Monday, March 19, 2012

Blake's 1st Birthday party at Mema's in Des Moines 3/18/2012

Mom (Nicole) helping Blake unwrap packages on Sunday.

Blake took Samantha's favorite childhood book (well, one of her favorites!!) and plopped on his Aunt Michelle's lap for her to read it to him.
Dad (Brian) helping Blake with his first 'mema' birthday cake! He didn't like the little brown bear decorations...

Gheez--that high chair is MY original chair from babyhood--and I'm 54! It looks BAD.... but I did make a cover for the seat--it just didn't get on the seat before Blake sat down yesterday afternoon.... oh well.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The 'birthday boys'!!

It's Blake's birthday today (his first) and great-uncle John's, too (on 3/14/2012)! (Should I say how OLD John is???--12 days younger than me...but who's counting???!!!)
Blake LOVES his cousin, Izaac (who will be 5 on 5/5!!), and got up with great-uncle John so I could attempt to take a picture of all three handsome guys (they didn't smile at the same time so I kept snapping pictures on the digital camera....).



Then he got a book and had great-uncle John reading to him before the afternoon was over (in Des Moines on 3/4/2012).

Friday, March 9, 2012

More 'freight' pictures from last week's trip to western Iowa!

The town of Woodbine (Iowa) has this train car from an old Chicago and North Western train parked near the car in the next picture. I didn't find out why...

(Below) This miniature train is located in Missouri Valley (Iowa). It's really 'cute'! It even has a tunnel for the kids to ride through. It didn't operate much last summer due to the flooding of the Missouri River (which is to the west, but fairly close).


I hope there is better weather cooperation for this little railroad to operate this summer!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Eagles chasing a seagull at Desoto Wildlife Reserve 3/1/2012

We weren't sure what the seagull had done (if anything) to irritate the eagles, but a few minutes after we arrived in the building, about 9-12 eagles started chasing this seagull.
After several minutes, some of the eagles started flying off apparently after they'd given up catching the seagull.


There were several younger eagles in the mix chasing the seagull, but we never saw them catch it.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

"Freight and Fowl" mini vacation

The Desoto Wildlife Reserve in Missouri Valley posted sightings of 250 eagles last week, and we were already half-way there when we were in Sac City Wednesday working on moving Grandma Walker out of her fabric store (retired the fabric part, still mending for 'other people' at home now).
The weather was frightful on Wednesday (snowing, 50 mph winds, icy roads, etc.!) so we hadn't decided whether we were going to travel anywhere else until late in the day.

It turned out to be a fairly nice day in Missouri Valley (Iowa) on Thursday, with 48 degree temperatures, light wind and mostly sunny conditions. It was perfect for eagle watching!
We arrived and went into the building (where all these eagle pictures were taken--through the glass) just before noon, and there were only a couple of eagles at that point in the tree and occasionally looking for some 'lunch' in the water.
We also saw the 'rock' train in western Iowa, where the UP is laying a third main line of train tracks. More eagles and trains tomorrow!!!

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Subscribe Now: Feed Icon