turtle whisperer

While camping at Timber-Lee, we visited their Science Center. They have live animals and lots of interesting exhibits. We took the grandies for a tour. Grandson liked handling live snakes in the reptile house. I thought that was cool. Here is our little wild man staring down a painted turtle. Ha! The serene pose works for the photograph, but I know the real child, and what he is capable of. When we went downstairs, all the children were instructed to sit akimbo on a carpet, while the tour guide gave some basic information and handling instructions for the small mammals and birds. Boy is two and-a-half, so he completely ignored the presenter. Instead, when he saw that Poppa was sitting on the carpet, he remembered our game from the day before. That means that he rushes me for a tackle... over and over and over... That's the equivalent to doing one hundred sit-ups!

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Granddaughter did not handle the animals, and for the most part, she refused to be handled by anyone other than her auntie. But every once in a while, she forgot that she decided that she was not supposed to be having fun. Here, she found delight simply by lying flat on the floor.

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Before the week was over, Granddaughter smiled more and more, sometimes laughing and hugging. She is still much more reserved than her big brother, but all things considered, there was a remarkable turn-around in her initial demeanor from last Thursday!

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My daughter made one comment about their time away. She talked about how much she was able to enjoy the vacation with her husband, especially without having to constantly look down and exclaim, "Omigosh! Where are the kids?" I'm glad we could do that for them. It made us real tired, but isn't that what love is about?

I'm IL, You're OK

The grandkids are in Illinois this week from Oklahoma. We took them camping with us this weekend. Just the two little ones. My daughter and son-in-law are should be savoring every minute they spend with just each other.

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Friday night, while walking back towards our campsite, a bonfire behind us cast a shadow of my grandson and me onto this little tent. I liked what I saw, so I stopped briefly to see if I could capture the image.

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But, as I said, the little ones are from out-of-state. They are not used to Mrs. Craver and me, and sometimes the baby cries when we try to pick her up. (If you allow me a moment of transparency, that kind of rejection is heartbreaking for a grandma and grandpa.) There were a few occasions, when they got caught up in the moment, and seemed to be less traumatized by "Poppa and Nanna." I will treasure those times!

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I managed to scrounge up one more vacation day, so that I can spend one more full day with them before they have to return home.

happy campers

A few of our young people attended a week's worth of intensive training to supplement their home education. These are a few of our scientists. As we drove back home from Wisconsin, the incessant download of information kept switching back and forth between the academic experience and social exchanges. I'm glad my daughter had a good time while she was learning. In case it is not obvious already, my daughter is the one in the middle.

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Clear, blue skies made way for brilliant sunlight as the students packed their bags in their respective minivans. I already had my new Pentax in hand, because I had been taking pictures of the trees, so I asked if I could get a shot of these girls together. They lined up on one side of the road, facing the sun. They were squinting at the camera, with cabins and busy-ness behind them. I suggested they take a few steps to the other side of the road. Wanting to avoid silhouetting from the strong backlight, I used an external flash for fill-in.

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I guess they had already traded emails and phone numbers, because presently, they were just engaging in light conversation. Perhaps they had already said their goodbyes. I finished my second cup of coffee, and hopped in the Caravan, ready for two and-a-half hours of cheerful gabbing.

hovercrafts

[click to enlarge]

While camping a couple weekends ago, I found myself alone. Everybody went their own ways to attend certain activities, and I was left with only my camera. I decided that I should visit the nature center and the barn. Their nature center has all kinds of pets and rescued animals that I could photograph.

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I never made it to either. Most of my time was spent walking the path between the archery range, the nature center and our campsite. Surprisingly, I ran into some friends who I knew from ten years ago. Mostly, I meandered, looking for macro shots.

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Laughing to myself, I came up with a new concept for one of these photo-hunt thingies. The new idea is really stupid; that's what makes it funny. More about that on another day.

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Imagine the thrill to capture these shots of dragonflies. The way they look and fly--hovering and darting is mesmerizing. They sat still and let me move up reeeeeal close.

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If you haven't seen it, check out Imac's magnificent turquoise dragonfly. You won't be disappointed.

different is good

There was a time when we local homeschoolers looked like we came from the same cookie-cutter. All the gals wore denim jumpers. I didn't mind that we were associated with that look, but I celebrate a more diverse look today.

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The Craver clan went to the Illinois Christian Home Educators' Family Camp this weekend. I think each of us had lots of fun in our own way. As for me, I came home with a couple nice macro shots, but I especially enjoyed the diversity of people that is being represented in our group. We have a lot of the same interests, in that we are homeschoolers and we are predominately from a theologically conservative strain of Christianity. But it is good to see a little bit of ethnic diversity. There was one mom who had a shawl that looked tie-dyed. I saw her wearing a top that was not the old standard denim "uniform." It was more like a dashiki. She had a dragon tattoo above her ankle, and I thought it was pretty cool. (She kinda reminded me of a certain blogger from Pennsylvania.)

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Generally, I'm not a big fan of tattoos, but I like to see people with different preferences work together for a higher goal, and especially when they can retain their individuality while appreciating others.

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This little boy was not paying attention to the speaker, but preferred to play with pebbles in the dirt. He is biracial. People used to warn me about letting my children get cozy with other skin-types. "What if they decide to marry and have children?" That was their mantra. Well, I happen to think that biracial children have an intriguing look about them and all children are beautiful regardless.

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Hasta later, Friends!

teach a man to fish...

