We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost. ~Henry Rollins

September 2
Ella loving on her brother Knox
Picture by their mom Kelly

September 2

September 3
Knox playing second base
Fall Ball

#18 at bat

September 4
Glock
It's got a kick

and makes some holes

September 4
Wacky Tacky Day
I'd say he nailed it

Elijah chillin' after school

Shelby and Ella
Pretty sure Ella's got her eyes on Spongebob 

The gang's all here for some
Cousin Time

September 5
Hanging out with Elijah, Holly, and Ella
Elijah taught her how to make some faces

September 6
Knox ran 15 laps in Cougar Run for his school's fundraiser

Three generations of Capshaw Kids
Me, Kelly, Knox (and Ella in the not-so-distant future)

September 6
Blazing sunset
This month has been very hot and dry

September 9
The orange one tastes the best

September 11
Elijah chillin' at Panera on a Wednesday evening

Shelby and Holly
Got that sunset glow

It was a spectacular sunset

September 14
Kelly snapped this picture of Ella reading Knox the riot act
on her 1st birthday

She's #1 and she's got the crown to prove it

First taste of birthday cake

She got upset when we sang the birthday song

She enjoyed playing with the cake more than she did actually eating it

She had fun opening presents
because ... lots of tissue paper and kitty cat cards
The clothes and toys were nice too

Ella with her great-aunt Jane and great-uncle Don
I love this picture

Ella with her cousins Evan and Finn

Ella with her aunt Holly, uncle Jerry, and cousins Shelby and Elijah

The Kimbrough Family
Kerry, Kelly, Knox, and the birthday girl

Birthday dinner at Bobby Qs
Holly, Ella, Knox, Shelby, and Elijah
having some Snapchat fun

September 17
More target practice
I shoot to my left
Obviously
I'm trying to correct that
Every now and then I do hit the center

Neil practiced with the 9mm while I used the .22

September 19
Took a walk around the neighborhood
Need to do that more often

Looks like someone turned an old satellite dish into a happy greeting

Aunt Holly got some Ella time in after work this afternoon

Making that face Elijah showed her how to make

September 22
Ice cream at the Lazy Cow Creamery
on a hot Sunday afternoon after ball practice

September 23
Ella's dad Kerry snapped this pic of her enjoying the swings at Cane Creek Park

September 23
Getting my Fall on
on the first day of Autumn



"The sun tires of summer and sighs itself into autumn." ~Terri Guillemets



September 24
Autumn sunsets are the best

September 26
The engineer precisely hanging pictures
It's been over a year now since we gutted our living room
I'm finally filling our blank walls with family photos
Better late than never

September 27
Who needs toys when you've got books?

She knows she's not supposed to go in there

September 28
Gratuitous picture of my dinner at Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant
Yep, it was yummy!

September 30
Ah, that time of year when the sun is always below your sun visor all day long
The calendar says Autumn ....

.... but the weather says Summer

Knox's fall ball team played a doubleheader tonight
They lost not-even-close the first game
They lost by two runs the second game 12-14
Last games of the regular season
Tournament games start tomorrow



"For summer there, bear in mind, is a loitering gossip, that only begins to talk of leaving when September rises to go."
~ George Washington Cable


Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soil. 
~ Peggy Toney Horton


And then the sun took a step back, the leaves lulled themselves to sleep and Autumn was awaked. 
~ Raquel Franco


"Sorrow and scarlet leaf,
Sad thoughts and sunny weather.
Ah me, this glory and this grief
Agree not well together!"
~Thomas Parsons, 1880, A Song For September

“August is a gentle reminder for not doing a single thing from your new year resolution for seven months and not doing it for next five.” ~Crestless Wave

August 1
Neil is ready for sudden attacks, foreign or domestic, as we walk around our neighborhood

August 2
Granddaughter Ella has just discovered a box full of new toys
Actually, they're old
She just hasn't seen them in a while

Up close and personal with herself

August 2
God always paints a pretty picture
in spite of all the man made ground clutter

August 3
Ella's mom Kelly took this picture
Cracks me up

August 5
Grandpa Neil and grandson Knox head down the midway at the county fair
All the fair photos are by Kelly

Knox is so over all those baby rides
One of his buddies showed up and they rode the rides together

They were brave enough (or crazy enough) to ride the pirate ship

Ella and her dad Kerry
This is Ella's first time at the fair

One of these expressions is not like the other

Whee! This ride is awesome!

Kelly showed Ella the real live bunnies which are prizes in a ring toss game
(How sad is that. Just sayin'. Unless you really really want to take home a bunny to care for for the rest of its natural life...or yours...whatever)

Family Selfie at the fair
Kelly, Ella, Kerry, and Knox
Good times

August 9
Kelly's kitty Frankie is fed up with people sitting in his chair ...

