Sunday, April 29, 2007

Buescher State Park

On Dan's blog you can read about our first camping trip which was to Inks Lake State Park.

It was a 'one-nighter' but a great introduction to camping in general as well as camping with dogs!

On our second adventure into the world of camping we had an even better time tackling more daunting challenges such as breakfast!

I am proud to say that we had bacon, pancakes, fresh brewed coffee and fruit. Last time we had cut fruit and a danish from the store that we attempted to heat over some hot coals.

Here you can see me posing with Reese and AJ next to the elusive double-head, banded 'line-marker'. This amazing display of color was caught on camera by Mr. Dan Perkins. Not often are these beauties found in the wild! An amazing experience I assure you!

Our first day was spent setting up camp and feeding ourselves before it got too dark. The camp ground was full of cyclists and the spandex clad dudes were impressed with Dan's Guru that he brought to ride on Sunday morning.

Picture this: Dan sitting in a chair cleaning his bike drive train (happy Dan), Reese & AJ snoozing on the tent 'patio' (happy dogs), and your's truly simmering up some sauerkraut & bratwurst in a pot of Shiner Blonde (happy tummy!). Fresh corn on the cob was soaked in Shiner as well and grilled up nicely over the fiery hot coals. I nearly forgot the hot german potato salad! E-YUM!

Needless to say our after dinner walk with the boys was followed closely with S'mores and bedtime.

Wildlife we saw (aside from the double-head, banded 'line marker' that is): Lots and lots of butterflies, a huge moth in the shower, a bird flying around like crazy in the bathroom (which I reported to the park staff so they could get her out safely), an overly confident squirrel, a cool little pointy nosed frog, some crazy little inch worms and a juvenile copperhead snake. Did I mention Dan nearly stepped on the thing! I'll let him tell you about that.

My cool little frog dude. He was probably about the size of my thumbprint. One minute he posed for the photo and the next he shot back into the water.


Here are my cool little inch worm friends. They were all over the place. I got to use the super-duper close-up function on the camera to capture these little lovlies. They were just having a grand old time on the slender green vine. Dan had a hoot over how many photos I took of little inch worms along the trail. And flowers. And half-eaten trees. And butterflies. Next time I'll remember to charge the camera battery before we leave...!

You can't see the copperhead very well in the photo but he is in there! The photo was taken with AJ's lead in one hand and the camera in the other. When the snake started back to the trail and lifted his head we decided to skip the 'better shot' and move along.

I'm glad to say that I see many more camping trips in our future :) Snakes and all! Dan and I have some reading to do...!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Eli's Birthday



Almost an entire month later I'm posting just a few of the moments that Dan and I captured at Eli's 1st birthday party. (I wrote this blog entry on 4/29, but post-dated it.) He thoroughly enjoyed that cupcake! Uploading a video was NEW for me tonight. Dan walked me through the steps.


Here are Eli and Ellaiden getting interested in the RC car that Steve, Laura, and the new Perkin Twins sent. Check out the 'Sweet' Spidey in the foreground.


Here is Eli coming up to thank me and Dan for the Rockin' musical instrument set that we got him. What a cutie bug!


Dan just gets such a kick out of the mini-cammo pants. Quick! Where's Eli? Oh, there he is. Elmo was a hit at this party.


To end this lovely weekend John and Darby had the pleasure of having Eli dedicated into Mosaic (their church). What a beautiful cross outside to remind us what Easter weekend is all about.

Monday, April 9, 2007

A Year in Review

A quick recap on the year...Dan and I met in mid-April 2006 and had our first official date May 19th at the South Congress Cafe. It was a lovely evening filled with good food, great conversation, and some light flirting. A second date was certainly in store! Well, the second date begat a third date, a fourth, and well...you know the rest of the story!

June and July held plesant summer Sundays spent listening to music in the park. August held an exciting trip to Chicago for the Accenture Chicago Triathlon over my birthday weekend. Back to school while September and October blurred past.

The first week in November Dan and I visited Steve and Laura (Dan's twin brother) and their twin baby boys (Will and Alex) aren't they sweet! Denver was awesome. Mom and Dad were our guests for Thanksgiving dinner and let me say that Mom and I put on a mean Turkey dinner!







Christmas was spent in Pennsylvania with the family. Missy glowed in her last month of pregnancy. Dan's arrival missed meeting Wendy and her family by one day. We had a great holiday spending time with family. I love the holidays.

Missy went into labor on New Year's Eve. Dan proposed on New Year's Eve and I said, 'Yes!' New Year's was a BIG day for our family! Madison Olivia was born on January 1, 2007 and is a happy, healthy, beautiful little girl. She has very proud and blessed parents. (Way to go Missy and Mike!)

Oma Sherrie & Opa Chuck now have four beautiful grandaughters!

Spring Break 07 was spent with Missy and Madison. I'm not sure we could have taken more photos! What a nice visit but far to short to say the least. It was so nice to be there for Madison's baptism.

Entering the world of Blog

Ok, so I've decided to join the world of Blog and give this a shot. I don't know that much about blogging but I certainly do enjoy keeping up with Dan's family via their blogs. I'm hoping that my family will hop on the bandwagon so I can keep up with those nieces of mine! Next on my to-do list is to learn how to use my IPod...!