Rudy's 6th Birthday

*Blogger has changed some, and the pictures that used to go in one order, now go in another, so all these posts are backwards.*

After two other birthday celebrations, Sunday was Rudy's real birthday.
Here Moonlight sits on Lou's pillow (later he decided to mark the pillow as his own.)

We found a way to distract Moonlight while we are trying to read the paper: hexbugs!

Rudy opening presents.

After opening his presents, and playing with them, we went to church because I had to teach Sunday School and Rudy had choir practice. After church we headed to our favorite restaurant for Rudy to get pancakes. But it was too crowded, so we stopped somewhere else and got pancakes, then headed home and enjoyed a relaxing day playing with new toys and the Wii that Bill & Renee passed on to us because they don't use it anymore. It was a great end to a busy and fun weekend.

Tyler Arboretum

*Pictures backwards again.*
We met Bill, Renee and Paige for dinner.

A beautiful sunset seen from the Walt Whitman Bridge.

I recently bought a membership to the Tyler Arboretum. We really enjoy the tree house display they have, and this was the final weekend for it. Since the weather was so nice, we decided to head there on Saturday.

This tree is hundreds of years old. It is an Orange-Osage, which has some sort of repellent for fungi, so it is still very well preserved.

Thank goodness for self-timers or we would never have a picture of all 3 of us.

Walking the maze and Rudy following a map (that only showed the maze on it, but not how to navigate the maze!).

Ahh, to be a butterfly.

Looking for frogs or fish; we didn't find any.

A typical face - tongue out.

Telling fortunes.

What is in here? We never found out, although Paul thinks he saw something!

I need to find pictures from a few years ago when we went here and Rudy could barely climb up this himself. This year Paul and I didn't even have to climb up with him!

Another family portrait - as the characters from The Wind in the Willows.

A boy who is happy to be outside and run free.

Checking for the troll under the bridge.

Ready to fight!

A knight!

A place to sit for a while.

This tree was struck by lightning. Rather than dig it up, it was carved into a tree. The other side had an owl on it.