Maui

Calvin gave me a cool new camera for Mother's Day, so I have been having all kinds of fun taking pictures.  Calvin and I are in Maui this week, which gives me unlimited time to sit in a beach chair and take pictures.

Here we are hanging out on the patio of our little rental cottage, getting ready to go out to dinner.

Sunday night we watched the sunset on the beach at Makena Landing

I had lots of time to watch the waves creep up to my toes.

We were sitting under a cool  tree.  This is looking straight up in the sky, the tiny little white dot at the bottom is the moon.  The moon never looks quite as good in a picture.

Calvin entertained himself throwing rocks at the sun.

My camera is waterproof, so we (actually Calvin) took it snorkeling this morning.  Here is proof that I do actually leave the beach once in a while.

The snorkeling has been pretty good.  Good visibility and lots of sea life.  We saw three turtles in just a short kayak paddle on Saturday.  My goal today for Calvin was to find a turtle a photograph it.  I actually spotted the turtle and it obligingly took a siesta on the sand so that Calvin could dive down and take an up close and personal shot.

A Superior Weekend

This week we took Friday Fun Day to Colorado.  We dutifully took our camera and used it, but it seems like we mostly took pictures of Zach and Austin.  Friday morning we spent a little time riding "bikes" and scooters.

Zach was a flash on his scooter

Calvin set a good example by wearing his helmet

Austin still didn't want to wear his

After riding we went to a creek near their house to throw rocks and sticks in the water.  I just love parents that think rock and stick throwing is important enough for regular outings!

Zach gets his picture taken a lot, he was more interested in showing of his stick here.

I think Austin's favorite part was snack time.

Zach had a soccer game Saturday morning.  He and Austin were both recovering from a serious cold, but Zach was a gung-ho soccer player anyway.

Austin's favorite toy while we were there was a bicycle pump.  He loved it!

We had wonderful weather, Colorado was absolutely gorgeous and we enjoyed two picnics in Butch and Emily's beautiful backyard.  They even managed to plant their garden while we were there.  What fun it is to share time with their family.

We also got to see Peter's new apartment in "Uptown."  It looks like a great area.  We had lunch at a little place just a block from his house.  I thought I would take a picture of Peter in his "Uptown" surroundings, but I didn't pay attention to the fact that he was sitting in front of some very bright windows.  He looks a little funny when I adjusted the shadows, but in real life he still looks normal.

We always plan a little extra time when we fly out of Denver, it sometimes takes a while to get through security and ride the train to the gates.  This time everything went smoothly and we had a little extra time at the airport, but that is OK because Denver is Calvin's favorite airport so he doesn't mind hanging out here.  I don't love the airport with as much enthusiasm as Calvin, but I love to get to visit everyone.  What a fun weekend.

Friday Fun Day-Kayak season begins

Two weeks ago we had planned to take a weekend outing, but everywhere within driving distance was either raining or snowing, so we stayed home and Calvin had an epic end of the season ski day.  This weekend we thought about taking a trip again and the weather was nice everywhere. I looked at a few locations thinking about what we would like to do, biking for Calvin and kayaking, and decided Reno was the best location for both.  It was a good decision.

Friday we went to Pyramid Lake. It is a good "early/late" season choice because the elevation is lower than Lake Tahoe.  It was a beautiful clear day, not too many boats on the lake, but the shore was thick with fisherman.  Fortunately with our sleek little kayak we can leave the crowd behind. You can see "the pyramid" of Pyramid Lake in the background.

Anaho Island in Pyramid Lake is a bird sanctuary with one of the largest nesting colonies of the American White Pelican. We didn't see large numbers of pelicans, but enough to clearly identify them.  The challenge with trying to photograph flying birds is that they are flying, but we pointed the camera in the general direction and actually caught one in flight.

Photoshopped so you can tell it is not a gull.

Pyramid is beautiful in a serene desert sort of way.

I'm practicing my backwards photography.

This is forward photography, but a little blurry.  I was trying to take a picture of a fisherman sitting on a chair on top of a ladder fishing, but I missed him.  There were ladders all along the shallow water where the fishermen would sit in chairs to fish.  Already by Friday afternoon the beach was wall to wall RV's. We weren't the only ones who thought it was a beautiful day.

Saturday we went to Lake Tahoe.  While the temperatures in Reno were in the mid 80's, the Tahoe forecast was for the high 60's to lower 70's.  I thought that might be a little cool for kayaking, but it turned out to be one of the nicest days we have ever spent on the lake.

Fay and Vance Gabbart went with us, which made it even more fun.  Calvin took this picture, which makes it look a little like they are paddling up hill.

We had perfectly smooth water, warm weather and gorgeous scenery. This is the view headed toward Chimney Beach, so named because there is a chimney on the beach.

