Fun at the beach. . .

When I arrived at the cottage on friday night, mom asked me to get a "good" picture of my younger sister's kids for her photo frame. Easier said than done. And her definition is different than mine. Getting them to all look in the same direction at once was a definite challenge. . .and the "great" idea of using the neat umbrella's was a little dangerous at times.





Reach out and touch. . .grandma!



Jordan's face was just priceless on this one. At least there were no bullets. . .no water, either.


Where would you lay eggs if you were a bird living by the water?????

When my sister and I walked by their boat the second day, there were two eggs. I joked that I should get a picture every day because she (the bird, not my sister!) was on the every-day-plan. I didn't make the effort to get my camera from my car.




Day 3. . .





After some hard volleyball at the beach - yippee, it's summer!

Brett Marshall - Unplugged.

Brett came in and talked to our computer classes today - he's a great lecturer, contrary to what he thinks. Here, he pulls up a picture that he had just taken to use for demonstrating.

Brett gets help from Rob with the PC (versus his typical Mac)


Uhhh...Brett's debut?

Building respect among the students. . .and giving positive vibes - building esteem.

Fire! Fire! Call the MDN!

Who would YOU call if there were a fire? Would the MDN be on your list? They sure can take good pictures of fires. And they jump through them well too ("well" enough that no one got burned - that counts, right?). Check it out:

"Yep, that's a purty fire - get a picture of that, lowly intern."




"Lookit the christmas tree burn. . .hee hee!"



Then the fun starts. Brett, of course, starts it. Ryan captures it for posterity. And proof, in case anything goes wrong.




A nice shot of half of the group: Amy, Ryan, Brett and Jason.



The jumps got more intricate (and Michael-Jackson-esque) as the night wore on. Nice. Check for alternate views of this photo on Ryan and Jason's sites.




Gotta check and see if we need to "do it again" after each attempt. Is that "setting up" a shot??




Kevin's 2nd version of the jump, nylon suit and all.




Finally, Brett demonstrates his strength in holding an axe. Ryan documents.

Friday Night Lights

Friday I called Jason to see if he wanted to get some Great Lakes Ice Cream before leaving town. Amy and I had tentative plans to get together and have dinner, heckle Kevin at the soccer fields and then do some work.It was a fun night.

Jason liked Great Lakes Ice Cream Co. - both the ice cream and the chance to be creative with words.







"Hey, Kevin, we're here to heckle you. . ."




"Nice legs, ref!" Nice poses too. Maybe someone should capture that.






My favorite photo of the night. Jason looks on as the game goes on.

Busy weekend. . .

It was a busy weekend, with Prom, Cinco de Mayo and the Derby all fighting for attention. . .

Ithink this is as beautiful as the township hall gets.

Amy and I had fun as prom "dates" - even if the lack of boy turnout was disappointing for some of the teenage girls. . .guess we've gotten used to that status quo!


Gotta have roses for the derby. . .or so Kay insisted. After buying them (a dozen roses really isn't as expensive as I thought), I have to agree. I only wish that I had taken a picture of Brett's Derby Pie. . .or that at least MY horse had won!

Missing the track.

It's so incredibly cool to see my nephew in his first track season. But also bittersweet. I miss it.

The nerves before the race.


The focus. Being in the moment as you work to move through those hurdles.


Going the distance. Together with your teammates, yet alone with your race.


Right now I've put myself in the position of "watcher" but maybe I should get back in the game and try to be a hurdle coach somewhere next year. Hmmm.