Booooooooooooooooooo!

Halloween time is here! To celebrate, Andy (age "almost 15", 9th grade) made up a Halloween game starring his dad... also known as... ME! He's been making video games for a couple years now, ever since we got him a video game maker as a reward for a good report card in 7th grade. And he's made several games with it, with varying degrees of success. But this one stands apart, and it's NOT just because it stars me... It's all about good gameplay! Like Bloxors, which I mentioned a couple weeks ago, this is a very simple game. And like Bloxors, it's addictive and gets more and more difficult! The objective is simple. Avoid the ghosts. Points are awarded for avoiding the ghosts. That's it! No boss levels, no power ups, just avoid the ghosts. Click here to Download it! Play it! Have fun with it!

My high score is 1466 - if anybody beats it, post it in comments!!

ALERT: Check the comments section! Andy has decided to make this a contest!!

Crunch All You Want - We'll Make More

Meet Sam! Sam is a Seagull from Scotland. Sam likes Doritos! (really, who doesn't?) Unfortunately, Sam doesn't have much pocket-money, so he has to resort to the time honored tradition of stealing to get his chip fix. It's real, you can check it out on snopes, and here's another video of Sam in action.

Friday Funny!

It's been quite a while since the last Friday Funny, but this one was good enough to revive the tradition!

The Moral: Never Kiss A Dog!!!

Episode IV - A New Hope

Those of you who know me, will likely also know that I am NOT a fan of Apple's iTunes/iPod empire.

I will shock some people here and admit that the iPod is a cool gadget. I'll even grant that the mp3 revolution was fueled in fairly large parts, by the iPod.

But....

From the very beginning, Apple's plan was to sell you music from its iTunes music store. And that music was laced with DRM, or "Digital Rights Management", a sugar coated way of saying "We will control what you can do with music you buy." And to top it off, no other digital music player is compatible with Apple's DRM. Not because other player manufacturers don't want to be, but because Apple wants it all for themselves. So you buy your player from Apple, you buy your music from Apple, and you can't play that music on other players, so when your iPod breaks, or you run out of room and need another one, your choices are to either jump to another brand of player and re-purchase all your digital music (or burn it all to CDs and re-rip in an open format, which is enough of a pain that 90% of the public doesn't know you can do it, or wouldn't bother to do it), or just shell out the cash for a new iPod, which allows you to easily move your iTunes music library over. People have hassled me for many years for my anti-iPod views, and I don't think I've ever actually spelled out my argument so clearly. In any other medium, that kind of closed-marketplace wouldn't fly. But thanks to the fact that they were the first mainline digital music player, Apple has been given a free pass by the public to fleece them at will.

Okay, now that I've established my gripe with the iJuggernaut, let's take a quick look at the LEGAL music download landscape.

1. iTunes, with lots of selection, but also restrictions.
   
2. WalMart, Buy.com, Many other stores offering music with the Windows Media DRM - which is supported by a huge variety of players, but is still DRM, and has earned my wrath through its ridiculous limitations.
   
3. eMusic, which sells all their music as mp3 files, which have NO DRM. Oops, but there's really not much on there that you've ever heard of. The mafia that is the recording industry likes to sell you the same music as many times as possible, so they hate un-restricted music sales. eMusic has lots of independent groups, which is cool in its own way, but largely useless to me...
   
4. (well, really 3 and a half) EMI, one of the big four mafia -oops- music companies, announced that they would offer their music in open, DRM-free form earlier this year. Apple made EMI and a few other product lines available DRM-free, but still used their .aac format that isn't supported by many players outside of the apple universe. Walmart and the other Windows-based stores also started selling un-DRM'd files, even going a step further and offering them as universally playable mp3s. But shopping for them was confusing, since they had the crippled tracks available alongside them, and I just KNOW that there have already been people thinking they were getting one, and winding up with the other. If only a major player would step up and do it right, offering mp3 files from the big guys in an easy to navigate way.
   
5. (really IV) Amazon unleashed their long-talked-about download store today, offering everything in mp3. And they're even using high quality mp3s, the kind that I'd be happy to welcome to my media server. I've browsed around a little this morning, and their selection is better than I've found on the hybrid DRM/mp3 sites, and their prices are great - 89 cents a song for most songs, and albums averaging $8.99.

Amazon is big enough that hopefully this will be a success, and more record companies will agree to sell their catalog through their site. Until then, I've actually found music I've been looking for on there, and I intend to support this venture! Viva la Revolution!

