Jenn's new camera

In NJ we are stuck between winter & spring..

2012-02-05T12:13:00.005-05:00

We haven't had much of a winter at all. We had a freaky snow storm in October that dumped a few inches but besides that it's been very mild. Especially considering the very snowy & difficult winter we had last year - check it out! We haven't been able to go sledding this year or even ice skating.

We are kinda in between Spring and Winter honestly. Some days it feels like this

Other days it feels like flowers will be popping up and the grass will be turning green. Sorta like this:

According to the Farmer's Almanac the Northeast will be having experiencing "Above normal temperatures; stormy & wet". Honestly I miss snow days, waiting and watching the skies, hot chocolate when you come in from the cold, watching the dogs and kids have fun in the snow, hanging out in your PJs all day. Come Mother Nature - give us ONE GOOD SNOW STORM before winter is over !

My new farm table

2012-01-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

We needed to replace our kitchen table that was literally on its' last leg. The base of the table including the legs were fine, but the table top needed to be replaced/repaired/repainted/refurbished. Any of of those would do. I fell in LOVE with farm tables during our visit to Amish country

But unfortunately the Amish like money. Lots and lots of money which mean lots and lots of money for their "handcrafted" farm tables. So I spent a good part of the year looking on Etsy, Ebay, Craiglist, Google, etc for used farm tables. None of them I found seemed to tickle my fancy or were too expensive or not the right color. Then out of no where I saw a listed on Craigslist for a reclaimed lumber source just 20 minutes from my house. Woo Hoo! I proceeded to bring in pictures (lots of pictures) of what I wanted. They were able to provide just the table top so we could still use the base and legs of our existing table. I ordered the table top right before New Years and just picked it up today. I SUPER love it. It's exactly what I wanted. The wood is pine from a 200 year old farm in upstate New York. It includes nails, holes, scratches, dings, etc. It's definitely not for everyone's taste.

I also purchased new chairs and cushions both from Pier One. I am embarrassed to say that the chairs and cushions cost almost as much as the table top. But since we use this table every day, a few times a day, 365 days a year we needed something sturdy and comfortable.

Like I said previously the base and legs of our old table were not too bad. Just scuffed up and dirty. I then washed down the table with Simple Green and a scotch bright pad. That left a good surface to paint the legs/base. I used a semi gloss paint which provided a nice sheen. I am still debating if I am going to distress the legs or not. I have to see how I feel about them.

This was the old table getting prepped for the paint.

Finished product -- I couldn't be happier. I choose the chairs without seeing the color or shade of the table. I think they look really good. I don't normally have cushions on my kitchen chairs, but thought they would provide a nice pop of color. Again - I choose them blindly and I think they look awesome with the legs of the table.

Finished product with our new mason jar chandelier. I am pretty sure the saw will not be part of the regular kitchen decor. I would be handy slice meat and such but I think we'll put it away in the basement!

Next up.....painting of the living room. Should be relatively easy as we don't have a lot of furniture in there. Then I want to get a new couch or love seat for that room.

Day in NYC

2011-12-23T16:30:00.002-05:00

Myself and 2 other Moms decided to provide some culture to our 11 yr old sons. We took them to see Billy Elliot on Broadway. It was an AMAZING show and all 3 of them loved it. They all seemed to be very interested in the show and it seemed they enjoyed themselves.

We started out the day by going on the ferry

After that we wanted to see the amazing windows at Macys, Lord and Taylors, etc. I liked Macy's the best. It was hard to get good shots as there were SO many people looking at the windows.

NYC as viewed from the ferry terminal in NJ

At the bird feeder this morning....

2011-12-11T08:37:00.001-05:00

Christmas ornaments

2011-12-07T18:09:00.001-05:00

I love unpacking Christmas decorations. I love remembering where, why and how I purchased them. I often wonder a lot about the "why" part. Ever year I let the kids pick out an ornament which I label with their names and the year. I figure that way when they fly the coop and get their own home they can bring a box of Christmas ornaments with them. I love to what their taste in trends throughout the years from sports, to super heroes, to trains, to boats. Cameron is getting "too old" to pick his ornament out according to him. This year I picked him out a really cool pirate boat to remember this was the year he got a sailboat. Reese couldn't stop at one and added 3 to his collection this year --- a hockey player, a nutcracker and a train !

This christmas ball looks blue but it's actually clear - the lights are reflecting

We got this one for Cameron when he was just 5 months old and ate ALOT

My football star

I didn't notice that this ornament had 3 little bears on it. Especially odd since in 1997 we had 1 child

The upper ornament is a very old one and it's a favorite of mine

This was a new one this year from Target for $2!

Random snaps using my iPhone

2011-11-27T07:48:00.001-05:00

View of NYC from the Jersey Side

2011-11-22T17:21:00.001-05:00

Field Trip !

2011-11-12T07:43:00.001-05:00

One of the more stressful things in most parents lives is being the chaperone on a field trip. I am always excited to be asked to accompany the classes. But then the stress of watching 7 fifth graders at the Museum of Natural History gets to me. Luckily I got all 7 of my kids back on the bus without any incidents! It's amazing how we hit ALL four floors of the museum in 3 hours! No wonder they were exhausted on the bus ride home.

Reese checking out the dinosaur bones

It was a foggy foggy morning

2011-11-05T08:34:00.003-04:00

Swans on Pompton Lake

Instead of sun....we got SNOW

2011-11-01T17:42:00.001-04:00

This is what I wish we could have this tomorrow instead of snow

2011-10-28T18:30:00.000-04:00

pretty fall picture

2011-10-24T21:43:00.000-04:00

The start of fall means football!

2011-09-25T19:52:00.001-04:00

Our youngest son, Reese, started football this year. It's a special needs group out of a neighboring town. He just loves it! It's a perfect fit for himand us too. It doesn't require anything more than a pair of sneakers. No daily practice; no expense costs, etc. All the kids score a touchdown; all the kids get to punt, pass and throw the ball. Just good old fun which I was I think it should be.

If anyone wants info on this league pls email me and I will be more than happy to send you in the information!

Day 2 - Summer Vacay- Salem & Glouchester

2011-09-01T11:24:00.007-04:00

Day 1 - summer vacay - Portland ME

2011-08-23T18:32:00.008-04:00

Day 1 started in Portland ME with a little side trip to Freeport to visit the flagship LL Bean store. As you can see from the below pictures it was rainy and a bit rough on the sea so I opted not to bring my nice $hiny expen$ive camera on board. I left it in car and used my iPhone to take these pictures.

Cam and Captain Tom measuring a lobstah ( you have to say it that way in Portland...it's a must!)

What is this on his face? It is a smile? No...i cannot be because he's a teenager and there's absolutely NOTHING to smile about.

Reese geared up and ready to catch some lobstah

Cameron and Reese with our lobstah getting ready to bring them next door for lunch. Get this - $5 for a pound lobstah. Just $5. I wish I had a cooler as I would've brought home hundreds of them and sold them out of my trunk !

Home work is getting absolutely ridiculous if kids need backpacks this big !

7 states+800 miles= our summer vacay

2011-08-18T20:28:00.011-04:00

Our trip - click for a larger view

This year we are saving up for another trip to Beaches Turks and Caicos so we decided to keep our vacay plans smaller than normal. We have been camping a bunch of times and done other things as well.

My ultimate plan was to end up in Bar Harbour, ME but when I checked the distance from our home to Bar Harbour I realized it wouldn't happen. 10 hours in the car is about 9 1 /2 hours too long for me. So I picked a more realistic goal -- Portland ME. Just a mere 5 hours. We got home from camping in Sunday and planned to leave the next day. When looking at the forecast we realized maybe we shouldn't go as the weather didn't look too good. But then decided to go anyway. That's how we roll. So we ended up leaving half a day later than planned.

What is different than most of our vacation plans is that we had no plan. No plan at all. I put our home city into map on my iPad and then plugged in Portland. I then looked at cities along the way that I had wanted to visit. So then I choose Newport RI, Salem MA, Gloucester MA, Freeport ME, Kennenbunkport ME and then Portland. I used Trip Advisor to find recommendations in all cities for things to do, places to stay and places to eat. But I made no reservations at all. I didn't want to have to be a slave to a schedule. The ONE thing I made mandatory (besides no whining, fighting or complaining ) was I was NOT going to eat at any chain restaurants. No Pizza Hut, Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse. No Chili's or Appleby's.

