Day in the Swamp

It's only taken me two years, but last Saturday, I finally went into the swamp! Grandpa Bill and I went out on the Atchafalaya Basin in his boat. We launched at Bayou Benoit and went up the G-A Cut, passed house boats and fishermen.

It was a gorgeous day and we saw a lot of snowy egrets.

...and blue dragonflies.

We then turned into Buffalo Cove Canal. The cove is a beautiful spot with cypress trees and lily pads (?) so thick, you couldn't get through them. It was neat to see the guys with their crawfish cages. (Too bad I didn't get any pictures of those!)

On our way back down the G-A Cut we found a narrow water way, that led back to a Lake (I can't remember the name of it). The water looked almost blue.

Bill pulled into an inlet to show me an old oil drill and we ran into an alligator. We spent a few minutes following it, so I could get a picture.

It was fun! (Racing dowing the bayou, I felt like I was flying :-)

Birthday Fun!

I had the best Birthday! Stephanie and Rosie brought me balloons at work.

Then, Barbara picked my up and took me to lunch. We feasted on all-you-can-eat pizza at Gatti's. That afternoon, we had the Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective come and do a program at the library. It was fun...I love the drums! After work, I went to Catherine's for FHE and Barbara showed up with a gigantic cookie she had made and they sang "Happy Birthday" :-) Barbara, you are a sweetheart!

When I got home, I had a package from Elyse. She had sent me a snow globe from Barcelona and these beautiful carved wood bookends (they were literally books with elephants carved out of them :-) from Kenya.

Then, my mom called and gave me the good news that they got an offer on their house (it's been up for sell for a year now!). Finally, Elyse called and informed me that she's serving on a jury for the New York Supreme Court. How exciting!

Fun in the Sun (and in the Rain)!

I can't get any of my pictures to load on Facebook, so I just wanted to post some pictures from Seminary Graduation. Marteena, Andrew, and Tara all completed the year. I'm so proud of them. We had fun, and, as you can tell, Andrew likes to show off!

Since Seminary's ended I have just been relaxing. I've read about a book a day :-) Right now, I finishing up the Percy's Jackson series so I can read Rick Riordan's new book. I've been to the movies (Anyone see "How to Train Your Dragon"? I loved it!) One night I took my friends, Stephanie and Tina, out for dinner. We went to Tokyo Live, where they have a Hibachi Grill. It was so fun!
We had our annual Summer Pig Out with all the staff at the library. This is Jessica (one of our Summer Workshop workers). The second picture is with Denise.

We also had our Summer "Splish, Splash, Kickoff Bash" at the library for the Summer Reading Program. This year's theme is "Make a Splash, Read!" We had carnival games and I helped the kids make flying fish. It was fun!

Don't Ashley and I made good looking pirates?!