GP's New UW Camera

The Grammas bought GP an underwater digital camera.

I had it all set up before our hard drive died. I finally found the driver CD and got it reinstalled the other day.

JP Gets Up on Waterskis

JP tried and tried and tried and finally got up on skis for the first time.

SCB also tried & tried until the skin on his hands fell off, and he also got up on skis for the first time.

Both of the boys got up, but all we have is video that will have to wait until I feel like plugging in the video camera...

MB showed us all how to do it, including getting up on a slalom after taking a break for 10+ years.

Cousin

We celebrated second MB's b-day at the lake.

She was a trooper the entire week. Whether in the boat, pool, or lake, she was having fun.

The boys latched onto their little cousin.

Ha-Ha Tonka Spring

This is the sinkhole/canyon underneath the ruins. It has a big natural bridge with trails under and over it.

The spring emits beautiful 54 degree water year-round. On the day we were there, it would have been nice to dive in.

There are 316 wooden steps on the trail to/from the spring.

Ha-Ha Tonka Ruins

These are the ruins of a 1900's castle on Lake of the Ozarks. The guy that built it was killed in 1906 before it was complete. He was one of the first auto fatalities in Kansas city.

The castle was eventually finished, but it later burned down and is now part of the state park.

The castle sits on top of a bluff that overlooks a spring that feeds into the lake. I can't imagine how cool it must have been before the lake filled in. Fortunately, the spring is still above lake level.

Lake of the Ozarks Cave

What do you get when you mix peleozoic carbonates with groundwater? Caves!

We walked through the Lake of the Ozarks cave in the state park. It was small and fun.

I never realized that the ozark limestone & dolomites are nearly the same as the rocks we climbed on at the palisades in Illinois.

MB had a good time and managed to find some cave mud.

Lake of the Ozarks

We spent a week with family down at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We stayed at Gramma & Grampa's timeshare condo. The property was directly on the lake with a boat dock & swimming area. Grampa brought his boat and we enjoyed tubing & skiing.

We spent a fair amount of time in and around the water. I worked on my tan most of the time.

The other side of the lake by us was Lake of the Ozarks State Park. It was nice to look out onto green trees from our room.

Small dog has smaller puppies

Our neighbor's tiny dog had two miniscule puppies. After a couple of weeks, they were still the size of hamsters.

This picture is of a storm down by Kansas city half an hour after sunset.

Fun w/Family Campout

In July, GP & I did the Fun With Family campout at Camp Cornhusker. It was just a one-nighter to introduce younger scouts to camping.

We did a little bit of everything: swimming, canoeing, rowing, archery, bb-guns, etc. GP turned out to be a natural at archery.

The days before the camp were in the high 90's, but a cold front came through a few hours before we arrived, so we had blue skies and a cool night. We were able to see our breath when we went to bed.

Godzilla Bug

Last night, we found a giant bug that looked like it came from one of the Godzilla movies. I have never seen anything like it. It was 4-1/2" long and had big pinchers on it. It took all of 3 minutes on the internet to ID it. It was a male Dobsonfly. The live for 2-3 years in the larval stage as a carnivorous worm in water, and then they hatch into the adult stage like this and have a few days to mate & lay eggs before they die.

4th of July, 2008

Our nieghbors across the street took off to Vegas for the weekend, so we could not resist using their front yard as a setting for a group photo.

This year, the 4th fell on a Friday. Thursday nite, the entire neighborhod was lit up, and Friday nite was no different. The weather has been absolutely perfect for the holiday weekend.

Between all the neighbors, we probably shot 300 artilery shells with 4 people lighting stuff non-stop from 8:30 to 11:00.

We had a couple misfires, but no major mishaps. The deck has a new scorch mark on it.

Fireworks pictures: f/22, 30 sec, ISO 200. Most came out OK, but could probably shoot @ f/8 to expose the houses better.

Camp Cornhusker Webelos I

CP & I spent the last 4 days at Webelos I Camp at Camp Cornhusker south of Humbolt, NE. We both had a blast. Before we went, I was apprehensive: I need to be at work, I have to drive the minivan, I have to carpool with the lady from down the street, can I survive 4 days alone with CP?, it's going to be hot, I'm going to get chiggers & ticks, etc.

Today we returned, and I am glad to say that all of my fears were ridiculous and were not worth the time I spent worrying about them. The camp has been in existence since the dawn of time and is used to catering to scouts and their dads. We swam, shot bb guns (CP shot a 50/50) & arrows (2/5 arrows hit the paper), learned about trees, rocks, conservation, knots, 1st aid, row boats, and most of all - about each other.

Next week, I am scheduled to take GP to "Fun with Son," a 1-night intro to scouts campout at Camp Cornhusker. I am psyched. It's like Camp Lazlo, but even better.