Day 1: Northern NJ to Freeport ME: 343 mi, 6 hours 17 mins. We decided to just head up to Portland first (my original plan to was to stop over in Newport first). But since it was raining and bad weather we decided just to head up to Maine first. I always wanted to stop at the LL Bean flagship store. You know the one with the big shoe in the front it. Even though the boot is HUGE it was hard to find. Since it was raining and Portland is a walking town we headed to Freeport. It's such a charming town. It's mostly dominated by LL Bean but has a bunch of other stores. We ate at Linda Beans' Maine Kitchen which is directly across from the LL Bean Store. We had to eat outside as Cameron "couldn't stand" the smell of fish in the restaurant. It was cold and rainy, but luckily there was an overhang. We found a good priced room at the Comfort Suites which featured a free hot breakfast.

Pros: LL Bean Store is very cool; Linda Bean's restaurant had good food for a good price. Hotel had a pool. I had my first lobster roll.

Cons: I forgot my sneaks at home and my feet were cold in flip flops in the rain; the LL Bean store is HUGE and you can easily get lost. Got to the hotel too late for kids to swim

Day 2: Portland to Gloucester, MA 107 mi, 1 hour 55 mins - Before we hit the road to Portland we stopped at Cabela's to look around since the weather was a bit overcast and drizzly. Again since we had no schedule I wanted to head over the "Old Port" area of Portland. This is where most of the shops are and the wharf area that you can take tours at. This was our first experience with the Visitor's Center. Man...those folks are great! She pointed out to us a few areas to hit and recommended going on a lobster boat. We headed next door to find out about this lobster boat thing and apparently they have a boat leaving in 10 mins and just had a party of 7 cancel. So we changed our parking from hourly to a full day and headed on the "Lucky Catch" Lobster boat. I had NO idea of what to expect nor if this would be a trip we would enjoy. Long story short - IT WAS AWESOME. Probably the highlight of our trip. There were 20 folks or so on boat with the captain and his 2 mates. We sailed out to the bay to start retrieving lobster traps they had set a few days ago. We all got to help bring up the traps, band the lobsters, learn if they were male or female, etc. It was so cool to don the traditional garb and help with the lobsters. I think Cameron even smiled on board. I am not sure, but maybe. We also got a great history lesson about Portland. The best thing ? When we got to port (see I am talking like a sailor already!) we were able to take a lobster for $5 (did you fellow NJers fall over at that price?!) and bring it next door to have steamed for lunch. I have never had better lobster in my life. We then headed to the Observatory. I had a vague idea of where it is and in Cameron's opinion I zig zaged our way there. Probably true but we got to see various areas of Portland. The observatory was just starting a tour when we got there. Again good luck on our part. Definitely worth the money for the tour to learn about the history of the city. After the tour I persuaded the boys to head back to the city area with the idea we would get fudge and ice cream. All 3 of them fell for it! We did actually get fudge, but no ice cream.

It was at this time that the boys (again - all 3 of them) begged to go to a go cart place (this was the ONLY time I did not like the Visitor Center person as it was her recommendation). Like I said to my husband if I had girls I would probably be getting a pedicure, but that's not in the cards. So they went to the go kart place and I sat in the car with my trusty iPad to find a hotel for the night in Gloucester. Not was easy as I anticipated as: Gloucester has NO chain hotels and they didn't have a lot of hotels. I found a room at a hotel that kinda worried me as they had no picture of the hotel on the website. Just a picture of the pool. That usually leads to problems. It was actually not bad at all; very reasonable and had a full kitchen. The Seal Lion Motel was definitely worth it and I came to find out that it was actually a pretty highly rated hotel on Trip Advisor. Again too late for the kids to swim. The town seemed to close early as when we drove around at 8:30 pm not too much was open. I held fast to my "no chain restaurant" rule and ate at a greasy spoon diner where I had an AWESOME dinner . The boys ate across the street at Papa Gino's which I told them was a chain restaurant I thought.

Pros: Great walking city; LOVED our time on the lobster boat. I thoroughly enjoyed the look of disgust from John and Cameron as Reese and I devoured our lobster

Cons: My feet are still cold; Reese has discovered love for lobster. Too late for the kids to swim again

Day 3 Gloucester to Salem MA 19.5 mi, 27 mins. Then Salem to Newport RI 87.9 mi, 1 hour 46 mins

The day before I had called around to book a deep sea fishing trip since Cameron was really keen on doing this. Again if I had girls I may have been making an appointment for a manicure. But that was not in the cards. So we had to be out of the hotel by 6:30 am and at the docks by 7:30 am to board the boat. Again nothing in Gloucester was open at this time so this was the ONLY time I had to resort to a chain restaurant - Dunkin Donuts. We drove around a bit and stopped at the Fishermen's Memorial Statue. We headed to the Yankee Freedom which would be our boat for the next 4 hours. I was so happy for Cameron that he caught 2 fish. He was the first person on the boat to catch a fish and the only person to catch 2 fish. The fishing was difficult since the tide kept pushing the boat around and thus tangling our lines. Even without the tide Reese just tended to tangle ANY pole he touched. We landed back at the dock at 12:30pm. We stopped at a cute little local diner for lunch where Reese and I had lobster rolls and then headed to Salem.

Salem was pretty cool and worth the trip. Our 1st stop was to the visitor's center where they told us about the trail around Salem that takes you past all of the major landmarks. Just follow the red line. The Salem Witch Museum was cool and not too scary. Reese was a bit freaked out about the "witches". We also saw the memorial to those who were killed because they were witches next to 2nd oldest cemetery in the US. We also went to Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery. Reese was pretty excited about this until he walked in. He then decided he was not going thru, then he wanted to go thru, but then he didn't want to go thru, but then he ultimately decided to go thru and enjoyed it. The guy who was really nice and didn't charge us for Reese.

We then decided to head over to Newport RI now so we could have an early start there. We left at 5pm . Since we were on vacay we totally forgot about rush hour and honestly didn't even think we were heading thru Boston. So we hit SO much traffic and learned that my GPS has this traffic avoidance tool. Apparently Garmin really doesn't care if we go thru South Boston which wasn't the best area. So in the traffic I pulled out the iPad and searched for hotels. After a few calls we were able to secure a reservation at a Best Western. Yet again - we arrived too late for the kids to swim. At this point they are both convinced it's a conspiracy. We ate at a local pasta place which had good food.

Pros: Cameron caught 2 fish; Cameron smiled. Reese didn't fall overboard; Reese didn't freak out in Salem. It warmed up and my toes are no longer cold

Cons: The boat tour was 4 hours; We ate at a chain restaurant. The traffic through the bad area of Boston.

Day 4: Final Day: Newport RI. This was my favorite city out of ALL of them. We told the kids they could go swimming in the morning. SO we had a quick breakfast and then headed to the outdoor pool. It was a bit chilly but Reese jumped right in. After the swim we headed to the city. Once you head over the bridge to go to the downtown area it was like you were in a different world. Sailboats were everywhere! It was an amazing site. Again - 1st stop was the visitor's center. They gave us a ton of hints about where to go; where to park for free and what to do. My main focus was mansions. ALL of the mansions. i just couldn't wait. Our 1st stop was the Cliff Walk. I was so excited to talk the 3.5 mile hike next to the mansions and the ocean. Reese had quite a meltdown at this point so we did maybe half the walk before having to give up. We headed to the 10 mile drive which was very nice. You are driving this winding road with mansions on one side and the ocean on the other. We stopped where ever we wanted and loved it. Then we headed back to the main drag in Newport (Thames Street) to get some lunch and walk around. Again - the downtown area is full of cute restaurants, boutiques and antiques. I was actually quite proud that Cameron really wanted to peruse the antique stores. I love that he has an appreciation for old things. He really liked the antique stores here as a lot of the items were nautical.

We then started the long journey home.

