Caleb's Confirmation

My (our) world is spinning out of control currently. As such, my attention to this blog has taken a hit.  I have missed posting about Caleb's confirmation!

Caleb had a pretty unique group that he was being confirmed with.  There were 3 young people who were not raised in the (a) church and took it upon themselves to get this done!  Pretty cool.

They had their reading of their faith statements in front of the parents, and there were a couple of them who brought tears to my eyes.  Beautiful!

The young ladies of the group.

The young men of the group. The two dudes in the middle are two of them who committed themselves to this!

The Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit!

The full group!

 

Desoto Wildlife Refuge 2019 vs. 2022

My lovely bride had a bucket list itch that was going to be scratched 2 years ago. It was two years ago today that we were sent home from the office for two weeks due to the spread of the Covid 21 - 2, and we were planning to head over to The Nebraska (that's a tribute to the people who refer to Ukraine as The Ukraine...) to see the migration of the Sandhill Cranes. 

 Needless to say, it got shut down as well. 2021 wasn't much better but schedules aligned a bit this year as a weekend that worked with her extra busy schedule and I wasn't on call for my job.

So this past weekend was that trip!  She decided to go back to the Desoto National Wildlife Refuge and boy was I glad!  In my original post back in 2019,  I post many more pictures than I do here because once in the place,  I realized that this is the building with the museum of the The Bertram steamboat that sunk in this area in March 1865.  There's links to more history in the original post.  Never the less,  I hold this place in high regard for what it does to my over-stressed soul these days.  To sit in that area over the water in the first pic and watch the water and wildlife is SOOOO soothing, I could have sat there until they kicked us out at closing time!  So calming with none of the b.s. of "normal" life...
 

This is from June 2019.  We had camped at the Lewis & Clark Campground up the river from here by Onawa, IA.  The drive down I-29 was humbling as the water was nearly up to both sides of the interstate on both sides and there were LOTS of people experiencing some serious problems as a result.  Currently, there are people experiencing serious problems,  only for different reasons... 

This is from last Friday, March 11th 2022.  From one extreme to the other!

Rob's "wingspan" back in 2019.

Rob's "wingspan" in 2022.  Holy smokes!

How about Caleb's? This is 2019.

Caleb now!  Wowsers!!!

This is the view from that area in the first two pics.  They have microphones set up outside with the audio being pumped into this area.  Watching all of the birds outside while listening in was pure gold!

Rob in the eagles nest in 2019.

Rob in the eagles nest 2022.

Caleb's eagle nest old...

Caleb in the eagles nest new!  He eats a LOT!!!  Notice that the eagle masks are gone due to the 'rona.