We spent the Memorial Day weekend at a cabin in the eastern Ohio appalachians, at Lake Hope State Park. What a gorgeous place. It did wonders for my psyche. It's amazing how the serenity of the woods clears my head and enables me to think so much more clearly. I haven't had that in sooo many months.

We took one of Noelle's friends with us, who had never done anything like that before. We hiked until the girls threatened mutiny, lol.

We had perfect 80 degree, sunny weather which is a miracle because Friday was cold and rainy, and today was cold and rainy.

We stayed in a cabin as it was almost a 3 hour drive from home, and my tiny little Hyundai Accent can't take the load of camping gear that far up into the mountains. Especially with gas at $4 a gallon! But this was our one trip for the year, and it was worth it.

Happy Mother's Day!

I bought myself a new camera for Mother's Day. Noelle accidentally broke mine a couple of months ago, and I have been using hers. (Yea, don't ask me why she was using mine when she has one...) It was going to cost as much to fix that one as it would be to buy a new one, so I bought a new one. I upgraded to a Fuji Finepix 700, which lets me do a lot more than the regular point and shoot digital cameras, for only about $10 more!

Here are some pics I took yesterday. The robin has a sad story -- when I got home from running errands yesterday morning, Noelle and her friend came running to tell me about a robin that was hanging from a string in a tree. Sure enough, the poor thing had gotten her wing caught in a string just a foot away from her nest and was twirling around crazy on it, getting herself caught tighter.

We got the ladder and managed to cut the string for her. But she wouldn't let me cut the string from her body. She hopped away bleeding. I told the kids there's not much chance she's going to be able to fly and feed her babies, and she'll probably die. I could not reach the nest even on the ladder, so I feel bad for the little babies. Kinda sad with today being Mother's Day...

Catching the Light

My daughter has taken up my love of photography, and actually surpased me, I believe, in her ability to capture pure, unaltered beauty all around her. I can take a decent photo, but I think about it way too much and try way too hard. Noelle just has the ability to capture perfect moments with ease. Looking through her photos, I am reminded of the article I posted recently by the adult woman with Asperger's, who said, "If you could live in my head for just one day, you might weep at how much beauty I perceive in the world with my exquisite senses. I would not trade one small bit of that beauty, as overwhelming and powerful as it can be, for 'normalcy'."

I do weep at the beauty Noelle perceives in the world... particularly in her friends. I thought I would share a few of her photos with you because, well, I'm a mom and I just like to brag, lol. Can you spot the self portrait?