Elser Family Blog

This week M has decided she is going to be an architect. She is constantly building what she call “houses”. That’s to say, she drapes her blanket over whatever is handy, and hells at R when he takes the blanket off. It has been a constant process lately… I think its funny, but perhaps you just have to be here.

This Friday was our Church “Rally Day” Cookout. It was fun.. The kids got to ride a horse, and I broke out the cotton candy machine for the occasion. Is that Nick Nyhoff behind that machine? Yes it is…

H likes horses, so this is nothing unusual.

THIS however, is amazing. M usually does NOT like large animals. (She is weary of small animals for that matter.) She wanted to do it! We didn’t even coax her. Perhaps we should not be too surprised… For she recently has decided she likes fruits and vegetables also.

Click on this picture for a quicktime movie of the ride.

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OK, so we always knew the Church had some property on lake Thurmond. I think its a long term 1$ lease from whoever manages the lake. (its a very big lake.. I guess the church has 2 miles of shoreline (!) It’s pretty remote..The gravel driveway is 1.6 miles long.. And its only 33 miles from our front door.

We had never been there, but decided to visit.. WOW.

It’s got camp sites with water and electricity, two large picnic shelters, a little playground and bathrooms with showers, and a boat ramp into the lake!

I guess I know where we will be hanging out on weekends in the future.. Perhaps a boat is necessary. 🙂

Here is the Boat ramp. Its on a point.

Here is my only picture with the lake in the BG, sorry..

Here is one of the out buildings. (We parked close because it started to rain.)

No pictures of the camp ground area.. Sorry. Butt he camp ground is on the main point, so everyone has a water view from each campsite.

On the way back we saw something that I can only describe as “Jackalope” These things looked like overgrown rabbits… They were the size of a small Deer, no joke..

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We went to the River walk in Augusta today. Its a nice stroll along the Savannah River. Here is the gang feeding the ducks.

This picture did not turn out that well, but it’s just classic M at the playground. This playground is right up agiainst the river (again, with no fences… ) Its a nice setting, really… Next time I’ll do a better job of photagraphy.

Here is the first fire in my very first forge! I can’t wait to strike hot Iron. My first project was a coal shovel to move the coal around in the forge. Its somewhat ugly, but it worked out quite well.

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H read in a book about collecting leaves, so that is what she wanted to do today. What H wants, H gets. (some of the time 🙂 ) I guess we could have included a Ginko leaf, since we have a Ginko tree in our back yard…. Oh well. Next time.

I found That another of my nieces has a blog. Please visit Shel’s Blog (I have added on the right).

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Ya’ll might remember Marc Denise and Marek visited a couple months ago… Denise sent some pictures of their travels back to us. Its nice getting letters like that in the mail, isn’t it?

Anyway, I really liked this picture of H and Marek.

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We went to the official Sno-Cap 40th anniversary this weekend. Wow they had a lot of cars there! Here is just a sample. They came and went throughout the day.

(Click on the picture of a full size version)

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Sometimes I’m just not in the mood to blog..I guess I’m going though a phase.

We went to the park yesterday here is an action photo of H sliding on the roller thingy.. Too bad it looks like she is sitting still… Gotta’ get a camera that I can control exposure AND shutter to get the affect, I guess.

And then there is M, wondering what she will play on next.

and here M is just looking cute, as usual.

Here is M’s imagination in action.. She builds some strange things sometimes… I guess you gotta see her in action to understand.

And finally, I made a deal with H yesterday, that if she read 20 books, I would take her bowling. Well, she did not waste any time.

I got into my first “confrontation” with H’s principle this last week. Evidentially, there are three parents that have been making a habit of escorting their kids to class… I’m one of them. (I’m not sure who the other two are, I though I was the only one…) So, they had a teacher cutting us off in the hallway saying:

“let them go by themselves, they have to learn to do it themselves”

I responded:

“Its not for her, she can do it fine. It’s for me, I want to see what is going on.” ( I wanted to say “She would be happy to walk to school alone if I would let her”)

And she responded:

“We don’t want parents doing that”

and I responded:

“OK. How about if I do it once a week?” (expecting her to say, “that would be fine”)

But she just repeated herself.

Then the Principle stepped in and said:

“By visiting, you cause separation anxiety in the other kids”

And I said,

“I just want to see what’s going on…”

And she said:

I’m in charge here, I’ll make sure every thing is all right”

And I said,

“Well, for instance, the teevee (that the kids that get dropped off early sit and vedge in front of) is supposed to be off after 7:30. It is now 7:35. Is it off?

She wouldn’t tell me.

(I’m confident it WAS on)

At that, I just left. No need to get into a pissing match. However, she WILL get a letter from me inquiering as to what my rights are…

Just to give R some equal time…

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Long time no blog… Sorry.

The latest and greatest news?

HMR have a new Cousin!!!!

Lars was born on the 18th in Geneva Switzerland!

August 18th at 00:38. He measured 51cm (that’s 20.1 inches) at birth and weighed 3.45kg (that’s 7.6 pounds).

Here He is with the proud Papa, Juerg.

This week, H started School- First grade! She really likes school, and was looking forward to it.

She insisted on riding her trike there.

Here she is, waiting to be let into her class for the first time… I’m not sure what’s is going through her mind at this time..

Here is M playing with the Lincoln Logs… We have a BUNCH of them. Gotta love Ebay.

Talking about Ebay, that is part of why I have not written in a while.. I’m approaching day zero for my Ebay Drop off store grand opening. Not familiar with the concept? Ask me about it on the debate forum.

I guess I will show this one to show the proud new parents what NOT to let your young children play with..

This week, I hired a couple guys to paint the 713 house… It REALLY needed it. Fortunately, the lead guy is really picky, and if they do as good of a job painting, as they are doing stripping the place, its going to be a great paint job.

And finally, Today we went to the “park with no fence” as K likes to call it. Its a really nice little park, on a busy street – with no fence.

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Well, I finally got a copy of the circus photos from last week. Like I mentioned, it was fun. It started with the stereotypical circus stuff, like elephants

And went on to acrobats. That was fun. Part of it was under black lights, in the dark.

Then there were the guys on the two big circular cages… But the act has progressed from the last time I saw it years ago. Now they are doing flips while on the outside. Quite impressive.

We are much more interested than we look 🙂

This was near the end. The strong man who has the cannon ball shot into his stomach. If you look at his feet, you can see he is stepping back, to flourish the impact.. All in fun.

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Here is the Mother Duck with her baby duck.

Tomorrow is H’s first day of first grade… Wish her well.

Just in case your curious, here is a picture of the kids from the same set that the winning photo was sent from.. (this scan was not very good.. The contrast and saturation are too high… The original is much better)

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