Happy Mother's Day 2018

Happy Mother's Day 2018

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for May 13, 2018

Avery finished college this week so Luke and Miss Sheri went to help him pack up to come home.  Both boys now have their freshman year of college under their belts.  We find it really hard to believe that the year went by that fast.  Now our empty nest is full again and we couldn't be happier to have these guys back in our lives full-time again.

Now that school is done, it's time to go back to work and Luke is first out of the shoot with a new job at the local Lunds & Byerly's grocery store.  He asked me not to come in and take his picture while he was working.  Yeah, right.  Good luck with that one, Luke!

Lund's & Byerly's is our local hang-out.  We love going there because we usually see good friends of ours.  We found our old buddy, Orlando Mazzolini, doing some work in the cafeteria so we went to harass him a bit.  It's always good to see Orlando!

On Friday night, I received a call from my buddy, Jason Hornbuckle, to come join him and his family at the casino.  It was great seeing everyone, but Jason was feeling a bit feisty when it came time for the group picture.  This is the best shot he allowed us to get.

I also have several shots of this pose and this was the nicest face we were able to get him to make.  I've known Jason for more than 30 years and have asked him to take pictures probably a few hundred times so I guess he's just getting a little bit tired of it.

It's Mother's Day today, so we took out the boat for the first time of the summer.  We had a great time celebrating Miss Sheri and she is tickled pink having her boys home for the summer.

We think this was Blue's first boat ride.  He seemed to be having a pretty good time.

It was a beautiful day, so we were kind of surprised there was so little traffic on the lake.  Guess people still don't have their boats ready from the late winter yet.

Our favorite thing to do anymore is to take pictures of wildlife.  Earlier this week, Miss Sheri and I noticed that we are spending more and more of our time bird watching.  Does that mean we are getting old???

I guess we like bird watching so much because there are so many interesting birds in the neighborhood lately.  Like this guy and his pretty orange feet.  I think it's a green heron.  How could you not like creeping around the woods to see this guy?

I think these are American Goldfinch.  Although they may be Canadian.  I'm just not sure.  I'm not sure how they'd feel if I asked to see their passports.

This is a great blue heron.  He also might just be a pretty good blue heron.

Canadian Geese are extremely common here, but I liked this shot because you can see his tongue so clearly vibrating.  I think Miss Sheri caught him mid-honk.

Our current bird obsession probably started with the new bird feeders we have that hang-on our windows.  They allow us to see our feathered friends up close whenever they stop by to eat.   They are my favorite addition to the house of late!