(click here to support sensible legal downloads)

Brilliant Advertising

Check out this new ad for the Citroen C1 - I actually didn't realize Citroen was still around, but apparantly not only are they around, they're making amazingly cool ads for their cars.

I think it would be great to have a follow up ad where the invisible hands turning the cube turn out to belong to a 6 year old who gets frustrated and decides to pry the cube apart in a final effort to solve it...

Now I REALLY Want A Pool!

I've always loved backyard swimming pools. Growing up, I spent a lot of time in eastern WA, where summer actually means "HOT" and as a result, a good percentage of homes have pools in the backyard. Luckily for me, most of my relatives are part of that good percentage. However, I now know that there is a downside to having a wonderous backyard oasis. But again, lady luck smiles on me, by providing the solution along with the problem. It appears that when you have a delightful body of water behind your house, it not only attracts all your local (and not-so-local) relatives, friends and neighbors. Yes, apparantly in addition to all those generally welcomed guests, the local pigeon population also likes to visit. But they don't want to swim. They want to foul your little slab of paradise with pigeon poop!! But now that this ingenious homeowner has shown me the way, I will fear no pigeon in my pool... When I do finally get my pool, that is.

Monday Diversion

You're looking at a new flash game. It's called Bloxors. It's addictive. It starts so simple - all you need to do is get the square block into the square hole - then before you know it gets so hard that it leads to obsession... I've just spent about 45 minutes playing it, and got to my personal end point... Might actually need to read all the directions, but I'm pretty sure I've gotten how to play it. Anyway, if you're looking for a "simple to learn, impossible to master" game, click here to check it out!

If Summer Must End...

Tomorrow, our kids start school. (well, except for Andy... we're still waiting for the Tacoma school district to stop proving their superior stupidity so he can start another year at Internet Academy.) It is so incredibly hard to believe that he and Ellysa are going into *gulp* 9th grade this year. HIGH SCHOOL!! Woah. Still odd, but not as hard to swallow, are Kaylee and Tyler, in 5th and 4th grades respectively. Naturally, we wish them all great success in this school year. Also naturally, we look forward to having some good solid routine back in our lives. Finally (and naturally), all the kids are excited to get back to school again, even though some show it less than others. Good to know they're all okay with it.

BUT...

I'm not ready for summer to end!! This has been such a weak summer weather-wise already, that it feels like we're still in early June, not early September. But as if in an effort to soothe my angst at the flittering away of the lack-of-summer, a few little gifts have popped up. I already mentioned the first gift, school starting again... (heehee!) But finally, some of the garden items I've been patiently waiting on are starting to reward me. Today I picked the first two tomatoes of the year - apparently they like SUN in order to ripen - and Cindy popped them in her mouth, so they must have been good. And the sunflowers that have been creeping taller and taller against the front of the house are finally starting to open up. Here are a few shots I took yesterday evening. Something about a nice sunflower provides a good, smooth transition from summer to fall.

(click the pics for the full size version)

Nice, huh? Just makes everything seem okay. But there was one more gift, hidden among the sunflowers. Many of you know that I've had issues with bees over the years. Well, a very industrious spider took the real estate mantra of "Location, Location, Location!" to heart, and built a web right across the face of a nice, big sunflower. That little spider is gonna be a big fat healthy spider with all the bees he's catching! Here's a pic of last night's haul...



Warm, sunny sunflowers and bees falling to spiders... I guess all really is right in the world!

Of Poultry and Hens

Those of you who not yet acquainted with the newest members of our flock, meet Floppy. At the time we got her, she had just molted, and really looked like the chicken equivalent of a train wreck. Neither her comb (the red pointy thing on top of her head) nor her wattle (the red wattly things below her beak) were very red, she looked anemic, she was missing feathers. Floppy got her name because her comb was very floppy, even partly covering one of her eyes. (but she really has a great personality, trust us!) Well, she's been with us since mid-March, and has now assumed her rightful place as "least pretty hen in the flock." But remember, she's got that personality!! And she really does. Our beautiful chickens that we raised from day-old babies run nervously to the opposite side of their yard when we come in, even though we nearly always have food of some kind. But Floppy and her sister Layla (thank Kaylee and Tyler for the names) are always right there, underfoot like cats, waiting to see what wonder and joy and joyness we have for them.

