Baby feet!

Summer and I worked on a little Fathers' Day greeting for Daddy.

Day 87: My Mom and Her Kids

It's not often my siblings and I are in one place and we don't think of killing each other, or maybe that's just me? But here we are, photo proof that we were at Camp together and everyone made it out alive. We're even smiling! And touching each other. It was just one night that my brother was there with us, but my sister and I spent a record five nights in one place. I made everyone sit for this picture for my mom because I know that having us all the there and getting along meant the world to her. Could it be that maybe we're not kids anymore, that maybe we've grown up?

Day 86: The Sand Dunes

That's what Jacob likes to call this place that we walk to from Camp. I don't really know what it is other than a giant pit off of the railroad tracks. I used to think it was a landfill when I was younger. We visited there a few times this trip, as it was a nice retreat from the crowd at Camp. Jacob built and elaborate system of houses for the mice to use when winter hits.

This day's photo was a toss-up between the sand dunes and the walk to the sand dunes. In the linked photo Sabine is walking Ginger (and by the way that's not a pacifier in her mouth, it's a teether for her molars) and it wasn't long after that when Ginger took off, dragging Sabine behind he just like in the cartoons. I'd been warning Sabine to let go if Ginger went too fast, but she didn't listen.

By the way, this photo is late again, still because of the hardwood floors, but they're done now and just drying. It will be a couple days before we can put furniture back on them, and then Zach still has to take on the new walls.

Day 85: To Be Fair

Since I posted that really bad picture of my sister, I felt like I should post a good one to be fair. This photo was taken not at our lake, but over at the 'swimming lake', and adjacent one that we sometimes go to. I took the photo earlier in the week, you know, before my sister was inebriated, because she wanted one of herself and Marisa in their matching bathing suits. It took an awful lot to get Marisa to make a normal face, and check out those abs on her!!

Day 84: There She Goes!

Even though this isn't a really great photo, it's still going to become a family classic. Right after my brother hit the ball that was the one a bunch of us headed out in three different boats to collect as many balls as we could. There's a significant sand bar in the middle of the lake, due to it being man-made so several of the balls we actually within reaching distance.

The ball my sister was reaching for, however, was not in reaching distance. So she just kept leaning further and further to her left in order to reach the ball, until the kayak tipped right over. You can see from this photo that she did, in fact, have success in getting the ball. I also love (in the photo I linked to) that look on my brother's face as he's laughing his ass off because that's what we do in my family, especially when it comes to my sister.

Also, I'll link to this photo because I think maybe it's the one my brother has been asking for?

PS - this post is a day late because we have no internet at the house right now, the hardwood floor project is still going on.

Day 83: That's the One

Another picture from Camp...there will probably be at least a few more since it's my favorite place on Earth. This is my brother's immediate reaction to the ball he just hit as it landed on the island (just above his head in the picture), which is what he was aiming for.

For some reason I just really like this photo, maybe it's the composition. I like Jacob and Marisa in the foreground, standing in the kayaks, pretending to be paddling somewhere. And I like how they frame my brother. It just happened that way, I hadn't even been standing there a minute before. I think I snapped the picture as I was walking toward the lake.

Anyway, the photo nicely captures the energy of my family, and since it's one I wasn't even trying for, it makes it all the better.

Day 82: Her Ball

While in Cape May, we took Jacob to the arcade. At the end of the week he cashed in his tickets for some prizes. For Sabine he got this ball. For himself he got the same thing, only the bigger version and in blue. Who could have guessed that it would become the new object of Sabine's affection? She can't be without it. When she's looking for it, she'll either say, "my Bah?" or call it "green bah".

In this picture, we were playing outside at Camp just after my brother had arrived on Sunday afternoon and I figured it was about time I take a picture of Sabine with her green ball. So I said, "Sabine, let me see your ball." Little did I know she would turn around like that with a coy look on her face and hold the ball so tenderly to show it off. The instant I snapped the picture I knew it would be a classic Sabine photo. Everyone seems to agree that this is the award-winning photo from the week at Camp. Unless, of course, you count the picture (to come) of my sister falling out of the boat in the middle of the lake, but we're talking composition here, not hilarity.

Day 81: The Bathing Eagle

This is the juvenile eagle whom I think I wrote about earlier in the summer. We saw him (I'm just guessing at the him thing) out many times on this visit up to Camp. On this day I was alone at Camp with Jamie and my two kids. We watched the eagle just sitting out there on this stump for the longest time. He'd go off the stump onto the sandbar in a few inches of water and roll around taking a bath, then back onto the stump to dry off.

After a while I couldn't stand not getting closer so I hopped in the canoe barefoot and paddled closer, but not really in that direction. The wind and current, however, carried me right to the eagle and before I knew it I was too close for my own comfort and the fact that the eagle was not flying away freaked me out. By the time I decided I needed to head back, the wind had gotten much stronger, as it tends to do in the middle of the lake and the rain started pouring down. The only choice I had was to go with the wind and the current (of the river that flows through the lake) and wait it out on the opposite side of the lake. I was camped out for at least half an hour on someone's dock, and then it was at least another half an hour of hard, meaningless paddling back home before I finally got the right idea and sat in the middle of the canoe to get back.

