The Bear

After dinner, Mom and I and Joshua walked down the road to bring the trash to the dumpster. A family in a cabin nearby yelled to us and directed our attention to a bear headed to the same dumpster. Whoa! We sidestepped down to our neighbor's cabin and watched as the bear made it's way back up the road and past another cabin where several people were sitting around their campfire. That is, until they spotted the bear. They scattered at the sight of him and spooked him, sending him running toward our cabins.



"Bear! There's a BEAR!" I yelled to my family, thinking of the boys that had been playing in the creek and hoping that Grace was close to an adult.

Then I spotted Courtney. She was walking through the woods to Mema's cabin and she was right in the bears path! She heard me and the other campers yelling and looked up to see this bear barreling down the hill right at her.

I have never seen her move so fast.

She ran to Mema's cabin, locked the door behind her and crawled up into the top bunk. To add to the trauma of it all, there was no one in the cabin. She was going up to help Mema with the dishes but she was already down at the bathroom (no running water in the cabins) so Courtney was alone until the bear cleared the area and I could go and get her.

So how big was this bear? This big...



Mema missed the whole thing. We all filled her in on the excitement. She was so upset that she didn't get to see it.



She was pretty shook up about it. Well, I sure would be, too. But it didn't keep her down long. She lagged behind on the trails, wasn't afraid to wander over to the other cabin alone, sat at the campfire without being afraid of what was out there in the dark... she's a brave, brave soul.

Another fungus lover

Mushrooms and fungi are fascinating, aren't they?
All right, don't answer that.

Well, Gracie agrees with me. Those bright and colorful things kept catching her attention.



"French Fries!"



One of the boys lovingly smacked her upside the head as they passed while she was inspecting a pretty mushroom.
"Joey!" (it's always his fault)





"A-cowrn"

Yesterday

I was at the beach.



We soaked up the sun.



We played and played... we were exhausted.



We walked in the sand.



We were REALLY exhausted.



And today we are home, our laundry room is full and there is much to do yet here I sit, playing with my pictures. I just can't help it. I'll post some more tomorrow, I promise. I have a great bear story. But you'll have to wait...

'Bout time

...I put a new post up. I've been busy getting ready for school. So all my computer time lately has been spent searching for curriculum and making schedules. But this past week hasn't been all work. Mom offered to babysit so I could take the older kids to Genesee Valley Museum. My season pass was about to expire and I had a few guest passes so we were able to bring along some friends. We had a great afternoon. I especially enjoyed being able to talk to the workers (actors? whatever you call them) and ask them questions without a baby in tow and a toddler to chase.



We were able to take the time to participate in activities that we normally wouldn't be able to like tin punching.



And because no post is complete with out a pic of this adorable chunker munker...

Something to ponder

I took the boys outside to try to regain control of my garden.
(I lost)
but we had fun trying. We yanked out most of the weeds that had completely taken over. Jacob pulled out the wild grasses but was careful not to touch the morning glory because it's his favorite flower.

While wandering around, sniffing the flowers and pretending he was helping, he posed this question...

"Do we make Morning Glory seeds from moth wings?"

So if anybody has any insight in this, inquiring minds want to know.

Now something fun from Joe.



Playing with the Banana gram tiles. We tried to play the actual game but it was little too advanced for them, so they just made up silly sentences. That was more fun anyway.


"The cat wared (wore) undies to dance." of course.


BUT WAIT! THERE"S MORE!

Typical Gracie.This picture pretty much sums her up.

Yeah, I know, I'm pretty awesome.

These are my favorites from our photo shoot with the Webbers.

Uh, huh, I'm impressed with myself, too. ;)

Flubber

Do take the time to do this. We had a blast!

Here is the recipe
(Sorry for the grainy pics- I had to set my ISO to 1600 to make up for the lack of sun that we normally get through the kitchen window. And I just didn't feel like running them through noiseware. When you take 300 pictures a week, well, you just cant edit them all.)







Yeah, now that's just gross.