Happy Birthday Josh! Happy Father's Day!

It is hard to believe that this little stinker is 16 today. From the day he was born, Josh was the most quiet and best kid… still is. His mom (my sister), Josh and myself took an eight hour drive to visit another niece. Not once, and I repeat, not once did Josh say, “Are we there yet?”  Josh was about nine, maybe. I can’t remember, but the age where it would be so typical to hear, “Are we there yet?” or any kind of whining. But not one whine out of him. I’m serious. We stopped at some antique store—Ruth and I browsing our little hearts out, Josh following. He picked up an item and asked his mom, “Can I have this?” She said, “No.” He put it back and didn’t say a word. I was dumbfounded. What? No tantrum? No pleading? No begging? I kid you not. I waited the entire trip for him to whine about something and he didn’t… not until I pushed his button. So that was my fault. The kid loved to run, so anytime we stopped at a rest area, Josh would just run around. One time, for fun, I shouted, “Run, Forest, run.” He gave me a stern look and in the same tone said, “My name’s not Forest.” The was the extent of his sass. The trip was quite unforgettable, especially for Forest… err, I mean, Josh. I sang most of the way… trying to get Josh to sing along with me. It didn’t work. I told you he was quiet. He later nicknamed me LLL (Loud Loony Lynn). Josh, you’re adorable and I hope you have the best 16^th birthday!

And to all the father’s out there…

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Frogs Singing

Dear Mom,

Yesterday evening we ate outside. The frogs are in mating season and their singing is nearly deafening. I love the sound though. We started looking around the pond and we were amazed at the number of frogs strutting their stuff. What was more amazing - they didn't jump away when I photographed them. These are in the order that I took them, but one of my favorite is the frog showing just his back side.

Can you see the frog in the first picture?

In this picture, notice the ripples of the water. When the frog sings, he vibrates and when he's in the water, the water vibrates too.

I love this shot.

It's hard to see their little heads popping up out of the water.

In the next two shots, I believe they are mating as there are two frogs, one on top of the other.

This little guy I shot from behind and then he turned around for me in the next picture. After that he sang his little heart out, as you'll see in the following picture.

And this fella looked like he had a punk hair do going, but he got a little scared and decided to get behind the rock.

And Mr. Bashful or Mrs. Shy didn't want his/her picture taken so in the last shot, I was in the water barely keeping the camera from getting wet to get a picture of this sweet little thing.

I can't imagine how many frogs are really out there with the kind of noise that is going on... even now in the daylight. Soon we'll have tadpoles--and I mean bazillions of tadpoles. I'll snap some of those pictures when the time comes.