Children's Toys -- a headbanger theme

We are empty nesters.

We have been empty nesters for quite a few years. Our youngest child will be 35 this fall.

Our grandchildren all live some distance from us, and because of schedules we are much more likely to visit them than they are to visit us.

I have been retired from teaching for about seven years. I taught first grade for a number of years, but the last several years I had older kids.

Not a lot of toys around our house, so I went looking for the pictures of two summer events from the last few years for some great toy images.  Cousin Camp and Vacation Bible School.

Each summer for quite a few years we have had a camping trip with at least one of our kids and their families. These trips evolved into Cousin Camp, with several of the families coming together in the planning of the event. We always have plenty of  games and toys for the outdoors.

fun with light sticks

lawn checkers

playground toys

simplest toys are often  best

chess game

bubbles



paddle boat

 

Over the last few years we have done Vacation Bible School and guess who has usually been the official photographer. Here also some of the simplest toys are the best.

crayons

parachute games outside

big ball

parachute and big ball inside--it was 100º outside.

hula hoop

sidewalk chalk

 

Pretty good for empty nesters.

Hmmm. I think only one of our headbanger challenge group still has kids at home, so we will see some creative thinking in the submissions this week. You can find their blog links in my sidebar near the top.

Recent Photos--Headbanger Challenge

What is this cat doing?

 

Cats being playful, and this one young, it could be most anything.

 

Stalking?

 Digging?

 What's that?

 Ah! Mousing!!!

 Playing!

 Where'd it go?

 

Lost my toy!

 

For the theme of Pictures taken recently, I present this sequence taken through the window on Sunday.

 

Not sure what the other headbangers are up to yet, but I do know that Tom the Fishing Guy is not displaying fish in his header. That is unusual. Check them out from my sidebar links.

Looking Down

Let me start by telling you about me and looking down.

I. DON'T. DO. LOOKING. DOWN.

Well, the fact is that I do, but let me explain that it is the fact that in order to look down you have to go up that is the problem.

I do go up.

I would not be able to be a hiker if I didn't sometimes go up. Up is where the best hikes are.

~

When I was eight my sister was eighteen and a recent high school graduate. The family tradition was a graduation trip--the whole family. Our trip took us to Chicago, where we had a room on the seventeenth floor of the Conrad Hilton Hotel. Once we got moved in, my Dad took my sister and brother and headed down the hall. Being an obnoxious and curious eight year old, I followed. I think my Mother knew where they were going and had more sense.

Where he was taking them was to the fire escape so that they could look down. I realized what my mother knew already about herself and probably about me--WE. DON'T. DO. LOOKING. DOWN.

~

 

but

 

~

Knowing this, even for the past sixty years I continue to go up--and stand petrified as far from the edge as I can and look down.

Yes. I have, over the years, been to the top of the Washington Monument, the Empire State Building, the Space Needle, the roof of St. Peter's Basilica, the roof of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, and who knows how many other UP places.

~

 

Let me tell you the story of going to the top of the dome of Santa Maria dei Fiori in Florence--the world famous Duomo.

 

I spent a college year at Gonzaga in Florence. Having made many weekend excursions to various parts of Italy, some classmates and I decided to do some local touristy stuff. To get to the cupola at the top you climb a stairway between the outer and inner shells of the dome. It is narrow and steep and winds around the dome to reach the top.

 

As we were going up, others were coming down. That included a small group of Franciscan Friars in their brown habits--one being a very diminutive older (to us) balding (or tonsured?) man whose voice we heard as we came nearer and continued as we went up and they continued down. What was he saying? Well, roughly translated from the Italian which I spoke quite adequately at the time: "If I ever--puff puff--get my hands--puff puff--on the idiot--puff puff--who talked me into--puff puff"...and the rest faded as we moved farther and farther apart.

 

 

 

So, as each opportunity to go UP comes along, I think of that little friar so many years ago, and the fire escape in Chicago, and I go UP  and stand back petrified and look down.

 

~

 sometimes
~

When I was in India in 2000, my group went out to the edge for a group picture.

You can see them here making their way to the edge of the cliff. You can see that they would be looking down on the valley. there they are on the edge.

 

without me.

When we traveled to Russia in 1998, we hiked in the Stolby National Park in Siberia. It is a famous place for rock climbing. I climbed to the top of one of the large boulders and my son or husband took my picture looking down.

They had to do that because otherwise the rest of the family back home would not believe I had done the climb. They know I don't do UP.

 

In fact, when the whole family went to Silverwood Theme Park a few years before that, hubby and I had ridden one of the larger roller coasters. When we regrouped for lunch the kids did not believe me, so we had to ride it again with them as witnesses.

 

In 2010, when we hiked in the Highlands of Scotland, we were climbing some of the Corbetts. The Corbetts are "mountains" that are between 2000 and 3000 feet in elevation. Munros are over 3000 feet. You can see here that we were looking down. Elizabeth is much closer to the edge than I am.





After Scotland we traveled to Wales, where we hiked with Liz and George and looked down on the sea.

 

 

and then to London, where we looked down on the Thames, the Houses of Parliament and the Embankment from the London Eye.



 In Seattle, we have looked down from Seattle's "Big Wheel" and from the Space Needle.

