Feeling Thankful

I love this! Caleb had a writing assignment at school. It was to write about something you're thankful for. He chose his brother! 

This little cutie wrote a sweet Thanksgiving letter to Robby.

It says, "Dear Robby, I am thankful for you being my brother and for being in my life.  I am thankful that we like baseball and you help me when I need help, like cooking.  I love you

Talking to a Wall

Robby had a friend stay over night. They wanted to watch a movie downstairs, which I have no problem with.  They wanted to have snacks downstairs, which I have a little problem with as we tend to have a problem with the tiny gray field mice that come inside this time of year.

So I get their movie going and head upstairs for the night.  The next morning, I go downstairs for one reason or another and find this:

That's 1 wrapper of "Red Vines", two potato chip bags (1 not quite empty) and over to the left of the blanket, is a plastic container that contained pickle wraps.

The old saying, "May as well be talking to a brick wall" applies here, methinks.

Vacation 2015, #21 - The Great Salt Lake

So last night I did a blog post about our vacation that was nearly 5 months ago. When typing that up, I realized that not only had I not finished last years vacation, there is still a post (not really, cause I ain't gonna do it...) from about 150 years ago when we went out to see our friends in Gaithersburg, MD.  

Well... perhaps I will do a final post as I was curious and just went to look up photos from that vacation. It was in August of 2013 and the final post is from Harpers Ferry, WV and there are some lovely photos of that place with some kids who have aged well since that time!

Anyhoo... 

So this post is more recent than that, but NOT as recent as the last one about Minnesota... 

Got it?  Ya with me?

So we're at the Great Salt Lake in Utah.  We had driven hard, really hard, since leaving the Redwoods and finally made it here.

Now keep in mind, this is nowhere near our final destination for the day.  Oh no...  what would a Schmitz Mobile Chaos vacation be without strict deadlines and near impossible miles to cover, be?!?  

So, I wanted to dip my toes in the water, go pee, get back in the car and get moving!

We parked at a little music venue/welcome center called... wait for it...  The Saltair!  It is obviously a concert venue but also serves as a gift shop and welcome center to those of us who are just passing thru and want to smell the nasty air of dead fish and bird carcasses gracing the long-a!!! walk out to the waters edge.

So we finally made it to the waters edge as a group.  And a dang fine looking bunch we are!  Oh, and if you can't tell from our expressions, it was BRIGHT!!!

A shot from waters edge back at some type of factory that we drove past on I-80 (I think) on our way into town.  I took it simply because I liked the contrast of the straight lines of the smokestack against the mountainous terrain.

And a photo that makes me sad now.  Aunt Molly on our way back to the vehicle after dipping our toes...

That's all of the pictures that I had that were worth showing.  I think that we didn't take too many due to the stench of rotting bird and fish that I mentioned earlier.  It was nasty...  other than that?  A quite lovely visit but if there is a next time, I would like to see the Great Salt Lake when the water level is much, much higher!

Vacation 2016, #1 - Spicer/New London MN

Since I cannot ever seem to finish one years vaca photos before getting into the next, I suppose I may as well continue the tradition. 

Here we are in Spicer Minnesota after a very rainy drive up.  It was heavy rains at times, light at others, and mostly just annoying.

But once we got there, it was good weather throughout, good peeps and good conversation!

Down at the dock, my brother Vince in his walking boot after being in a motorcycle accident not 6 weeks before.

That's me and Calebber on the bench, Robby and Mattison in the water.

Caleb on his fishing trip with Uncle Vince.

Uncle Vince making a "bad" choice to allow the chinaman to drive!!!  Yikes!!

He caught a fish!!!

Swimming off of the dock:  Robby, Matty, Michael and Caleb.

I sleep like crap.  I woke up one morning and it was STUPID early.   After a brief bathroom break, some coffee and other careful considerations, I decided to walk down to the dock (with coffee) and watch the sunrise over Green Lake.  This was the first photo from up at the road, prior to going down to the dock.

After the sun came up a enough to warrant an attempt down to the dock, I managed a successful descent, and watched a crazy amount of hungry fish jumping at about 50ft in.  Amazing activity along with the mosquitos...

And so it went...

More Random Molly Pictures

As time passes, some days, MUCH slower than others, other days faster than I care to deal with, I find myself dealing with the electronic/digital side of Molly's affairs. Meaning, the cd's, dvd's, cameras, flash drives and so on. 

The joy of that is finding pictures that I've either never seen or that I have completely forgotten about.

And so it is that this post came to be.  There will be another shortly within the same theme.

I believe this dates back to 2004.  Molly was graduating from Upper Iowa University.  Her Mom, Marlene, Lesley and myself went NE for the ceremony.

And so did Kerby!  I have no clue as to where his "stomping grounds" were at the time.   I would think though, we were probably doing our 4-times-a-year birthday dinners at this time, so I SHOULD know what he was up too...

Mom and the graduatee...  I'm pretty sure that's not a word, but perhaps it should be.

A fuzzy pic of Molly walking down the aisle.

Totally shifting gears, here is these three trouble makers!

Grandma with the Larger American Boy.

Grandma with the Smaller Chinese Boy.

Robby at the science center green wall doing the weather forecast. I'm sure he was as accurate as the "experts"...

The spaceman.

And so it goes...  went...

Caleb for Gub'na!

Calebber's field trip to the Capitol.  Photo credit goes to:whoever took the picture!  Thank you!!!