Celtic Woman

Our second concert this year was last weekend with Celtic Woman at the Peoria Civic Center.

Four talented beautiful women singing like angels. In other words, the perfect evening.

Kansas

Michele and I took in a Kansas concert on April fool's day, and man were we blown away.

Who knew that after 40 years these guys would still be at the top of their game. Amazing!

A Man Walked Into a Bar...

And he took pictures of some great people:

We Have a Fox for a Neighbor

For the second time in as many weeks, we've encountered a fox while walking Cody in a nature area near our home. Unlike the prior encounter, today I was armed with my camera:

A Celebration of Life

Michele and I traveled back to South Dakota recently to celebrate the extraordinary life of my stepfather.

RIP Bruce, we'll never stop missing you.

Though somber, the occasion brought together many different people from many distant places, which allowed me to capture some of them with my camera:

Defending Planned Parenthood

Fascism has a strong foothold in America. It seeks to undermine the legitimacy of some of our great institutions, specifically those of higher education, and the court system. It also seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the press and of basic facts. And it works tirelessly to suppress the vote, and to obstruct women's access to basic health care. This movement isn't new, its been on the move for many decades, and has unfortunately gained significant strength with the election of Donald J Trump to the presidency.

Fortunately, many Americans are standing up against this movement,

An excellent example of this resistance took place yesterday in Bloomington, IL where approximately 1,000 activists gathered in support of Planned Parenthood - an organization that supplies much needed health services to millions of women across America. Among the activists was my lovely wife Michele.

You make me proud sweetheart! I wish I could have been there with you. Next time for sure.

Good Times

We've had a lot of fun over the last few days catching up with all the peeps, and taking pictures, of course;

Brian is Back

Brian completed basic training, and has returned to central Illinois for 30 days leave. We had a small gathering of peeps last night to welcome him back, with another, much larger gathering planned for Tuesday.

More pictures coming soon.

Thanksgiving is Gone

But the memories are forever:

Return of the Peeps

Nick arrived home yesterday for Thanksgiving break, and now today we've seen a resurgence of peeps at the house. Tonight it was Nick, Drew and their friend Kamryn that stopped by to play some cards:

We had a great evening and hope the flurry of activity continues over the next week or so.

Missouri State Visit

Drove 6 hours to see Nick and Sarah last weekend, and to stock Nick up with groceries. We also took in a movie called The Accountant, which I thought was pretty good.

Banyan Tree

Pill Box

Luau

Waikiki Beach

Rabbit Island

Pearl Harbor

Makapuu Point Light

Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay

Turtles all the Way Down

One of our greatest experiences on our trip to Hawaii was swimming with and photographing giant sea turtles:

This was just one of many groups of sea turtles we encountered that were quietly resting on Hawaii's beaches. One larger group consisted of nearly 30 turtles:

More Hawaii pictures coming soon...