More Camaro, bye-bye birdies and baseball...

It's been 10 days since my last update, and I have plenty to share.


First off, here is Daddy and Ripley sharing the couch for a nap. 70-pound Ripley swears he's a lapdog.



Xan wanted his photo taken with the green Camaro I had borrowed for a video shoot. So, before I turned it in, I tried to get a photo of him with it. Unfortunately the morning was so bright and glare-y, he could barely keep his eyes open.

Speaking of Camaros, here is the video I produced that required the Camaro.



Wednesday, Rodney had some of his Marine friends from the early days in Yuma come and visit. Rickey, Cody and Della have all gotten out of the military already. Rick is dating Michelle and Cody and Della have since gotten married and have a 20-month old son. Cody is the guy who introduced me to Rodney over 10 years ago. We went to our favorite Hibachi place for a tasty dinner. It was a lot of fun to catch up with them.



This is the last photos of the baby bird that I have, taken on May 18. They flew off in the early morning on Thursday. It's always sad to see the nest empty, but I could heart them chattering away in the huge tree behind the house, so I know they're not far away.



This was Will's last week of baseball. While they did defeat the dreaded White Sox on Thursday, they only had three wins this season. But it was a building year, so hopefully they'll do better next year!

As anyone who has been around Will for more than a few minutes, he loved his Pokemon cards! I have no idea how the game works, but Will goes crazy for certain ones - these are a handful of his favorites.

We babysat Jacob, the son of one of the guys Rodney worls with, for the weekend, so we just tossed him in with the other two kids. Here's a photo of them eat breakfast this morning.

After church, we went to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores, AL. Even though it was VERY hot (90+ degrees WITH humidity!) we did have a great time. The zoo was featuring three Bengal tiger cubs they have on loan. We didn't get to play with them, but we watched them through a window. But there were plenty of other, bigger, things to see, including adult tigers, lions and a bear.





Jacob is feeding a Capybara, the largest rodent in the world. This "water pig" spends a lot of time swimming and even has webbed feet. It saw us and swam across the small pond to meet us at the fence. It then proceeded to stretch as far as it could to show it liked to eat a particular plant. And then it sat and waited. It couldn't easily reach any of the other leaves through the fence, I suspected that the Capybara had people trained. He would demonstrate his love for the plant and then wait for the people to feed him. So, we did. And he was very gentle as he took the plants from the kids. A very smart rodent - he can train humans in a matter of seconds.

There's a lion there, somewhere behind the dramatic Will.

We couldn't figure out why this peacock was so intent on looking over the fence, until we got around to the other side. The peahen was in the nursery, presumably taking care of some eggs.

And, last but not least, a photo of the Sulcata tortoise house the zoo had - i case my parents need some ideas...

Bird Family, Fits and a Metallic Green Camaro...

It's been a busy couple days here at the Guthrie House. The baby birds on the back porch are growing right along. And their parents are working in tandem in the mornings to keep them fed. I was lucky enough to get photos of both the Dad bird (red head) and the Mom. Mom is much more skittish than Dad, and wouldn't let me get very close before she flew in the nearby tree.




I call the following photo montage "Xan Hates Shorts."



Will did not like me taking photos of Xan when he was in this state, so I just got these three. Within the hour we were at the Naval Hospital for the boys' well checks. They are very healthy and will be tall, the doctor informed me. Wow. Maybe I don't need a medical degree after all. Will won;t need shots until he is 11, but Xan needed three today. He was very brave and went back to school with a Daffy Duck and two Bugs Bunny band-aids.

Tomorrow I am filming a video for the credit union and we need a splashy car. I had my eye on this 2010 metallic green Camaro (think Bumblebee from Transformers if it were yellow. I lovingly call this one Grasshopper) when it was parked at one of the branch offices, advertising a weekend car sale we were having at the dealership. I asked if we could borrow it for the day (and made sure to pick it up tonight so I could play in it a bit!) and Pete Moore Chevrolet agreed... It's manual, so I have had to reach deep into my bag of talents and pull out stick shift driving. I realized I haven't driven stick since 1997. I only stalled out twice! :)





This would be a great 2nd car, but it is way to small for the kids. Both had to sit cross-legged in the back and Will got his ankle caught under the seat as he tried to climb out. But they both thought it was "cool."

