Summer isn't gone just yet...

Look at this pretty Canna Leaf.

The Year of Rings...

I know, I know... I just got back from vacation. I should be posting vacation photos. But my vacation photos are still uploading to Flickr and I don't really feel like messing with them. So instead, I thought I would share this beautiful ring my momma got me for my birthday. I know my birthday was more than a month ago, but I forgot to take a picture of the ring before I dropped it off to get sized and it seems like it took forever to finally be finished.



Isn't it pretty? I wasn't sure what I wanted for my quarter-century birthday because I don't really want or need anything. I settled on some jewlery, but once I got looking, I didn't really fall in love with anything... until I saw this beautiful pink cameo. I knew I had to have it and that I would have it for many years...something my mom is big on.

I love how it looks like a little curly-haired girl praying.

On Vacation!

See you next week!

EEK!

An inhabitant of the Butterfly House.

Tree Frog

Vincent found this tree frog yesterday hanging out at our house.

Fair Again

Here are a few time-exposed photos I took at the Fair.

Lifehouse

Okay.
So, you don't have to tell me that every single last one of these photos is rotten. But I wanted to share a few of my Lifehouse photos from the fair with you.
If I decide to go to a fair concert again, I might try to get a bigger flash, and bring a tripod... oh, and sit closer. Anyway, I enjoyed the concert with one of my best friends and it was a good way to end the week.

Fair Days

The Washington Town and Country Fair is over!

Growing up, my parents used to take us to the fair every year. We loved it. As I got older I stopped going because it got to be too expensive, you know, once my parents weren't paying for it anymore.

Now that I work for the paper, I have to cover the Fair. Everybody has to cover the fair. This year was my second year. As much as I love the fair, it's exhausting.

This year I covered the turtle race, superfarmer contest youth and adult, swine breeding competition, dodgeball tournment, fitness competition, horticulture judging youth and adult, a tea party with the queens and livestock judging youth and adult. It might not sound like a lot, but this is hours of work and hundreds of pictures.

We try to make things run more smoothly. Like for dodgeball, I took all of the team photos before the competition began. That way I didn't have to stay for the whole thing and I could find out winners later. This system works quite nicely.

This fair is a Wednesday through Sunday event. I didn't have anything on the weekend to cover. By Friday though my feet ached, my neck hurt from my camera strap and my shoulders ached from my camera bag.

A glutton for pain, I decided to take Vincent to the fair Saturday. It is free for him to get in and we missed the Franklin County Fair because we were camping. On top of that, I invited my best friend, who was also working at the fair, to attend the Lifehouse concert that evening. Saturday morning I was wondering what the hell I was thinking. But, my little guy was excited which made it worth it. Oh, and I went to a benefit breakfast and got my back adjusted so I was feeling pretty good.

We brought Memaw and had a blast.

Nice face, Karen...

I took off his flip flops because other kids were kicking them off during the ride and I didn't want him to get any ideas...

I didn't take a ton of pictures because it started to rain and I didn't want to mess up my camera. More later!

The World Bird Sanctuary

The weekend before last, Gary, Vincent and I visited the World Bird Sanctuary.

The World Bird Sanctuary rests peacefully on 305 acres of Missouri hardwood forest, next door to Lone Elk County Park and Chubb Trail. In addition to education, the sanctuary has a wildlife population of permenently injured birds and helps ill or injured birds recover and releases them once they're healthy.

What are you looking at?


















What I like about this guy? He's wearing pants!


See?


Little walking stick...


And finally, a few family photos.

Vincent is about as big as a red tailed hawk.

Lone Elk Park

On the way home from the Butterfly House Gary, Vincent and I decided to drive through Lone Elk Park. I was saying that I hadn't seen any elk or bison the last few times I'd been there. Since it was cooler than it had been (we're talking like, 95 here...) we thought they might be out.

We found some Elk!




Some of them were hanging out in the shade under a pavilion. They didn't know it was for deer...






This one was thirsty...


Just hanging out.


We didn't see any bison this time, but it was nice to see some elk and enjoy time with the fam.