A Secret Mission at The Creek

A couple of weeks ago, we headed to our neighborhood creek.

The boys and Annie needed to get out of the house on a Saturday morning.

And I had a secret project in mind.

Are you following along?

Here we go, we've arrived!!

I brought my nieces here last time they visited, and they left covered in mud.

The boys explored a little.

And despite the temperature, Annie ended up in the water.
Crazy dog!

Our mission at the creek? To gather rocks.

I'll tell you why tomorrow.

There are lots of rocks at the creek.

Why do you think we were gathering rocks?
Do you take your children to a creek?

The Green Shirt & A Louisiana Tiger

On our Baton Rouge trip, I took the boys to the LSU campus to see Mike the Tiger.

GiGi, my GPS unit, didn't fail me.

We found it.

And met Mike.

He's only two years old and still growing.

He has a really nice setup on the LSU campus.

In just about every single photo from this trip, Remy is wearing the same shirt.
The same green shirt.
I don't know why this child doesn't like to change clothes.

Here the boys are dressed up nice for the funeral...and yes, Remy has the same green shirt on under his button-down.

Unbelievable.

I finally had to institute
Operation Hold-Him-Down-And-Change-His-Clothes.

Don't even get me started on the year he wore his clothes backwards.
Every single damn day.


What about you?
Do your child have weird clothing habits?
Have you ever met an impressive college mascot like Mike the Tiger?

U.S.S. Kidd; The Destroyers meet The Destroyer

While in Baton Rouge, I decided to take the boys to visit a historic site
that I visited as a child.

In other words, I took my destroyers to see The WWII Destroyer,
The U.S.S. Kidd.

The USS Kidd is a WWII destroyer ship that was launched in 1943
and saw plenty of action in WWII and the Korean War.

It also saw plenty of action while we were on it.
Trust me.
You'll see.

It was never modernized, and is the only destroyer to maintain her WWII appearance.
She has been restored though and in 1997 her torpedo tubes were re-loaded.

I need my tubes unloaded.
Wait, that doesn't sound right.
Tied?

The Kidd's special mooring in the Mississippi River
is designed to cope with the annual change
in river depth, which can be up to forty feet;
so for half the year she floats in the river,
the other half of the year she is dry-docked out of the water.

"Dry-docked" sounds so unpleasant.

Of everything we saw on board this ship, my boys enjoyed all the guns the most.

Of course.

Because boys love guns.
My boys love guns.
It can't be helped.
Even when moms try.

Listen, if the ship was broken after we left...it wasn't our fault.

We didn't do it.

The boys thought it was fun to go deep down into the bowels of the ship,
several levels down...with steep staircases...

and tiny corridors.
They dared me to follow.
So of course I did everything they did.
I have to stand up for women-kind everywhere.
You'll be relieved to know I did my part.

We all agreed we'd want the top bunk...in case they all collapsed.
We're optimistic folks, aren't we?

And we agreed we want to be officers,
because they had quarters up on the higher levels...with less neighbors.

Again, more guns.
They're like magnets for boys.

And apparently, the bigger the better.

I could totally be captain.
I have a great sense of direction...most of the time.
They have GPS on these things, right?
Right?

As long as these hooligans are my crew, what could possibly go wrong?!

Hey, I have a control panel just like this in my home!!

I knew I had a target on my back.
Hey, Target.
I need to go to Tar-Jay this week.

Here was the biggest gun of all.
The boys got to go inside of it.
It took 17 men to operate this one.

And here's where I we got loopy.
I think because when you're on a ship you get seasick from all the motion,
and we hadn't had enough fruit while at sea so we got scurvy.

And that's when Remy turned on Donny...and shot him!!

We left feeling very patriotic.

Have you ever been to Baton Rouge?
Have you ever been on a U. S. naval ship?
Or any kind of BIG ship?
A cruise?
A catamaran?
A canoe?
A raft?

They will haunt me in my sleep

Just a reminder about my giveaway.
It's good. Go HERE for more details.
It ends Friday night.

* * *

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
I have more photos of animals from our trip to the pumpkin farm.

You remember the swollen-nanny goat and the goat that looked down on me
from yesterday's post, right?

Well, I did get some normal photos of normal looking animals...
and a few photos that will haunt me in my sleep.

Let's start with the normal.
A good ole Texas Longhorn, can't go wrong with that.

These goats look peaceful...they're on the ground (not up high) and don't look swollen...

And, look, a sheep!
It apparently couldn't decide which color it wanted to be,
but I like the color scheme.

Now, I don't know about you, but here's where things get a little weird.
This donkey looks a little shifty to me.
It's giving me a look.
Listen, I paid my bookie, I swear.

Good lord, what's going on here?!
That goat looks like it wants to eat the rooster.
I bet it'd taste like chicken...
get it?
taste like chicken!
hehehe
I crack myself up.

That rooster makes a nice photo, right?
I caught him making his cock-a-doodle-do noise.

A close up wouldn't hurt, right?
He's a little freaky up close...look at those beady eyes and that Mohawk.

Oh, good lord.
This is the shot that had me peeing in my pants.
The stuff of nightmares, people.

AHHHHH!!!!!


Ok, I can't leave the post with that thing staring at me.
Here are my sweet boys...

And a sweet, non-creepy animal in my bed, cuddling with my little one.

Ahh, that's much better.

I can move on now.

Today is the day for a big change!