It was worth it though to get this cool picture. In a couple of the pictures when I was actually closer than this you can see that the eagle is tagged on one leg, which for some reason makes up hopeful about the eagle population, like someone is looking out for them.

Day 79: For Jenny

We got back home last night from a week at Camp. The kids and I left the house in order for Zach to take on the huge project of redoing our hardwood floors. Needless to say, because he's a perfectionist, Zach turned the project into something way bigger than originally planned. He tore down all this wood paneling we had in one room, and put up sheet rock in it's place. So now he still needs to tape and spackle, sand that down, and then paint. The floor boards have all been rewoven so that they face the same direction, and some odd-looking patch boards that Zach had put in a few years back were taken out. So for that project he still needs to sand the floors down and do three coats of poly (24 hours in between each) on the wood. And now we're back home. All the furnishings of the house are crammed into half the space we're used to, and pretty soon we're not going to be able to walk on the floors because they'll be in various stages of drying. Yikes!

But that's not what this picture is about. This picture is Sabine on my mom's lap at Camp with my Uncle Bill (who is practicing very hard for his about-to-become-a-grandfather status). Jenny gave this book to Sabine, and it is her favorite book right now. She was rapt when Uncle Bill was reading it to her that night, and I thought jenny would like to see this photo because Uncle Bill is her father.

Day 46: Super hoe

When we were driving up to Camp with Jen and Dan, we had to go through Lake Placid to stop at a grocery store. Super Shoes is on the main road and when we passed it this is what we saw. I laughed my ass off about it, and when we arrived at Camp, Zach and Dan (who were in the other car following the moms and kids) said they'd seen it too and had been cracking up. I know this kind of vandalism happens all the time, but I have to give credit to the 'artist', sometimes the best comedy comes from the simplest humor.

I was crossing my fingers that the sign would still be in this condition when I drove home four days later (this time with my sister and Marisa), and it was. Since I was stopping to take a picture of it anyway, Nicki went in and bought Marisa two new pairs of shoes. And perhaps that's the reason they've left it that way - it could be good for business! I hope they leave it that way forever. Then I can say "I'm un go and git me some new kickers at the Super Hoe!"

Day 45: Wall Art

I took this picture of Sabine while she was brushing her teeth at Camp on the day we were getting packed up to leave. Sabine was wearing a shirt of mine (from when I was a baby) so I wanted to get some authentic Camp pictures of her in it. I recently dug into my box of old baby clothes and will be putting more of my old clothes on her.

My sister said this looks like a picture she'd put in her bathroom, and I think I actually might just do that at my house. Take that Anne Geddes.

Day 44: Eight Years

This isn't really the best picture of any of the kids, but it's cool because none of them are crying yet, and there's Camp in the background. You see, this was just before the shit hit the fan. We were in the row boat, me rowing and my sister in the front. Benny the bug-eyed dog was with us too. I snapped this photo just before my sister thought it would be a good idea to throw Benny overboard and see what he would do. (This isn't as cruel as it sounds, we in a man-made lake and there's a considerable sand bar smack dab in the middle of the lake).

Benny fared well for a couple minutes; he poked around the island, sniffed at some stuff floating on the surface of the lake. Then the wind came in with a huge gust and Jacob's precious Yankees hat flew off his head and into the water. He started crying for his hat, and so I started trying to row back to it, but the wind was killer and we were all laughing so I was experiencing the temporary loss of my abdominal muscles. With the sudden rise of emotions going on in the boat, Benny started to get freaked out that we were leaving him on the sand bar for good.

That's when Marisa starting bawling her eyes out because Benny had surpassed the point where he could touch bottom and was now swimming to the boat. Problem is, he's a abnormally-bred dog whose behavior doesn't really even resemble a dog - he's more of like a gremlin - and his breast stroke resembled someone drowning (not to mention his ever-bug-eyed look); hence Marisa crying: She thought he was going under.

Project Yankees Hat Recovery had to take a back seat to the dog and my sister and I were still laughing our butts off. Actually, she was peeing her pants (her words) and I was struggling to maintain my composure so that I could row the boat. And do you have any idea how hard it is to row a boat to a precise location while struggling against the wind and a boat full of hooligans? Sabine was the one laughing her butt off. She was cackling away, pointing at Benny, as if it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. And on either side of her were Jacob and Marisa, each screaming at me to save their precious belongings.

Anyway, the dog and hat are both safely back in their respective homes, and we all made it out alive without having to jump overboard. It is a nice memory, one I am recalling in honor of Marisa's eighth birthday (Today) because I was there when she was born, and I love her, despite the fact that she often makes me want to throw her out the window!

Day 43: Cannibal Ants

Jen and I were on our way to bring water to the kids, who were playing outside at Camp, when I came upon this sight. I was totally transfixed, as was Jen. I was so happy to have company while I observed the tiny insects because usually no one else cares. Jen is a science teacher so I think maybe that is why she took more of an interest.

