Vacation Photos by popular request

So I'm back from a week at Hilton Head Island, NC -- an upscale town mostly consisting of time share and vacation share condos and golf courses. I could say that it was a great vacation, and of course, it was...when I let myself go with the flow and a be part of it. But I tend to be a vacation grinch. It is all about attitude and I, as usual have two conflicting attitudes going on -- not really a Bagman / Butler split -- a different, related kind of schizophrenia. Perhaps if I had to name the two characters I carried in my brain to Hilton Head I would call one of them Granddaddy Fan Man and Wolf. Granddaddy Fan Man had a ball carrying Conner around and showing him pictures and shapes -- Conner loves ceiling fans (hence the name). Wolf, on the other hand, sits in the corner and waits furtively, with a low growl, wanting to dig under the fence and run alone, exploring without distractions. Wolf's ideal vacation would be to take the camera, a laptop, and drive to unexplored places alone. Granddaddy Fan Man's vacation was exactly what happened. So the bottom line is that we all had a wonderful time, including me, despite the fact that I whined a lot. If any of that makes any sense.

BUTLER: Be quiet, Mark, and show the pictures.

BAGMAN: Ho hum...


We set up the tripod and took pictures of ourselves to put in a frame someday with all the other smiling posed shots adorning our livingroom.

Brian put Melody's hairbrush in his hair.

He and Melody built a sand castle.

And looked out from behind it, Brian making the smile he makes when he'd rather not be posing either.

Melody got her tongue pierced for her birthday the day before we went to Hilton Head which made it a bit hard for her to eat her birthday cake for a couple of days.

Brian got a hickey - (hmm...must have been before the tongue piercing is my guess.)


And nothing stopped her from continuing to kiss him a lot

Conner was the center of attention.









And worked on lifting his head up, preparing for his next task of rolling over, although he never quite accomplished that...yet.

Although his Aunt Kathy cheered him on with a look of absolute adoration.
And his grandmother took him for lots of long walks which caused him to gurgle and coo 75% of the time and scream bloody murder 25% of the time.

He learned about swimming pools which didn't seem to impress him much.

Karen laid out...she is smiling and looks relaxed but she is thinking, "Where's Conner...I want to go back and pick up Conner!

Meanwhile, Mark, inspired by Bagman was off trying to impress one of the locals but met only with steely silence.

Happy grandma, happy grandson

And then, the night before we left, Wolf did slip out and wandered about the night experimenting, mostly unsuccessfully with time exposures...trying to feel adventurous but mostly collecting blurry, poorly exposed pictures...although I'll attach one below.

BAGMAN: Who the hell are these new charactors, Grandaddy Whatshisname and Wolfman? Don't you like me and Butler anymore?

BUTLER: Didn't you read what he wrote? It's just a different dichotomy.

Yes. And they are not going to be permanent parts of the menagerie in my head. It's just like a kind of emotional matrix. Granddaddy Fan Man is part Bagman when he goo goos and ga gas and part Butler when he mixes bottles of formula. Same with Wolf, who is part Bagman when he struts past co-eds with his tripod over his shoulder pretending to be Matthew Brady and part Butler when he is calculating exposure times.

BUTLER: See, Bags! He's doing a good job of understanding all the simultaneously conflicting parts of his psychology!

BAGMAN: Ptui! He just thinks too much.