They're also smart enough to have learned that when a shovel goes into the ground, worms often come up. So as I was working on the backyard project detailed earlier, I'd only been digging for a couple minutes, when who should come walking up, but Floppy. Now, I know what you're thinking! You're thinking "but wait - the chickens are all fenced in to their own yard so they don't get out and trash YOUR yard" and you'd be right. However, a couple of them are quite skilled as escape artists. Traditionally Ginger has been the lead escapist, but she's beginning her first molt, and doesn't appear to be all that spunky right now. So Floppy is more than happy to take her place, and slips in and out of their yard at will. And with a shovel working the ground, her will was definitely to get the heck out there and find some worms!! I just laughed as she started helping me dig. For once, she wasn't underfoot like she usually is, she would wait until I dumped a shovel-full of dirt, then shred it up, snacking all the way. As soon as I was done with the shovel, she hung around a few more minutes, then went back to her yard like a good little hen. I'm sure the next few eggs she lays will have extra high protein from all her extra snacking!

Oh, and what was Ginger, the former queen troublemaker up to? Well... Like I said, she's not feeling too hot right now. But from looking at her, I'd say she was pouting.


She used to always be so pretty, and full of herself... And she used to lay eggs too... But her beauty and production should (aka BETTER!) return soon. Then it'll probably be a whole new round of hen-pecking with Floppy to reclaim the Queen of Mischief crown.

For Labor Day Weekend: Manual Labor!

BEFORE:


Our poor, beleaguered back yard. While it looks approximately 3,000 times better than it did when we bought the house, it's still a bit of an eyesore. And the vegetable garden on the outside of the fence, that just seems wrong. Plus, that whole outside the fence area is completely overrun by weeds. We'll clear it out, and two weeks later you'd never know it! Perhaps there is a relatively easy solution to this problem... Perhaps a couple pallets of landscaping bricks from Home Depot would help! Yeah, and since it's a long weekend, perhaps Mike can carry (we're told the correct term is "hump", but that's just too wierd to say) those bricks around and make a retaining wall...

DURING:

Let me just say: Bricks are heavy.

AFTER:

Wow, it's a wall! And despite the obvious challenges that could have caused it to be a disaster (for example, the fact that I was building it), it turned out really quite nice! How does this solve three different problems? Well, next year the garden will be planted in the new raised bed. It'll even have its own built-in sprinkler system. Woo! And on the outside of the fence, we're going to bulldoze all the weeds and nastiness (one of the perks of working for a construction company, no doubt!), and plant grass along that strip. With a nice, thick, healthy lawn out there, the weeds won't stand much of a chance. And those that do, will be mowed over on a regular basis! Ultimately, we also plan to put some fruit trees out there as well. This is the first of many property improvement projects we have in the works... When they're all done, our back yard is going to be a place where we'll intentionally choose to hang out!

One Amazing Night

The crudely pasted panorama you see above was taken a few weeks ago, before the reality of aging parents and the downside of the circle of life took over. In fact, it was just a few days before that all happened. August 7, 2007 was the second (and final) day of our church's leadership conference. Over the two days, we had awesome teaching from John Maxwell, Matthew Barnett, our own Kevin Gerald, and the awesome United band from Hillsong Church in Syndey, Australia. Then, to wrap things up on Tuesday night, we headed out to the Puyallup Fairgrounds and had a Night of Worship with United.

Now, I had been a little nervous that we wouldn't fill the place up. I know that most churches that feature contemporary music do a lot of Hillsong songs, but would the general public come out to the fairgrounds? Well, my fears were very unfounded. We drove out there, and before we even got to the parking lot, we could see a huge crowd of people lined up outside the gates. Excitement! Extra cool because as conference delegates, we got advance seating. Walked right up to the gate, flashed our badges, and were whisked inside! Once inside, we heard that the people outside had been lining up since 11:00 that morning!! There were already way more people inside than I thought there would be, and about half an hour later they opened the floodgates and the place filled up. Completely. Look to the left and the right in that pic at the top, and you'll see it! We were so thrilled to be part of a church with the vision and ability to put on something like this. I don't know the exact capacity of the grandstand, but it had definitely been met. And when the music started, everybody was swept up in worship and praise, and it was an A.MAZ.ING night.

Family Reunion

Tuesday was quite a day. It was the day my siblings and I bid farewell to our father, lent support to our mother, and it was also the first time since 1991 that all eight of us have been in the same place at the same time. Even though we had an official family reunion two years ago, only seven of us were there. This time, everyone made it, and it was great to have all of us together. To celebrate the occasion, we got together for a group picture. First, just the 8 kids and Mom, then one with our respective spouses. (All except for Kathy, whose husband Tim couldn't make it) Here's a slideshow of the group shots, as well as others from the day.


Cindy and I would like to thank all of you for your incredible support over the past week. We feel truly blessed to have so many people in our lives to care for us. You're all awesome!!

Jesse Reed Brinkerhoff, Rest In Peace

Yesterday, August 11, 2007, my dad passed away. (at 11:48 am, to be exact)

We hadn't always had the closest relationship, but it's still very hard to wrap my brain around the idea that I don't have a father here on Earth anymore. I'm sure after enough time, it will become normal - God built us as amazingly resiliant beings, who can absorb the shock of life's events and keep on going. Definitely one of my favorite design features.

Dad had been sick in some form for nearly a decade. It started with a surprise announcement that he needed to have a quad-bypass open heart surgery. But while the surgery was called a total success, it took several weeks before he regained any sort of normality to his life. After what seemed like an endless battery of tests, an in-operable brain tumor was discovered. Sadly, that brain tumor pretty much defined the last years of his life. It had pushed up against various glands in his brain, throwing off the delicate balance of chemicals, amino acids, nutrients and minerals. For the most part, he rode the wave well, and even the most shocking downturns were quickly followed by a nice, comfortable "back to normal."

But last Wednesday I got a call from my sister that things had taken a bigger nosedive than ever before, and immediately I could feel that this one would probably be the last. Still, we debated wether to head over to the Tri-Cities right away, or wait it out... As of Friday, we had decided to wait. Saturday morning, I woke up with a feeling that I needed to be there, so we hopped in the car and headed east. About 90 minutes before we got there, the call came in that he had passed on to be with the Lord. Odd silence for the next few miles, accented by tears... Then gallant attempts to put it in perspective and be happy that he's not suffering any more... By the time we got to my parents' home, his body had already been taken out. The funeral's this Tuesday.

Please pray for my family. Particularly my mom, who is lost and alone, without her husband of 53 years. Pray for me and my siblings, that we will have peace in our hearts and remember that he IS in a better place now, with no pain and is finally rid of that tumor!

Finally, I'd like to say that my dad was brilliant. He was an ingenious inventor, who developed a sonar system for the navy back in the '70s, and in the mid-'80s, a dimming system for fluorescent lights, which was impossible up until then, but is now in use in supermarkets, warehouses and office buildings all over the world to save electricity by not running the lights at full power during the night time when you don't even notice that it's not as bright. He also could fix ANYTHING with some duct tape and a few paperclips. Yesterday as we looked around his home, we saw countless items that had been enhanced by my dad's inginuity. We're hoping to get a photo gallery, and if we remember the camera, you can be assured that some of the best examples will be showing up here!

Love you, Dad. Hope you had a great trip!

Friday Funny!

OK, so I've known for a while that there's a BBC America cable network... I've even caught a few episodes of the import version of "Who's Line Is It Anyway", but they've always been already in progress. Since I've never actually set out to tune in at a set time and watch something on BBCA, I've missed this little gem that was brought to my attention by a friend with much more refined TV viewing habits.


It's nice to see that they admit they talk funny, and their futile dig at reminding us that they were once the boss of us just gives me an extra chuckle! You Go, Britain! You SO used to have power and stuff! =)

New CD Released!!

Faithful readers of this blog will undoubtedly remember that back in January, we invited all of our friends to come to a special night at our church, when we recorded our second CD and DVD of home-grown Worship music...

It was a great night, and now here we are six months later, and the project has finally made it out of post-production and was officially released tonight - and it's a GREAT disc!! From explosive anthems of praise to reverent, passionate worship, it's on here, it's all good, and it was all written by members of our church here in Tacoma!!

It is so awesome to be part of a church with not only great vision, but also so many committed members driven to see that vision fulfilled. There's already talk of our third album, and I have no doubt that it will continue down the path of excellence we've established with the first two.

If all this leaves you feelig inspired to pick up your own copy, just click here! Otherwise, just hang around us long enough, and you'll undoubtedly hear it playing loud 'n' proud!

Friday Funny!

Leave it to Japan, truly the nation where if you can dream it, you can also find it for sale somewhere. Case in point: For all the times you've looked at your ordinary cat, your non-hello-kitty, and wished that he/she/it were MORE Hello-Kitty, you can now make that dream a reality!! Just buy the new Hello Kitty costume and dress that finicky kitty all up. Of course, for some reason, the cats shown wearing the costume don't look all that happy about it... Not so much saying "Hello!" as they are saying "WHY?" or even "I will cut you deep!"

First Swim Meet Of The Year!

The shocking image to the left is the latest thing in high performance teen competitive swimwear. I don't recall if they had a specific, catchy name, but Ellysa mentioned that they make full body suits for girls, and although she didn't explicitly ASK for one, it sounded like she would love to enhance her racetime wardrobe... :)

Aside from the cutting edge fashion on display, our swimmers did an awesome job. Not surprising, since they've both been little fishies since ummm... well, pretty much forever! But, while we expected their mad swimming performance, there were some unexpected surprises... Right before the meet officially began, the whole team huddled up and began to chant... Well, it was sort of a chant, but more of a cheer. Like the kind that cheerleaders would do. In the '50s. With pom-poms. I am not making this up! In July of 2007, approximately 20 kids from 8 to 18 huddled up and repeated a cheer that included several Oh-Cha-Lock-Ahs, a Sis-Boom-Bah and slammed it home with a rousing "Fircrest, Fircrest, Rah Rah Rah!" Now, I love my town. I really do! Cindy and I often describe it as very Mayberry-like, and this morning, Mayberry was down at the pool, pumpin' up the home team! Next time, I'm totally bringing the camcorder to get audio-visual proof of the cheer that time forgot!

Then the meet was on! Kaylee was up swimming breast stroke first, and quite effectively whoop'd the competition!

Ellysa's best event - literally, the one she was born to compete in - was the backstroke. You could tell from her game face as she stepped up on the starting block, that something big was about to go down. Sure enough, once in the water, she shot ahead of the rest of the pack, and by the turn-around point was a full body length ahead of everyone - even the boys!

Great times, and they both did so well! We are VERY proud of our little aquagirls!

They did it again...

...And this time I got the camera out!!

Yes, our renegade chickens have done it again, and we discovered a rogue nest with 14 eggs in it tonight. I wasn't actually very surprised, because we'd been noticing a severe lack of the Green / Blue eggs for the last week or so.

Kaylee actually found the nest this time, and the thing that made me go "D'oh!" was that it was in an area of their yard that I *knew* would be an appealing spot for a nest... In fact, I'd checked there periodically many times, so many times that I finally quit looking. Which was apparently what they had been waiting for!

As usual, it's Ginger and Babs who are the ringleaders, although there was one small brown egg, indicating that Marzipan had at least visited the nest once... So now we know where to look, and we'll just hope that they don't go making a NEW new rogue nest.

Anybody want some eggs?? =)

Vroooom!

We got a new toy!! As we settled back into the post-vacation life, it occurred to us that now that we have our handy utility trailer (it was truly essential to the successful camping trip!) we don't really need the truck anymore. Add to that that the truck is paid off, and the idea was born that since both Cindy and I would prefer a sporty car to a truck or a *cough* minivan, we should see what our options looked like...

Well, they looked good! Our truck had done a far better job of retaining value than I expected it to, so I started looking into just what sporty cars would look good in our driveway. The first and obvious choice was a Dodge Daytona, since that was the first car I ever bought, and I loved (really loved!) it... I also had a second one, which was my car when Cindy and I first got together. Problem is, they quit making them back in 1993, meaning that every one I found listed either had prohibitively high miles, or prohibitively high levels of "project" required to make it into the car we would want it to be. Bummer!

So we started looking at newer stuff. Given unlimited funding, I'd be all over the new Dodge Charger. That's my "someday" car. However, they're still far too new to fit into our plan. Plan? Oh yeah, I shoulda mentioned that! These were the ground rules we set up:

#1 - NO CAR PAYMENT!!
#2 - Newer, Nicer, Sportier
#3 - Will Last 10 Years Or More

So I realize that #3 depends at least as much on OUR maintenance of the vehicle as it does the vehicle itself, and I'm willing to put that effort out. But #1 and #2 were absolutely immovable.

