A Beautiful Senior
I was lucky enough to spend some time with the beautiful Karley a short while ago. She is the sister of one of my very best friends, Ms. Heather Milo. Mom and two daughters make a gorgeous group of ladies! However, in this post, I’m focused on Karley who is about to enter her senior year of high school. A beautiful day and a fabulous smile, enjoy!
Megan + Ryan = Looooove
Dearest Megan and Ryan,
You two are impossibly adorable. You fling this word ‘awkward’ around all willy-nilly, but the term you really should be using is adorable. I imagine it must be a little odd having me follow you around to take pictures of you. But, on the bright side of things, you should be used to this by now since I’ve been snappin that camera a bit excessively over the past year.
Congratulations on your engagement! I am so glad to be a part of your lives!
This is a bush. I thought it was going to chomp Ryan right up, but luckily Megan saved him with a quick snatch and grab kiss! I think everyone should get engaged in fall, look at those colors!!!
I almost died here. For reals. Holy bikers batman! I should’ve known better though I suppose, I mean we were on the lake shore after all. I think this is becoming a pattern for me. In my last post that old man almost ran me down too – maybe I have some wanted posters up in the biker bars.
Now I want a trellis at my house. Just think of all the romantic pictures I could have with me and my cats and chickens. It may be more of a barnyard version of this lovely pic of Megan and Ryan, but mine would still be filled with love darn it!
And now it’s time for the farewell walk.
The Power of Waders
As many of you know, I had the pleasure of doing my student teaching at Memorial High School. (Go Spartans!) Part of this experience was taking the students on a field trip to the Henry Vilas Zoo, as well as to Lake Wingra. The purpose of this trip was to do a little field research on the ecology of Lake Wingra. However, as with most field trips, it was mostly just hilarious…
We got to the zoo before it opened. Ahem… I mean… We thought it would be incredibly valuable to perform ‘team building’ exercises. Right away in the morning. Yup. That’s how that went. Above you see the biggest game of ‘the human knot’ that you have perhaps ever ever seen. This is just a small snippet of it. It didn’t take them long to get out of it though.
Perhaps the funniest of our team building games was this one above. This is one we called “The wounded biology student”. Basically, the kids were in teams of about 30, and the goal was to get all of the students across the line to safety. Not many were lost in transit… but not gonna lie, a few of the students were dropped.
The zoo opened! Aw, pretty birdy.
Guess what is so interesting here. Just guess. You got it, those adorable, fluffy squishable critters called prairie dogs. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that not only girls like these. See these young men’s faces? That’s true interest and delight. Yeah prairie dogs. Rock on.
So this is the actual science that we did on the field trip. I won’t bore you with the details. Just know that we did indeed collect data on this trip. Although I can’t say that most of the students found this to be the highlight of the trip..
It was also very important to collect some critters to take back to lab to evaluate there. For this we had the students put on waders and jump right on into that mucky water. It was awesome. I think that they thought so too. I mean, how often do you get to put on waders?
Ah, a moment of rest.
And here’s our most valuable scientific find of the day. I mean, seriously?!?!?? How did this happen?!?!? I didn’t know that fish could die because they got their heads stuck on another fish. I promise, I was there when the kids found this gem. There were no special effects or props used in the making of this picture. Yikes. Looks like a painful way to go.
Amanda is a pretty neat lady
So my dearest darling Amanda got married last weekend. Below you will find a few photos taken from her bachelorette party, and a few of the wedding. Probably one of the first things that you’ll notice is that there are no pictures of the bride. Mostly since I was in the bridal party – turns out it’s awkward to lug around a big ole camera when you’re supposed to be focused on wedding stuff. However, I was able to take on of JJs head, so that’s in there. Luckily Arobs sister in law took a bunch of awesome pictures of all of us – check ’em out on fbook if you like!
This is how we started out Amanda’s super epic bachelorette party weekend. Brunch at Bluephies. Man, they really know how to do bloody mary’s right at that place. Just look at that cheese! Huh, maybe I just wanted cheese. Or maybe cheese just sounds really good right about now!
One of Momma Stalder’s very famous cakes! This one was chocolate with raspberry filling. Numnumnum. Isn’t it gorgeous?! (Say yes)
By looking at this, you may imagine that it might say something like “Amanda and Joe”… That’s what it did say. Until someone Iknow took a little munch munch of the letters. After that it said Omanda. Almost the same. Eventually Joe was all the way gone too. It’s ok, the weekend was all about Arob anyways.
I did manage to fit Joe into this thing a little bit though. See that giant rock? Yup, well he’s the one who bought it for her. Rumor has it he even picked the darn thing out too! GOOD JOB JOE!
Fast forward. It’s wedding morning. We had no electricity at our hotel (why didn’t all that rain happen in WI? I feel like we’re going to catch on fire any day now), but were clean and showered thanks to our wonderful Ohio hosts. These little mimosa gems were awaiting us upon our arrival! Delicious.
