SNAKE!!

That's right. We saw it. My VERY FIRST Northern Pacific Rattlesnake. My VERY FIRST RATTLESNAKE EVER in the wild. Thankfully, James saw it in the brush from about 10 feet away and we didn't scare it, annoy it, or come anywhere near it so it turned around and smelled us with a few tongue flicks and then sat there and struck a pose so we could get a good look. Of all the snake encounters in the wild that we could have had, I'll take this one! Take a look at this beauty!!

Daisy and the Ducks

We had a special visit from our friend Daisy today! She brought her family along for lunch and a walk to the park to feed the ducks and geese. Daisy ate two corndogs (AKA "hot dog lollipops"), AND chocolate ice cream, AND lemonade. Now we know where she gets all her energy from! Somehow she keeps having pennies and other coins pop out of her ears when she sees James (AKA "Jamie the Magnificient" to those in the magic world).

We made a video of her visit for her!

Lemons

Our neighbor Jason has this idea for all of us to get together to grow and share fruits and veggies from the yard behind his part of our complex. Jess was working back there on Saturday. I headed over to see what she was up to and noticed a ripe meyer lemon in their tree. Not wanting it to go to waste since Jason and his wife Tanya are out of town, I picked it, and then noticed a few more hidden by the inner branches. It was like striking gold!

Yeah, I was excited to be picking lemons. The are a central ingredient of one of my favorite foods, and so I might have gotten a little carried away. This is what happened...

We had everyone in the complex over to devour the pie that night, and polished off most of the lemonade too. Of course, Jason and Tanya weren't around to enjoy it, so I guess we'll have to do it again!

Back East

This weekend was our first big Eastern Adventure of the wedding season. Jess' mom is officially espoused after tying the knot with Dean. We spent some quality time with the family, and really enjoyed the humidity and scenery of the Pennsylvania/Maryland/West Virginia hills (yes, it's blasphemy, but I tend to agree that they're just silly old hills - real mountains don't happen until you're west of the Great Plains).

Our little nephew William is not quite two years old yet, and he's walking and talking, even playing ping-pong. James took him swimming in the "warm" tub (more like a giant bathtub than a jacuzzi), and the wee man even knew how to kick and move his arms. Dean's three kids Colleen, Eric, and Chris each have a kid of their own ranging from 4 months to a little over a year old. It was a regular baby fest!

Saturday, we all headed out to find something fun to do. We ended up at Meadow Run, a natural waterslide in Ohiopyle State Park where thousands of people die weekly (if they don't it's a miracle). The boys watched-on, ready to rescue the Mann sisters as they took turns coming down the chute. They looked happy enough doing it (as did all the little kids half-drowning in the torrents), so Andy and James decided to give it a go for themselves.

Amazingly enough, everyone survived and made it back to the hotel in time to witness the vows...

After a great dinner and fun evening with the family, we all parted our separate ways in the morning. We were sad to leave, so to cheer ourselves up we made our way back to Ohiopyle to see if we couldn't do some rafting.

It turned out to be quite an adventure. We were told at one of the outfitters that we could run the middle section of the Yough without a guide, and if we started at noon we'd be done in about 3 hours with time to make it to the airport for our 7pm flight. By the time they got us into a shuttle van it was 1pm, and along the way to the launching site the driver told us it was more like a 4 to 5 hour trip!!! ACK! The airport was an hour and a half away! Talk about cutting it close!

Talking with him a bit more about our paddling experience, he then told us that if we hauled it we could maybe do it in 3 and a half hours. So, we hauled it. ...and got back to the outfitter in 2 hours 20 minutes. We're still married.


We're really happy for Mama and Dean, and excited that William has a Grandpa and that we'll have two Grandpas for our own kids (whenever they plan to come along that is).