If you haven't done a trip like this I would HIGHLY recommend it. I loved the fact that we had schedule; no expectations; no agenda. We set the expectations with the boys that we may not get to each city or we may end up spending more time in a particular city. I was planning to stop at Kennenbunkport but that just never happened. Maybe next time. I also think this trip gave us a GREAT base for further trips. We spent enough time in each city to get a feeling for it's flavor so we can decide if we want to come back again. My opinion is going back to Newport. I would love to spend more time here. My 2nd favorite city is Portland. It has a cool vibe and I would love to spend more time exploring it.

Pictures to come in the next post....

2011 Balloon Festival

2011-07-31T07:19:00.021-04:00

We returned from the Readington Balloon Festival yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful morning and much better than last year which was very foggy. As we were driving to the festival around 5 am in the dark I kept looking for stars hoping that the morning was clear. Thankfully it turned out wonderful. Beside the balloon launch there are a ton of other things to do:

Rock climbing

Red Bull Hang Gliders

Then there were the balloons - so many shapes, colors, sizes . It was actually overwhelming as you didn't know where to look !

Back from another weekend of camping...

2011-07-15T17:02:00.009-04:00

and another night of rain. Not just sprinkles or such. More like monsoons. It was actually no joking matter. We found out the next day that a teenager a few campsites over got struck by lightening. Not directly struck but through the ground. Very scary. What was more scary was the fact that we set up in the rain and had nothing to do afterwards so we went to bed at 8:30 pm. Every 5 mins our youngest kept saying "Mom..I'm not tired". Then our oldest son screamed "Shut up Reese". (You just have to imagine this with the most annoying teenage attitude possible to get the full effect). This was puncuated by my husband snores.

But the next morning we dried out. The sun broke thru the clouds and we hung our wet stuff up to dry.

The view from our campsite.

We decided to take the boys for a little hike to see where a trail went. It was a really nice hike parallel to the river.

Even at 9 am or so there were folks on the river. Here's my attempt at getting the boys to act like bears. I thought of a great idea - let's pretend to be bears to scare the folks on the river. Hilarious right ? It was sort of funny until Reese made his attempt at scaring them by calling out "I am a bear...I am a bear". I am pretty sure the folks on the river were not scared of us at all.

The best part of the hell night of rain -- the river was up like 9 feet over normal! That made for much fun in the river. We decided not to pay the steep price of white water rafting and just plop our huge tube into the river and let the boys play. See how nice they look.

That lasted 2.5 seconds before "king of the tube" commenced. It was fun to watch the "king" get pushed off the tube and go down river very quickly.

I like that the campground advertise their camp store on the river.

Boys will be boys !

Light sticks + modified shutter speed = cool pictures !

A ride around town today....

2011-07-04T13:06:00.011-04:00

I took a quick ride on my beach cruiser bike yesterday to capture a few pictures on 4th of July. Here's what I found:

Old Glory

Beautiful rose - I actually had to hang over someones fence to get this shot.

Our lake is covered with swans. There are so many of them. Most people think of swans and think of beauty, grace, etc. I think nasty, aggressive, mean, etc. They are honestly the most vile birds I have ever met. I am sure I will get tons of grief about that comment but they are really nasty. They will get out of the water and chase you if you have anything that looks like bread. Ask my youngest son who was chased down for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

This was actually the other day - this is a turkey vulture on my neighbors roof. COOL. I love these guys and want them on MY roof around Halloween. I came up with an awesome idea that I presented to my husband. Me: Let's throw raw chicken breasts on our roof to attract them around Halloween. How cool will our house look draped in turkey vultures?? Family: What!??!?!???!

Not only is this a nice picture but it's a picture of my oldest boy with his birthday gift - a new sailboat. Well...not exactly new; just new to us. It's a cool find off Craiglist. SO he got his gift a bit early for his 14th birthday (OMG...how I can be old enough to have a 14 year old son!?)

Finally the camping pictures

2011-06-17T18:35:00.011-04:00

I think I told you previously about the awesome camp site we had. I wasn't lying - it was located right on the Delaware.

Yes...believe it or not...the boys are fighting in this picture. The harmony was short lived, but I was able to snap a quick picture

Our tent - it was weird camping on the river like this. Instead of the normal animal noises you hear we heard different things. We heard large fish jumping up for the bugs, raccoons, possums, etc scurrying around the muddy banks in search of a late night treat.

As you can see the river noises did not bother ANY of the men in my family. They all slept quite soundly. Me...not so much. I was up at 6 am walking around and taking pictures.

John and Cameron dragged back to camp a 17 foot aluminum canoe they found that was quite banged up. It had many holes and took me many hours to convince Cameron that we were NOT bringing it home with us.

That did not stop Cameron & John from pulling it into the water and paddling across the mighty Delaware. Actually I think they "sticked" around the river as they had no paddles. Just sticks. They made it back & forth without too many issues. The main issue was getting pushed 10 miles downstream. I kid..it was more like a mile.

Our campsite..

Some of the many downed trees from the flooding they get in this area. Apparently quite a few of the sites are not usable when there's a lot of rain. But the trees are sure fun to try to cross. Cameron had his total concentration on at this point - the water below was disgustingly putrid. Falling into this water would probably lead to a nice round of antibiotics!

Reese trying to get himself out of the "quicksand" that was on the river banks. I am not kidding. One of my shoes was stuck in the quicksand for at least 30 minutes while the men laughed and laughed at me.

I have a fear of.....

2011-06-12T16:20:00.004-04:00

I'll be honest with you - I have lots of fears. You know the normal kind snakes, clowns, and sporks. I am not normally scared of spiders though. I am always the kind of person that will take a spider outside to avoid killing and I have taught my sons the same. There's no need to be afraid of spiders. Snakes are a whole other story. They are terrifying. I am sweating just typing the word.

But back to spiders. We just returned from a great camping trip with my sisters-in-laws or as my son calls them "The Aunts". We had a campsite that was located right on the picturesque Delaware River. In fact at one point we saw a bald eagle fly overhead. It was an amazing site. Not quite as amazing as John and Cameron trying to paddle across the Delaware in a 17 foot metal canoe they found washed ashore. What is more amazing is the fact that the canoe had several holes in it and that they were using sticks as paddles. As The Aunts and I watched them get washed down river I wondered if John filled up my car with gas as it was going to take me forever to find them and get back to the campsite. But amazingly they survived and got back to camp.

Ok... I got off track again. Back to the spiders. Like I said I don't mind them. I have a healthy respect for them. One of The Aunts is what I consider an expert in spiders. I mean she can tell you the scientific name, what area of the country you can find them in, what they eat and if they are venomous. Which is more more than I am able to do. I can barely identify the kind to avoid.

We arrived at camp around 8:30 pm on Friday at which time I promptly used the pit toilet. If you are not a camper and have no idea what this is -- consider yourself lucky. But for the fortunate folks that are not familiar with pit toilets they are essentially outhouses. No more explanations needed and I will not provide any further details.

The next morning one of The Aunts who is our spider specialist was telling us that she's never ever ever ever seen a spider as large as the 3 that are seeking refuge in the pit toilet. Of course it was the women's stall that this arachnid has decided to call home. The same toilet I used a few times since our arrival. It was a bit concerning to me that she's never seen a spider this large . I mean I have seen this woman purposely climb under porches, into attics and dark basements to see spiders. Of course I had to venture into to the women's stall to peruse these arachnids at her suggestion. I almost turned back when she described how their eyes shine when you use the flashlight to find them. Really?? They have eyes so big that you can see them? Just how big are these suckers !?

Since this is a photo blog mostly I should've taken a picture, but the ginormous spiders scared the crap out of me. I ran thru the scenario in my mind... take a picture of the monstrous spiders in the dark, smelly, stall. My flash goes off and this causes a total stampede of man-eating spiders. I then scream so loud that the park rangers are dispatched to see what the hell is going on at site # 7. I then smash into the wall of the stall and then knock myself unconscious.

So... that being said I have googled images of spiders to provide you with the most accurate photo I can find of the gigantic spiders. The following picture is NOT for the faint of heart. Seriously ..if you have a heart condition do not scroll down....