Blurry rodeo photo

I forgot that I had this photo until I downloaded my iPhone photos tonight. This is Will running after the calves with the ribbons on their tails at the rodeo this weekend. I circled him - he's wearing a blue shirt and khaki shorts.

Happy Mother's day!

The baby birds were well fed by 9 a.m. this morning. They were fast asleep despite me watering the flowers around them and taking their picture. Mama bird wasn't around, but within five minutes of me having the planter back up, she came by to check on them. They must have been fine because she flew right off again.


Dad wanted to see how white Marble was getting, so here is a picture for you, Dad. Marble will be 12 on May 31. She's already outlived her Uncle Slade.


Ripley turned 9 at the end of March. He's getting a bit gray, himself.


Will made me a paper purse and a green beaded keychain for Mother's Day. Very cool.


Xan was quite busy this week and made several Mothers Day gifts. I especially liked the "Breakfast in Bed" bag - which housed a cereal bar.


Will brought this letter home from school. I thought that all of the Grandmas might enjoy it. Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday was busy day for the Guthrie's, but I don't have any pictures, really. While Rodney started his day helping my friend Brynn move, I took the boys to see Ironman 2, which they enjoyed. We then headed to Flounders in Pensacola Beach the celebrate three of the Marines' promotions. After a brief nap in the car for the boys, we headed off to the local FFA rodeo, which was a lot of fun. Will got to be a part of the rodeo when all of the kids over 6 got to run around the arena and try to pull a ribbon off of calves' tails. If they got the ribbon, they won money. Of course, the two biggest kids ended up with the ribbons, but it was still a lot of fun to see 100+ kids running around after calves. After the rodeo, we headed over to Rodney's boss' house to watch the UFC fight. We didn't get home until well after midnight, and the boys actually slept in later than we did - 9:15!

Spring photos, baby birds and "Going Buggy"...

I realized that I had forgotten to put up the boys' spring photos. Will's school photos haven't come home yet, but here are the baseball photos and Xan's spring photo - complete with live lamb. The one of Will and Rodney, with Will in the yellow shirt, is from Wednesday's Parent's Day lunch at Will's school.






The Mama bird from last year is back, making a nest and laying five eggs in the largest of two hanging planters on my back porch on April 24.


They hatched early in the morning May 5, and today, May 6, they clearly had their appetites ready. I brought the planter in for a quick pic, and Mama bird happened to land on a lamp near the hook where the plant hangs. I could just imagine her thinking, "Wait a minute. They were JUST here!" I put them right back and Mama bird came right back and quickly hopped in to feed them.



Will's second grade school play, "Going Buggy," was tonight, He had one of the biggest speaking parts and he did very well. I loved the multi-eyed cap he wore!

Pickles, art and oil...

Wednesday night, Will decided to try his culinary skills when he added dill pickles to his taco. He ate the whole thing and said he liked it. We'll see if he adds them on the next taco night!


Thursday was Will's Gallery Night at school. First, we supported the PTA's spaghetti dinner, which Xan really "got in to." And then we headed off down the school hallways to find Will's artwork, reminiscent of artist Piet Mondrian.


After admiring Will's work, we went outside to see demonstrations of different types of art. A local high school jazz band was playing and the kids got to go "thumb print" art.


Rodney and I enjoyed watching a woodworker create a bowl. Turns out he's also a beekeeper and uses the beeswax to seal his bowls.


Will and Xan were especially intrigued by the pottery wheel, which was demonstrated by one of the second grade teachers.


Sunday was a fairly lazy day, but despite nasty weather, we headed out to Perdido Key for a few minutes to catch a glimpse of the white sand beaches before the Gulf Coast oil slick comes our way - which could be as early as Monday afternoon.