The sand

I think this is why Daru came home so stinky!

Stinky Dog

Daru loved swimming in Lake Erie, but she came home really smelly. She was washed, rinsed and repeated, but she still has a certain dead fish/rotting algae odor. The lake did not really smell, but we did see numerous dead fish and she rolled all over in the sand.

Presque Isle

My mom and I met at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA, yesterday. It was a nice day- a little overcast, but not raining really. This is one of the 2 lighthouses on the peninsula. Someone actually lives in this one, so you can't get too close. It is lit in the picture, but I am not sure you can really see that.

Walking the dog

Matthew always wants to walk Daru, but she could take him out in a second (she has escaped from much larger people) . So we found the solution, the indoor walk! Daru was surprisingly cooperative, and Matthew was happy to finally get to walk her.

Heartache and Hope

The story of Elyse was sent to us by Rachel's mom because the doctor in the video is Rachel's Uncle Tom. He deals with similar stories of babies and cancer every day - I can't even imagine how difficult that would be. It is a touching story and I thought I would pass it along (if you have ~ 9 min). Maybe you could help, or someone you know could help. She also has two websites - http://www.elyseyu.com/ and http://www.elyseyu.blogspot.com/

Techno-children

I remember life without cell phones (vaguely), the Internet (how did we get anything done?), e-mail (stamps?!?), etc. I watched my nephew Matthew last week for a few hours and he fielded some phone calls for me. He'll be three in a few weeks and it was pretty hilarious to watch him multi-task while chatting away. It is amazing to think how different his childhood is from mine. I think I even remember rotary phones...

Ducks in a row

So this is not a Delta picture nor is it a picture of ducks in a row....we have a park about two blocks from our house which Daru and I walk in almost every morning. We have watched several duck families (with 2-12! ducklings) grow up in the last month. Here you see a male mallard, but not in all its glory. Males molt after the babies hatch and they look like females until the fall. This is the only time they also shed their flight feathers so they can't fly (according to World Book). This guy is losing his pretty green head and by now all of the males do look like girls. We did see some ducks at Delta too- they were not molting yet. We fed them from the boat and the mama duck actually ate from my hand and tried to eat my finger too.

Delta Fun

Though the weather at Delta was not always cooperative, we did have fun! Matthew enjoyed the bouncy castle thing as you can see here. You can also see that I didn't know how to make the camera focus on him instead of the net around the castle....

Nap time

Lazy summer days!! We're off to Delta Lake tomorrow- not Kina though.