From Russia with Love...

My Christmas present to myself (how terrible is that?!) was a thingie that converts 35 mm negatives to digital files.  After it spent 4 months in the closet, I finally broke it out and started with my negatives from a family trip to Russia to pick Kirk from his mission.  It was such a great trip - we got to see so many things and to do it with the fam was just so incredible.   

The bad thing is that now I've added another project on my to do list!!  I'm still working on the list I made for Labor Day last year!!

Here are some of my favorite Russia pictures...

Happy Easter!

I get Good Friday as a work holiday (love that!) and Kirk and Luci and the boys came up for a few days - for various appointments and class assignments, but I totally reap the benefits! 

Friday morning Kirk, J-man, Z-boy and I went to The Living Planet Aquarium (not so impressive yet, but their plans for the future are awesome!):

J-man's favorite was the jelly fish, but it was so crowded that we couldn't get a picture, so we settled for the tropical fish

And Z-boy was strapped in the stroller (boy, mobility adds all kinds of issues to outings, huh?)

Friday night we went miniature golfing.  Z-boy, still strapped in the stroller, did his best to get in the action:

J-man was AMAZING - the kiddo had 3 legitimate holes-in-one - more than the three adults put together!!

Ahh...  can you feel the love?  It was a little bit nippy and there were a few raindrops, but we pretty much had the whole course to ourselves.

Luci, graceful as always, demonstrates her sense of balance with flair:

Z-boy finally escaped the stroller, only to be enthralled by the balls, leaving his club behind:

Once J-man figured out we were counting the number of times we hit the ball before it went into the hole (and of course the big deal we made about his holes-in-one) he started chasing our balls as soon as we hit them, catching them, throwing them in the hole and yelling "hole-in-one"!

And, I just had to point out that I got a green handled putter which is for use by people 6'2" or taller - it would have been nice to know I was that tall in high school and college!!

And before they left on Saturday...  like father like son I guess!!

Salsa's treasures

Every now and then during our almost daily walks, Salsa finds some treasure that she just won't let go.  One day last year it was a tree branch that was about 4 feet long and at least 6 inches in diameter on one end - she got it balanced it in her mouth so it didn't drag and proudly trotted home with head and tail held high.  She had cars pulling over and all they could do was laugh and point!  Her treasures the last couple of weeks:

pint sized cartons of chocolate milk - picked up in the parking lot of the high school and carried (surprisingly very gently - only the holes from her teeth) about two miles!