy's dream.



At L.L. Bean in Freeport, ME, they have several dioramas with stuffed animals. Daniel enjoyed the moose and black bear with Aunt Jess.


L.L. Bean also had an indoor aquarium with New England river species. Here, Aunt Jess showed him the trout from inside a bubble. This was quite amazing and Daniel took it all in with wondering.

We are recovering from all our travels this week. Poor Helena fell during the trip and fractured her elbow, but it is healing well and she will only be off work for 4-6 weeks the doctor says.