Speed Squad Six

8/10/2009

7/29/2009

We wanted to take the kids somewhere new and fun, and since peaches
are the fruit in season right now, we found an orchard right outside
town and made the hour long trek!
The kids had a blast! We will definitely be back as the season change!
Can anyone say, pumpkins?! :-)

7/28/2009

Royal on phone with Robyne

7/05/2009

WHO PUT THAT THERE?

We are lucky to be living a life where scenes like this are completely
par for the course.

there's a Royal bug under our rug

6/28/2009

FIRST ROAD TRIP OF THE SUMMER

So, finally got around to uploading the pictures from our long weekend in Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, there weren't many to choose from, so not a lot of variety here...

Hitting the road, not-so-early Friday morning:

There weren't any good pics of Boris from the visit to the Falls, so here's one from his School Field Day a few days prior to the trip:

The Official Family Visiting Niagara Falls Portrait (our scanner is not working, so it's got pretty bad resolution):

If you've never been to the Falls, you may not know that you can actually walk right into a part of the waterfall. You take an elevator down to the 'Cave of the Winds' (which, these days, is really a concrete tunnel), then walk along the edge of the cliff to a wooden walkway. Following the walkway takes you on a loop through the water. Here's some pics from just before entering the deluge. Royal hated wearing the required raincoat:

And then, after shedding the maddeningly sticky and hot raincoats, here's the happy family post-waterfall:

I wish we had some decent pictures of the Mays (Mandy, Jordan, Bradley & Sammy - friends we stayed with), their amazing Tenenbaum-like house, or Nanny (Christina's 97-yr-old grandmother).

It was a great weekend, the first time since Christmas we had all been able to spend more than a minute hanging out together as a family.

We've got at least two more major road trips planned for the summer, so stay tuned...

6/14/2009

5/30/2009

SOME SPRING SATURDAY

Started by taking the whole Crowd of Speeds (+1 Texan visitor) to see UP...phenomenastic! fantabulous! super! Easily lives up to Pixar's high standards...the 'Life of Carl and Ellie' montage throughout the first 15-20 minutes is worth the admission alone...

Then we drove over to Fort Washington in Prince Georges county, Maryland. Established to protect D.C. from any invaders sailing up the Potomac, it was never involved in any fighting. Pretty cool to walk around, these days.

Boris on some spooky stairs...

Royal...

Spike, some of the defensive diggings & buildings, and the Potomac in the background...

Hella and Spike climbing the hill behind the fort...they got to the top, then rolled most of the way back down...although...

...not without Christina joining them...(yes that's her near the bottom...Hella still halfway up the hill).

5/26/2009

NOT QUICK ENOUGH, I GUESS

Driving home from work at 2:30am last night in pouring down rain...

(Bad lighting + rain + subject & ground of same color = poor image quality)

I should've flipped it over to get a picture of its face, but as being attacked by an animal is one of the top three things that scare the shit outta me, and it was the same size as Royal...I didn't want to touch it...

Wonder what the symbolism of an owl is, and what it might mean to come across a dead one..?

SOMETHING SINISTER ABOUT THAT KITTY..?

BUBBLE-FLY

So, Spike brought home a painting from school the other day. He was showing it to me as he realized for the first time that the butterfly pictured was flying upside-down in relation to the sun and the ground...

We spent some time discussing why it might be doing that, but with no real conclusions drawn.

I was hanging it up in the Kids Gallery (upstairs hall) this morning, when the song Drunken Butterfly by SONIC YOUTH began...we hadn't even discussed that possibility...Spike will be so excited...