Curacao Ostrich Farm and Aloe Vera Plantation

When we arrived at the Ostrich Farm, we boarded a covered open truck to start our tour.  The tour guide stopped the truck and stuck his hand out to the first ostrich we met.

I was having fun taking photos of the curious ostriches as they approached our vehicle.  They looked so cute!

This silly ostrich kept pecking at the fence.  If I remember correctly, the tour guide said these birds have a very small brain and forget why they are even pecking.

Another tour guide met us to let all of the tourists have a chance to feed the ostriches.  Below she demonstrates how to feed the ostriches.

They have some pot-bellied pigs that come and clean up the feed that drops on the ground during the ostrich feedings.

We then got back on the tour bus to go to the Aloe Vera Plantation.

We watched a live demonstration on how they harvest aloe vera. 

Everyone had a chance to eat a piece of aloe vera.  I was brave and tasted it since its supposed to be very healthy for you.  It was acidic with a bit of sweetness. 

I thought it was clever that they used goats to keep the weeds out of the aloe vera plants.

On the way back to the cruise ship, we were told an interesting story why Curacao has so many colorful buildings.  To read the history of how King Willem's headaches caused the buildings to be colorfully painted, click here. 

Aruba Sunset Tour

I was so looking forward to this excursion through Holland Ameria and thank God the weather was perfect! We rode in a catamaran similar to the one shown in the image below.  On the boat, they served refreshments and tasty snacks of local cheeses and hot appetizers.  Yum!!!  On the way back to port, we captured our cruise ship, the Zuiderdam, and one of the images below shows our suite/balcony on deck 7 circled in white.  Enjoy!

Aruba Butterfly Farm

Aruba was our first stop on our 10-day Panama Canal cruise since we weren't able to go to shore in the Bahamas due to the rough seas.  I enjoyed capturing beautiful flowers, butterflies, and a beautiful sunset in Aruba.  The following images are from the Aruba Butterfly Farm.  The Aruba Sunset Tour images will follow in a separate blogpost.

The butterflies feed off of these pink and red pentas in the butterfly garden.  Pentas are a heat-tolerant flower perfectly suited for the warm weather in Aruba.

We listened to a tour guide for quite some time and I didn't have time to capture the Monarch butterfly though I did get a photo of the Monarch caterpillar (below).

This Owl Caterpillar was almost hidden on this leaf which the tour guide pointed out to us.

This chrysalis or pupa of the owl butterfly will eventually emerge as an adult which is shown in the next image.

The Owl Butterfly is known for its huge eyespots which resemble owl's eyes.

This Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly is one of the largest butterflies in the world.  The swallowtails are unique in that even while feeding, they continue to flutter their wings. Unlike other swallowtail butterflies, spicebushes fly low to the ground instead of at great heights.

We were privileged to capture this Scarlet and Spicebush Swallowtail mating on a tree.

And last but not least, this yellow and black Malachite butterfly looks so pretty while feeding on this red Hibiscus flower.

Smith Family Cars of the Past

To my dear children--Angela, Trisha and Michael, here are the cars that we had in the family until Michael moved out of the home and made us empty-nesters.  May this blogpost bring back good memories in your childhood!

1959 Chevy - My first car... I called it my bat mobile!  A co-worker sold me this car when I worked at Marshall Army Airfield on Fort Riley.  I'm ashamed to say that I don't recall ever giving it a tuneup the whole time I had it for a few years.  It was a miracle that it lasted until shortly after I married Ron.  It was after this car bit the dust that we were without a car for a while and had to catch rides to church and work.

Yellow Maverick (year unknown) - All of the images are not the actual cars we owned, but similar in make, model and color.  This Maverick looks a lot nicer than the one we had! It was pretty raggedy! 

While pregnant with Trisha, I drove the Maverick to the hospital after my water broke and dropping Angela off at the babysitters.  I delivered her soon after arriving at the hospital.

I recall while my husband drove me to the hospital to deliver my 10-pound boy and teasing my husband that I knew it was a girl.  He wanted a boy real bad, and so did I!  The car shimmied all the way to the hospital!

1953 International Truck - This truck hauled a LOT of firewood!  Wish we had it now even if we didn't drive it!


1974 Gremlin - We traded the '53 International in for the Gremlin since it was so much better on gas for when my husband drove to work.

74 Nova 2-door hatchback - Wish I had a picture of the wood contraption (to store luggage) my husband built for the top of the car when we made our first trip to Baltimore.  It was pretty hilarious to look at!  Got chuckles from other drivers while on Interstate 70.

We decided to get rid of the car soon after an incident that scared the daylights out of me.  While going back to work on I-70 with a friend in the car, the hood flew up obstructing my driving view!  Thank God nothing serious happened and I was able to pull off the road and shut the hood.

1985 Dodge Omni - Our first brand new car!!!  It was so nice going from a clunker to a brand new car even though it was a compact car and accommodated our family of five!

1987 Dodge Dakota Pickup - Angela learned to drive a stick in this truck. We didn't have this truck long though.  After returning from a trip from Baltimore, that "new car" spirit got a hold of my husband and he traded the Dakota in for a 1988 Dodge Ram Pickup.

1987 Chrysler New Yorker - This was a new car demo.  I felt really uptown driving our first brand new luxury car!!!  Michael learned to drive in this car along with the red Dodge Pickup.

1988 Dodge Ram D100 Truck - Angela, Trisha and Michael all learned to drive in this truck.  I'm sure Angela has plenty of memories about this truck.  It was such a nice looking truck!  Better looking than the image shown below!

1996 Honda Civic LX - Last but not least, this car got passed around in the family, from Angela to Michael and then back to us.  The car got totaled when Ron got hit from behind going to Topeka on the icy road. 

Rain showers, wildflowers, and a green stink bug

April showers bring May flowers and they sure enough did this year!  Below you will find April showers and the wildflowers that bloomed in May.  The stink bugs were plentiful this year and we captured one on some pretty wildflowers.  Each wildflower is identified with a caption.  Enjoy!

Blue wild-indigo

 Blue wild-indigo with yellow roundleaf groundsel in background.

Roundleaf groundsel

Common milkweed (attracts butterflies)

Missouri evening primrose

 Macro image of wild prairie rose

 Purple low poppy mallow

A heavenly puppy!

Those that remember our 1st Toto, the first image below of Maryland reminds me of him!  Maryland is 6 months old in these images and she probably won't grow much bigger.

Charlie and Maryland are having a blast playing outside and I've included my favorites from their playful session!  I love how the wind has caused Maryland's ears to stand up in a couple of these images!  The last image is of Maryland looking up into the sky as though she is looking up towards heaven, thus I named this post, a heavenly puppy!   Enjoy!