As promised, here is the picture of JJ’s head. We had a few minutes, so JJ and I enjoyed ourselves a little photo shoot. What do you think she’s looking at out there? We can only guess. I would ask her, but I imagine that she has probably already forgotten by now, and I didn’t think to ask at the time. Sad panda. Whatever it was, it seems rather profound.
Wedding Cake!!!!!! Although that probably is rather obvious…
Aw, so pretty!
Congratulations Amanda and Joe. I had an absolutely fabulous time at your wedding, thank you for inviting me to be a part of it!
Drums and the Full Moon!
I’ve had the pleasure of attending a few neat drumming events in the past few weeks. I really think I’m a natural drummer. Pretty soon I’m going to be as good as these guys. Don’t worry, once I learn how to play, I’ll be happy to give you lessons. Probably starting next week or so…
Ok, maybe I have a little more to learn than I thought. I have trouble moving my hands this fast unfortunately. Really though, I feel inspired, it’s so fun to play! And they don’t even care if you suck, which is even better.
The next question I’m sure you want to ask is “what do I play if I’m a little kid?! Those drums are bigger than my head!” (Like a la bamba burrito is) Anyways, to answer your pressing question… You play pots! There are tons of little stations all over library mall like the ones above that people who are a little shy, or just plain old little, can play without being too high up and the center of attention.
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I feel like this clock has been on library mall forever and ever. Definitely as long as I can remember. Anyways, here’s a random question for you, my dear readers… Why do I automatically call library mall ‘library mall’ instead of ‘the mall’. Is there another ‘mall’ type of area in Madison that I’m not aware of? Cause this is the only one that I can think of so far.
Scene change! We are now out at Lake Farm Park at a full moon drum circle! Above you should be seeing a nifty little candle in cute mason jar. Is this an endearing kind and wonderful background for our event, or is this going to turn into some sort of ghostly evening where we see vampires and werewolves? I’ll never share my secrets. You just had to be there…
At this point there were only a few drummers left playing, but you can see the gorgeous full moon above them. It was cloudy much of the evening, so we were all pretty excited when the moon finally decided to show its fool face. Earlier in the evening when I was being lazy (a.k.a I didn’t have my camera out yet) there were probably more like 30 drummers, with tons of people around watching and eating.
It was a lovely evening, maybe I’ll have to go and buy myself a drum now!
A day at the zoo! But, there are no pictures of animals…
Well, I may have lied just a little bit in the title. There is a picture of an animal. And he’s right there. A lion, ROOOOOAAAAR! Ok, so I lied when I said it was a lion. It’s actually a stone lion’s face, but it’s a cement lion that was made to look like a real stone lion’s face. So it’s not even really a stone lion’s face… Unless you consider cement a stone… Well, it is some sort of lionish thing, so look at it’s eyeball and be super afraid!
A pretty rope fence. Don’t get stuck in it, you might poke your eye out! At least that’s the impression I got from the crazy groundhogs that were frolicking about.
Isn’t this a lovely bridge? This is the one at Vilas, and my goodness, what a gorgeous day for taking pictures! Luckily, this was one of those moments when I wasn’t being run over by a bike, or rollerblader or some such speedy athletic person, phew!
I thought this picture was pretty cool, but then I noticed annoying red guy in the background. But really I was too lazy to retake the picture without annoying red guy. I was also too lazy to remove annoying red guy via Photoshop. Perhaps someday an annoying red guy in a picture will annoy me enough so that I will learn to achieve some mad awesome skills with Photoshop. Someday…
Is there some kind of tree that has red leaves in the spring? I was confused when i saw about five trees with these strikingly beautiful (red!!) leaves. Trees, why must you confuse me so!
Here you’ll notice the pavillion (in white) behind these lovely yellow blossoms. I wish spring didn’t make my allergies so cranky, because I LOVE all of the springtime flowers! There’s just something that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I see and smell the springtime flowers!
Aww, such a pretty flower. You see, here I was trying to take pictures of birds, but they were far away, so of course I immediately became distracted by this super pretty yellow flower.
In conclusion, I went to take pictures of animals. They weren’t doing much fun stuff by my eye, so I moved on to bright flowers and other equally shiny and wonderful things.
Happy Springtime! Enjoy!
Dear Holten Hilton, I love you.
Cottage, cottage, cottage!!! I loooove the cottage, also known as the Holten Hilton (I know, aren’t we fancy?). I started spring break this week, and the weather was nice enough that I was able to head up and open the cottage up for the season. And one of the best things… is now I get a spring break!!! I don’t even know what to do with myself. Well, maybe that’s a lie, but I’m super happy regardless!
Another exciting thing is that I got to play with my friend Sajika’s fancy schmancy lenses this weekend. Wow. They were awesome, and led to some sweet pictures.