Still working on my backwards photography.  I forgot that I had zoomed for a previous shot and I got lots of pictures of Calvin's elbow.  Part of the beauty of practicing photography in the boat is that Calvin paddles while I get a rest.

We were headed back here and I missed Calvin all together except for his hat, but the mountains look good.

Another shot of Fay and Vance.  We were paddling at about 6pm.  I have never seen the water this still in the evening at Tahoe.  What a great day!

Daffodils and hyacinths

We always say that April 15th is the prettiest time in our yard, and usually it snows on the 16th.  This year the snows came a little earlier and our bulbs are a little slower but it still looks pretty today.

We have a mixture of bulbs under the ornamental cherry in the back.  We have daffodils because they are cheap and we have hyacinths because my granddad Wesley Roehr loved hyacinths.

He told me the story of when his family moved from Oklahoma City to Kalispell, Montana when he was in the 4th grade.  He said the highlight of the year was when a neighbor lady gave him a hyacinth that he had been admiring in her yard.  He thought it was the most beautiful flower he had ever seen.

I can't say that I think the hyacinth is the most beautiful or my favorite flower, but I can never see one without thinking of my granddad.

The driveway is in full bloom too!

One thing the driveway is missing is Peter's car.  He moved to Denver this week.  We are missing Peter too.  Today was an epic ski day for Calvin that he had to enjoy alone.  There was about a foot of fresh snow and it was still snowing.  My idea of epic skiing is blue sky and groomed runs, so Calvin had to go by himself.  We miss having Peter here, but I'm sure that he is going to have a grand adventure in Denver.

Alexandria April1, 2012

We got to spend a long weekend with Sarah and Toby and Clare this weekend.  Calvin brought the camera and we got literally hundreds of pictures.  Much as it pains me not to post all of them, I will post a limited selection.

Clare had just been to the doctor on Friday and gotten a shot.  This is what she looks like when she is cranky.

Clare is getting more and more mobile. Juice wisely exits the danger zone.

Saturday we went to look at the cherry blossoms and a kite festival on the mall, but we didn't take the camera, so here are a few more pictures of Clare looking adorable.

She has the prettiest sing song voice that sounds like a whip poor will.  She is also acquiring new teeth.  She likes to grind the top and bottom teeth, but they don't line up exactly so she has to make funny faces to do it.

Sunday we went to the National Arboretum to the azaleas in bloom.

Prettier than the flowers

The Bordelon family

We haven't seen sunshine in a while

Those eyebrows are a strong genetic trait.

I always assume Sarah is showing disgust for her Easter bonnet here.

The circle of life.  I'm so glad we get the chance to know our wonderful grandchildren.

Santa Barbara March 11, 2011

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Santa Barbara for the Solvang Century Bike ride. Calvin has talked about doing this ride ever since Rosie started school at UC Santa Barbara, but this year Rosie offered to ride it on a tandem with Calvin and he couldn't resist.  Sadly we have no pictures of the ride.  Our camera was tucked safely away in the car in Solvang, but not used the day of the ride. I opted for a day by the pool at out hotel.  (Solvang is a delightful town, but I have had occasion to tour it many times while Calvin has ridden his bike there.) I had a beautiful view of mountains, palm trees and blue skies from my lounge chair and I even thought about taking a picture, but once again with the camera tucked safely away in Solvang I missed the shot.
Calvin flew home very early Sunday morning and I stayed for another day to visit with Rosie. On Sunday afternoon we went to the Monarch butterfly reserve.  I have been fascinated with the migrating butterflies for years, but have never had a chance to actually see them.  I knew that they would gather in particular trees year after year, but I thought in my mind that the butterflies would replace the leaves on the trees, not gather in clusters, so the trees would look like they had butterfly leaves. It was not what I expected, but remarkable none the less.

This is a picture I took using the regular lens on our camera.  If you look really closely you can see a little patch of orange.

This is that same view using Rosie's telephoto lens.

I'm not a serious photographer, a couple of shots and I'm done.  Rosie makes a more serious effort.

We also took a short walk along the bluff.  Having grown up in Idaho, I never get tired of looking at the ocean.

And I never get tired of spending a peaceful Sunday afternoon with Rosie.

Signs of Spring

It snowed about 6 inches last Monday, today the temperature is 70 degrees, but we are expecting valley snow again tomorrow.  Despite the weather we have seen our first signs of spring.

We have our first crocus blooming in the warmest corner of the driveway.

Another sign of spring is the completion of Calvin's winter woodworking projects.  This year he made, among other things, a gorgeous walnut coffee table for our living room.

I just love it, and not just because I hated the old coffee table.

And the last sign of spring...

Calvin pruned the fruit trees.  We will be safe from low hanging fruit this year.