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Contents
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Morgan Family
Visiting Grandma and Grandpa’s House 3

Catch of the Day 4

Amy’s Dog 4

The Krazy Kazoo Brigade 5

The Turtle Nest 5

A “Super” Sunday 6
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Morgan Family

Visiting Grandma and

Grandpa’s House

Introduction
We had been planning a visit down to see my parents for the Fourth
of July, but changed our plans when I found out that my sister was
going to be in the state during the second to the last weekend of
June. It would be just the kids and I since Theresa needed to work
over the weekend.

Fishing Plans
Aunt Amy offered to take the kids fishing at our Mom and Dad’s lake
while we were visi�ng. The kids picked out kid-sized fishing poles the
night before we le� for Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Josh picked
out a pole with a Transformer’s theme, and Kayla’s pole was pink with
a picture of Barbie on it.
Left to right: Amy, Jon, Kahyla, and Josh pose after
their fishing trip.
Over the River and Through the Woods . . .
We le� our house around ten thirty and arrived at Grandma and front yard un�l it started raining. A�er an hour without
Grandpa’s house around noon. The kids met Amy’s new puppy while rain we decided that there was s�ll enough �me to go
I unloaded the van, and then we all ate a quick lunch. It was raining fishing.
off and on during the be�er part of the a�ernoon so we weren’t sure
if we’d be able to go fishing, but prepared the kids’ fishing poles just
in case. Aunt Amy showed the kids how to cast their lines out in the Gone Fishing
We loaded up Dad’s truck with the fishing poles, life
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Mom follows Josh and Kenny around the

Amy and her puppy. backyard.

Amy checks out the turtle and its

nest.

Now it’s time for Josh to display his catch. Amy is

shown helping him unhook the fish.

Kayla proudly shows off her Amy watches as her puppy

first catch. chases Josh across the yard.

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preservers, live bait, and a couple of small chairs for the kids and
set off for Mom and Dad’s lake. The driveway for the lake was just a
couple of miles down the road from our parents’ house.
Amy hooked worms onto each fishing pole and the kids began fishing
in the lake. It wasn’t long, however, un�l Josh caught his first fish.
Another fish grabbed a hold of Kayla’s hook while we were ge�ng
Josh ready to cast out again. This kept up for the whole �me the
kids were fishing. A�er a couple of hours, we finally decided to call it
good.
Catch of the Day
Josh and Kayla show off the fish they caught while we were back at
the lake.
The Krazy Kazoo Brigade
Mom, Josh, and Janelle’s son march noisily across the backyard.
The Turtle Nest
On Friday evening, I conned mom into pu�ng the kids to bed so
that my sister and I could sneak over to the Cromaine Library in
Hartland to connect to their wi-fi from outside the building. We took
turns connec�ng to the Internet and checking our email. While I
was wai�ng for Amy to finish, I grabbed my camera and took a walk
around the block just to see what kind of photos I could take in the
short amount of �me that I had.
I decided to check out the building that I a�ended when I was in the
first grade and the playground where I used to play during recess. To
my surprise, I came upon a turtle that seemed to be guarding a hole
in the sand with eggs in it. I imagine that it had just laid the eggs,
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and I had just happened across it before it could scamper back to the
nearby swamp.
These are a few of the photos that I took. I called Amy to tell her
about my discovery. A few minutes later, she arrived and we checked
out the turtle together.
A “Super” Sunday
The kids and I were in the Dollar General on Sunday when we
discovered a great deal on a Superman cape. There had been plenty
of other �mes when I had been tempted to buy the same cape toy
at Wal-Mart on sale, or at Target on clearance, but I had never seen
them at this good of a price before.
Our Sunday started out like any other. I dragged myself out of bed at
around 8:30 a.m. The kids had been up for a while, but s�ll needed
to eat breakfast and get dressed for church. I picked out some clothes
for Josh and asked Kayla to figure out an ou�it for herself. I fixed up
breakfast, and we ate. Next, I showered and dressed for church.
Towards the end, I was wai�ng for a long �me for Kayla to finish
brushing her hair and we were rushed ge�ng out to the van. We
hurried to church with just fi�een minutes to go before the service
would start. I asked Pastor Kathy if she wanted me to handle the
soundboard. She told me that they hadn’t go�en a fresh ba�ery for
the microphone yet. Overall, it seemed like they hadn’t been using
the soundboard very much while the kids and I were absence from
the service.
When it was �me for Children’s Time, Pastor Kathy invited Josh and
Kayla to come up to the front of the sanctuary. This was mostly
because they were the only children there. I can’t quite remember
what the Pastor’s message was, except that it involved mustard seeds
and acorns, but I do recall my children telling stories about babysi�ng
our neighbor’s fish, and our recent travels to their Grandma and
Grandpa Boyne’s house.
It was a few minutes a�er the kids returned from Children’s Time
that Kayla told me that she needed to blow her nose and use the
bathroom. Josh piped up by saying that he also needed to use the
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The turtle smiles for the camera.

