After a couple of weeks off, and many days of no blogging, I’m back! Seeing as we were on a CRAZY COOL trip last week, I think I have an excuse!
This week’s challenge from Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry was “photographer’s choice.” My choice is to share some shots of joy from last week’s trip.
My brother and sister-in-law (affectionately called “Mathy”) surprised the boys at Disneyland. The boys were a little freaked out when Mathy came running at them, until they recognized them. I love their faces in this shot!
Caden was acting like no time had passed since we last saw Mathy, even though it’s been 6 months!
Finally, some shots of us near the entrance to California Adventure.
There will be many more pictures to come, but I’m still editing!
Needless to say, I have other things on my mind lately, so blogging has been on the back burner. Taking pictures has also been neglected, as well.
But the other day, I picked up the boys early in the morning from my parents’ house (after a sleepover while Andy and I were warming our friends’ house) and we headed to the park. After playing for a bit, we (read: I) decided we should go out on a hike. There are nature trails around the park, so off we went.
Fifteen minutes, and numerous complaints (“My legs are tired!” “I’m tired of walking!” “I’m thirsty!” “I’m getting eaten alive!”-this one was me!) later, we made our way back to the park. But here are some shots from our “hike” and from the playground.
Note to self: go on more hikes! These boys need to get some endurance!
I was practicing my sun flare for this shot. I love my lilac bush right now-it smells AWESOME! And it’s right below our bedroom window so our room smells really nice!
I took this shot at the park the other day. I love the bark and how it curls at the end. I’ve never seen a tree like this before.
There was one other bit of nature I sort of wish I’d caught on camera, but not really. The other night, I was about to head upstairs to bed, when I started to hear a sort of screaming. At first I thought it was one of the boys, but it didn’t really sound like that. I asked Andy if he could hear it (he was upstairs already) and he said it was coming from outside. I was really creeped out! We looked outside, but couldn’t see anything, and the screaming stopped. Then we saw it. The fox. He came traipsing down the street, seemingly content, probably with a full belly. Full of rabbit, I think. Keep in mind that I live in the suburbs. Not the “country” by any means. But we are full of wildlife around here. And we experience the circle of life like anywhere else. Ick.
The other day at our library, it was “Star Wars” day. They brought in members of the Star Wars 501st Legion-Midwest Garrison for a meet and greet and photo ops. The boys were pretty excited, and brought their new light sabers. Caden was really ready!
Enjoy the photos!
They even got their light sabers signed by Darth Vader! It was quite the day!
Thursday again. You Capture again. I was wrong about the assignment again.
I thought the assignment was “fun”. Nope. It’s “feel”. Luckily, I looked through some of my shots from the past week, and realized I’ve got some great “feel” shots. That may not be exactly following the rules, but, oh well. Beth doesn’t grade us. 🙂
First, here’s a shot of the bird that flew into our garage today. I’m pretty sure I know how he felt at the time! Check out his face!
The boys and I were heading outside to play, and I heard a rustling sound in the garage. At first I thought a chipmunk was going to run out from under the lawn mower. Then I realized the sound was above me. I really hate birds. I like looking at them through the window, or from far away. But I don’t like them when they’re flying around above my head. Especially when they’re pissed like this one obviously was!
On a nicer note, I love the feel of my boys’ hands in my hands. (I’m really loving Picasa for editing!)
Finally, this isn’t a picture, but this video is pretty great. How do you think they feel? (Watch Noah’s face!)
Today is my anniversary. Yep, I got married 8 years ago to my crazy, wonderful, loving husband. We’ve known each other for closer to 23 years, having met in the 3rd grade! We were high school sweethearts, with a couple of breaks during college. But we pulled through, and now we have a great life with two amazing boys to show for it!
So Happy Anniversary to my sweetie! I love you more and more each day!
Enjoy these pictures. I’m too lazy to scan in our professional shots. These are from my brother’s camera-I think my dad was taking the pictures since my brother is in several of them!
In front of “Monkey Island”
On the Zoomobile-a tram-like vehicle that takes people on tours of the zoo.
We crammed onto the carousel for this shot.
The whole group by “Monkey Island”
Yes, we had our reception at the zoo. Yes, it was in the monkey house (technically). Yes, it was about 50 degrees that day (and my mom spent time that morning running around to find me a wrap for over my dress!). And yes, it was the best wedding we’ve ever been to-and we went to 9 that year alone!
It’s Thursday again, and that can only mean it’s “You Capture” time! This week’s theme from Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry was “Family”. It was a great weekend for it, since it was the holiday, and we spent some time with our families.
Of course, I didn’t get a family picture of us, because I didn’t want to take the time to set it up and use the remote. Here’s a picture I posted a few weeks ago from a Brewer game:
We had our parents and Andy’s sister over for dinner on Monday night (Memorial Day), and after we stuffed ourselves on brats, corn on the cob, cantaloupe and watermelon, carrots, chips, hummus, brownies, cookies, and cookies-n-cream ice cream, we decided to battle it out in a game of spoons. If you don’t know, spoons is a card game where you’re trying to get four of a kind, while passing cards around in a circle. Once you get four of a kind, you take a spoon from the middle of the table. But it’s like musical chairs where there is one less spoon than there are people, so one person misses out on grabbing a spoon. It’s very fun, and can get kind of heated (as you can see by the pictures)! (If you click on any of them, it will take you to my Flickr page where you can see some notes I put on the pictures.)
Noah and my mom had an unfair advantage because she would watch the cards while Noah could watch for someone grabbing a spoon!
Make note of Andy’s dad reaching across the table to make it harder for others to grab a spoon!
Notice the flying spoon because Andy’s mom was trying so hard to grab it! And Noah’s face is fun, too!
Don’t mess with Lizzy! She’s looking at Andy in this shot!
I love how my mom and Noah have no idea what’s going on, and Caden is giving the thumbs up about the sticker on his arm!
It was a really fun night! I hope we get to do it again and again!
How did my oldest son just graduate from preschool today???
How is he old enough to go to kindergarten next year???
How am I going to handle all of this change???
This morning Noah had a little “graduation” at school. It was a lot of fun. Noah was lucky enough to have the same teacher for both years he was at his preschool. He was also in class both years with his best bud, Nathan. It’s fun to see how far they’ve come!
(If I ever figure out how to do video stuff again (I have to relearn every time!), I’ll put some on here to show you their “presentation.” In the meanwhile, enjoy these pictures.)
This week sort of crept up on me. Actually, there was no “creeping”-it just came and kicked me in the ass! But I have a back-up for this week’s theme of “Sweet”, assigned by Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry.
Ice cream is a new novelty around our house. My boys used to hate ice cream. They didn’t like how cold it was, or the texture, or who-knows-what. Noah is a gagger, so maybe that was part of it for him. Now, they’re fans. Noah more than Caden. It should make it more fun this summer. I have big plans for nights at the ice cream shop nearby. And after a day like today (in the mid-80’s), ice cream is just the thing.