Tasty tasty spotted cow. I would like to draw your attention to the fact these bottles are totally empty. Yes, be proud, we did our work, and we did it very very well.
This is Sajika’s dog Shadow – a very excitable and handsome fellow. He swam over and over again. The thing was, it just wasn’t that warm out. And by not that warm, what I really mean is just plain old cold. But he liked smelling like muck and old fish so darned much that he was in a constant state of cold, wet dog.
There’s a large amount of marsh and hunting grounds up around Lake Puckaway. Many of these signs are everywhere. I guess they don’t want anyone sneaking onto their land and stealing their deer.
Do you think this wheel ever held anything up? It probably did. I don’t know what, but I want it to have actually been a real wheel and not just a decoration wheel! Where would you even buy one of these….?
I was in the neighbor’s yard when I took this. They hate us – it has become reasonably obvious over the years. I mean, really, who yells at a little boy for fishing off of their side of the bay? Seriously? I think it’s just cause us Holten’s are just way too fun loving. It must be jealousy. I would be jealous of us too.
Scotty was quite patient with me this weekend. He was the subject of many, many, many photos. I probably should have called this Scott’s photoshoot weekend, that’s how many pictures of him I know have. So, Scott, need a new facebook profile picture daily? Cause I got enough for that! No doubt!
And with this vicious attack by the tic-tac-toe reed, I will end today’s post. Just put yourself in my place. You would’ve been scared to. Luckily, I was able to make it out alive.
Road Trip!
This week I had an exciting Saturday night. We had a family gathering on Saturday afternoon, and then my uncle Mark had a fabulous idea! ROAD TRIP. Turns out he’s tight with the band Chameleon (classic rock), so the uncles and I decided to head on down to Rockford to see them play. It was awesome. I haven’t done something that totally random in a while, and I had an exceptionally good time. Good music. Good company.
I think that it likely that none of you appreciate the true value of an air band. Luckily, Bruno really does. He is incredibly enthusiastic about music, and I really love hanging out with him, it kinda makes me wanna rock out hard core. Although, I think it’ll take more than a few years before I manage to get my skills up to par.
Aww, brothers! Abby, we need this picture, but with us instead of the boys. Next time, you probably should make the right choice and randomly come on down to Rockford instead of using silly excuses about how you have to like, take care of your kids and stuff. Ah well, they’ll grow up, so it’s only a matter of time 😉
Hooray for a happy weekend!!!!
It’s Science!
I’ve been a very naughty blogger. I don’t want to give excuses… But I’m going to anyways – I’m student teaching now! That means that I now have to get up really early (which if you know me, you know that this is a pretty extreme transition). I guess that’s pretty much the only downside that I’ve come up with so far. I’m crazy busy doing things for it, but it’s not really a negative… It’s just bad for the blog! I promise I’ll be better. I’m sorry.
Anywaaaaays, onto the pictures! Here are some dandy pictures of Ms. Amanda Robinson’s loverly lab bench. I thought they were fun, so I will share them with you!
Gaaaaah!!!! Watch out!!! Did you know that bees like using Qiagen kits? I suspect that this little bugger was about to work hard and do some RNA isolations. Or he was just attacking. I’m not sure which, but both are useful and practical options.
If you look very carefully at the bottom of the gel box, you can see the ghost of Shannon Kenney engraved on the side! Ok. It’s not a ghost. Just strangely transparent letters. Funky either way.
I don’t know what this is. It was hanging there, appeared to have some sort of significance, so I took a picture of it. I have yet to discover what this significance is, but I can only assume that it is something incredibly profound.
And this is what labs really look like. Filled with biohazardous waste. Huzzah! It’s really not that big of a deal. Most of the stuff with that silly label on it can’t hurt you anyways (*disclaimer* you must assume that it can hurt you though, I don’t want anyone suing me or something because they tried to eat what was in the biohazard bag. Don’t be dumb.)
I’m going to be so popular!!!
So do you know when you get those really awesome presents? I mean, the ones that you aren’t expecting, but turn out to be totally and completely perfect? Well, I got two of those this year from Momma Stalder. Upon opening this gift, which is an amazing three-crockpot-in-one warming buffet(?) I actually have no idea what this is called. I could look at the box, but that would just be too easy. This way is better. Now you all have the opportunity to just look at the pictures and insert your own name. But anyways, you can imagine my delight upon opening this fabulous device. I was so totally excited about receiving this gift, and about the future ramifications for all of my future hosting events, that I immediately yelled out “I’m going to be SOOO popular!!!!!” Who knew cookware could be so exciting?!
Next awesome gift. This little beauty is going to keep my house from burning down because of those late night pizzas. You literally can’t leave it on over night, which is perfect for its current location on my bar. Which is also incredibly close to the freezer. Which will be stocked with like hundreds of delightful frozen pizzas. Ah yes, it’s going to be a good year.
photofinishes 