We watched these guys for 15 minutes or so - there were two pairs of ants. In each pair there was an aggressor and a victim. The aggressor was tearing the shit out of the victim. For what reason, I have no idea. I don't even know what kind of ants these were. They'd fight for a while and then the meanie would go off and lick his chops for a bit, then come back for some more brutality. We were totally enraptured by this and couldn't figure out what was going on. I told Jen, "See, if we were somewhere with the internet, I'd be all over this." So now that we're back home I think I should go try to figure out what was happening here.

In the meantime, if you know anything about ants and why they might commit such an act against one another, please enlighten me!

Day 42: Red Lady

This little lady was spotted along the old railroad bed up at Camp last weekend. I don't know much about ladybugs...like for instance, are they really all 'ladies'? And there are a bunch of tiny creepy crawlies on the plant next to her (seen on the left in this photo). Are those perhaps ladybug nymphs? I have no idea. Also, is the saying about the number of spots they have true?

Taking photos of things in nature like this inspires me to learn more about them. So off I go to read about ladybugs.

Day 41: Inch Worm

While we were picking blueberries in the woods, Jen found this little guy and pointed out the eggs on the back of him - I guess I should say her? I don't really know much about the reproduction of inchworms. Look how cool that is! He/she was kind enough to stand still for me so I could get this nice photo. I just had my regular lens on so I couldn't get in as closely as I wanted, but it looks pretty good up against the dark polo shirt Jen was wearing.

Day 40: Damsel in Distress

So we went to Camp again for an extended weekend . This time our dear friends, Jen and Dan, and their two boys came with us. It's always more fun when we have company. I ended up taking more pictures of the kids and all the playing around, than I did of the bugs this time, but I couldn't resist this photo. It's a damselfly caught in a spider's web and the spider is getting ready to chow down. It's not that I like looking at dead bugs about to have their guts eaten out, it's just so fascinating that I can't look away - like a gory accident on the side of the road - until I at least get a picture. For this angle I actually had to get into the bottom of the row boat and get my face real close. I should get bonus points for that. Though I love this photo, my main reason for posting it is because I couldn't wait to use the perfect title I came up with!

Day 23B: Family Recipe

This is the day we made blueberry muffins from the 'camp berries' - that's what I call the wild berries we pick. Once a year I try to make blueberry muffins while being true to Nana's (my great-grandmother) recipe - which has been made into a wall hanging (pictured to Sabine's right on the counter) by someone in the family. This is no small feat for me because it means I have to stock things like white flour and sugar, and use butter instead of substituting with applesauce or adding all kinds of other grains. I love the naturalness of this photo - Sabine hanging out on the counter, eating batter off of a wooden spoon, wearing nothing but the apron my aunt just made for her. It's how I imagine what my mom would have looked like baking with her grandmother all summer long deep in the NY Adirondacks...

Day 23A: Oops & the last of the Camp pictures

Well I completely messed up on day 22 and I don't want to cheat and make it look like I didn't miss a day by retroactively posting, so I will just do two for today and call it even. It's been a very, very busy two days. Big playgroup gathering here Monday afternoon, Cousins Party on Monday night, appointment this morning, followed by another playgroup here, this time with my former high school friends, who are all grown women with their own kids - which means I must be a grown woman?

It was pointed out to me by my mother today that I didn't quite finish the text that goes along with the forget-me-nots. I just got around to visiting the page and I'm cracking up at myself. That's what happens when I stay up waaaay later than I should in an attempt to finish up any given computer-related activity. I keep falling asleep, keep waking up long enough to type a word or two, then fall asleep again. At some point during the typing of that post I must have decided to publish it already, photo explanation be damned. I'm going to leave it the way it appears because I think it's hilarious.

What I wrote is: "These forget-me-noys ran all along ty" What I meant to write is that those flowers run all along the edge of the lake, etc, ect.

Anyway, I have so many more awesome pictures from Camp, but I'll just post this one here and save the others for some time in the future.

I've got more pictures of the bald eagle, some cool dragonfly pictures, and lots of photos of us on the lake, but I'm going with the blueberry because that represents the camp experience for me the best. They don't usually ripen until early August, but it's been so hot this year that by the end of our trip Jacob and I were able to gather enough ripe ones to make pancakes with and a batch of muffins. I can't wait to go back up later in the summer and get more berries!

Day 21: Forget-Me-Nots

These forget-me-noys ran all along ty

Day 20: Damselfly

I put the macro lens on the camera and went out last Saturday to see what I could see around the grounds at Camp. My main purpose was to get one of these little guys, the Damselfly, but they are so darn quick. A quick look over at wikipedia tells me that they can't walk, only land, fly and land again. I find the to be a very interesting little fact. I know that dragonflies and the like are a favorite of many people, and I have to admit that they are beautiful in all their detail, but for some reason, the damselflies and dragonflies just creep me out. They're so alien looking or something.