Life moves along

School is now in full swing for the kids (and Carol). Joel is in 5th grade, Laura is in 4th, Grant is in 2nd, and John is starting kindergarten. They were all eager to start school, especially John. Carol has laughed at his daily eagerness to do his lessons with her. He has even admitted to trying to figure out ways to get Carol to start school with him earlier in the day.

School provides such structure for young, eager and ambitious minds. Their behavior usually improves during this time of the year.


Grant turned 7 on September the 10th. He enjoyed himself immensely.


Here are the final pictures and videos of our vacation. These are from the zoo in St. Louis.

(I notice that our children have their favorite clothes. They are wearing the same outfits in several of the pictures.)


If I remember correctly, this snake is some kind of a constrictor that goes in the water . . .


The lions are down one our left in the first picture, you can see them clearly in the second.

Who would think that giraffes and ostriches are friends? I guess there is a similarity in the neck.

Here are the bears, the cheetahs, and some kind of fish (I think they were piranhas). There was also a hippopotamus that literally floated by in this tank - it was fascinating.

This video is of some kind of a snake. It kept following the kid's fingers on the other side of the glass.






This video is of all of us watching the elephants.






That's all for now.