Grandkids visited Wed pm thru Sat

Grandkids visited Wed pm thru Sat

Beautiful weather as Arrion, Ben, Alex and Kaylee arrived from Springfield, IL, for last half of their Spring Break with us here at the cabin. This is mostly to share a few photos, some by Arrion, some by me.

We'll start off with a 'typical' Kaylee photo - sitting in Grandma's big chair, playing on the iPad!  ;-)

Alex, with his new 3DS handheld game, showing it to Grandma:

Kaylee with Allison in the back seat of the Van, going for a ride and dinner:

Alex and Allison.... .... ... .... 

We drove all the way down Highway 76 to see the tornado damage... and not... then to Bob Evans for our meal:

I usually get left out of these, but today, taking a photo of myself worked - not too bad!  ;-)

We went to the John Denver Tribute show with James Garrett, Randy Plummer and the rest of the band.

I got out the train for a bit. Here we are, playing with it [see also: http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2012/03/treasure-chest-thursday-alex-and-train.html]:

Alex playing Wii Animal Crossing - it was the favorite game, this visit:

Below, I picked off a few of the photos Arrion took in Springfield: Kaylee in the woods (behind Rathsack's house):

Alex at the Diner with his Route 66 Route Beer bottle:

These next photos are when they visited the Lincoln library site:

Alex is trying to read Abe's notes:

And, finally, a really good photo of Kaylee:

Had a great time during their visit to the cabin; we plan to go to Austin last of week of April, just before Alex's birthday.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Leap Day Tornado and More

Leap Day Tornado and More

Well, we had a tornado pass through Branson, right down The Strip, about 1:30 am on Leap Day, February 29, 2012.

We only got a bit of rain from the system going through, and the following day was 70 and sunny, as the folks who had tornado damage began the cleanup and recovery process. In the afternoon, Nancy and I took a drive around, and took some photos. I'll share a couple here. More can be seen on my Examiner.com slide shows here, here and here. Probably the signature photo event was the high-rise Hilton Hotel attached to the Conventions Center in downtown Branson next door to Branson Landing. These will be featured in the third article (not yet published as I write this...).

Since I had the camera out and in the car, I captured a couple of new views of local construction projects, for the record and later comparison.

This is the OTC campus from the southeast - a much better point of view. They are digging a lot of rock and moving the rock around. I'm sure it will all make good sense in the long run.  ;-)

Across the US 65 (in the foreground, above), and directly north of the hill I'm on to take the above photo, is another 'pad' being prepared for, I assume, another set of strip shops, like those just beyond this now 'pad.' I haven't read or heard who is doing it, except that South Town is starting to grow, again.

Nancy continues her at home rehab by regularly walking up and down our back deck - since the weather is so nice. At Acute Rehab, they had her walking the 'length of a football field' - 300 feet. Our back deck is 30 feet, so 10 trips equals 300 feet. Sometimes she does 12, 15, or 20 trips, but mostly 10, sometimes twice a day. 

Today, she thought she saw movement in the birdhouse hanging along the back fence. Don't know if it was the wind, or a small bird inside. Would be nice if it were a bird. We'll keep an eye on it.

And, finally, before he died last year, Rex, next door, had mounted a skull on a tree in the woods. It is still there, and stands as a neat reminder of our good friend, Rex. His wife, Lita, has moved to a nursing home in town, and the daughter is suggesting the place will likely be put up for sale in the spring.  [They have shown it once, that I know of.]

Today, March 1, was a very good day - and not just because it was sunny and in the mid-70s!  ;-)