Wall Doxey, By The Way

 Just in case you're curious, we stayed at Wall Doxey State Park in Mississippi while visiting Peter's parents.  It gave us a place to stay that was cheaper and better than a hotel and was even closer to their house than the nearest hotel.  One of the mornings, when we had a little bit of extra time before we needed to leave for the day, Peter told me to go for a walk by the lake while he and the kids packed the van.  We hadn't seen the lake, and it was so beautiful that I had to run back and get my camera. 

To the left of the dock, the water was full of trees.   I think they call it a Cypress Slough.

The open lake was to the right.  Now, for a northerner, this is a downright amazing enjoyment for a January morning.  I did not take it for granted.  It was not just beautiful, it was serene.  There was not a sound to be heard or a person to be seen. 

I used my zoom on two of the trees in the above picture.  There's a black speck between these two trees that you can see below what it is.

The boys told me that this bird I saw is called a Muscovy Duck.

And here's a picture of the cabin.

The kids got some practice cleaning it out and loading the van by themselves.  Sam decided how to arrange things in the van and Peter said he did a good job and gave him a few pointers for next time.

Cecily found a tiny nest on the ground, which was her very own delight.

In Which Sam Makes the Same Face as a Rat Snake

Farm Field Trip

A couple of days before Bronwyn's birth, the kids and I ventured out of the house to join a homeschool field trip to our local university's livestock farm.  We pass this farm every time that we head into Morgantown from home.  It has about 900 beautiful acres that have now been surrounded by condominiums and other new construction.  It's like a big piece of rural that has slowly been engulfed by encroaching city.  West Virginia University has several farm locations in various parts of the state.  This particular location is the livestock research farm.  Above, the kids are heading over to the grain elevator at the feed station where all the food is processed for the farm's critters.  These farm buildings that we toured are all at the top of the highest hill on the farm and have such a beautiful view.

Visiting the roosters.

At the back you can see the turkeys.  They were huge and they actually had blue heads, though you can't tell from the picture.

This view is really wasted on these sheep.

The weather was perfect for this trip.  I had been nervous about my energy holding out, taking all of the kids out like this when I was SO pregnant.  It worked out beautifully.  It was such a high note to go into labor on.  We had a great "last" day together and took the happy picture that's above in the header on our porch (with the pumpkins) when we got home.

People, Animals, Plants

 A collection of various photographs...I found Eli sitting here the other day.  A perfect seat, really, with an ideal view of all that's going on with his siblings.

 Standing under the lamp's light...

 ...showing off the new gaps in her mouth.  The gap on the right she lost a few weeks back, technically her first tooth to "lose" as the top tooth was knocked out when she was 3.  Then, she randomly lost the tooth on the left, while the one in the *center* was wiggly first and still remained (sigh).  The good news is that it has also now fallen out, leaving one nice, wide gap on the bottom.  She's very proud to enter into the world of "tooth gifts."  Hopefully, we're done losing for a while?

 Baby bird. My kids can't resist picking them up.  William is holding it, showing it to Elijah, whose hair and hands you see, while, naturally, Ben is reaching in from the side to pet it too.

 This was a random black and white photo that Ben took of our current box turtle pet, Mountaineer.  As the kids have found a couple of box turtles over the summer, we've kept them for a few weeks and then released them.  Isn't he cute?

 Doleful looks from a raccoon who found himself en-caged in our trap, set to snag the culprit who kept pulling our trash to bits.  (We safely relocated him to a new forest home.)  I'm not sure which of the kids snapped this picture.

 Photo credit goes to Sam on all of the remaining pictures.  He took the camera out into the yard several weeks back and took several nice photos of growing things.

 Part of the vegetable garden, which did alright, but not great.  The soil needs continued adjustment and we hope to get a couple more trees down next year to provide greater sunlight.

 Our little pear tree did nicely, producing 9 lovely pears.

They made it to a very good size.  We have harvested and enjoyed them all by now.

Some Nature and Gardening

 Sam says these are baby Thrush. 

Ben found these beauties growing near the driveway.

 A fledgling robin that he probably shouldn't have picked up.  It's so hard to resist a chance to get your hands on a real, live bird.

 So here's the garden so far...in the picking-out-rocks and forming-mounds phases.

Everyone likes the dirt.  It feels so good to get good and dirty. 

 Not that we condone the eating of dirt.

A cute, hot little girl.

 The man with the rototiller.

Mounds and rows are formed and we're calling it a day.

"It's time for my bath now.  See you next time!"

Pittsburgh Zoo

 Yes, yet another zoo post.  :)  We took a family trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo last Monday.  Some nice ladies passing us were nice enough to take our picture by the Welcome sign.

Peter and the kids inside the Aquarium part.

 I couldn't tell you what this fish is called.  He was in an outdoor pool.  He kept coming up to the surface and opening his mouth.

Here's Calvin getting a good look inside the fish's mouth when it came up.

 Most of the pictures at the zoo were taken by William.  I let him enjoy trying to get good shots of the animals, while his brothers took some time to sketch some of them.  The ones I've included in this post were ones that I took.  Hopefully we'll have time for William to do a post of his own on the animals he photographed.

A teeny, tiny sea horse.

 This is the tropical environment that the zoo has created inside the Aquarium.  It's pretty fun to visit and walk through the tropical plants and see the tropical critters and fish.

There is one hands-on section in the Aquarium.  The children can touch the different rays swimming in this pool as well and crawl through a tunnel underneath the pool to see the undersides of the rays.  Even Elijah got to touch them.

 This is one of the rays they touched.

Another smaller ray.

 This is Peter's smile after we read the sign, "Beware of 600 pound females."

Here is the 600 pound female herself.  Bears of any kind are always Peter's favorite.  He loved this polar bear.

 Smiles before the hanging bridge.

This is one wobbly bridge.  We had to rescue Cecily part way through.

 There is a small playground that was much enjoyed.  It got to be 88 degrees on this day.  We were pretty warm by this time.

One of the last things we saw were the sea lions.  They're always my favorite.  This is a little one that came to say hello to the children.

Always a great field trip.  And a great family day.  I'll have to see if I can upload some of the drawings that the kids did from the zoo.