Mother-Daughter Moments

You may have noticed that there aren't a whole lot of Marilyn pictures on the blog. That's what happens when you're the one behind the camera instead of in front of it. Alyssa changed things up a bit when she took the camera this weekend and snapped a few shots. Two of the softball fields we played at had quite a pretty park area, so we took advantage of it with Emma:

I like this next one, although it does have a bit of an escapist look. As in, Emma would run off if she weren't anchored on the spot by her mom!

Being up high in the tree branches was fun for her. Tree comes out as "twee" for her!

Momma & her girl:

Then Alys got creative with the settings on the camera, and came up with this shot:

Pretty creative of her! Considering that it was a long two days, it was still fun and even somewhat relaxing for those of us who don't play softball!

I Spy a....... TREE!

At the Haven, we have 3 very large walnut trees in our backyard. It should count as four though, because the neighbor's walnut tree is so close to the fence that the fence had to be notched to accommodate it. I figure anything I have to pick up after and rake up after counts as being "in" my yard.


A few weeks ago, while we were out of town for softball, we came home to find that one of our trees had a branch broken off during a storm. This particular branch overhung the neighbor's yard (all's fair in love and walnuts!), and he cut it and took care of the downed branch. But it left the tree off balance, so earlier this week, on one of his mornings home, Todd did some serious tree pruning.

We also like to call this Preventative Raking. Anything we cut off now won't need to be raked up later.

Todd marshaled the troops for loading the branches into the old One Ton truck, for hauling off to the EKO compost facility. He also took Cameron on a Demolition Mission. Many years ago, Grandpa had planted some nice rhododendrons under the Kitchen deck. Unfortunately the Rhodies didn't grow well, and have been seriously misshapen. One by one we've pulled them out, and there was one left. Until now. Todd slapped a chain around it, and Cameron had his first experience behind the wheel of the One Ton to pull it out for good. We are formulating plans for changing the landscaping there, and will keep you posted.

These pictures of the kids are from that morning. (They have learned to smile for mom & the silly camera!)