A Sunday Picture

As the storm rolled in, I thought the Columbia River Temple looked particularly beautiful so I took some pictures. This is an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo.

School Pictures

Having a fancy camera and a few skills come in handy when it's time for school pictures. The boys had fun with it, they like getting 4X6 pictures to hand out to friends rather than the wallet size. Walmart does an okay job of printing and it costs just 9 cents per print. I really can't beat paying less than $6 for both of their school pictures.

Here are their school pictures and a couple of funny ones, they smile so easily when they are allowed to be silly first.

Singing in the Shower

I can tell David loves music, he has always enjoyed singing with other kids in church. Ever since I let the boys have my old CD player, he dominates it with the free 'Kids Bop' CD he got in his McDonald's Happy Meal. Sometimes I catch him singing along to his favorite songs. Well today he must be excited about church because I could hear him singing a Primary song. It was adorable!

Fear

This morning I found a rather large black widow in my laundry room hovering over the garbage can. I can only remember one other time in the past 10 years where I felt nearly paralyzed with fear. I don't have a general fear of spiders or any phobia that I can think of, I have no problem using my bare hands to smack a spider if one crosses my path and I chopped a rattlesnake in half with a snow shovel just 2 weeks ago. For some reason, I felt cold and started to tremble - I'm completely puzzled by this 'fear' nonsense! In any normal situation, I'd have my wits about me and would have gone to get my camera. However, I just stood there and stared at it. This creepy uninvited guest hung there in front of me.

David walked in to see what I was doing. I pointed to the spider and told him it was poisonous, that a little bite could put him in the hospital. Then I took the fly swatter and smashed it. Wow that was a giant mess, it practically exploded all over the wall. And what's worse is that I keep looking around the house as if I'll find more. The thought really creeps me out. I think this fear has something to do with my 'spider dreams' and how I wake up hitting my pillow in the middle of the night. I've had nights where I could swear a black widow is crawling onto my pillow. I don't realize it's not real until I am fully awake.... and after throwing my pillow to the ground or beating it. Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders, is there a word for the fear of just black widows?


I googled for a picture, just looking at it gives me the shivers.

Googly eyes

I swear, I don't really have that much time on my hands. But this idea came from a friend, she challenged other fellow photographers to a "googly eyes" contest. The boys had fun helping me with these......





I almost feel sorry for them, but then I think of the yummy omelets Larry makes me.

My sweet boys!

This weekend, Jared started cleaning his room without being asked to. Not only that, he organized the book case (which is always a mess) and cleaned the toy room. David got in on the action too, he vacuumed the rooms and they boys took turns with it on the rest of the house. They must have caught the 'cleaning bug' because they insisted on washing the kitchen floor as well. I can't complain. I have a clean house and two very sweet boys who were rewarded for their awesomeness.

And because I love pictures, here are some random shots I took of the boys within the last couple of weeks...

FAIL

Nothing is more exciting than getting an unexpected check in the mail..... unless it's this check from Verizon.




Yep, you read that right. They sent me a check for a penny. I'm dreaming of the possibilities.... I wonder if there are still places that sell penny candy, I'll try not to spend it all in one place. I'm going to send this one to failblog.org.

He shoots, he scores!

At Jared's last soccer game, he scored his first goal. I had to take David to another event so I missed it, but I heard all of the details from Larry. Jared could barely wait to tell me, he was so excited. I'm so proud of Jared, he works really hard and loves the game. We couldn't have chosen a better sport for his personality. I haven't had much practice with sports photography, but I did have my camera at a game 2 weeks ago so here are some highlights. One thing I notice about Jared is that he's always smiling while he is playing, I love it! The other kids are so serious, but to Jared... it really is just a fun game.

The Night Glow

The highlight of the weekend was taking the kids to see the "Night Glow" in Prosser. We got there before 6pm so we could get a good spot and sat around until dark. The first balloon to go up was a giant Coke bottle shaped balloon, but it was too tall for the small breeze. It started to lean toward the stands and it was really funny to hear the crowd. Some kind of "aahhhhhhh" is the best I can describe it. Some people put their hands up..... as if the balloon tamers were going to lose control. It was funny.

Once the coke bottle was taken down, 3 others went up. They were normal shaped balloons. While we waited, we listened to 'Bram Brata' - a really cool percussion band. Once the balloons were up, the stadium lights went out and the music started. The balloons fired at will and lit up the faces of the crowd. It was amazing to see. I wish I had a better zoom lens to catch the 'ooohhs' and 'aahs' from people. I was down with the photographers snapping away, Larry tells me the boys were almost hopping out of their seats with excitement. I'm glad we took the chance and went. Last year, I heard it was too windy and they canceled at the last minute. I guess it's a gamble to attend every year, but I will probably be adding this event to my annual "must go" list.

Here are a couple of the best photos, they aren't perfect because there was a little breeze. However, you get the idea...







Early yesterday morning, I went out to Prosser again to get some more shots. I heard there were about 24 balloons on Friday and 28 on Saturday. There were more people on Saturday, but I chose to shoot from the bridge for most of it so I could get a variety. I'm glad I did, it was fantastic. Here are a few of my Saturday favorites....

Prosser Balloon Festival

Some people from the local photo club met in the Walmart parking lot at 5:30am and we headed to Prosser to see the balloons launch as the sun was coming up. We were fortunate enough to be allowed onto someone's property overlooking the river and bridge where a winning shot was taken from there last year. The highlight for me was when a balloon came up really close to let us get shots of it as the fire lit up inside. They are doing this all weekend, I am toying with the idea of going up again tomorrow night to see them glow in the dark.



This next one is of the bridge in Prosser. While we were waiting for the sun to come up, I took a few shots of it to create an HDR image.