Trip to Clayton Lake – Part 2 the Dinosaur Tracks

The main reason we went to Clayton Lake, dinosaur tracks.  This is really something we all need to see.  In my opinion anyway  The pictures do not do justice to how big these prints are.

Yes, the wind was cold! One point tells us if we look you can see where the dinosaur seemed to dance back and forth as if not sure which direction to take.  How do they know this stuff??  And it said we could see the marks where a tail was dragged.  I think I saw that.  There were several kinds of dinosaurs here, both carnivores and herbivores.  We decided the one that was indecisive tracks was facing the sea or his death by force.  This was the edge of the sea and the ripples you see were the ripples of the water moving the sand. These little tubes are where worms made holes in the dirt and then they filled with mud.  These worms were probably six to eight inches long and as big around as my thumb. The earth layers.  Heading for the truck and home.

It really was a great trip, but short.  We should have planned a bit better and had more time.  But on a warmer day!

Trip to Clayton Lake – Part 1 (because there are so many pictures!)

We have been wanting to go to Clayton Lake for awhile to see the dinosaur tracks.  We talked about it with the boys and one morning they asked “When are we going?”.  So off we went for a quick trip to see what we could see.  The drive is not spectacular but has it’s moments. First look at the dirty face on Zane.  So typical.  And Zachary tries NOT to have his picture taken on the drive.  Hah!  Got him anyway.

                                                                   

The sign to the path. The lake was just full of migrating geese.  As we walked up to the edge of the lake they took flight in one big noisy whoop. As we walked down the path – yes it was chilly!  Not unbearable, but a nice cool breeze. Geese taking off. Surprise!  I barely saw this deer.  Wow! How cool!   Then we realized there was another. And as I took a picture from far away, we realized there were many more.  However, until I got home and really looked at the pictures I did not realize there were at least nine deer.  No telling how many more we missed in the trees.

Next post:  The Dinosaur Prints

Christmas 2010

Christmas seems to zoom in and out on wings!  We had a wonderful Christmas.  And I took lots of pictures.  Some good, some not.  Did not pay attention to the auto focus and had it on manual.  But I did take care of most of that.

Christmas Eve.  I have decided to put them here in an album.  You can go to the album and see these pictures.

At then end of the chaos of opening gifts Deedie brought out a game for the kids.  They had gift sacks in their hands that had to be handed left or right as the story was read.  The kids loved it and the older ones helped the younger ones.  That was so thoughtful of Deedie.

 

Christmas Day.  Was no less fun but a lot less chaos.  We opted for brunch this year and it turned out wonderfully!  

Thankful for friends, family and beautiful weather. 

Interesting moon week.

We had a full moon this week and of course I had to take pictures.  Still learning my camera.  Thank goodness I have signed up for a course at the local junior college starting in March.  Anyway…to the pictures.  During this full moon phase we had a lunar eclipse. Sunset thrown in for good measure! It was so cloudyt the night of the eclipse I only got the last part of the eclipse.   These two are cropped photos.  I just do not own a big enough lens.  I think I will buy a cheap telescope and put the lens of my camera up to it. 

Counting down to Christmas…

I know we all are ready for Christmas.  Well, pretty much ready, right?  I have a couple of things I want to pick up Thursday but that WILL BE IT!  I hope.  :) 

We have been busy with candy making and cookie making.  Now why do I do this?  I don’t need to eat it and I don’t give much away any more.  Tradition, right?  This year my sisters, Molly and Cynthia, my niece Sarah, and my daughter Kathleen got together to make goodies and just hang out.  I think the hang out is most of it.  So good to get together like that and we do have fun.   Zachary helping Molly decorate her cookies. Sarah was making cake truffles with red velvet cake.  Uh huh.  The boys playing on the iphone.   Kaiden was there to help too! Cynthia was rubbing Molly’s poor aching back.Who knows what was going on here. Then the boys and I had to make cookies for Santa of course!  Zachary LOVES the crafty stuff.  He and I rolled the dough then he and Zane cut out cookies.

Thought standing on a chair would make a good view! I just hate these “CHEESE” smiles. So I told Zachary to just act normal.    “Wook at my star, Nana!”This one is cool.  It has the marks on it!” Now to bake them. The fun part…decorating!  The boys LOVE to pile on the frosting. This is the first year we have used the premade frosting.  I usually make my own.  I think they enjoyed this a lot! The finished products, ready to share with Santa.  As always, a good time was had by all!