OK. Maybe they were not quite this large, but in my mind this is the most accurate description I could find on the Internet.

Up next are photos from our trip !

Jenn

There have been a lot of lasts this summer...

2011-06-06T07:17:00.012-04:00

By lasts I mean the winding down of our time in Cub Scouts. We had our last family campout recently and just finished the last soap box derby. Some of these events are bitter sweet.

But even though this was our last soap box derby there were a couple of first:

1) Father & son race

2) John finally sponsored a car:

3) Reese racing a good friend

4) Cameron sorta smiling

5) Reese a tad bit nervous

:

What we did last weekend......

2011-05-26T07:03:00.005-04:00

Our favorite thing - CAMPING. This time with 90 other fellow cub scout families. Definitely a TON of fun, no rain and lots of smores !

Spring is here!

2011-05-01T19:17:00.010-04:00

Today I decided to take a bike ride over to the Laurelwood Arboretum since it was such a nice day. This is my new bike and my Mother's Day gift to me! I packed up my camera and headed on over.

I had to stop and check out all the turtles on this log. I believe they are painter turtles. Some were quite large. They also seemed to be enjoying the sun.

The Arboretum was just bursting with color and the potential for even more color.

This is a plain old dandelion. Even though it's a weed I think the flowers are beautiful.

One of the many many picturesque sites.

Ferns starting to unroll

Random & miscellaneous things.....

2011-04-23T10:44:00.005-04:00

Spring break in Lancaster, PA

2011-04-07T20:41:00.016-04:00

We just returned from a great trip to Lancaster, PA; otherwise known as Amish Country. It's an odd kind of place. There are major roads that are 4 lanes wide with tractor trailers zooming down them, but then you have a scene like below. You turn to look out your window and see a horse and buggy sitting on the road next to you.

We stayed at the Fullerton Steamboat Hotel which we LOVED. It was clean, had a great staff and very inexpensive. Plus they had coffee in the lobby for the parents and an indoor pool for the kids. I also liked that you could adopt a goldfish while staying there. My youngest son really liked it. They give you little adoption certificate. All for free! The pool was a huge hit as most attractions and stores closed at 5pm as the Amish folks needed to use their horse & buggies to get back home.

We headed to the downtown Lancaster area one rainy morning to hit a few attractions. Once such attraction was the Lancaster Science Factory. When we walked in my older son exclaimed "this is it??". The place was just 1 large room with many exhibits. We were pleasantly surprised that the boys spent 3 hours trying all the exhibits many times. I spent most of the time trying the various exhibits too. My favorite was the earthquake exhibit where you had to retrofit a building to withstand an earthquake. It took my at least 3 tries to get it to work! LOL. I am pretty sure the 7 year old girl next to me got it right on her first try. Cameron spent at least 2 of the 3 hours working on the dam project. It was really difficult to build a dam to hold back the water but also keep monitor the pressure.

Next stop was the Railroad Museum in Strasburg, PA. Again another great location with exceptionally low admission fees. The boys really enjoyed the model railroad section where volunteers showed the guests how to operate the trains. They really enjoyed this room.

Cameron snapped this picture - we got a good laugh over it !

These are 2 of the cutest Amish kids we saw. We took a buggy ride that stopped off at a working dairy farm where we were able to tour the farm. I was very impressed with the amount of cows they had. When we asked our guide who they sold the milk to. He immediately responded with pride - Hershey! He said that over a 1000 farmers in the area sell their milk to Hershey. What also impressed me was just how trained these 2 kids were to sell their goods to visitors. This included astronomically priced horseshoes painted garish colors, pretzels and homemade cookies. Of course they had these 2 adorable kids selling to us. How could you say no ?

This rooster was spotted while we were waiting for our buggy ride. I like him.

Cameron telling our horse to make sure to listen while we were in the buggy. It's honestly a bit frightening at times while in the buggy. You are sitting in this tiny buggy cruising down the road while tractor trailers zoom by at alarming rates. It get your heart pumping away!

While we were cruising a country back road we came upon a field of Clydesdale horses. What surprised us was there was just a little piece of wire holding them in. Now..I was wondering if it was electrified, but Cameron wouldn't confirm that theory. I tried to explain to him that they Amish do not use electricity. Also we both said the horse could just jump over the wire regardless. I guess it's never going to be known for sure.

Oldies but goodies

2011-03-14T17:31:00.009-04:00

I was working on an ancestry project for my oldest son so that got me into scanning some old pictures. I also created a few photo books for the holidays that featured my father in law. I thought I would share a few good pictures.

Before we had kids we took pictures with our cats (Bigfoot & Petey). The most notable thing is that I still have most of the ornaments in this picture.

This was after I cut my waist long hair because I was tired of sitting for my Mom while she brushed my hair. I am pretty sure she was devastated when she saw my self cut. I was more devastated when a few weeks later we were at my grandmother's house in PA and an old man mistook me for a boy!

This is John - he has no idea how old he is, where he is or what year this even is. Typical !

My brother and I during the renovation of our home. I know you are loving that paneling.

This is the best dog in the word. EVER. Her name was Trouble and she was actually the exact opposite of it. My brother and I were latch key kids. My Mom went back to work as a nurse when I was around 10 yrs old. So my brother and I had the enormous responsibility of having to make sure Trouble was in the house when we left to catch the car pool. We had just that one responsibility as back in those days you didn't lock your doors. The problem was that we generally forgot about her. Every time we left her in the unfenced yard she wouldn't budge from the yard. My neighbors were amazed at how good she was. Everyone in the neighborhood knew Trouble. She was never on a leash. She just followed us everywhere we went and when we got sick of her we told her to go home and she did.

This is the WORSE dog in the world - Dukey. He was brother to our next door neighbor's dog Mandy. Dukey was horrible. He was the exact opposite of Trouble. He left our house for days at a time leaving my brother and I totally traumatized only to return with a dead squirrel or rabbit which would cause even more trauma. He was not allowed in the upper part of the house while we were gone as he would search and destroy. He would destroy everything in his path - shoes, utensils, towels, toys, etc. Then my parents started putting him the basement when we left he became more creative in his destruction. He started to add in sheet rock, appliances and doors. I am surprised my parents agreed to get another dog after Dukey.

Hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane!

Jenn

Sunrise and sunset.....

2011-02-21T10:29:00.007-05:00

The morning sun was very odd indeed. It almost looked like a storm was brewing, but it never came. Just a beautiful sight out of the back of my house.. Again I am trying to steer away from pictures of ice, snow, birds, snow, ice and snow. But honestly that's about ALL we have !

Then the sunset was AMAZING. This picture is totally untouched - no processing at all. Well only a little to make it level. I was so excited with the colors that my camera must have been a little tilted. I took way too many pictures of the sunset. Very similar to my addiction of the sunset in Vermont.

Just one little picture of a bird. This guy is very very shy. I have been trying to get a good picture of him for a while, but he seems to sense my camera and flies away. Finally he stood still for just a bit today so I could get a few shots. Now I have to find out exactly what kind of bird he is.

Wishing for warmer days

2011-02-13T09:44:00.016-05:00

I was going to publish another post about snow, birds, ice, maybe more snow. I decided I am just so sick and tired on the weather here in NJ that I would revisit my trip out to Los Angeles (or LA for those in the know!). I remember being totally fascinated with the graffiti found in LA. To me their are works of art. I do not think the majority of the people think like that but I find such beauty in these photos. I wish NJ would embrace graffiti the same way LA does.

To start if off today here's where I wish I was right now - Santa Monica !

LOVE this graffiti on Venice Beach.

I noticed many folks on the beach in Venice Beach. It's part of a movement called Venice Art Walls. Venice Beach actually permits people to do their beautiful wall art on the beach. It's just amazing and it's free !

In this area they graffitti (is this a word!?) EVERYTHING including trees, mail boxes, and garbage cans. I love it !

They even graffiti cars. I told you - those folks in LA are just crazy! The owner of this van wasn't too pleased with me and wanted money for allowing me to take a picture.

Let's all say a prayer for warmer weather!

More birdies

2011-01-27T15:02:00.006-05:00

Some large...some small...some bright and some dark.....

