Transition to Rock Compound/Wisconsin

Here's Ida and Matthew in the Philly airport. Despite the beauty of this image, traveling with her really sucks.


However, it did get us to Grambee and her magic birds...


...and Jim and his buckets of water.


What does Miki think of Grambee?


And why did Grambee tell Ida that the Fun Factory makes "green, star shaped poops"?


Miki likes that kind of talk.


Bye bye

A Photo Essay About Tomato Procurement, by Ella

Haddonsfield Happenings

Much attacking of Grandpa, whom was called (affectionately) an "old monster."



"Grandpa, are you messy?"
"Yes."
"We're messy!"

New Haven III: The Beach

So the ever-generous V people of New Haven took us to a secret beach in Madison, CT. Here's the whole crew, pretty much. Impressive:



Here Cousin Leigh considers changing Miki's diaper while Ida changes Matthew's (Matthew is rarely referred to a baby any more; she is also learning to walk, is two years old, and is Ida's daughter):


Ida and Danny got involved in a complicated game wherein Ida bossed Danny around and he cheerfully helped and also kicked the water.



"Help, Danny Hawkins!" "Sand, Danny Hawkins!"

Ida is napping, here in Haddonsfield.

New HAVEN II: Mysteries of N. Haven

True, DKV has a better camera than we do. But why do we let him throw Ida so high up in the air? So high and with such velocity that my camera can't even catch it. Here I caught the launch:


and here all you can see is the air between DKV's hands and Ida's body, in the clouds...


Landing!


At one point we thought we were going to mount a musical golf cart and (at Ella's behest) pick peaches, but then DKV slouched off into the bushes like he was going to take care of business. A little later, I went to see what he was doing. Check it out.


Finally, here is a sign DKV nailed to the fence outside his house.


Get it?

New Haven I: East Coast Goats and More

As Ida would tell you, "we're on a trip to the East Coast." This whole July traveling junket has at least three legs; and our trip to New Haven to see the secret DKV and SHV and siblings DHV and "Leigh-Leigh" may take a couple posts to account for. Needless to say, Ida was delighted to find goats on this coast, even if here you're not allowed inside the corral with them.


Cousin Danny is no slouch around large equipment.


Though her parents are not so sure about it,


Ida continues to act as if she'll take Yale up on the scholarship offer.


Later that night, she forced DHV to read many books from the "liberry" after a gigantic pizza festival.

Down the Shore

We witnessed many wonders while "Down the Shore" in Ocean City. Ella has decided to get a tattoo of the state of New Jersey that covers the whole side of her body.




Ida likes sand. A lot.





We went down there with Ella's old homie Sharon and her daughter, Elena. They had many cool beach toys.



Ella and Ida showed our gratitude by spanking them on a big slide race:





It's true, the four of us are rarely photographed together.



Here's Ida recounting how a seagull swooped down and snagged my sandwich out of my hand:

Grandpa vs. Ida

The Long Flight

Much trepidation and much preparation for this trip. It went okay.



Except Ella wasn't feeling great, so I had to be quite stern with Ida and battle with her relentlessly.



Here's what it felt like: