Another Instagram Challenge

April is almost over and May is fast approaching.  Valine and Vanessa recently put together a list of photo prompts for the month of May and I added a pretty background.  Won't you join us in capturing your May Days?  (be sure to use the hashtag #MayDaysWithVandV)

P. S.  Here is just a little hint of how I keep this list handy on my phone (this first part works for both iPhones and Android phones).  I open the website on my phone (https://mommystreasures.blogspot.com), touch the image so that it opens by itself on a separate page. Hold your finger on the picture so that you are given a choice of what to do with the image.   Choose "save image"(I don't know if this option is available on Androids).  This sends the photo to you photo gallery.  On my iphone , I am able to select the little heart at the bottom of the screen, which designates it as a "favorite" and stores in in a separate folder that I can easily access without having to scroll through all my photos to find it.  

P. S. S. For those of you with Android phones,

16/52 Red

M4H Project 52 - Red

I submitted two photos this week, and probably could have done more.  Red is such a striking color that it makes for great photos.
1.  The first is one I took with Callie and baby D.  It probably is not one of the most striking, but it was my favorite because of the interaction between them. Just as she began pulling him in the wagon, Callie turned around to catch his reaction, and he was staring intently at her, just to be sure it was all going to be alright.

2.  He puts it on everything: hamburgers, french fries, scrambled eggs, black-eye peas, even steak. My husband is a true (Southern) country boy!

Nine Months

Callie and baby D came over this afternoon for an impromptu photo shoot.  He is nine months old today, and that calls for a few pictures.  Some are better than others, but I think you'll agree that the subject himself makes them pretty sweet!
I brought out the old red wagon, a Radio Flyer, that Jana and Callie played with so much as little girls.  It is rusty now, and we keep it outside most of the time, so I brushed out the inside and put a towel inside for him to sit on.

Except for being a bit unsteady while being pulled through the grass, he seemed to enjoy it.

Oh, those sweet feet and hands!  

He could watch the dogs, and they could watch him.

And despite our best cleaning, there seemed to always be one more piece of grass that he could find.

A little while later, the ladies in my book study group came over to join us, so Papaw kept him busy for a while.  I caught a glimpse of them through the window.

After everyone left, we had a short Facetime session with Jana and baby B, so that was fun, too.  One of the best parts of being a grandparent is getting to savor the little things that I was too busy to enjoy when my own children were tiny.  And learning a little more about photography has allowed me to capture some of that sweetness---the dimples in their hands, the turn of their little feet, the eyelashes and the furrowed brow when they are intently looking at something.  Being a Lovey is the best!!

You'll Never Believe What Followed Us Home . . .

Last Monday, as I was checking my Facebook feed, I noticed that the daughter of one of my scrapbook buddies was putting their travel trailer up for sale.  While we have often commented on how much fun a trailer of some sort would be (even two days prior), we weren't actively looking for one at all.

I glanced at the pictures and then realized that the price was actually in our price range, so I showed the listing to Ron that evening.  We began talking and thinking and figuring and messaging, and one thing led to another. Soon we putting a new trailer hitch on the truck (well, Ron was putting the hitch on and I was holding the light and handing him tools). . .just in case.

Of course, we needed to see the camper in person, so we made a last minute trip down to south Louisiana so that we could check it out.  We spent the night with Valine and Kirk, and while we didn't have much time for visiting, we did enjoy a wonderful breakfast together.

The weather was terrible, with a big storm passing through Friday night, but it gave us a chance to see the camper's flaws, too.

 This is Lily, Juliet and Roger's daughter.   She has been through quite a bit over the last couple of years, but she is a survivor.  She literally sparkles when she smiles.  Glad she didn't mind saying goodbye to the camper.

The good far outweighed the bad (there wasn't much wrong with it at all), and soon we found ourselves heading back north on I-49 and guess what followed us home?!?!

You guessed it!  We are now the proud owners of a travel trailer.

Can't wait to begin making memories in it!!

Celebrating Two Years

Ron asked what I wanted to do to celebrate our second anniversary.  A couple of months ago, we considered going out of town for a couple of days, but getting our work schedules to coincide turned out to be rather tricky, so we scrapped that idea.  We decided to just have a nice dinner out instead and just spend time together working in the yard or whatever.   Then, at the very last minute, I came up with a new plan.  An impromptu road trip!   Ron needed to get the oil changed on his truck before we left Saturday, but it seemed to take him an extra long time.  Then, just before he got back home, the door bell rang.  It was a delivery for me---13 long-stem red roses!  Beautiful!   Apparently, Ron had ordered them to be delivered before we planned the trip and he had to make a few phone calls to be sure they were delivered before we left town.

We left town just after noon and headed to Kisatchie National Forest.  As a college student, I went to Kisatchie from time to time for science classes, but, I never realized how large it actually is and how many different districts there were.  I picked out a hiking trail in the Calcasieu District and we meandered our way through the back roads to get there.

The weather was wonderful and we had the trail mostly to ourselves.

The Wild Azalea Trail is actually very long (26 miles), and often used for backpacking, but we chose to just hike in about 2.5 miles and back out.  Along the way, we passed an abandoned fire tower and enjoyed a nice breeze among the trees.

Parts of the trail are lower and filled with hardwood trees.  Do you see the heart below?  I didn't even notice that until I uploaded my photos onto the computer.  Pretty cool!!

Other parts of the trail are hillier and surrounded by Longleaf pines.

Naturally, my favorite part of the hike was rounding the corner of the trail to find the beautiful wild azaleas for which the trail is named.

 Butterflies were everywhere and the aroma of the flowers was wonderful!

I'd never seen wild azaleas before and loved their texture, with the delicate blossoms hanging down.

We crossed a couple of streams and attempted to take a selfie on one of the bridges by setting my timer on my iPhone.  Unfortunately, I actually hit the time lapse button and it resulted in this:

We did manage to get this one photo, however.  Ron does not look especially happy to be there, or perhaps he is concerned by all the commotion it took to get this one, awkward photo.

On the hike back to the trailhead, the sun was highlighting the azaleas in such a pretty way.

And we ran across a couple of crawfish holes on the trail, as well.

After driving around the park, we once again began dreaming about having a camper of some sort--someday, we thought aloud.  Our long day was made even better, when this beautiful sunset showed up in the sky on the way home.  What a perfect ending to a great day