Summer Photo Dump series... #6

The Hot Air Balloons

One fine evening after dinner, I glanced out the back window, and I saw this beautiful spectacle!  Hot air balloons gliding toward us... the silence of their flight occasionally punctuated by noisy blasts from the burners and bawling from the agitated cattle below, who were scrambling wildly to escape the shadows of these mysterious airborne beasts!

So pretty as they drift towards our house!

Several families in boats pulled up to watch.

 This one just kept coming closer...

...and closer!

The pilot yelled out, "Is it okay to land here?"  It was.

 His Re/Max buddy joined him a few minutes later.

 The kids got there on their bikes and our 4x4 just in time for landing number two.

It was pretty awesome.  :)

Glorious

A beautiful Nebraska sunset.

Pictures I love

This is a picture of my dad and newborn baby Emily in March of 1991.  I love how intently they are studying each other.  My daddy loved cuddling babies.

Pictures I love

My daddy with Emily when she was just a chubby cheeked toddler.  Dad used to call her "Rat Baby".  Don't ask why.  :)

Pictures I love

This is a picture of Anna competing at the Cornhusker State Games last summer, 2011. I just think it's a cool shot. :)

This is Ethiopia!

Ethiopia is a very poor country and a lot of the international press about it subsequently features pictures of poverty, drought and famine. But... Ethiopia is very beautiful and so much more than that. I have decided to periodically feature a photo that reflects this beauty and the culture of Ethiopia, so readers who are unfamiliar with the country can see why we love it so much.

Here is the first one!

Bora, Ethiopia...
A small village in the Gamo-Gofa zone of the SNNPR.
It is about six miles up the mountain from the town of Chencha
One of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.

Long ago, at a university far, far away...

...this young lady competed for the
Purdue University Gymnastics Club.

Pictures I love

This picture is from the mid-nineties when we lived in California. I don't know what we did that day while Grandma Spears was visiting, but it must have been exhausting because Emily and Anna sure look pooped out.

Pictures I love

Four sisters and a mom.
This is at my sister Laura's house in 2003.
From left to right: Johanna, Laura, Mom, me and Teresa.

Pictures I love

My mom and Anna at Dana Point, California in 1996.

Pictures I love

This is my mom with me and my siblings sometime in the late sixties. There are just so many things about this picture that make me smile... the hilarious clothing, the treasured bride dolls with dresses handmade by my grandma, my bangs, the fact that we are all crammed into that corner with Mom, the way my mom is waving that cigarette around... I just love it. I wish my dad was in it too, but he was the photographer.

Pictures I love

I'm going to start sharing some of my favorite old pictures once a week or so. This one is from a vacation in 2004 when my big kids weren't quite as big... Kenneth was 15, Emily was 13 and Anna was 10. I would sure like some of that warm Caribbean sunshine now.