It's so cold out there...

2011-01-25T18:03:00.002-05:00

That even the birds look cold !

What we have been up to lately

2011-01-12T17:28:00.011-05:00

The Northeast has received its' fair share of snow this winter thus far.

We have received from a few inches to a few feet. But the good news

is that our lake is frozen much earlier than normal so we have been doing a lot of ice skating.

Here's my frozen tundra

We have been shooting shot guns at my sister & brother in laws house (Hi Greg & Jackie)

We have been flame throwing. That's nice a phrase I ever thought I would utter but apparently it is now in my vocabulary!

We have been enjoying the beautiful scenery on the lake.

We have been ice skating and ice skating and even more ice skating.

We have been watching Daisy enjoy the ice and snow. She seems to enjoy another thing - freedom !

We have been receiving awards for sports

We visited with family and found some great old pictures of our family dating back many years. This one was taken right in Pompton Lakes !

We've been bird watching

We have been enjoying the snow that fell gently on the trees and stayed there for quite some time.

Ohh...the weather outside is frightful

2010-12-27T10:28:00.024-05:00

As most of you know the East Coast got hit with a pretty powerful storm snow yesterday.

As most of you know meteorologists/weather people aren't always 100 % accurate. Heck they aren't often accurate, but still we went out yesterday morning to buy the boys snow boots. Of course NONE of the boots we have from last year fit anyone! Then we went to the supermarket for bread and milk because that's what you do when a snow storm is coming. Then you gas up your cars even if you just did because that's what you do when a snow storm is coming. Once that was complete we went to Blockbuster to rent some movies because that is what you do when a snow storm is coming. Actually we didn't trust that our power or satellite would still work because the wind gusts were predicted to be almost 50 mph.

Did that stop by boys from going outside last night at 10pm to play in the snow? Of course not.. My favorite snow bunny, Reese, comes in after 30 minutes outside in the frigid weather.

This picture represents the start of the blizzard

This picture represents the end of it this morning at 6am. As you can see my 3 foot retaining wall is covered. It made for fun when we let the dogs out this morning. I guess the excitement of the snow made them forget their surroundings!

This picture represents my front door opening when I thought just maybe my newspaper would be here. For your information it was not, but the newspaper did send me a nice email letting me know it may be delayed and I can read it online should I choose to.

If it was up to me I would have left my car in the driveway until it defrosted but John had other ideas.

I had to force John to wait until 7:30 am before he took the snow blower out. It was sheer torture for him. He gets so much joy in using his snow blower. Also he sure likes his chainsaw!

Reese enjoying how soft the snow was. He said it was just like a bed.

Believe it or not these are 2 Honda Civics!

Nothing like a blizzard to bring out the men and their snow blowers. Where are the women you ask? Sitting in the house, drinking coffee and reading their newspaper online.

View of the frozen lake

Cameron doing his civic duty and snow blowing neighbors' driveways. We actually did get a reverse 9-1-1 call this morning indicating that all scouts should call the police department to volunteer to assist with snow removal for our elderly neighbors. I really dig that. I think it's one of the reasons our small town is awesome.

Oops~ Ground blizzard - they suck !

Looking down our dead-end street onto the lake - a true winter wonderland!

Enjoy some video from last night !

Cookies..cookies and more cookies

2010-12-20T18:44:00.013-05:00

Sunday was Christmas cookie day. Everyone started out very enthusiastic about making cookies, but their dedication waned after about 15 minutes. Instead of making a gingerbread house this year we made giant gingerbread men which was fun since they both got to decorate their own guy.

As soon as Cameron was done he ate his poor gingerbread man.

Reese was very dedicated to putting sprinkles on his guy as you can see!

But he soon followed in his brother's path of destruction.

Poor gingerbread man. He looks so sad.

I was sad too when I took a step back and saw the condition of my kitchen. I really do try to clean as I go when I bake, but when making 200 + cookies it's kind of hard to do so. Plus I have 2 of everything (measuring cups, measuring spoons etc). I use one set for liquids and the other for dry. That works really well; however, more to clean.

Here are some delish pinwheels.

Some cranberry oatmeal delights.

John's favorite - lemon-ginger cookies.

I made a bunch of other kinds too - biscotti, sugar cookies, etc but I was too exhausted to take anymore pictures. I just wanted the cookies DONE.

We still have to make spritz cookies which is really fun. Maybe that will be later this week !

What are you favorite Christmas cookies?

Which cookies do you make every year?

Snowy Vermont...or not

2010-12-06T16:55:00.017-05:00

We just returned from an amazing trip to Vermont. Now..when I think of Vermont I think of skiing and snow. We did neither of those! Partly due to the fact that there was oddly no snow on the ground. Secondly because we do not really ski. I mean I ski but it hardly constitutes skiing. We were hoping to take some snow mobiles out. But again.. no snow. Like my youngest son said " Oh well. Maybe next time"

Here was our home away from home.

Here's the party boy. Obviously he partied so hard he was exhausted. Actually I think it was like 8pm or so!

What's it like to have 6 boys all eat one time? Not as bad as I would've thought.

No fingers were lost in ANY meals.

Reese on the super amazing, extraordinary, fantastic spiral staircase. It was a source of constant amazement the whole time we were in Vermont. They couldn't stop running up and down it, up and down, up and down. Well.. you get the point. I don't think the stair will ever be the same.

Our tour guide was one of the Moms staying with us who travels to Vermont a few times a year. I would've never stopped at this little park . Once you parked and walked a bit into the woods you were treated to this site. Apparently there is a ton of mining equipment 180 feet down in this lake. The mining company was working on mining this beautiful stone and they hit the underground aquifer causing all of their equipment to be submerged under water.

Ahhh... the sunsets. I took WAY too many pictures of the amazing sunset we were treated to on our last evening. I mean probably over 200 pictures were taken by me alone. Here are some of my favorites!

Los Angeles... Part 2 or my favorite part -- the wedding!

2010-11-28T08:56:00.012-05:00

My brother and his new wife got married at an awesome venue in Santa Monica called The Annenberg House. The 5-acre oceanfront site upon which the Annenberg Community Beach House now sits was originally developed during the Gold Coast era of the 1920s by William Randolph Hearst for actress Marion Davies. The Davies estate featured a mansion of 100-plus rooms and an ornate marble swimming pool. As with many Hearst projects, the vision of architect Julia Morgan provided a cohesive grace to the rambling estate. The Beach House was a hot spot on Santa Monica's Gold Coast, with Hearst and Davies entertaining luminaries from the Hollywood set, such as Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and other stars of the day.

Words and pictures cannot express how beautiful the site was. To be able to get married right on the beach with a beautiful sunset is amazing.

Here's the whole wedding party celebrating!

Here's the new Mr and Mrs !

I just love Emily, her style, her enthusiasm! I am really lucky to have her as a sister in law.

My brother and his new father-in-law, Mitchell. Mitchell and I bonded over our love of all animals especially parrots.

My brother & my Mom. Great picture. I think I may blow this picture up and give it my Mom for Christmas.

Back from the sunny west coast

2010-11-05T16:15:00.014-04:00

We just returned from my brother's amazing wedding out in Los Angeles (or LA Baby as my youngest son says). I will post more on that later on. I first wanted to share the sites of Los Angeles. We were lucky enough to get a fully furnished 2 bedroom apartment from my company in Marina del Rey . It was just 2 blocks to the Ocean and it was heaven. We had a lot of fun sightseeing the first few days as my husband nor my Mom had ever been to LA. I have been quite a few times in the past since our Home Office is based there.

That being said I wanted to treat my family to the full "LA" experience which, of course, contains celebrities.

I was told that all celebrities have an umbrella to shade them from the harsh California sun. This celebrity definitely needed it.

This gentleman painted gold including his poor dog told me he was the Six Million Dollar Man. I have my doubts though.

This gentlemen ensured me he was a celebrity. You know "the local kind". I think he may have pulling my leg. But he did have some really cool parrots that were extremely friendly.

Gumby was watching a show on Venice Beach. Oh my - how excited was I to spot the next celebrity !