A Bird’s eye view of the turtle. You can see its eggs.

Josh in his new Superman cape “Up, up, and away!”


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bathroom. Although I would have gladly allowed Kayla to use the
bathroom by herself, I couldn’t really trust Josh to go off into the
church alone, so I went with him. Kayla was si�ng in our spot when
we made it back to the sanctuary. We had missed the reading, and
the first part of Pastor Kathy’s sermon.
We were out of Pepsi at home, so a�er church we made a quick
detour to General Dollar. This is one of only five different places
where you can actually buy pop in Shepherd, with most of those
being gas sta�ons, and two others being stores. General Dollar has
the best price on pop, plus it is some�mes fun to look around at the
other stuff in the store.
Well, the toy aisle was our first stop. The kids discovered a toy
electronic piano which they used to torment me and the other
customers. I pulled them down the rest of the aisle, and then swung
over to where the pop was stored. I picked out two 2-liter bo�les
of Pepsi, gave one to Kayla to carry (“Don’t drop it,” I said) and then
headed for the checkout lane.
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buying colored sand on clearance at Wal-Mart for a dollar per bag.
She was buying so much of it, however, that she needed the van and
wondered if I would meet her at work.
When it was �me to leave for Wal-Mart, I helped the kids pick out
bags they could hide their capes in, and told them that they should
show off their super hero “disguises” to their mom. Then, Kayla
pretended that they really were both super heroes but needed a ride
to the store despite the fact that they could fly if they wanted to.
The mee�ng at Wal-Mart took place, and we were able to transport
the sand back home. We also ate at Bennigan’s for dinner. I wanted
to check if Target s�ll had Clone Wars backpacks, so Josh and I took
the car to the store while Kayla and Theresa drove the van home. Josh
said that he wanted to go with me instead of going home, but a�er
he thought about it he changed his mind and started to whine. Of
course, by then it was too late because Theresa was already gone, so
I told him he had to live with his decision. He whined and complained
un�l we got inside Target.

We were wai�ng to check out when I spo�ed the Superman capes
si�ng below a table towards the front of the store. We must have
missed them when we entered the store because we were making
such a beeline for the toy aisle. There was a big sign on the table
which read “Clearance,” and under that there was another sign
showing down the degrees of the discounts. My first interpreta�on
of the sign was that a red star meant that an item was 70% its price. I
was delighted to see that the boxes the Superman capes were in were
marked with a red star.
We did end up buying a Clone Wars backpack for school. I called
home pretending to be Commissioner Gordan asking for Supergirl,
but Theresa didn’t play along.
Kayla was playing in the sandbox filled with the new sand when we
arrived home. Theresa was picking up the apples which had fallen
onto the ground.

A�er we check out, I took a closer look at the cape to see what its
price was, but didn’t see any. I asked the cashier its price, and that’s
when she said that it was $1.50. I was, like, holy pete that’s cheap!
I asked Josh if he would play with it, and he nodded. Then, Kayla
said that she would play with the Superman cape—only she would
be Supergirl instead. I looked at her doub�ully, and asked her if she
would for sure needed one of her own, or if she could just borrow her
brother’s. She said she needed one of her own.

So, I decided that for $3 it was worth a shot. At the worse, we could
regi� one of the capes for someone’s birthday.

I made the purchases, and we opened the boxes as soon as we got

home. The kids played with the capes for the be�er part of the
a�ernoon. In the meanwhile, Theresa called to tell me that she was