More photos of kids on Branson vacation

Here are some more photos of Alex and Kaylee while they visited the cabin and Branson area in the middle of July:

Most of these are of Alex at Silver Dollar City, Arrion took them, of course. Here, at Woodshop.

Here he is in his smurf outfit, when it rained early in the day.

Alex in the jail, by himself. This is one we do every year; first one was at six months!

'Hook 'em  Horns' headed for the candlewax... Didn't get photo of the results... sorry

They listened to and talked to Miss Judy, the school marm, at the old school house.

Later, when Alex interviewed me, I mentioned that our one room country school was much like this, and our desks were identical...

They brought Kaylee a pink umbrella with her name on it!

Kaylee at mini-golf at Grand Country.

Alex and Kaylee telling stories.

It was a great week!  ;-)

Trenching and Back Filling

Trenching and Back Filling

To continue the saga of the trenching in our back yard - 'utility easement.'

The monster trencher approaches our cabin as Kaylee looked on, this was July 15.

Later that day, they stopped for a long time right behind our cabin. They were making a slight adjustment in direction. Here the two operators are doing survey work to ascertain where they are and where they were going to go.

They continued on...

Here you get to see the cloud they created as they moved on to the south. Later in the day, a guy with a backhoe came along and filled in the trench they had dug!

What? They dug the trench, then filled it in! To the south...

This was taken July 19; they had dug clear to the south end of sub-division, and stopped. Then, had back filled it all in. They will eventually keep going south, up the hill to where the new development is.

Here is the back fill completed, north of us.

This is where we stand, now. I assume another machine comes and lays the tile, where the rocky soil has now been broken up... time will tell.

They have been interesting days!  ;-)

Ten Days in July 2011

Ten Days in July 2011

Okay, I'm behind in posting photos of our activities the last ten days or so. Arrion, Alex and Kaylee visited all last week; and, we were surprised by a visit from Annette and Larry on Tuesday, last week, and they were here again the last couple of days. It is now Tuesday afternoon, and they are out at the Branson Airport, awaiting their flight back to Utah... here are some highlights of these ten day, I'll post other photos, later on... it will be quiet around here!  ;-)

This is my favorite introductory photo... just after Arrion, Alex and Kaylee arrived on Saturday afternoon.

A little later, Alex and Kaylee had been playing with the Trio blocks...

All during the week, work continued in our 'back yard' - actually a utility easement area. Here Kaylee is watching the monster trencher approaching our area. We stayed inside as it passed our house, with it's clouds of dust... and noise...  ;-) More on this operation in another post.

One of the goals of the week was to play mini-golf. Here is Alex at the Dinosaur course.

Note: The photos in this 'highlight' post are a mix of my camera and Arrion's - and a few on mine by Arrion and on Arrion's by Kaylee... I'll let you guess which are which, if you care...  ;-) Another photo on this mini-golf outing on Monday, which was Allison's day off of work.

Larry's dad fell and broke his hip, so was in the hospital up in Springfield, IL. So, Annette and Larry flew in to be with him for his surgery later in the week. He is 90+. They flew into Branson Airport on Tuesday, then drove our Honda up to Illinois on Wednesday.

Here is Annette with the kids...

Later, they did a dance... It reminded us of a photo from long ago (to be saved for a later post, as well)...

As often as it works out for two of our daughters to be together at one time (three or four times a year, at least), it is fairly rare when all three are in one place at one time. Since this was one, Monday evening, here is the 'capture,' with the two grand kids.

To be sure no one is left out of this post, here are Nancy and Larry, a bit later...

On Wednesday. Arrion decided it was Silver Dollar City day, even though the weather was really hot, all week. We had decided earlier that Kaylee would prefer to go to the city parks, swing, etc. with Grandma and Grandpa rather than 'slow down' Arrion and Alex at SDC. Well, come Wed morn, it was rainy. Plans were carried out, anyway. Here is Alex in his smurf outfit on one of the rides.

Actually, it only rained a bit... and it was hot and humid, Arrion said, but attendance was WAY down, so there were no lines, but all the rides were working. They stayed all day, and had a great time... in spite of the faces they made, here, at the jail!

Later in the week, we went to Grand Country Buffett for brunch and then played indoor mini-golf - here is one photo.

Another day, when Arrion had a webinar and a conference call to handle, Nancy and I took the kids to the all morning "Amazing Pets" show, in this same Grand Country complex. Lots of fun for the kids... it went very well. It is nice to be able to do more and different things as they are getting older.

Arrion, Alex and Kaylee headed back to Austin, on Saturday, and ended up driving all the way. That was nice. Ben had been in Canada, all week, fishing with his Dad. He returned Saturday night... and was to leave on a business trip to Japan on Sunday... ah, young folks!  ;-)

I'll post some other photos of the ten day a little later on... enjoy!

The Pine Tree came tumbling down

The Pine Tree came tumbling down

Well, my birthday and the 4th of July have come and gone. Now, the day after, the 'back yard construction' has finally begun. We have lived with the 'stakes in back' for a few months now. And, the story that a maintenance line was going to be dug from the south to the north through our back yard at the cabin.

Well, early this morning, the excavation machine, part 1, came through to 'clear the way' - removing anything in the path of the the 'digger' to come later. Here, the machine appeared to be stripping the branches from the side of the big pine tree, next door north.

Wrong, the whole tree was going... going... gone.

And, pummeled into 'nothing!'

Then, on down the line, to repeat the rape and plunder.

Our back yard, after the final pass...

And, off to the south - past Allison's house in the other development, and to the top of the hill, where the new development is going in... and needs to connect to the Taney County sewer system, on the north edge of our development.

On a more pleasant note - more red flowers blooming, in the front of the house, behind the 'little' holly.

It was another very hot day!  ;-)