The weekend before last I spent some time with my friends while I was in Cloquet, MN, and we headed out to a nearby state park, Jay Cooke State Park. My friends made sure to tell me to pronounce Cooke “cookie.” Were they teasing me? Probably, but how do I know?

We had a lot of fun!  We followed a small stream up a long ways and found some very interesting waterfalls and fascinating rocks that had been eroded by hundreds of years of steady water flow. We also found a set of walls going up a hill that we weren’t able to figure out? Who knows! This first shot is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

This is us walking up the riverbed just enjoying ourselves, looking for interesting rocks and little waterfalls.

We found these old stone walls. They weren’t part of a building, as they were every so often about every 20 feet all the way up a hill.  Maybe bridge supports? We just don’t know! We did know they were old. One of the pictures you can see a tree growing off the top of the stones! It didn’t even have any soil and the tree looked several years old!

Megan and Tiffy found a log balanced on little hump and found that they were able to use it as a seesaw.  None of us could believe that it worked as well as it did.  Here they are having fun!

We found some honeysuckle growing along the river.  I had never had it before! It was very sweet and delicious!

I ran across this hilarious list while browsing today.  Apparently, Kelloggs has seen fit to create a product called “Lego Fun Snacks.”

An annoyed parent had this to say: “I just spent the first three years of my son’s life trying to get him not to eat blocks, and now you’re telling him they taste like strawberries.”

The comedy geniuses at Woot.com have created a list of the next products the geniuses of Lego Fun Snacks are likely to create next:

1. This Bag Is Not Not A Toy: the plastic bag with candy coating on the inside!
2. Need A Ride?: the board game where you make new friends and get into their cars!
3. Zooper Zapper: the panel that lights up and plays cool sounds when you stick metal things in its little slots!
4. Gummi Mr. Yuk!
5. Retina Spy: the sunglasses that reveal secret messages when you stare directly at the sun!
6. AntiFreeezz: the neon green high-sugar energy drink!
7. Get The Lead In candy paint chips!
8. The Scorchin’ Organ: the toy piano shaped like a stove, with keys that look like heat coils!
9. The Candy Pharmacist play set!
10. Ye Olde MatchTowne: the toy village where every citizen looks like a match!
11. Caliber Creamer: the toy gun that dispenses whipped cream!
12. NASCAR Racing Scissors: the faster you run, the bigger the fun!

Ha! credit Woot Blog.

This past weekend, I spent an afternoon out at my friend Laina’s place! I had to visit her when I found out she had just gotten a pet raccoon! She found her cat outside playing with something, and she found a brand new baby raccoon, so young its eyes hadn’t even opened. She adopted it! Her other pets get along great with it, the dog even snuggles up with it! He is a curious little guy, and so cute! When you rub his neck, he chatters/purrs. And he kept climbing up us.  Another thing I thought was cool is that raccoons don’t have “paws.” They almost have hands! He had 5 separate toes, and would splay them open as he tried to climb!

Matt must have been hungry! He kept trying to catch a chicken! He failed miserably, they are fast when they want to be!

Shanrell didn’t have too much success either!

Last night, my brother came over to visit me.  He has a woodworking business, Krema Designs, and he is trying to get started and get his name out there right now, so I was helping him work on some promotional materials in Photoshop.  Then he says to me, “Hey, you should quit playing with this toy and go out into the living room and play with your new toy.” I was confused, as I really haven’t bought anything recently.  He tells me again to go out into the living room, so I do and find this beautiful hardwood chessboard on my coffee table! I was ecstatic!

He made it completely by hand, made of maple and oak! He wanted to give it to me for the help I have given him in starting his business! I wouldn’t have accepted money, but this? Oh yeah, you know I’ll take this.

Really, it’s pretty amazing. The pictures don’t do it justice at all! He is now working on 2 exotic wood chessboards for a show he has next weekend. I can’t wait to see them! 

In February 2007, I was able to take an amazing trip to Honduras.  Many posts ago, you saw some of my vacation pictures from an island off the coast of Honduras, Roatan.

This shot was taken in mainland Honduras, in a very small town called Taulabe. My friends and I were visiting with some of the local friends in the town, and I couldn’t help noticing that all the kids there were so adorable! I met one little girl named Abby, who although she was very shy, liked me a lot! She let me take this nice picture of her. She was so proud of her little bolsa (bag)!