This is what I did with all the extra free time while camping. I went FISHING! It has been said that I am so obsessed with this new hobby that I'll dip a lure if I find a puddle in the middle of a parking lot. It would be more fun if I knew what I was doing, but a bad day of fishing is better than a good day doing just about anything else.

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On his second cast, Brother Greg got this little guy, but that's all we were going to see during the entire expedition.

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There were lots of fish in the lake, but we just couldn't coax them out of the water. We weren't having any luck with lures and night crawlers, so I wondered if there might be any other effective way of winning this contest...

a-camping we will go

We drove a little less than two hours West for an overnight camping excursion. There was no special event, except that four families there knew each other. Three of those families are represented in this top photo.

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It rained a lot just before we got there, but once we arrived, the rain stopped, and we were able to enjoy ourselves outside the whole time. The Craver family did not bring a tent. Instead, we rented cabins. I was told that they had electricity, but I did not know about everything else... They had locks on the doors, an air-conditioner, a coffee-maker, refrigerator and a microwave. Even a little television set (which we left unplugged the whole time)! The bathrooms (separate building) were the cleanest camping facilities I have ever seen.

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I don't mind "roughing-it" once in a while, but this was really nice. Guess what I did with all the time I saved by not having to put tents up and take them down...

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Any guesses?

a chilling memory

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This time last year, a few of us attempted "roughing it" by having a father/son barbecue and then camping out. Sleeping outside. In the snow. Let me tell you that it was rough! So rough in fact, that only two of us were up for the challenge of seeing it through to completion. After dinner and a snowball fight or two, the children were taken to stay with their mothers. Virtually all of our camping compadres disappeared in that process.

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I remember that night clearly. The wind was brutally fierce. The lights from the mini-mall next door relentlessly beamed their harsh lights like x-rays through our tired eyelids. The tarp over our heads was as loud as a jet engine! We toughed it out, and stayed through the frigid night, but did not accumulate any decent sleep time.

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My lunatic friend decided to do it again this year. This time I declined, hoping he would come to his senses, but to him, this is perceived as one of those manly things that must be conquered, rather than a great and useless inconvenience that is easily avoided. He endured another tough campout this year, sans Craver. After he shared a few details from this weekend's sequel, he tried to recruit me for next year!

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Can you guess what time of day that small photo was taken? Try MIDNIGHT!!

campout cravings

Believe it or not, those dreaded mosquitoes did not ruin the weekend campout for me and the rest of the Craver clan. There was a lot of wonder that filled my eyes. Armed with a cheap telescope, and even cheaper binoculars, I made it a point to do some stargazing. When we left the house, I realized that I didn't know where my star chart was. Bummer. But I still managed to catch a mesmerizing view of the Milky Way, a satellite, the Andromeda galaxy, Jupiter and three of its sixteen moons, a few familiar constellations, and at five thirty in the morning, I saw a crescent Venus mimicking our crescent moon. What a blessing that we were able to ogle at the heavens without any fancy gear.

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Oh, look! A llama!

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Just over two hours, it was a relatively short drive. There was no rain, to change our scheduled activities. It was hot enough to swim in the day, and cool enough to sleep at night. The kids had fun feeding the animals and riding the ponies. It was a joy to be with my kids and I especially enjoyed canoeing and archery. Thank-you, thank-you to Mrs. Craver and another friend for all the work they did planning, packing, and cooking. I still can't believe we were able to cram all that stuff in the minivan.

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Say, is that goat really smiling for the camera?

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I had to tease this guy with the laptop. You don't think he was blogging, do you? Naaaah, probably homework.

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These are all my own pictures, for a change.

manly store

What a weekend! I went to S2's soccer game in the rain on Saturday. That was good fun! Afterwards, we visited the brand new Bass Pro Shops/Outdoor World just to look at all the cool manly stuff. We did yard work, and the lawn is nicely edged, and the bushes nicely trimmed. I did a couple of minor repairs. Late at night, I grilled the very best (by accident) hamburger I have ever tasted. It felt good to be a man this weekend!

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Here's the cherry on top: I just learned that my Father's Day gifts came from Bass Pro Shop. Mrs. Craver and D2 went to this new store, a.k.a. Testosterone-ville, and shielded their eyes from all the yucky man-stuff to pick out some nice camping gear for me, because they know that I (for some foolish reason) want to go camping soon. Wasn't that nice of them?

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Image by Write from Karen

indoor camping

(As with most of my pictures, this one is a stunt double. You can easily tell, because the books are too orderly on the shelves and there is a television in the living room. We don't keep a TV on the main floor.)

There is an author who writes for Dads and Homeschoolers. His name is Todd Wilson. Great guy. He is always sending practical tips on being a better husband and dad. He is also outrageously funny.

Let’s see, it was last year around Christmas. One of the ideas I got from his notes of encouragement was to have my kids “camp out” overnight with me in the living room. I thought it would be fun, so I did it. Man, was it ever uncomfortable! The Christmas lights may as well have been flood lamps. I barely slept at all! If I remember correctly, I had to work the next day, too. Big mistake.

So I did it again this year. Yup! ‘Cept this time, we slept inside a tent and I didn’t have work the next day (January 1). It worked out fine.

What do I hope to gain from this? I hope my kids can carry good memories of Dad with them. I hope to be a dad who makes his kids smile, even when he’s not there. Lord knows I make plenty of mistakes. I just want to make sure I’m not always too busy or critical. And if it takes goofy things like indoor camping, well that’s a small price to pay.

Right in the middle of the next cold snap, I’ll get a fire going out back and make s’mores.