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Shannon and I
noticed that Anna never reached over her head if she could avoid it, so
we thought it would be good to give her a reason to practice doing so
(to help her develop coordination). Our solution was to hang
an interesting toy just about at the level of her fingertips when she
stands on tip-toe. It worked perfectly, and she will work on
trying to grab it every now and then. Since we put it up, we
have noticed that she will reach over her head for other things now, so
it seems to have the effect we intended. |
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A group of us from
our church met at Thatcher State Park and hiked the Indian Ladder
Trail. Shannon's mom & brother (Jeremy) made a
surprise visit that weekend and got to join us for the trip.
In this picture we are standing on the bridge over the stream just
before it falls off the edge of the escarpment and forms the larger of
the two waterfalls that fall over the trail.
October
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Thatcher is very beautiful this
this time of year with the colors changing, the leaves covering the
ground, and the view from the trail slightly less obscured by the thick
foliage.
October |
Anna, of course, loved the hike as
she was able to enjoy it from her privileged perch.
October |
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I'm going to
indulge in some gratuitous nature shots of Thatcher State Park, so you
will have to excuse the next few photos if they don't interest you.
This is a picture from the bridge over the smaller of the two
waterfalls that fall down over the Indian Ladder Trail.
October |
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A view of the
larger waterfall from the trail.
October |
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A view of the
larger waterfall from the trail (which goes behind the waterfall).
October |
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Kristie and her
roommate Leah were also along with us.
October |
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You can see a bit
of the view through the larger waterfall behind Shannon and her mom.
It took some fiddling to get the exposure right in this
picture.
October |
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This Fall, in the
evening before Daylight Savings Time ended (I wish it didn't, I like
having it light when I get home) we got in the habit of visiting the
playground behind a public school that is on the road by our apartment.
We enjoyed shooting basketball and letting Anna play on the
playground equipment.
October |
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One of Anna's
favorite activities is just running around in a big open area.
About the only thing she likes better then that is being on
the swing.
October
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More basketball
shots.
October |
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One of our wedding
gifts was a gift certificate to a home furnishings shop. When
we went in this ice-cream maker caught our eye and it has been
well-used ever since.
Anna is fascinated by the ice-cream maker and loves to watch the mixing
bowl go round and round.
October |
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For Kristie's
birthday we all got together at our apartment for cake and ice-cream.
Blaine brought over this wig with tangled blond-tipped hair
in a mullet hair style.
This photo is for the benefit of the "beautiful and mysterious person"
who has anonymously requested additional photos of Kristie. :)
October
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Pictures from
another trip to the playground. At first, Anna was reluctant
to crawl into the tunnels or to walk across the chain-bridge, but she
warmed up to both of them after a little practice.
November |
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Even the slide
(which terrified her at first) has become a well-liked pastime.
November
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Anna enjoys walking
up the slide nearly as much as she enjoys going down it.
November |
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This picture
brilliantly captures me deftly outmaneuvering Anna in a game of
one-on-one basketball. I almost won that time!
November
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Afterwards,
defeated but still undaunted.
November |
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Shannon and I read
a recent article in the Smithsonian magazine about bananas.
Apparently, the type of 'dessert' banana ('Cavendish' sp?)
that we eat today has only been popular since WWII or so. The
previous popular dessert banana was the 'Big Mike' which tasted better
but was almost completely wiped out by a type of fungus to which the
Cavendish banana was immune. Dessert bananas are what most of
us associate with the word 'banana', while in many banana growing
places they eat plantain bananas (sp?) as a staple crop, which are
cooked and eaten like potatoes (they are not sweet).
Recently there have been a rash of fungal outbreaks that kill Cavendish
banana trees and banana growers have speculated that a new type of
dessert banana will need to be found to replace the Cavendish if the
fungal problem continues to spread.
Just like Granny Smith apples taste different then Red Delicious,
different banana varieties taste different. So whatever
replaces the Cavendish will have a different taste and everyone (i.e.
everyone in the U.S., where we don't grow our own bananas so we only
have access to the variety that gets imported) will forget what the
Cavendish tasted like or that there even was a different banana (I
certainly didn't know about the 'Big Mike' until we read the article).
All that being said, Shannon and I saw baby bananas at the
grocery store the other day and thought that they might be a different
variety. We bought a few to try. Here is Anna
enjoying a small sample of baby bananas.
(p.s. They do taste different with a mushy texture and some strawberry
flavor)
November
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Adam &
April's daughter Autumn Rose was looking very alert the other day.
October |
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October at our church
is for 'pastor appreciation'. Our Sunday school class staged a
progressive dinner with all the stations being held in different rooms
in the church. The dinner started as a guided (Blaine) culinary
tour of Europe. The pastors' families loaded into the 'plane'
(chairs in the hallway) for the trip overseas.
Then the plane got hijacked. They spent some time eating peanuts
in a Cuban prison before being deported to Mexico for a brief snack.
The pilot (Adam) got lost (depicted at left, explaining the
situation to the tour guide) and ended up in China where they were fed
a small sample of sushi.
Fortunately there was a camel train out of China headed for Napal...
October |
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...The group reached a base
camp at the foot of Mt. Everest where an expedition was eating salad to
get energy for the climb. They joined in on the salad eating.
With a little work, the tour guide was able to secure a hot air balloon and they were on their way again...
October |
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...only to get shot down by
stray rifle fire in Iraq. Commander Kristie forcefully ordered
them through the rapid consumption of some pop-tarts covered with
peanut butter. Then onto a Military Air Command flight back
to the U.S.
October |
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Anna and Maddie had a blast playing together during the evening.
October |
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They even posed for a few pictures!
October |
