Monday, February 16, 2009

Valentine's Day Train Ride

So Bec and I took a train ride from Nashville to Watertown (podunk nowhere) TN. It had a planned murder mystery going on. Well the train was cool. Saw the tent city in Nashville. That's the homeless tent city under the interstates downtown. We did however see some nice country and spent 2 hrs in Watertown eating and shopping antique stores with wallets sewn shut. Fun trip, even if the murder story was simple and the acting, well, eh. Nice way to spend the day.

Sunday, I went to middle of nowhere KY to meet some friends and go birdwatching. Fun day seeing some birds and hanging with some guys I don't see often. Long day though.

In 2 weeks, I'll be dying of heat exhaustion in sunny southwest Mexico. I'm leaving Friday Feb 27 and returning Thursday, March 5. I'm going for a meeting and the local conservation organization is paying. I may have to cover meals, but who cares, I'm going to Chiapas! A couple days of birding trips are built into the meeting, so we should get ample chances to bird watch. We won't get to the best places, but it'll be pretty cool. The main goal is for this meeting, but any chance to bird watch will be taken. Ashame I forgot most of my Spanish from my trip in September!

On a side note, I now have banded 152 different Mourning Doves in the yard since July. You think you see the same 10 birds everyday. Nope. You're wrong!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

John turns 3!

Last Saturday we headed south to celebrate John's 3rd birthday.  The whole family was there, so we had a great time visiting and eating backhoe cake.  We also had Nana's birthday lunch. Here's the photo-documentary of the events: 
Backhoe cake
John and Aunt Bec discussing when John's friends were going to arrive.
Foreman Jay
Big excitement over singing and 3 candles!
Looking left and right to make sure everyone is singing
 
Blowing out the candles, then enjoying cake and ice cream with Uncle B.
 
Hannah eyeing the cake (she's takes after her mommy)
Mark showing where his tongue is and doing a snuffle face for the camera.
Lunch with Uncle Scott (who feeds a little slower than Mark would have liked.)
John loves Hannah and wanted to help her play with the matchbox cars.
Riding together on the John Deere scooter.  John decided that H was too big for him to hold.

The family.  And, yes, we realize that not everyone is looking at the camera.  However, this is the shot in which most people are facing the camera even if they aren't actually smiling.

This week is relatively quiet for us, mostly school and work.  It's very cold, too.  Hopefully it will warm up by the weekend so we can enjoy some time outside.