 

This Spring we looked down into the Grand Canyon at Phantom Ranch.

 

And a couple of years ago I looked down the stairway at Maryhill Museum at Sasha and Lisa.

On one of  our first snowshoeing treks we looked down from Nisqually Vista at the snowboarders below the glacier.

 

It was certainly not the only occasion at Mt. Rainier to look down.

White River

Road to Sunrise from Sourdough Ridge Trail.

Busy day at Sunrise.

 

But my favorite picture looking down is this one from a flight from Seattle to Phoenix about twelve or thirteen years ago.

 

 

 

 See if any of the other headbanger members are like me, not wanting to go up, but finding some way to take a picture looking down. Their links are in my sidebar near the top.

 



Silhouette

(I will edit to make some sort of explanation of these images later.)


OK, I am back. I had to get something posted before I headed out this morning or I would have been receiving those, hey Kathy do you know it's Wednesday messages.


This was most fascinating. We saw it along the waterfront in Tacoma when we did the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night Walk last October. (We will be doing that again this coming fall--watch for a chance to sponsor us.)


The only reason I did not use it as my header is that it is not a true silhouette--it looked like one in the thumbnails, but there is too much detail visible to really call it a silhouette. Then again, it is just bizarre enough--maybe I should resume "Odd Shots Mondays".

Winter leaves silhouetted against a cloudy sky.

Not so many leaves at all on a cloudy sky.

For several days this winter this cat sat at the top of the hop poles. I was not sure if he knew how to get down, but one day he was gone and the next he was a couple of poles over, so obviously he was not stuck. Again, a bit too much detail to call it a silhouette.

These ducks on Dumas Bay became my header.

...but it could just as easily have been the eagle flying over.

And of course, I always have my hopyard sunset silhouettes--well, until another month or so when the hops will be covering the trellises.


The others have their posts and headers up before I did get a chance to write. Their links are in my sidebar. Give them a visit.

Shadows

Trillium, I believe, spent, gone to the pod, and there its shadow.

When I go to the Anaheim Convention Center each spring, I always take a picture of the palm trees from the upper floor balconies. Why, I wonder. Don't I already have four or five sets of pictures of this scene? I like the shadows in this one.

We visit our daughters in Arizona once or twice a year. There are always interesting hikes and interesting flora and fauna. And, in this case, interesting spikey shadows.

Our older daughter in Arizona had several vacant lots in her housing development. The housing situation has settled and now there are houses on all of those lots. I was surprised by these shadows across the street.

 

But for my Shadow header, the frog in Shadow Lake (what a coincidence) throws not only his own shadow but the shadows of the rings in the water.

Shadows.

The other headbangers are linked in my sidebar. I am tired. I did a dinner honoring our volunteers this evening. Though it was a simple meal, any time you serve fifty or sixty people it is exhausting. And we must be up for an early doctor appointment tomorrow.  I am glad I remembered the header challenge for this week.

Letting Go

I thought of a number of ideas for letting go, the theme Christine gave us for headers this week.

Ryan immediately wrapped himself in his graduation quilt.

 

A picture on my refrigerator is of my oldest grandson whirling in a toddler's dance--I thought of how my daughter and son-in-law have let him go--then, and now--on his own to college.

The waiter at his graduation dinner asked if he was going to live at home or on campus. There was a lengthy pause as he pondered, then finally responded "I didn't know I had the option."

His university requires freshmen to live on campus, but I think his parents might have made that the only option anyway, as he needed the experience. They knew they had to let him go.

 

I need a visual that will fit into the header space, though, so I thought and thought about what I might let go.

 

So I thought about this:

Let it go.

 



and this is what you get.

Headbangers--a small group of online photo crazy friends who challenge weekly with a theme for their headers. You can find the others from their links in my sidebar.

Any Sport that's not played with a ball



Various members of my family have their chosen sports activities.

 

Chris plays tennis. He and his kids run the Bloomsday race and several others, ski, and do gymnastics. His wife Natasha skis and runs and organizes the ski teams.

 

Aiden is into karate. So is his cousin Benjamin, who also dabbles in soccer, baseball, and basketball.

 

Andy plays football. Maybe I should say he lives football. Karen and her friends run half marathons. Other distances occasionally. Kate does various events in Special Olympics and she rides horses.

 

My son-in-law Greg is an Ironman triathlete. A triathlon includes swimming, bicycling, and running. The Ironman swim is 2.4 miles, followed by a bike segment of 112 miles, and finished off by a marathon run (26.2 miles).

 

Here is Greg in his bicycle segment during his Ironman in Arizona in 2012. It was his third race within one year. He had done the Arizona race the previous year and the race in Coeur d'Alene in between.

The Ironman creates a lot of enthusiasm.

 

Somewhere in the midst of his run. Greg finished the 140.6 miles total distance in approximately twelve and on half hours.

This was the most recent Ironman Greg has run. He has had a couple of knee surgeries that have interrupted his training.

My daughter Karen continues to run. Her most recent half marathon was last month's Race to Robie Creek, which is advertised as the most difficult half marathon in the Northwest since it is mostly uphill.

I know that Tom went fishing for this theme. I wonder what the other headbangers have done with sports played without a ball. Their links are in my sidebar.

Triathlon IS a sport. But can you call that PLAY?