There is a beach a little less than an hour and half away from here called Colonial Beach. We like it because it is close and you don’t have to pay to use it. So we went down a couple weeks ago and let the kids play in the water. It was kind of a spur of the minute trip, but we made a lunch and wandered up and down the beach.
The kids played with their plastic animals, and also made up a game with a piece of wood that they found. They played some variation of baseball with this piece of wood, and it kept them busy for at least an hour. (more…)
This is just a bunch of pictures from our trip to Idaho that don’t really merit their own post, but are fun to look at nonetheless. Just click more to see them. (more…)
One of the places we visited in Idaho was Mesa Falls. It is a pretty neat place, and not too far off the beaten path when we were coming back from Island Park.
They have a nice path down to the viewpoints where you can look at the falls and take pictures. There’s not a lot to report, other than showing the pictures we took. (more…)
My Dad has a four-wheeled utility contraption that is called a “Mule”. The grandkids really like to ride it around, and some of them drive it. One day we decided to take it out and go for a ride. It doesn’t fit four people up front, so I put a lawn chair in the bed. We drove up to the store, got some treats, and then drove over to where my grandparents used to live. We drove to a waterfall that empties into the Reservoir.
Then we stopped by the Swimming Hole to let the kids see what it was like. The water was very cold. I’d forgotten how cold it is, even in the summer. I used to stop by there every day on my way home from working at the Experiment Station and dive in. We froze trying to swim, and when I threw Mason into the middle of the rushing water he got sucked under for a minute. I couldn’t talk either Mason or Whitney into going through the tube though.
When we were in Idaho we spent quite a lot of time down at the gravel pits. The kids really liked playing in the water, and the shoreline was almost literally crawling with frogs. In some spots, they were like grasshoppers.
We took the guns down there one day, and Mason loves guns. So I took the BB gun for him to shoot, and the other kids joined in as well. They each did a pretty good job. The adults shot pistols. Click more for pictures. (more…)
A long time ago, like back in 1987, say, I had some pet guinea pigs. At one point, for reasons that I no longer remember, one of them died. (Well, all of them obviously did, eventually). Again, I don’t remember why I did this, but I attempted to mummify this particular one. I wrapped him in something, and built a little coffin for him. I used a metal lid, writing something on it as a commemoration. I paced off from the flag pole and started digging.
Flash forward to a couple weeks ago when we were in Springfield. I suddenly remembered what I had done and grabbed my dad’s metal detector. Abby and Whitney were the ones who actually found it with the metal detector, but all of the grandkids were there and watching as I dug up the old box.
Amazingly, there was still writing on the lid, (more…)
There is a beach a little less than an hour and half away from here called Colonial Beach. We like it because it is close and you don’t have to pay to use it. So we went down a couple weeks ago and let the kids play in the water. It was kind of a spur of the minute trip, but we made a lunch and wandered up and down the beach. 
