A hunting we will go....



Kevin and I ran to Palisades right after work yesterday to go mushrooming...but in our hiking through the timber, there are always interesting (i.e. pretty, colorful, delicate, unusual) wild flowers to be found.


After almost 2 hrs of futile hunting:




Continuing....

The weekend for good-byes :o(



Boys will be boys..."Hey, Jesse. I'll give you my red for your orange."




Jesse and his friend since elementary school, Pat




Julie and her brothers (Michael, Tim, Scott)




Julie's family




Julie, Jesse, Renae, Penni, Kevin




Julie, Jesse, Renae




Jesse and Julie asked us if we wanted to put Renae to bed. Of course we did!!!
Good night, Little Peanut.




The two grandpas (with Taylor and Renae)




Julie and Renae standing at the door saying goodbye to Julie's brother and his family. A very hard good bye.





These two pictures are still hard for me to look at without tearing up. Julie is standing at the door, crying and waving good-bye to us....

...and Jesse and Renae are waving good-bye, along with Julie's dad.

We love you guys!

Signs that spring is striving to appear....
Everything seems to be at least two weeks behind in growth.

Kevin and I went into the timber to see if there may be any morel mushrooms, not really expecting to find any. It's late in the season, but it's been too cold this year. Typically, prime mushrooming season is the last 2 wks of April through the first week in May. So far, we've not heard of anyone finding any yet. But below you'll see the early timber plants typical in Iowa.



Dutchman's Britches




Don't know what this is, but it's just trying to unfurl. The actual size of this is about 1 centimeter in diameter. Rather unique




Another timber plant unfurling. The ends look like little worms





A May Apple among all the Umbrellas




The leaves are just coming out






And this, would be Woodpecker Restaurant.

Relaxing with a game of Boggle



Kevin mentally piecing letters together to make words




Julie has a fetish about checking the rules...especially if it ends up being in her favor...not that she's competitive. (I like that about her.)



Later in the week Jesse's friend, Todd came over for an evening. While there, the tornado sirens went off and everyone was to take shelter. So the guys took Jesse's beloved "Seafarers" game and set up in the basement. "The Office" was also on that night, except.....



due to bad weather, all we saw was one long storm report with latest updates from the infamous doplar radar...and of course, it lasted for the duration of "The Office". Someone was really bumming. (Doesn't she look like Pam???)



But the men carried on with "Seafarers". (Kevin won, by the way.)




"Phooey! I'm not afraid of any bad weather. I have people who will protect me."



Jesse and Julie were commissioned in their church a couple of weeks ago.

Jesse, Julie, and Renae came last week for a few days' visit. The time passed painfully fast. We went to Palisades for a nice outing.


Jesse and Kevin checking out the swollen river




Julie and Renae ready to hike on a trail




Above the river



Inside the stone gazebo (see her daddy's dimple?)




Grandma and Renae at the gazebo high up on the trail




Jesse...I like this photo of him



Heading back






This is random....but isn't this absolutely precious?!