Plains, Picnics, and Planet of the Apes

Still enjoying some super mild temps for late July!  We've had a couple of days in the triple digits.  But an abundance of lovely weather to get out and about!

carp at the nature center

pretty good sized Egret

7-21-14:  David and I took a morning walk on the trails at the Great Plains Nature Center.  I just love this place.  We never know what nature may surprise us with here!

Can you find an Egret, Osage Orange tree, and Blue Heron?

Red Eared Terrapin

pretty sight on one of the trails

coneflowers in the tallgrass

Dickissel -- sang to us for quite awhile

David heard the above bird for quite awhile before we finally spotted it. Beautiful song!

Hairy Woodpecker

 wanted a better side pose so we could catch that long beak

We don't get to see a Hairy that often.  Lots of Downy's and in the south Ladderbacks.  But it was a treat to see this guy.

Osage Orange, aka Hedgeapple

Early pioneers used to put in Osage Orange trees close together all around their pastures and fields to keep their livestock in and other critters out.  The thorns on branches did the trick fairly well --  and then barbed wire was invented.

Mississippi Kite we think -- 2 of these beauts were scouting out the prairie

can you id these tracks? maybe a muskrat?

Catalpa tree

Andrew and Asher would've loved seeing this --- they're into turtles right now (real and ninja!)

zebra mussels on a prop

Showy or Prairie Milkweed

lots of purple blooms in the prairie grasses 

large grove of these

maybe wild plums

this  Prairie Milkweed (I think) had some huge, fuzzy pods on it

how many shells dya see?

tiny, bitty walking stick

this juvenile scissortail prob would've let me reach out and feed it

snow on the mountain

It was a wonderful morning outdoors in the Plains!

Abby and Heather

Abby and Ryan

Uncle David, Lukas, and Great-Grandpa Mac

I think Abby knows her way around a photo op

Luke loved Uncle David's ipad with the Sibley bird app

takes us a little bit to get into formation for a pic -- except for Heather and Sheila

See?  They were ready

Jen is gathering her camera, too

Abby, Ryan, Luke, and Aunt Sheila

that's Jennifer and David -- behind the cameras

Abby, Ryan, Luke, Sheila, Mac, David, and me

7-22-14:  Ryan and Jen McClintock were in Wichita after a nice 2 week vacay in CA.  We were able to get together with them at Mac's for lunch and a visit!  First time we'd met Lukas and the first time we've seen Abby since she was brand new!  Precious little family!!

Anty attacking Grandpa's nose!

the second Planet of the Apes for date day

7-23-14:  Andrew and Asher left their toy ant, Anty, at the camper after our camping trip.  It found Grandpa!  After he composed himself,  David took me to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  Love those movies!

Mickey Sullivan painted the dome and detailed the inside of Union State Bank Bldg in Ark City, KS

7-26-14  David, Rocky, and I headed out this morning for Springfield, MO to celebrate with newlyweds, Allan and Gala.  Excited to see some of our MO peeps!  Almost right off the bat, we saw our first porcupine in the wild.  It was "sleeping" on the side of the highway, but still.

Then we stopped in Arkansas City, KS to get some pix of the gold dome that Mickey Sullivan painted a few years before he passed away.  Mickey is part of the Sullivan family that I grew up with in Central Christian Church in Texarkana.  He moved to Kansas many years ago and was a pastor in Rock, KS.  His kids are still in Ark City now.

Tho Mickey has passed away, his talent will long be remembered

Coffeyville, KS celebrating Christmas in July at the new Walmart (nicest Walmart ever!)

The happy -- and super mushy -- couple!

Made it to the picnic which was at Lake Springfield.  It was a lovely place to have a get-together!  And our first time at that lake.  Great to see the happy couple!  Rocky was a trooper!  He sat by us and was pretty chilled and loving the attention he got from Sherryl's grandson and other folks there.  He perked right up when it was time to go through the line for our bbq.  He didn't get to go through the line, but he kept his eye on everyone who did!  He was waiting for someone to bring him his sandwich!

Love these peeps -- Sherryl in front, David, me, Allan, and Gala

love, love, love that they had an itinerery for the picnic!

