Here, fishy fishy...

Last night I took our cub scout pack to the WVU Agronomy Farm for a fishing activity. This pond is perfect for kids because you catch a fish nearly every cast. All of the boys had a great time. Becca and Dan came along to fish. Becca caught her first fish ever and Dan caught his practice casting fish. Dan will make a great fisherman, it only took him a few tries and he was casting perfectly with some distance from the shore. Michael caught two fish which is amazing for him since he had to wait for the bobber to go and he is not one for waiting.

New School Year

Mike and Sam started school last week. Mike is now at a new school and he has to ride the bus to get there. He really likes his new school and doesn't mind riding the bus. He is excited that he gets to start music this year and he has picked out the viola to learn to play. I am very excited that I get to help him with this.

Today was Becca's first day at kindergarten. She was very excited and ready for school.

So Far Behind in Blogging

We are back from our July vacation. We left for WI on July 14th and returned on Aug 1st. It was a crazy drive there with 5 kids (our 4 and cousin Lauren) and two dogs in our Envoy.

We first stopped at Nana and Papa's house before heading off to Hawaii. The kids and dogs loved Nana and Papa's extremely large yard and all of the food (especially the berries) from the garden. Sam and Mike loved Papa's mutant carrots.

Becca tasted mulberries for the first and last time.

While we were there we found Darth Dan.

The 4th of July was a blast this year. It was a fairly busy day. The schedule was:

8:00 AM - Pancake breakfast at Church
3:00 PM - Picnic/barbecue
4:00 PM - Pinata
6:30 PM - 4th of July Parade
8:30 PM - Fireworks Display

This year was nice. We had several families over to share the day with. We had lots of little children to enjoy the pinata and the fireworks. We decided last year that the city's fireworks were way too late for our kids to stay awake so each year we would put on a display at our house. This year was a bit longer than last year lasting around 30 minutes and $225. That ends up being $7.50 per minute for fireworks but it was totally worth it. We had quite the audience! There were around 15 kids from the various families watching. One of the fellow dads in the group used his camera to create a time lapse of the fireworks display and it can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN6vaFB17Es

It is pretty cool to see. Cut and paste into your browser or go to youtube.com and search for 'Todd West's Backyard Fireworks'.

Here are two attempts to end the pinata!



Michael had the final hit and the mad rush for candy followed.


Here is the 'crew' waiting for the parade to start.


Jen is so prepared. The kids started getting antsy because we were early to get curb-side seats so she pulled out the ring pops for everyone.


Here are some of our favorite fireworks:

This is all that was left after the firework show.

This past Wednesday I met with a commercial grower that was 1 hour North East of Niagara Falls in NY to discuss using hornfaced bees for blueberry pollination. Since I had to go, it was family roadtrip time to go see Niagara Falls. After meeting with the grower we stopped at Lake Ontario before heading into Canada.


We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Canada. This was my first time spending the night in Canada. The hotel has a indoor waterpark and was a blast.



I purchased an underwater case for my Sony camera to use for our trip to Hawaii and took it along for a 'wet' run. It was fun getting movies and pictures without worrying about the water, it worked great! This was the Woolly Mammoth ride and I was able to document that Dan did not like this ride.

This was the Niagara Rapids Run and was Sam's favorite ride.

On Thursday we had an international pancake experience by eating breakfast at IHOP in Canada.


After breakfast we headed to see the Falls and it was quite amazing. I understand why everyone told us to go over to the Canadian side to view the falls. The first shots are of the American Falls.




These shots are of the Canadian Falls (Horseshoe Falls). The picture below shows the size of the falls. The picture that follows is of the kids sitting at the top of the falls (the wall can be seen in the right-hand side of the picture immediately below).

Mike said that watching the water flow over the Falls made him feel sea sick.


On the way back to WV I asked the kids which they enjoyed more, the Falls or the waterpark hotel. The answer was a quick, waterpark.

Glow-in-the-Dark Plants

Yesterday I created my first Genetically Modified Organism (GMO). The inserted gene had a marker gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP) which causes the cell to glow when viewed using fluorescence microscopy. The picture is of an onion cell that has a gene inserted with the GFP marker gene. The bright green circle is the nucleus and the bright outside is the cell wall. I was very excited to learn how to use the gene gun that we have.

Rain, Tooth Fairy, More Baseball and Mother's Day

I have finished installing our new 275 gallon rain collection unit. I was very happy to see it filling up. I plan on keeping it full around 200 gallons so we can use it in emergencies such as for flushing our toilets if water service is interrupted.


Sam lost another tooth and is happy with what the tooth fairy left for him.


This past Saturday was opening day for T-ball (Dan and Becca) and Pitching Machine Baseball (Sam). Dan and Becca really enjoy T-ball and are really good hitters. Sam really looks like a true baseball player and had two base hits during his opener.








The kids really enjoyed Mother's Day and being able to show their appreciation and love to the best mom in the world. They picked out and wrapped presents, made cards and breakfast in bed. Dan and Becca helped finding the perfect tulip to cut from the yard to top it off.