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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Storm at Sunset

I think God had fun painting the sky tonight!  It was a beautiful ending to a somewhat distressing day.  It seems you could cut the tension in our house today...my family could use a few lessons in respect.  Well, I guess we all have our bad days...tomorrows a new day and hopefully a better one.


Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.                          
                    1 Peter 2:16-18


Thursday, July 22, 2010

Beautiful Butterflies

I woke Beki up early, ummm...9:30, to get ready to go visit the St. Louis Butterfly House.  We still didn't make it out the door until 12.  How does it take one child 2 1/2 hours to get ready?   The butterfly house out here is amazing.  It's set in a park where you can visit an historic village.  We didn't have time to do that this trip, but want to go back.  It's so fun to be inside with all those butterflies.  I had one land on my arm and it stayed put for a couple minutes.  They are wonderful little creatures...so much beauty and grace.  You can walk around or just sit in one of the benches and watch them fly all around you.  It is really hot and humid inside the house and after an hour, Beki had had enough and we were starving.  She decided Wendy's sounded really good so we plugged in the nearest Wendy's in the GPS and drove about 15-20 minutes to find it.  However, nothing but several car dealerships sat where the Wendy's was supposed to be.  A little frustrated, we headed for home and ended up at a Panera. 













Monday, July 19, 2010

Lake Views

I tried to get some different shots of the Lake than the last time we were there.  I believe I succeeded.  I hope you can enjoy the Lake through my pictures.  I'm so thankful for Mom and Jerry and the fact that they allow us to enjoy this along with our families.  Thanks for a great week!

John taking the crew out for a ride!







Jerry's dock.



The Eagle has landed.



Weekend at the Lake

John, Beki and I spent five awesome days up at Coldwater Lake.  It's beautiful up there and we always look forward to going.  This time, my mom and dad, Phillip and Allie were able to come up for a night.  It was good to spend time with all of them.  Mom and I sat in floats and just relaxed and sun-tanned.  In the evenings, we watched the sunsets and took rides out on the pontoon.  The kids had a blast riding the wave runner with John.  The golf cart is always a big hit and Beki took the kids on many rides around the island.  Ari wasn't able to come with us...she is still with Sam touring the east coast and is on her way to Jacksonville right now.  It seems she's met someone special on this trip, but you'll have to ask her about that!  :o) 
Beki's first solo on the wave runner!
Mom, Allie and Lana
Dad and Lana enjoying the view.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

River Drive

John and I went exploring a little on Friday...drove to the Alton-Grafton area.  We were curious what was out that way and discovered a beautiful river drive through quaint little towns, which I plan to go back and visit.  We ate lunch at the "World Famous" Fast Eddie's.  Had pork kabob, hamburger, brat, fries, 6 shrimp and 2 drinks all for less than $13.  Now granted, it's not the kind of place I'd like to go often...definitely a bar atmosphere and you have to be 21 to get in, but the food is really cheap and actually tasted good.  We didn't stop for a whole lot of pictures this time, but I did get a couple and plan to go back for better ones.  The river was really high and flooded out a lot of the areas you can pull off to get good views.  It was a really nice day and we just enjoyed each other's company.


On Saturday, we tried another new deli, well, new for me...the Blue City Deli.  They've got great sandwiches and the place was crazy busy.  I overheard an employee say they only advertise by work of mouth...they are obviously well-liked.  We ended up back out at the Botanical Gardens...which were in full bloom with the summer show.  It was my first trip back since spring and, wow, it's just as beautiful now as it was then.  I wanted to experiment with my 50mm.  Discovered it's great for taking shots without the flash, the drawback is not being able to get really, really close.  Though it didn't do too bad on some of the flower shots.  Actually, I love some of the results I got.








My two (hmm...three) favorite shots of the day!


...and look Beki found her way to the gardens all the way from Mexico.  Haha!  I photoshoped her into a background I took at the Gardens.  Looks like she was there!


The Gift

  Delivered this week, a gift I never expected arrived in the mail.  This story begins, it seems a lifetime ago, when I worked at Owens Comm...