Gala is so organized.  She had an itinerary for the picnic, which included a trivia game w/prizes, a time to eat, a time to visit, and a time for goodbye hugs!  Love it!  And we all got to pick out a pic of the newlyweds that they'd taken in Hawaii -- where they got married.  We chose the one of them sitting on the roots of an African Fig tree!  Couldn't find a pic of me -- I'm guessing we waited too long.

played a trivia game about the newlyweds - I shoulda won when I guessed that Allan would like to retire in Kansas

David rounding up Rocky -- Rocky knew instantly when the bbq was ready!

David especially liked the groom's cake -- guess why

enjoyed seeing Gala's mom, Gene, too!

Wonderful day with some of our favorite friends.

Galena, KS -- a portion of Rt 66

7-27-14:  One thing Allan and Gala did was mix up some of their fave lovesongs on a cd for their guests.  They named it after the Randy Travis song "Deeper than the Holler".  So we jammed to that cd most of the way back to Wichita today.  We stopped to smell the roses along the way home as well.  Drove through a wonderful summer rainshower and learned some "new" Kansas history.

We discovered that this must be where Mater is from

lovely restored Plymouth in Galena 

these pix were snapped for Mac 

The "Village" of Elk Falls boasts being the largest living Ghost Town

interesting history about the first black female school and Prudence Crandall

Pershing/Prairie Gem School House

some of its info

Elk Falls Platt Truss Iron Bridge over the Elk River, was built in 1893 and is on the National Registry of Historic Sites

neither of us knew about this pretty little spot until today - see the raindrops?

Elk River

Elk Falls

I'll bet this has been a swimming hole for many a folk over the decades

just a walking bridge now

you can see the stone underneath on the banks

Moline has Kansas' oldest swinging bridge -- built in 1904

the bridge goes over the Wildcat Creek

tiny piece of Kansas history

prob looks cool when the creek is flowing over the road

worth a look-see if you're going through Moline anyway

Sure enjoyed the beauty of driving through a portion of the Flint Hills and the Eastern KS Ozarks.  Yes, there are a few remnants of the Ozarks in KS! So much green!  We saw a huge herd of what we thought were cattle in the hills.  But as we got closer, we saw they were horses!  Don't think either of us have ever seen so many horses grazing in one spot.  But that's one thing the Flint Hills do well -- provide grazing land.
Got up close and personal to the wind farm as we neared Winfield.  Good dang day!

Wonder what the tooth fairy brought for this, roots and all?

7-28-14:  Went with Brooke to the dentist this morning so she could get some help for a toothache.  Boy did he help!  Pulled the whole thing out!

Take me out to the Ballgame!

7-29-14:  The NBC baseball tourney is going on for the next couple of weeks in Wichita at the Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.  Greg and Linda Sue are avid baseball fans!  They will probably hit at least one or 2 games every day of the tournament.  David enjoys baseball, too.  And I like to knit if I can sit down long enough.  So we joined them tonite for a game.  Loved the company and enjoyed getting started on my next knitting project!  :)  Greg and Linda Sue know every word to every song on the baseball "organ"!  And they taught me when to stretch!!  (7th Inning).  A Kansas team was playing a Puerto Rico team.  The P.R. fans had a great spirit and great music!

VBS finale

who wouldn't  love cotton candy when it's nearly bedtime?

Grandpa and Asher. SALUTE!

8-1-14:  David and I started the month of August off with a date day!  We decided to go to breakfast and a double-header.  No, not the baseball tournament.  But 2 movies back-to-back.  During breakfast we changed our plans a bit and decided to just go see "Get on Up" -- the James Brown movie, and then go home to Rocky for a bit.  Loved the movie!  Very well done. Tonight we went to the A's family night at VBS.  They had a program and finished up the evening with some cotton candy, cookies, and watermelon.  We didn't have any of the goodies ourselves, but enjoyed watching the boys manage their cotton candy!

Looking forward to August fun!  Hoping it's as mild as July was!!

Love to All!


Mr. Brown, Velma, and Ceasar