Visiting Mother

I made a quick trip to Tacoma this weekend. I'll give you a moment to roll your eyes and think, Awesome, now I get to hear all about that. Pssh. Other people's weekends. Sometimes you just need to go home, right? Well, I'm sure you'll be interested to hear that we didn't do too much--Mom and I ran errands and puttered around the old homestead and went to a hoarder's estate sale. Uhh, yeah we did. We also visited Catherine and Nick in Olympia, ate pizza and carrot cake, and went to see The Hunger Games. (Oh, Hunger Games...why are you such a disappointment? Actually, I know why. I have a mental list, which I compiled during my drive back across the state, but let's not get into that now.) 

Part of the errands was to get Mom a new camera--her old camera stopped working after getting hit with too much sea spray on a whale watching excursion--and even though we had to go from Puyallap to Federal Way to Tacoma, we accomplished that mission. Here she is delighting herself while conducting a bit of a test run. 

Poppies are my favorite. They used to grow on the hillside across from our house in Bad Kreusnach, Germany. Monika and I
used to find baby snails amidst the poppies and let those little snailies crawl on our arms. True story.
Mom's poppies were closed when I arrived, but a couple opened Monday morning! 

I'm fascinated by the poppies' bud casings. They're like little animals! I petted this shed casing for quite a while. 

That's a C-17 Globemaster flying over the house. 

Mom spotted several robins while searching for a subject on which to test her 20x optical zoom. Dang.

A pair of woodpeckers is working away at one of Mom's trees. Doesn't this one look annoyed? I see it in his beady bird eye. 

I look forward to pictures of cats, birds, and flowers, as well as terribly unflattering shots of me and my sisters. I can only assume it's a mother's duty. Don't worry, Catherine, I took it upon myself to erase those pictures from Sunday. You're welcome, sister.