So I decided to look at the various models that replaced my beloved Daytona in Dodge's lineup. The first Avenger was extremely bland looking... Not sure what they were thinking, plus it wasn't reviewed all that well... The Stealth was hot hot hot at the time, but like the Daytona, there aren't many good ones to be found. The NEW Avenger is hot hot hot now, but completely incompatible with ground rule #1. Ahh, but in between was the Stratus... Not the midsize sedan, 4-door, wants-to-be-cool-but-falls-short stratus, but the 2-door fraternal twin of the Mitsubishi Eclipse Stratus. Mmmmmm, Tasty! Found a couple, they look great, and the pricing is more in line with what we expected to get out of the truck.

Then I decided to widen the search to include the Chrysler version, the Sebring Coupe LXi. And bingo, up popped the picture above! After a test drive, we knew it was our new car... well, even before the test drive, when I sank into the rich corinthian leather seats, I knew. It's good good stuff! One of the best things about it, was it was at the Lexus dealership, and those people know how to treat a customer!! The trade value of the truck was exactly the price of the Sebring plus Tax, so we ended up doing a straight swap - it was completely surreal to drive away in our new sporty car, without having gone through the pain of the haggling, the financing, payment manipulating, etc. Still kinda feels like "did that really happen?" But when I got up this morning, there it is, in the driveway, waiting for us to come drive it!

And drive it we will.

VACATION!

So why is it that a week can take forever, when you're doing some (most?) things, and yet as soon as you put that magical 'V' word in front of the same number of hours, they fly by as if somebody hit the FF button on the big remote of life?

We were on vacation this past week. Above, you see us on Day 1, aboard a state ferry heading to the San Juan Islands, and specifically, Orcas Island. We camped (yes, camped - with tents!) at Moran State Park on the island for four days and nights, and had an incredible time!

Some highlights? Well first, Cindy and I were very relieved that our new utility trailer not only fit all of our gear inside, but also held together for the entire trip! (we'd only built it one week prior, and hadn't driven it more than around the block before)

Then there was the hiking... Us lazy suburbanites hiked approximately 10 miles in 2 days, and that's WITH Cindy suffering from Plantar Faschiaitis. The first day's hike took us up to Cascade Falls, and as you can see, it was well worth the hike!

Day two brought us around Cascade Lake and the Rosario Lagoon, which was another great one. Some would argue that it was even better, since it was (1) shorter, and (2) more level. Anyway, there was some more awesome nature to enjoy along the way, including this totally cool tree that was growing out over the water. I had envisioned a picture of the kids up in the tree, above the water, but then Cindy started talking about making backup plans in case they fell in, and suddenly nobody wanted to leave the safety of the lower trunk. Still, it was definitely a Kodak moment. (ummmm, I guess technically, it was a Panasonic moment...;)

A little further in our loop around the lake, we came across a bald eagle perched on a log in the lagoon! We were able to get fairly close - much closer than we had been the day before when we saw one soaring above the swimming area of the lake... but I wasn't close enough for a good pic. I did get a "kinda okay" pic though... (that's it on the log)

Our last day of venturing out saw us driving up to the top of Mount Constitution, the highest point in all of the San Juans. From the top of the mountain, you can see all the other islands as well as cities in both the U.S. and Canada, mountains, and really gorgeous deep blue water. But if that wasn't high enough for ya, there's also an observation tower that gave even more specactular views!

So the hiking was great! But there was more... Cascade Lake has a swimming area that the kids spent every afternoon in! We'd bought a little blow-up raft, and they never got tired of climbing in, flipping it over, wash, rinse, repeat!

And in addition to our cool bald eagle sighting, we also had some "Woodland Creatures" come to us, visiting our campsite. Some, like this young buck deer, were an awesome reminder of just how close we were to nature!

Others, like the thieving raccoons that trashed out camp in the middle of the night, eating anything with a high carb count (no bread or chips left... luckily, they didn't seem to like chocolate very much) just seemed to remind us that even though we were on vacation, Raccoons are still horrible creatures. Oh well, at least our chickens were safely locked in their coop this time!

Then, as suddenly as it began, it was Friday morning and time to tear down our tents and leave our beloved Campsite #85.

It's Saturday night now, and I just can't seem to accept that it's over... Gotta go back to work and the normal routine after just one more day... Ahh, sweet vacation memories... TAKE ME AWAY!!

Oh, and if you're one of those types who actually enjoys looking at other people's vacation pictures, just click here to go to our photo album!