"Smith" Cousins

My grandfather Lester Smith had 6 siblings: Grace, Marion, Cosby, Lola, Winnie, and Leota.

I met two cousins in Sherwood, Oregon for a nice day of visiting and sharing. We met at Dan Reber's home. He is the grandson of Lola. Dan has a wonderful old home, and we enjoyed hearing about his squirrel battles :-).



My cousin Cindy is the great granddaughter of Cosby.













This is a picture of Grace ("Toppy") Reber who was the daughter of Lola, and Dan's mother.
I love getting to know my extended family and learning more about their lives!

Date Night

Now this is what I call a date night! We made a quick trip to Ankeny Wildlife Refuge and walked one of the trails. We saw yellow-rumped warblers everywhere.



This male wood duck literally glowed in the evening light!


Even this dilapidated old cat tail from last year looked beautiful in the soft light.
I wonder if this heron sees a fish or a frog...











The trees were loaded with swallows.
The ponds were filled with scaup.











The canada geese were graceful and golden overhead...
This osprey was searching for its dinner.


















It caught a pretty good sized fish!

Such a peaceful evening spent together after a hectic day.

Spending Time With Jesse

I got to babysit Jesse for part of a day, and we had a lot of fun together! We had fun building this contraption, and we read lots of books :-).

Tulip Fields

Megan and I went to the tulip fields near Woodburn, OR with Jesse. He wasn't quite sure what to think.






















As always, the tulips were spectacular!

























































































Jesse loved the old tractors!










Jesse and "Grandma" took a ride on the "cow train." We went through lots of mud and cut a lot of "cookies." It was pretty bumpy but we had fun.

















Megan thought she was pretty funny getting these pictures of me going down this slide with Jesse. He was fine because he was in my lap, but the slide was hard on the bum! Whoever designed this one needs his head examined!



Torture...














I'd do it all again :-)

Uncle Paul is the Greatest!

Billy, Maggie and Drew loved it when Paul took the time to play with them!

Gilbert House Children's Museum

We went to the Gilbert House with the kids the day after our big Easter dinner.















Maggie said her favorite thing to do there was to shop for groceries.













Drew thought it was pretty fun, too.
Megan and Drew are ready for a cruise.

















The "shadow" room was great!

Even grandpas know how to play...








So do moms...
Here are the great hunters!

















This slide wasn't made for adults...


Wild drivers!!!















Swinging with "Papa"...

This was hilarious. Those are supposed to be Megan's lips, by the way.