Niece-cation ’13...?

For the past several years, our niece Schuyler has been able to come down from Nebraska to stay with us for a few days during the summer (for example, in 2008 and 2009). But now she's in college and just finished her freshman year in Alabama.

So she texted me and Leslie Friday night around 9 p.m. saying she'd be passing through, arrived Sunday morning around 5 a.m. and left later that evening ... after making us some killer cookies-and-cream cupcakes.

Thanks, Skye, it was great to see you. We love you!

5th annual float t(r)ip

If it's the weekend after Father's Day, it's my fraternity brothers' annual float trip.

Once again, we went to Bennett Springs State Park.

Amazing how the fish all follow directions so well, facing the same direction.

Just like Zacchaeus climbed?

Craig's a photo op waiting to happen.

It was cool that Neal drove over from St. Louis to join us for the first time.

Well, until I find our waterproof camera case, I won't have any pics of our actual day-long float trip, but it was perfect, once again. Seems like we spend half the time wishing we were still college students, and the other half thankful that we're not.

A true hipster.

Ready for some grub.

Until next year, gentlemen...

Dad’s Day

Oops

You might recall this picture I took almost a year ago, from a post titled “Adventure Evening.” It’s a historic church in Platte City, Mo.

Or maybe I should say it was a historic church. After 150 years, recent rains are suspected of causing the wall to collapse. Unfortunately, it was declared unsalvageable and the city forced the owner to tear it down. (Photo taken by Ivan Foley.)

Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse, watch this:

Liberty Arts Squared

Jack and I were just gonna take a quick Saturday morning trip up to the square for the weekly farmers market ... until we got there and realized the annual arts festival was going on.

So we stayed for a couple of hours and ended up sampling homemade root beer, buying a $2 brain-teaser at the Jesse James Bank Museum, playing a complete game of chess (on a $100 chess set), being given a free gemstone from a really nice jewelry maker — and having our picture taken while Jack did a little painting.