I sometimes like to capture the view from my drone before I take off…

The random setting it down and random nature of what it looks at sometimes makes for a nice picture.  Other times, not so much.  This was a case of a good one.  It’s nice to have full manual control of the settings so I can do things like capture the starburst sunlight.

Face to face with Lions in Australia!

I had the amazing chance to be face to face with these cats at the Melbourne wildlife park… It's hard to describe the experience of feeling their breath on my face and HOW HUGE they are.  Her head was at least twice the size of mine!  So amazing to watch.

Their enclosure was made from just aircraft cable in a wide net cross-cross pattern.  It was almost invisible when you stood right up at it.  She walked right up to it, sniffed me, let out a puff of air with a grunt and walked back to where she was.  Time stood still for that moment as it was just her and me, our faces inches apart. Awesome creatures of God's creation for sure and a great experience!

RetroBlog 2007-07-20

Along the way, Julie found this cool tiny six-spotted tiger beetle

You can see her here, carrying it in her hot little hands. I love her and her love for critters!  She's so cute too.  

The upper right inset is her bug after we got it home.  the lower right is a shot we found when looking up what it was.  

Julie, Zoe and I enjoyed an Easter afternoon walk through the Sugarcreek trails :)

 

The highlight of our Easter dinner at my mom’s! Hahahaha.

At least for Johnny and me!

You can take a look around our neighborhood…

I enjoy playing around with these sphere photos.  If you follow the link, you can take spin around and zoom in and out of our little wedge of the world.  You can play with the settings and view it several different ways if you'd like.

The world's biggest drone photo and video sharing platform skypixel.com

Circling the great divide…

Back in 2007, I got to take a trip to Australia.  It was supposed to be about 18 hours from LAX to Melbourne.  We ended up getting diverted due to traffic conditions so we circled the great divide for a couple hours.

Eventually, we ran low on fuel so had to land in Sydney, refuel, and go back to circling.  At least I got this (not great) shot of the Sydney Opera House. :)

RetroBlog 2007-07-20

The first mow of the season a week ago.

 It’s always pretty and relaxing, but does keep me busy keeping up with it!  Good thing I have neighbors to help when I travel!

There’s never a dull moment at work…

 After a recent task force, the team I was on met for a virtual escape room.  It was actually pretty fun and saved us from a couple hours of work in the middle of the day.  I like that none of us take ourselves too seriously.  I fit right in!

Of course, Andy wouldn’t go to sleep without a little light reading first…

Here he's catching up on the stories he imagined in the phone book…?

RetroBlog 2007-07-14

The good ole days…

It was always fun to have a day full of activities with family out in the sun.  It wore us all out, we would collapse in the hotel with smiles on our hearts.  The boys were so cute as we tucked them into bed.  One for each of us, Julie and me❣️

RetroBlog 2007-07-14

Can someone pass me the cheese?!

 Johnny and Savannah has some spare cheese so they gave me a block of it… hahahahaha!

This isn’t even ALL the coffee makers in Johny’s house!

The French Press didn't make it into the scene!  They take coffee even more seriously than I do other there!  Love it!  He made me a really good cup for our brunch too!

Johnny and I get coffee, breakfast, or lunch every other Friday or so.

THIS time, he told me to come over, breakfast was SERVED!  He'd made up a nice keto friendly breakfast burrito to each of us.  It was awesome.  We enjoy catching up and usually laughing about something too❣️

He told me something this past weekend, while I was leaving Christopher's wedding, that really touched me… He said that when he sees me, he's proud.  He looks at me as the model he wants to be.  He sees my passions for my God, family, life, hobbies, my work, etc.  He said I live them and do them right.  I thought that was an awfully nice thing to say!

My uncle Ralph was always up for a good clowning around.

I miss him!  He was always fun for us and for the kids.  He always has something up his sleeve.  I learned a lot from watching him on our trips.  He's the one that introduced me to concealed carry too.  I remember him letting me shoot his NAA revolver out back of my grandpa's.  He bet me a lunch that I couldn't hit the target.  I got a free lunch that day… ;) I still carry that same gun as my backup.

RetroBlog 2007-07-14