Trip to England

Here's the plane that brought us to London.

Here are the people in the plane (it was unusually un-full.)

Here's the coach that brought us to Bristol.

Here's the reason we came!

Naomi's Birthday

Naomi is 6!
We got to celebrate with her a day early.
We began by organizing the day's okra crop by size.

 Next up was the traditional Treasure Hunt!
Under the baby bed...

 In Mimi's office...

 Behind the sofa...

 In the dryer...

 In the kitchen cabinet...

 And finally, in the oven...

 One of the best surprises were the books Aunt Jessica and Uncle Mark sent.

 For Danielle, too!

 Lighting the traditional Birthday Number Candle was exciting, as usual.

 Mimi had prepared an impressive array of goodies!

 Danielle chilled out with Veggie Tales...

... while Naomi posed for the traditional portrait, with her Chocolate Candy Kit.

Congratulations, Naomi! We look forward to many more celebrations!

Grandad's 91st Birthday

Check out his birthday celebration


Also, Aunt Margaret's visit

Bounce!...bounce!...bounce!

While at Hornucopia 2012, Mark did some classy bouncing for Ada's entertainment. Kind of a take on Tigger.

Naturally, Ada loved it!!

I Saw A Pair of Anhingas Soaring

A couple of weeks ago, when we were at UT Southwestern Medical Center for an appointment with Dr. Lee, while looking out the 6th floor window I noticed a pair of birds soaring on thermals. They had a very striking silhoutte: very long thin neck, long narrow wings with a very straight leading edge, and a wide trianglular tail.I had never seen birds shaped like this, so I made a quick sketch.

After a bit of searching, I found this image which matches my sketch quite nicely.

It is an Anhinga, aka "snake bird" or "water turkey". They are native to the southern coastal areas of the US, and most of South America. It is a fishing bird which is very good at swimming underwater because its feathers are not oily like most water birds. This allows its feathers to get wet, which reduces its buoyancy and lets it stay submerged to catch fish and amphibians more easily.

Of course, this means that it must sit with wings outstretched to dry its feathers out before it can fly!

I love soaring birds!

Hornucopia 2012 - The Photo

The time came for the Official Hornucopia Family Lifetime Opportunity Photo (OHFLOP). We began gathering in the designated area, while Jessica marked out the logo in the sand.

Once again, Jeff expertly orchestrated the session.

Because of the camera mount location versus the target area, Jeff had to make a supreme effort to get into the picture within the 10 second timer.

Almost made it!

One more try...

Success!! Here's the official photo.

Thank you, everybody... and especially Jeff!

Hornucopia 2012 - Birthday Celebration

We celebrated John's 6th birthday. He got a pogo stick.

A Star Wars Lego kit.

A catapult kit (whatever that is), and more Legos things.

Then we had donuts.

Next, we had a fireworks show, coordinated by Uncle Tony.

Christopher wasn't too keen on the fireworks.

And to cap off the celebration, we had sparklers.

Hornucopia 2012 - Thursday

Aunt Jenny played a game with the kids...

...and read a story (or two, or three!)

There was a scavenger hunt, led by Thinking Fish II.

Uncle Tony and Aunt Jenny led a game of keep-away under the house.

Aunt Julie talked on the phone with Mimi.

During last night, some piling poles washed up on the beach by the house.

John and Naomi enjoyed reading in the shade of the house.

Ada got thirsty.

Naomi's Daddy performed a spinterectomy on her foot. She had three of them, from the deck.

We had Mexican food for dinner.