... and sitting on his couch

August 9
Knox and some of his after-school Bomb Pop buddies
Not sure who took this picture

August 11
The leaning tower of DQ hot fudge sundae deliciousness

August 12
Neil added some pavers and did repairs on the brick walkway

Mood

Coneflowers in a sea of weeds  green

"I'm fixing a hole

Where the rain gets in

And stops my mind from wandering

Where it will go ...."

Pop quiz:

What is the song, who sings it, and what album is it from?

Neil is really fixing a hole where the rain gets in

to the basement

What every home owner wants to see coming out of the basement

August 12
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer

~Charles Tobias (1963 Nat King Cole version)

August 12
Pink

August 13
Jingle bells
Shotgun shells
Bullets all the way
Oh what fun
To shoot a gun
At the indoor shooting range

Neil and I got some target practice
He's using the .22 rifle his dad bought for him probably sixty years ago
It hasn't been fired in decades but still works perfectly

Nice shootin' there, Tex

The rifle is awkward for me to shoot
I did better with the .22 pistol
Takes me a while but I can eventually hit the center
Sort of

August 13
Ella and Granny
Picture by Neil

August 13
Shades of summer
After the rain

August 15
We took Elijah and Shelby to the shooting range to practice

Shelby tried out the .22 rifle ...

... she's good

Elijah did well with the rifle, too ...

... good aim

Shelby riddled her target until she hit the center
with the .22 pistol

After you target practice, you have to get donuts
It's a law or something

August 16
Ella has been pulling herself up for a while now
It's also fun to play with Grandpa's belt
Or anything else that isn't a toy

What's in the box?

She liked the box and sat here for quite a while looking through her book
Great way to corral her now that she's mobile

August 17
Neil took Knox to Jake's Day
He caught this good sized catfish
read what Jake's Day is all about:

http://www.nwtf.org/about/hunting-heritage/jakes

And got to do some shootin'

He also got his face painted
Got some curious looks afterwards during lunch at Panera

August 17
Grandson Elijah (far right) celebrated his 13th birthday with his buddies at his house
They enjoyed the big blowup water slide, a giant cookie cake, and a sleepover
No one slept I'm sure
Picture by Elijah's mom Holly

August 17
We had a sleepover, too
Knox spent the night for the very first time ever at our house (without parents here)
We watched his favorite movie, The Greatest Showman
He's seen it about seven times and knows all the lyrics to the songs and a lot of the choreography
First time we've seen it
Great movie! We enjoyed it very much
He slept upstairs by himself on the futon

August 18
Hey! I've got hair!

I had no idea until now! Why didn't you tell me?

It's still there!

August 20
Birthday party number two
Celebrated with family
Can't believe he's a teenager

Watched a spectacular lightning show after the party. They live where there's no city lights which makes night sky watching pretty awesome. Of course, my grainy photo doesn't come close to doing the lightning justice

August 21
My sister Ann and her hubby Terry celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary
This is their engagement announcement picture (way back) in 1982
They haven't changed a bit
Well, maybe the hair ...

August 21
Stop the car so I can snap a pic!
He did
I'm a sucker for sunsets and clouds

This was our destination
Big O
We eat way too many doughnuts

August 23
A little porch sitting and bubble blowing and chewing on the bubble bottle

August 23
Got a tiger by the tail
And boy is it fun to yank!
Smokey didn't seem to mind
Too much anyway

August 23
Guitar practice

August 24
Tried the new ice cream in town

They've got a huge variety of flavors
I enjoyed the pistachio

Yum!

August 24
Ella loved on her soft stuffed bunny ....

... and then threw him over the cliff
Thank goodness it wasn't one of those bunnies from the fair ....

August 25
Ella made it through most of the Sunday morning worship service before her mom had to take her out
She sat in Aunt Holly's lap, ransacked her wallet, tasted all the plastic cards, then threw them on the floor, but it kept her busy and quiet until she saw her mom sitting in the pew behind her and cried for her to take her.
Hooray for Aunt Holly!

After church, we tried a new (to us) Mexican restaurant
Shelby ordered her usual chicken/cheese/rice and enjoyed it

August 26
Rainy days and Mondays and granddaughter Shelby's first day in college
We enjoyed lunch with her at Panera
She hasn't been in a classroom since May
Hard getting back in the groove but I think she's going to like college

August 27
After school
Watching Spongebob
Could we BE having any more fun?

August 30
Still gets a kick out of doing this
Only now with a nose wrinkle

She's starting to get her sea legs
But right after I snapped this pic, she fell over and bonked her noggin on the floor
School of hard knocks

August 31
Happy trails, August


Whilst August yet wears her golden crown,
Ripening fields lush- bright with promise;
Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing
Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn.

~Michelle L. Thieme

 "The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year – the days when summer is changing into autumn – the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change."
―E.B. White, Charlotte's Web