Then just like that we saw Elvis just walking down the street in Santa Monica. It was crazy. I am not sure why he is accompanied by a witch but I have a feeling it was because he is actually dead. He looked good for being 70 years old or so.

This sculpture isn't a celebrity, but I thought it was kind of odd looking; maybe vulgar? I am not sure the good folks of Beverly Hills would be accepting of this.

I am pretty sure my husband doesn't live on the East Coast, but if he did this would be the exact restaurant he would open up!

Why am I showing you a picture of this ugly car?? I really don't know. This car parked on Rodeo Drive and almost instantly people started taking pictures of it which made me do so too. I think this car is ugly and wouldn't drive it around. But according to the folks at Wikipedia it's a pretty amazing car !

This scene cracked me up. We were on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - you know where they have all the stars of the celebrities and all of the sudden a pack of japanese people descend onto a star. They started going crazy!! Who's star was it? Jackie Chan's!!

I don't know what this is about and I don't think I want to.

Finally - we saw a tremendous amount of people riding bikes. They ride their bikes with dogs in baskets, holding onto huge surfboards, etc. This guy seemed to have everything he needed on his bike. It was quite impressive.

Haunted Halls

2010-10-24T16:03:00.024-04:00

Every year our little school transform into "Haunted Halls". Many parents and teachers work for a long time setting up elaborate decorations for the halls. This years' theme was one of the best - classic haunted house. We had a dining room, kitchen, nursery, dungeon , etc. It was awesome and the talent of our parents is just amazing. Plus the teachers and the 5th grade put on a great show prior to walking thru the halls.

We used dry ice to keep the fog from our fog machine low to the ground. It worked like a charm! But we should we do with the remaining dry ice ? Hmmmmm...

Let's see how we spent Sunday afternoon with friends!

Dry ice+ bottles = FUN !

Just pictures.......Car show

2010-10-17T17:04:00.034-04:00

Our small town had a classic car show today. I really do love looking at older cars and often think I would love to own a classic car, but I think I would miss the modern technology of my newer car. Don't ask me about makes or models . I just shot what I liked. I tried to take pictures from different angles to make it more interesting.

Enough chatting onto the pictures now. BTW this is probably the first time I have ever posted pictures of an event the same day it's held. WOW! I impressed myself.

I love Fall !

2010-10-10T19:13:00.015-04:00

I love the colors of fall. I love the sound of leaves as they crunch and crinkle while you walk thru them. I love a big bonfire on a cool night. I love the smell in the air. But I especially love the colors - oranges, reds, yellows, browns.....

October is the birth month of my youngest son - Reese. This year he had a magic show for his birthday. The magician was soo great with all the kids and they all sat enthralled at the show. Here's Reese assisting by providing his arm to be cut off !

Oh no!

Phew.... It still works!

Reese and I went apple picking with some buddies today.

There were still apples to be found, but you just had to walk around and look for them.

Even the bees could find them !

Scenic Warwick NY. The colors were really nice today, but not as bright as I would've liked.

We also saw big and small pumpkins !

More on Turks & Caicos....

2010-09-18T18:04:00.023-04:00

Beaches Resorts has a relationship with Sesame Street which means you can bump into Ernie, Elmo or 2 girl character whom I have no idea of their names. Reese was never into Sesame Street, but all of the sudden he couldn't get enough and he was determined to get a picture with all of them. We never found Big Bird walking around. Probably because he was like 10 feet tall. Reese couldn't wait for the evening stage show which only lasted 30 minutes-- thank god!

The fire eater was pretty amazing. I have no idea what he was drinking to make flames like this.

Hurricane Earl decided to pay us a visit while we were on the island. Actually it was at least a 100 miles away, but we watched the hotel personnel getting ready for it. They were taking down canopies, stacking chairs and moving tables. We never really got any bad weather; just wind. Not even heavy winds honestly. The hurricane passing by did churn the ocean up and the whole beach was gone part of one day, but we had 6 pools to keep ourselves occupied!

This was the only rain we got and Reese thought it would be an ideal time to play volley ball with an obnoxious German kid that bossed Reese around all the time. Reese didn't seem to mind it and at least he played volleyball in the rain.

The ocean was noticeably rough the day before Earl passed by. In fact I believe at least 3 days were red flagged while we were there.

One of the coolest thing we did at Beaches was going to a "swim-in" movie. They put a huge inflatable screen by the pool and you could hang out and swim while watching a movie. They also offered candy and popcorn to munch on. Very cool !

This was probably our favorite place of all - the pizza place. They made amazing pizzas and breadsticks right by the pool. I am pretty sure we ate enough pizzas to pay for a good portion of our trip! They weren't too bad and they were sorta made from flatbread. But they were delicious.

We happened to be watching the end of the Sesame Street Show and John was asked to perform in the talent show which was coming on right after the Sesame Street Show. Of course, John agreed to be in the show. Who is this person you ask?? Me too! He definitely isn't the type to get up on a stage and lip sync to a Spice Girl song. Can you guess what spice girl he was?

He was Scary Spice. Scary indeed. In case you forgot what Scary Spice looked liked - here's a quick reminder... See the resemblance ? Be the way - John is in the middle.

Our favorite of the 6 pools was this one. Why? I am not sure but I am sure he has something to do with its' proximity to the pizza place.

Celebrities must relax and recuperate from their exhausting shows. Here's Scary Spice after a particularly grueling show.

Here's Scary Spice working on his trade. It's important for singers to constantly practice to become the best they can. That's what we tell Cameron & Reese - practice, practice, practice.

After Scary Spice completed his turn at Guitar Hero the kids were heard saying this as we walked away, "not too bad for an old guy". After that I had to go back to the room as I peed my pants laughing. Not really....well maybe.

A trip to Paradise ~

2010-09-08T21:15:00.009-04:00

We just returned from paradise. I kid you not - it was paradise or as close to it as I will ever see. We travelled to Turks and Caicos . Where is Turks and Caicos you ask? Good question because I honestly wasn't sure even when we were on one of the islands. So here's a snap shot of the Caribbean for us:

Wherever it is - It's amazing! Honestly I have never seen water quite so beautiful in my life and the sand. The sand was fine almost like confectioners sugar. Very fine and very light.

It's fun to build sand castles regardless of your age !

John and Reese on the pier near the resort.

Reese day dreaming about what kind of drink to have next.... Coke, smoothie or juice.

Life is really hard when you are 9 years old and in paradise!

Reese and John swimming in the amazing turquoise water.

Cool picture of Cameron and Reese jumping off the pier into the sand.

It only took 30 minutes and 398 pictures to get 1 decent shot.

Up next...John in a thong, Sesame Street and fire. Stay tuned....it's going to be exciting !

Blog to you soon,

Jenn

Ahhhh...back from paradise

2010-09-04T13:56:00.002-04:00

Now that we are back from this:

It's time for laundry, lawn, grocery shopping, cleaning, reading too many emails, etc!

Blog to you soon with all the details of our awesome vacation to Turks and Caicos !

Jenn

What summer means to me...

2010-08-02T15:07:00.016-04:00

Summer means.... FAMILY !

Summer means.... NATURAL BEAUTY

Summer means....CAMPING

Summer means.....BON FIRES & SMORES

Summer means....GREAT FRIENDS

Summer means...LIVING DANGEROUSLY! LOL

Summer means...CHILLING OUT

Summer means....POOLS, SWIMMING, POOL PARTIES

Summer means...FLOWERS

Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.
-- Kahlil Gibran

Some more camping...

2010-07-18T15:56:00.018-04:00

We were lucky enough to go camping again this weekend. This time with my sisters-in-law. We had sooo much fun and our camp site was one of the best yet. We were besides a gurgling brook at Stokes State Park It was quite warm and humid, but since we were the forest it was a bit cooler. No bear or deer sightings, but we did have a raccoon ramble on by around 11pm one night. He looked at us like we were in his home ! He was walked on thru at that point. I think he may have returned later on the evening to wash his paws after ransacking some garbage around the park. I found my unscented wipes on the ground in the morning with very suspicious paw prints !

We purchased table at a garage sale on the way to the campsite! It folds us to the size of a large briefcase. Very cool !

