Think Of It As A Test-Pattern Screen

We are back from our wonderful vacation on North Carolina's Outer Banks and pictures will be forthcoming! Half the pictures are on Michael's work computer currently with him at, you know, work. The other half are sitting waiting for me to lay hands on the card reader so I can get them onto our computer.

In the meantime, here's a wildlife picture from our yard. I noticed a rabbit outside the kitchen window a couple weeks ago and it seemed very wary of something near the cars, so I craned my neck and -- sure enough! -- the rabbit was watching our resident gopher snake glide under the car a few feet away. Now, you might think that the PREDATOR would chase the PREY, but no, this rabbit followed the snake away from the house and under the car and then over to our propane tank to watch it cross the driveway to the other Cima house. Ah, nature! Full of surprises at every turn.

I Was There!

I took most of the pictures at the wedding and related events, so I'm not in very many. But just to prove that I was there, here's a picture that Uncle Bob was kind enough to take of Michael and me. Although you can't quite see it, my necklace was my parting gift from King Salmon. A week or two before we moved, we went to the annual Bristol Bay art show, which was lovely. Michael bought me the necklace, which has two salmon dangling at the end, but hidden behind my lapel in the picture.

More Wedding-Related Pictures

Here are some more photos from Ryan and Carly's wedding weekend. I'll have a couple more posts coming soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this batch!

Michael says this might be his favorite picture of Darcy ever. All the kids wore these shirts to the rehearsal and dinner the night before the wedding.

Darcy and Alfred had a good time at the rehearsal dinner ... they even managed to eat!

The day of the rehearsal was also Carly's 30th birthday, so there was a wee, small cake.

Alfred shows Darcy his fabulous blue watch before the ceremony.

Darcy felt that marching was in order.

Babies Harry, Stephen, and Henry (Hank) shared a bottle moment during the ceremony.

Carly And Ryan Are Married!

Well, we just downloaded 379 pictures from our camera. Not all of them are from Ryan and Carly's wedding, but a lot of them are and I promise not to post all of them over the next few days. I won't even post all pictures of their very cute flower girl. But I'll post some.

We have to start, of course, with the wedding couple themselves, seen here slicing into their dramatic (and delicious) wedding cake.

Here are Darcy and her cousin, Alfred, all dressed up for their roles as flower girl and ring bearer. They both did a great job and will probably get asked to do other weddings. Random strangers will want to have them in their weddings. If you're among that group, please give us at least six to eight weeks notice. Thanks.

Later on, at the reception, they danced up a storm. Darcy was pretty much a perpetual motion machine for two and a half hours. She did dance with a few BOYS (a boy! a boy!), but also insisted on having her various bugs join her on the dance floor.


And, finally, I can't post about a wedding without giving the bride her due. Carly was, as you can see, a beautiful bride. The pictures of her before the wedding with Darcy didn't do her justice, so here's the bride and her ring bearer shortly before the ceremony started. Fun was had by all. Next time you have a glass of something fizzy in your hand, raise a toast to the newlyweds, please!

Darcy, Meet Lizard. Lizard, Meet Darcy.

Darcy, please meet the long-nosed leopard lizard.

Long-nosed leopard lizard, thank you for your patience and trust.

Darcy and I went on a short hike at Teutonia Peak this morning because it was reasonably cool. She insisted on staying "all pink", which is why she was hiking in a dress. Luckily, it was cool enough that a sweater was necessary and her arms were covered from the sun. We happened upon this friendly lizard. She (he?) was remarkably tolerant of Darcy getting close. Her lizard sightings usually last a second or two as the lizard runs as fast as it can for cover.

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

The winds of Cima House have been mighty this year and yesterday was no exception. Thomas the Kite took off with virtually no effort to instant thrills. Of course, last night, we got the flip side of the wind, with the house shaking and loud bangs from something loose outside. But for the kite flying (and the drying of two loads of laundry), the morning winds were most welcome.

Darcy loved holding onto the string while Thomas was flying high.

Unfortunately, she wasn't all that attentive to actually holding on.

But Michael always managed to rescue the runaway kite, so Darcy had more opportunities to fly Thomas. She definitely enjoyed the experience and luckily, we have a pretty tree-free section of yard and reliable winds.

Thomas! The! Tank! Engine!

The morning of the last full day of our visit to Simi Valley was spent riding a life-size Thomas the Tank Engine in Fillmore, CA. They had been advertising the event on PBS and I happened to notice it and actually put two and two together that it was happening during our planned trip to Simi. Luck was with us and Darcy's cousin Alfred was able to go with us -- a good time was had by all! Several different styles of (oh...I have to interupt myself -- there's a coyote loping through the yard! Yay!) historic cars were lined up for the ride. Darcy plopped herself down in this one, which I think reminded her most of Annie and Clarabelle, Thomas's passenger cars. A couple of others were from the 1920s, but this one was a more recent vintage.

Darcy was all giggles through much of the ride. That's not really all that much giggling because the ride, catering as it does to quite-small children, was only 25 minutes long. Michael's Grandmother lives in Fillmore and the train went past her house, but not much further before going back to the depot. We did get to cross a road and see the stopped traffic and go through a tunnel, so it was all good.

Through a fluke conversation, Mimi (Betty) found that a good friend of a good friend is one of the engineers for the historic trains in Fillmore, including the Thomas event, so we got just a little special treatment after our ride was over. Charlie took us up into the engine compartment of the 1960s diesel engine that was doing all the actual work of pulling the train. Alfred sat in the engineer's seat and blew the horn; Darcy was a bit shy of taking a turn. (We'll get all the pics of Alfred to you somehow, D & J!)

Our ride was at 9:50 on a Friday, which we chose in part because it seemed likely to be less crowded than a weekend day. Our train was much less than half full and even with that, there was a bit of chaos afterwards, as the next train was fuller, so many more kids were milling around. Charlie told us that all of Saturday's rides were completely booked and that the previous three-day weekend, they had 17,000 passengers!! That's a whole lot of toddlers in one place at one time! Glad we missed the worst of it.

Among other things, bigger crowds would have made it impossible for Darcy to have played at the train tables they had set up in multiple tents. She had a lot of fun with the different types of tracks -- who knew there were so many options for Thomas trains -- even Duplo/Lego has a set! It explains why they are the corporate sponsor of the Thomas shows on PBS, though.

And, finally, Darcy consented to a picture of Thomas instead of more play. Charlie, our personal connection, is holding her in front of the almost completely decorative Thomas. Darcy returned home with some new Thomas gear, including a kite. This morning, we held the first Cima House Kite Flying Event, with great success. Photos will follow soon.