Time goes by so fast Don and I can't believe it. Here is our sweet Lauren at 8 months. Today she stood up grabbed her toy with wheels on it and proceeded to walk across the living room. My oh my! The nice weather is coming so are the walks and new pictures. We are ready to shed the winter/baby pounds. Time to get Lauren outside to show her everything!

Welcome Lauren!!!

On July 15th, 2010 at 12:52pm we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. Lauren Elisabeth entered the world at 9 lbs 2.5 oz and 20.5 in. With reddish-blonde hair and all her cute little fingers and toes she's everything we've been waiting for.

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but I'll just use the photo above for my excuse. Somehow I think we'll be forgiven. Thank you all for your wishes and understanding. We really do appreciate it.

In last night's post I told you that my wife and I went for a nice afternoon walk down at Capitol Lake. It's trail that goes around the lake is a popular spot for people who either like to walk or walk their dogs. (NOTE: we knew right away this was not a dog!) We were about half way around the lake when I stopped dead in my tracks and told my wife "Honey....LOOK." Yep, there is a local woman that happens to (legally) own a somewhat tame Bobcat. I wish I had backed off and taken a shot of her, the Bobcat and her two dogs. The dogs weren't even on leashes. Evidently they've grown up around the cat and are completely comfortable around it. They acted like it was no big deal. There were other dogs that came by that the cat appeared to eye very closely licking it's chops. The owner kept a pretty tight grip on the leash, but I was surprised how long of a leash she used. It was probably fifteen feet long which seems like a lot of lead for an animal that could do the damage this one could. We stopped and talked to the lady for a while. A group of teenagers stopped and took a ton of cell phone pics. A couple of them actually did get to pet it, but she wouldn't let any small kids close. Definitely a beautiful animal, but it sure caught us off guard.

This evening seemed like a good night for pizza, so we headed over to Brewery City Pizza and filled our bellies. Well, my belly is not quite as full as Krise's but you get the idea. After dinner we decided it was too nice out to just go home so we drove to Capitol Lake to take a nice relaxing stroll and watch the sunset. Tomorrow I'm going to show you what else we saw there. It's going to surprise you.

For more weekend reflections click the link below.

One of the interesting buildings at The Evergreen State College here in Olympia. Recently my wife and I took an afternoon stroll around it's campus. Though not something I'd call beautiful, this wall with it's repeating shapes and shadows definitely caught my eye.

Which translated means, all my ducklings. Hi everyone. No we haven't fallen off the face of the earth, and no we don't have a new baby yet either. Krise's due date is still July 13th so that calculates to about 23 days to go. We're getting pretty excited, and she's feeling pretty ready. Also, Happy Father's Day to all the dads. I hope you all had a wonderful day. After opening a couple of very nice gifts we went out for breakfast. Evidently a few thousand others had the same idea but that's okay. I wasn't going to let a little wait bum me out. After breakfast we went to a local park to take a walk. No, I'm not trying to wear my wife out, in fact she's happy walking as long as it's at an easy pace. While we were walking around the lake there were lots of ducks. As you can see in this shot, our oldest daughter talked a few of them into a cell phone photo-op.

Again, Happy Father's Day. I'll do my best to post when I can as well as helping the wife prepare the nest.

As promised, here is another shot from The Bridge of Glass in downtown Tacoma. Take a gander waaaaay down at the far end. See those two light blue objects? The one on the left was yesterday's post.

A beautiful sculpture made even more interesting with the sunlight shining through it. Actually there are two of them and they are call The Crystal Towers. They are the center pieces of The Chihuly Bridge of Glass at The Glass Museum in Tacoma.

You'll have to forgive me for being slightly behind on my posting lately. Not only are we getting closer to "baby day", but as you may have seen in the previous post we have had company. My cousin Robert, his wife Karola & their daughter Marion spent two wonderful days with us. They are gone now, continuing down the Pacific coast before they eventually head back home to Schwandorf, Bayern. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute we spent with them and miss them very much. I guess that's all the more reason to go visit them one day. Here's wishing them safe travels.

What a wonderful day we had today. My cousin Robert, his wife Karola & their daughter Marion are here visiting from Bavaria. I had never met Robert or his family before today. After going out for a large breakfast we set out to show them around. We took them shopping at several local places where they picked up some souvenirs, then to the Tacoma waterfront. Earlier in the day it was cold and rainy, but by the afternoon it was sunny and beautiful out. We headed downtown to The Glass Museum. They really enjoyed seeing all the colorful glass on display. Tomorrow is their last day here, then they head south through Oregon and into California. Let's hope the weather stays nice for at least one more day.

Spotted on a walk recently we thought this Weekend Reflection looked like a painting.

For more Weekend Reflections click the link below.

For this Skywatch Friday I thought I'd share a photo that has a wide enough view to remind you of some of the places I've shown you on here. The lake is Capitol Lake. Recently I showed you another angle looking right back where this shot was taken near the Legislative Building. In the distance to the left you see the 4th Avenue Bridge. I took this shot from underneath it. See that building in the distance to the right? I told you the story of that right here.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. If you'd like to see more Skywatch Friday photos click the link below.

Well, I'm posting this later than I had planned, but tonight was our oldest daughter's last high school concert of this school year. Each concert so far had really been good and tonight was no exception. My favorite was an old Tower of Power hit performed by the jazz band called "What is Hip?" What do you mean you don't remember it?

Another shot taken at The Seymour Conservatory in Tacoma, this area is dedicated to various exotic orchids.

As we do about once every couple of months or so, we headed up to The Seymour Conservatory in Tacoma. Currently they have a wonderful display called Hilltop Artists in Residence. Glass, locally blown is set amongst the plants and flowers. The artists' works are also for sale. In fact when we went on Sunday there weren't many pieces left that were not marked "SOLD". This is one that really caught our eye though.

Today we were up north in Tacoma seeing my Mom, doing some shopping for baby things and just sort of running around. Driving down the road something caught my eye. I had to turn around and look closer. Thankfully we were able to pull into an alley to get this shot.

What the heck??

As those of you who regularly follow along here know, Capitol Lake is one of our favorite places to go on a nice day. It's a great place to walk the dogs, take in some sun and photograph the goings on. I just couldn't pass up a scene like this.

With all the wonderful and historic things to see at the Capitol Campus here in Olympia one sad spot is the former Capitol Campus Conservatory. Built in the 1930's, what was once the home and birthplace for thousands of flowers is now an empty shell destined to someday be demolished. Why you say? Click here for the story.