Breakfast of champions !

Reese whittling away around the campfire.

Exploring a dry river bed.

My sisters-in-law tent with a great view of the river.

Fun in the river. No computers, ipads, DSI or phones and amazingly they both had a great time. It's amazing how much fun a river is!

Poof!

On the way home we saw this amazing field of sunflowers. I couldn't resist stopping to take pictures

as did many other people.

It's been awhile...I know

2010-06-27T12:26:00.008-04:00

The end of the school year is hard. There are so many things going on it's hard to find time to have a cup of coffee so blogging got pushed to the side. The good thing is that I am back and I am posting some recent pictures. We have a photo contest at the company I work for and I super excited for it! The theme is nature so I am taking a lot of pictures to see what's my best option to submit. I will post all of them so you can all vote on them. But back to pictures. Here are just a few from around the yard. Enjoy !

Fun times & camping

2010-05-18T18:36:00.010-04:00

We spent last weekend camping with my son's Cub Scout Pack in Rockaway, NJ. It's an annual tradition of food, fun and good times. We had such a great weekend - the weather was perfect, the company was great and the food was delicious! Here's John prepping the 60+ baked potatoes we were serving with our dinner that night.

Here are just a few of our tents.

The best part of camping is usually hanging out around the bonfire in the evening. You have to place your chairs early to get a good spot !

The day before we left for camping it was horribly humid. It was reminiscent of a typical August summer day in NJ - hot and humid. I was dreading the weekend if the weather would continue to be the same. As luck had it the humidity broke and we had spectacular weather. Thank goodness - camping+humidity = horrible hair!

When I was helping to set up one of the activities the boys would participate in I stumbled about this little guy. He was so small and didn't even move. Of course, we were worried he was hurt. So I had dreams of taking him home to be my new pet. As one of my co-campers wondered "can you potty train a deer?". I guess you are wondering about the florescent green bowl next to him. Well...we figured he may need nutrients as his mother just left him in the woods. After a frantic call to a wildlife center we learned a few things about baby deer:

It is fawning season so there are many little deer like this
It's totally normal - the mother gives birth and then goes off to feed. She leaves her little newborn baby to fend for himself. I guess that why it's called nature
You aren't supposed to touch it, go near it or try to feed it milk out of a florescent green bowl (the wildlife center didn't exactly say that last point, but I am pretty sure it was assumed).
The mother will be gone for up to 2 days but she's always nearby and watching you. Spooky!
Get this - he's probably only a few hours old. It was such an awesome experience to be able to get this close to him.

Since we going to have 60 + people running around in the same area as this little guy we told all the boys that there was poison ivy in this area and they couldn't go near it. So I sat on a chair to keep watch over my new pet to ensure that no one disturbed him. It turns out that there really was poison ivy where I was sitting. Luckily I seem to be immune to it. Phew !

Here's some pictures of "poison ivy"

2010-04-25T09:06:00.016-04:00

I was looking around my house at some of my houseplants and saw a few that I really liked. So I decided to take some pictures which led me to a road trip. Well..it's not much of a road trip - it was the Laurelwood Arboretum in a nearby town.

This is the first of the arboretum pictures. I just love this plant/bush/tree but have no idea what it was nor could I find any markings about it. If anyone knows the name I would appreciate hearing from you!

This is currently the wallpaper on my iphone. I just love when the buds on trees and flowers start coming out.

I just love this picture. I love the background !

This will be a huge Rhodendrum flower in just a few days.

You may think I purposely cut off the top; however, it was gnarly and not too nice so I opted not to blind you with the ugliness. You can thank me later.

My Mom used to have huge bleeding heart bushes in our backyard. I loved them back then and still do. I will plant bleeding hearts this year.

Even the pine trees looked nice.

Blog to you soon!

Jenn

Spring Break...day 2...... Bushkill Falls, PA

2010-04-11T06:50:00.028-04:00

I know you were all wondering exactly what the heck I was talking about in my last post - the Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania. Well now you know - it's Bushkill Falls! The "Niagara of Pennsylvania", Bushkill Falls is among the Keystone State's most famous scenic attractions. This unique series of eight waterfalls, nestled deep in the wooded Pocono Mountains, is accessible through an excellent network of hiking trails and bridges which afford fabulous views of the falls and the surrounding forest. (just so you know I didn't write those last 2 sentences!).

Anyway - it's just a hop, skip, jump from our area and definitely worth the drive. There are a few different trails that you can follow. We opted to take the red loop. Don't worry about the sign that states it's for "avid" hikers only. It's no big deal honestly. There's no rock scrambling, no steep rocky downhills, etc. They built stairs so it's just a matter of walking up and down many, many, many steps and really cool bridges. I will tell you the exact # of steps later on...

Now I told you I wanted to do the red loop. Why? Because I wanted to get a lot of pictures of the waterfalls. I tried to hide the fact from the family that it was going to be a lot of steps. Somewhere over 1000 steps and under 2000 steps. It was 1529 to be exact. This was the reaction when they found out this information........

"Mom...that's a lot more than 10 steps. Are you serious??"

John telling Cameron "Yes...your Mom is crazy. I had no idea we were going to be hiking this much on spring break either!"

Here's the last picture that speaks a 1000 words.....

"We are really going to do this ? Are you crazy?"

I told them not to worry there would be a surprise at the end of the trail for them !

So away we went climbing up the stairs...

And back down the stairs......

And across the flat trails and bridges....

And then up the stairs again... I think you get the drift by now.

Personally I think the 1529 steps was worth it. I got some amazing pictures and had a ton of fun playing with the shutter setting on my camera. Like this..

Or this....

Here are just some miscellaneous pictures for your general enjoyment !

We both commented that we LOVED the way they used natural materials to make the railings. It's so much nicer than if they had metal handrails.

I told you there was a reward at the end of the trail. We noticed a go kart place across the street from the diner we had lunch at. All 3 boys were excited about this. Reese especially as he was finally old enough to ride a car by himself which made me very very nervous. Let's face it - the kid doesn't have great luck.

Cameron is an old pro so I wasn't worried about him!

But my baby did it without any injuries or damages! Amazing... I guess he is growing up!

Things were learned today:

Bring water when hiking at Bushkill Falls - we forgot ours in the car
Wear sturdy shoes as it is slippery and a bit rocky in some locations.
Bring ear plugs to avoid the complaints from your oldest child

Ahhhh.....Spring Break -- Day 1

2010-04-09T11:29:00.016-04:00

We decided to have a staycation this year. You know...you stay home instead of traveling around. It was actually fun as we went to a few places that we haven't been before. The first day we went to West Point. I actually had been here when I was in Girl Scouts, but it's obviously been a few years. Nobody else in my family has been to West Point. If you live the area it's a must see. There's so much history here. It's just unbelievable. You are walking in the same place the Patton, MacArthur, Grant, Eisenhower, etc have all been. I found it amazing that Edgar Allan Poe went to West Point as well. It was established back in 1802 at the request of George Washington. Another amazing fact - it's the #1 university in the country according to Forbes Magazine. Ready to be blown away ??? The cost is $2200 for the cadet's ENTIRE stay at West Point, but of course they must give back 5 years in the Army. Another thing I found amazing was that the cadet shows up with just the clothes on his back. They don't bring anything at all. The academy provides everything the cadet will need for their 4 year stay.

This was from the chapel we visited. I cannot remember if it was the Catholic chapel or not. The stained glass windows were amazing and my pictures do not it justice at all.

One of the many many statues around the campus. This one overlooks the Hudson River.

I think EVERY parent will be amazed by this next picture. This is approximately 4,000 cadets in formation waiting to the enter the mess hall. ALL 4,000 cadets will be served, fed and finished in 20 minutes. 20 minutes? ? Are you kidding me?! I cannot feed my family of 4 in that amount of time.

Some of the many many cannons around campus. Some of them date back to the 1800s.

A beautiful statue near the Hudson River. At the end of each gun barrel is the name of 2 important America wars. The band around the globe lists the names of the enlisted men that perished.

The amazing patina on the banner of the statue. I loved the color. I am pretty sure our tour guide thought I was a bit odd taking pictures of this instead of the picturesque Hudson River!

It was a bit chilly that day once we got outdoors close to the Hudson. Reese used his military forces to steal his father's jacket.

Unfortunately this is the world we live in now. Even the tour buses that arrived had to be sniffed by dogs for bombs. You had to show your ID again once you went to board the tour bus. They scanned your ID into a little handheld computer to see if your name comes up on any threat lists. Interestingly enough one of our fellow tour people did have his name come up. The military police told him that happens if you have a very common last name like Smith, Jones, etc.

This is the West Point Museum which is free. Very cool place to visit to see some amazing things from our history. Unfortunately 2 wings were closed when we visited so there wasn't a terrible amount of things to see.

It's hard to see the sign in this picture, but trust me it's there. There's a sign about NOT climbing onto the tank. You can see Reese is thinking about climbing on board.

His question to me at this point was "Are you sure you cannot climb on the tank? Where does it say that Mom?"

Things were learned today:

West Point is COOL and full of history
You are unable to just walk around campus post 9-11.
You must bring a photo ID for anyone 16 yrs or older
The only way to tour the actual campus is by utilizing one of the tour companies on site.
West Point is located in the cute little town of Highlands, NY where you can find some great food & shopping.
It's only a 45 minute ride from Northern NJ

Next post.....The Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania!

Another new way to play with pictures

2010-03-28T14:15:00.003-04:00

I love the different mosaics I see on various websites and I was disappointed that Aperture and iPhoto doesn't have this kind of feature. So I was searching and found Posterino . I just 5 minutes I created the below. I am pretty impressed with it and will definitely make more mosaics!

Click for a larger view !

Different kind of pictures

2010-03-15T18:36:00.013-04:00

I have been having a lot of fun with some new apps available for iphones. The apps let you play around with your pictures and make them feel vintage. I am really digging these apps lately. A few of my favorites are: Toy Camera, Color Splash, Mill Camera, TiltShiftGen & CameraBag. It's so fun to make your pictures look like the old pictures we used to take the 70s!

This particular picture is from the free Lego app. You can take any picture and convert it into a lego drawing. My kids found this one and I liked it too much I put it on my iphone too !

Enjoy!

Blog to you soon!

Jenn

Oh the weather outside is frightful.......

2010-02-18T20:44:00.013-05:00

It's very frightful lately. We had a pretty mild December and January in Northern NJ but February has been quite snowy. I love how the snow looks when it just has fallen. Give it a few days and it's brown and yucky. I actually took some of these pictures during the various snow storms. Enjoy !

My most favorite winter site is a snow covered pine tree. Really any conifer will be acceptable!

I went on a hike with my women's group on Saturday and caught these amazing icicles on an old building nearby. Another think I love about winter is the icicles. I wish we had icicles like this on my house ! Icicles is a weird word isn't it? I typed it a few times and it was wrong each time.

Our backyard as viewed from the comfort of my kitchen.

The day after we got all the snow was beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining. Perfect day to make a snowman !

I am pretty sure we aren't using our grill for dinner anytime soon.

I love feeding the birds outside. They especially need food when the ground is covered with snow. I usually go thru about 20 pounds of wild bird seed every week. We get soo many birds at are feeders. Here are just a few of my favorites!

This last bird is a strange variety indeed. I have scoured my resources to find out what species he is. So far I have been able to identify the following characteristics:

He likes most any food you put in front of him
He is extremely loud
He laughs often and sometimes uncontrollably

If anyone can identify this species please email me ASAP !

Blog to you soon!

Jenn

Monster Truck Jam...

2010-02-06T11:06:00.017-05:00

I am definitely more interested in taking pictures of flowers, animals, nature, people, etc. It's always good to branch out in photography. It was challenging since the lighting wasn't the best and it got very smoky towards the end of the show. But we got tickets for the Monster Jam at Izod Center thru the Scouts at a really good price. Since Reese LOVES monster trucks we figured we would go.

What I learned about monster trucks first & foremost - they are noisy. I mean bone chattering noisy. Thankfully we had ear plugs.

Here's a shot of all the cars hanging out prior to the start of the jam.

Click on any picture to view a larger picture.

Oh No! Where's Batman when you need him?? Spiderman took a pretty good fall that resulted in a 15 minute demonstration on how to turn a monster truck back on its' wheels. That's awfully important should my monster truck fall on its' side.

Krazy Train seemed to get a lot of air in his jumps!

The crowd favorite was the Grave Digger. The stadium went crazy when Grave Digger came out!

Blog to you soon!

Jenn

This and that...

2010-01-24T19:44:00.014-05:00

I have really been trying to get pictures of the various birds that visit my bird feeders. But those darn birds are fast! I purposely moved the feeders up closer to our house so I could shoot right from the back door. It's hard to get pictures of birds when you are sitting next to the feeders waiting for them to drop on by for some food! It's working out MUCH better this year except the ugly fence is the background for most of my pictures. But sometimes you get a nice shot of a pretty bird sitting on the ugly fence. We have TONS of cardinals at our feeders. I actually had 4 sitting right next to each other, but I bumped the door and scared 3 away. This guy didn't seem to threatened by me.

We recently installed a beautiful retaining wall around our back patio which I described in all its' glory here. I have used the wall to my advantage for getting blue jays to come a bit closer to me. I don't know much about blue jays except that they are an aggressive bird. I have seen them fly and swoop at my dogs ! So I figured I could entice them with some peanuts. Worked like a charm!

In other news my son's Cub Scout Pack recently held their Pinewood Derby. If you don't know what a Pinewood Derby is you can read about it here. Essentially it's a race that is for the boys, but it's really the Dad's that enjoy it the most ! Anyway our Pack had so many great designs. It's was so fun to see their creativity. It's amazing considering these cars start as a rectangle piece of wood.

Here's my son's car. He was pretty excited about how the color came out. It seems that the hours and hours my son and his Dad spent on the internet looking at designs paid off. First the car was going to be a guitar, then SpongeBob, then a tank, then a truck, etc. Finally they both decided on a good design!

It's been a long time coming, but my husband..oops I mean..my son finally won a race ! His car was the fastest of the Pack! That means he now gets to go to the District event and race his car against Scouts from a bunch of other towns. Should be interesting !

I know Reese looks terribly excited here. I mean can't you see the joy and laughter in his face? He's so estatic about winning that he cannot contain himself. Can you feel the joy ?

This is the true face of my boy. He's always smiling, always happy and always kind.

He lights up a room where ever he goes. Lord knows he's the loudest thing on the planet. Some moments aren't his best and some are definitely his worst. But he's all mine and I sure love him! I am so glad that he got this special time to shine in front of his friends. It's something he truly deserves. He's only 9 years old, but those years haven't been the easiest 9 years for a kid and I am sure the next 9 will get easier and easier for him.

Good Job Reese! Mom and Dad love you !

This was the view from my home office this morning....

2010-01-07T17:04:00.003-05:00

I was reading some emails & saw the most amazing sunrise over the frozen lake. So I grabbed my camera & shot this picture. Click to enlarge.

2009-12-20T14:05:00.016-05:00

The morning started out so peacefully.. The boys were sleeping & I was able to get some great shots of a few birds at our bird feeders. The ground was covered with snow and no one was using their snowblowers yet. Then the boys woke up and......

We decided to go sledding!

My brother had the first sledding failure !

Cameron seemed a bit apprehensive about going down this very steep hill with bushes, trees & rocks on each side.

But warmed up to it really quickly !

Another attempt by my brother.

Cameron deep in thought on the hill...Should I use this sled again or get the toboggan?

Here comes my brother to wake Cameron out of his thoughts !

Direct Hit !

Mr. Snowboard AKA Reese. He is really good on the snowboard & doesn't give up on it. He just keep trying & trying!

What happened this year

2009-12-13T12:52:00.004-05:00

It's about that time of year when everyone is posting their Top 10 List. You know.. top 10 cutest celebrity babies, top 25 celebrity fights, etc. I figured I would use pictures to summarize our year. It was a really good year for the most part. We are fortunate to be able to have a great life with great friends.

See ya later !