The Second One

She made it to seven. That's makes the second time we got a kid to that mark.

Wildlife Park!

One of our stops on vacation was at Wildlife Prairie Park near Peoria, Il.




The park has a lot of nice trails and animals to view. A black bear, many kinds of wolves, bald eagles, and bison were some of the animals we saw. We had a great time walking the trails and seeing the animals.



After walking the trails we headed off to do some fishing in the park with Cari's uncle. Meredith caught the first fish of the day. Unfortunatly the fish took off Scott's finger. . .

After fishing I wanted to find a huge slide I had heard about. Randy stayed with Scott to fish a bit longer and I took the girls to find the slide. I believe the sign said it is 54' and NOT SUPERVISED! Can it get better? It looked like so much fun, I couldn't resist trying it.

Pacifier

The mighty pacifier. It can have many names. While on vacation I learned a new one. I like it so much, I'm trying to make it stick.

Grandma was going to take a picture of Brenna and said, "Get the boppel." Apparently your baby should not have a "boppel" to take a proper picture.

When I first heard her say it, I just looked at Grandma. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do to the baby. If she had a boppel, I wasn't sure where it was.

What do you call it? I'm starting a poll tonight to last the week. If you call a pacifier by a name other than on the poll, leave a comment.

Home Again

We just got home from our trip to the Midwest. It's been a long day of driving.
I'll be getting some pictures up this week and catching up on reading blogs.

It's nice to be home again.

Behind the Times

I've lived the past week in the Central time zone and I don't like it.
I feel like I'm missing out. By the time I eat dinner, EST has already done it. When I get up and read the newspaper, the EST has already read it (unless I get up an hour earlier, and I don't want to do that). It must be hard for the people that live here to keep up. On New Year's Eve you watch the ball drop at 11.

I feel like I'm living life through a Tivo. I'm not living in real time. Now I understand why California seems so screwed up to me.

I Don't Talk Like That

We are on vacation visiting the Yankees this week. We're having a great time and I'll have some photos to share after we get home.

Last night we went out to dinner with Amanda (Cari's sister) and some of her friends. Cari was talking with the wife and she said to Cari, "You certainly sound like you're from the South."

Cari turned back and looked at me. Her expression said she was about to cry. Cari takes a lot of pride of not having a Southern accent or being influenced by Southern slang.

As I looked back at her she waited for me to reassure her that she doesn't talk like a redneck. Instead I burst out laughing.

My EYES Are Burning!

Nasal spray does not make good contact lens solution.

Don't believe me?

Ask Cari.

Nascar

Brenna LOVES Nascar!

Lunch Time

You already know that I love consistency. I love routine. I bring a bagged lunch 90 percent of the time to work. I drive over to the park and park in the same shady parking spot at roughly the same time EVERY day. The other 10 percent that I didn't bring my lunch, I drive over to Chick Fil A, got a #1 with a Dr. Pepper and proceeded to my parking spot at the park.

That's what made lunch time so exciting on Wednesday. I didn't do any of that. I decided I would have Schlotzsky's. The problem was that I didn't know where it was. A coworker told me it was across the street from the hospital. I wasn't about to admit to him that I didn't know where the hospital was because he made it sound like EVERYONE knows where that is. I was like, "oh, yeah. Next to the hospital. I know where that is." I got in my car and headed downtown. I was looking for the blue sign with the white "H". I spotted one that directed me straight ahead.

I was sight seeing as I drove through downtown, admiring the statues and buildings. I suppose that's why I missed my turn. I went through downtown and realized that the area I was entering didn't look like a hospital area. I went one block over and started back, looking for the blue signs again. I found one that directed me to take a right. Just a few minutes later I came up on the large brick hospital and, as told, directly across the street I found Schlotzsky's. I ate inside and enjoyed a great sandwich.

You'll be happy to know that I made it back to work without getting lost.
I know what you are thinking. You think that I'm living wild and crazy these days. Don't fool yourself, it was just one lunch.

Stolen Goods

"Do you believe in the finders keepers philosophy?"
Cari responded to my question by not answering directly. "Sometimes."
She said it depends on the circumstances. Cari went into a whole discussion about acceptable times to call "finders keepers".

I wasn't in the mood for it, so I got right to the point and interrupted her. "You stole my mints."

Cari started laughing and told me she took HER mints out of my car.
The day before we had all went out in my car. Cari was passing out mints to the kids and me. That night, I was cleaning out my car and found the tin of mints partially crushed under the passenger seat. I was really pleased with my find and put them them in the cup holder.

I went to work the next morning crunching on a few mints and had a few more on the way home.
After work Cari took my car to the store. That's when she stole my mints.

I tried to call "finders keepers" and get my mints back as we stood in the kitchen. She told me to go buy my own mints.

"I wouldn't spend my money on that."

Fight!

They were just playing. . .this time.

Weekend Plans

I hope you all have a great weekend.

I'll be at work.

How I Did It

Cari spent the past eight months drying out five roses tied to a hanger. When they were nice a crispy we put them in a vase and I stole them from her to take some pictures.

I wanted to take some time and try a few different things with light to see what I could get.
Here's the setup I worked with.

I put black poster board on the table and one as a backdrop. I had my flash on a tripod off to the left. Finaly, the secret weapon to this shot, I added a toilet paper tube to the flash and taped off the rest of it. This would give me a spotlight effect across the table. Later, I took some pictures with this same setup and I taped a piece of tissue over the end of the tube. This gave the light a much softer look. I wish I had thought of that sooner.

I took close to 100 photos with this setup. I would adjust the angle I took the shot from, change the height and power of the flash, and rearrange the roses. I was just trying different things to see the results I would get. That's a great thing about digital. It didn't cost me anything but time to experement.

Here's a few results of this shoot.

I had started putting some things away when the new kitty ran into the room. I snatched him up and put him on the poster board. Everytime I would let go of him to take his picture, he would try to jump off the table. This was the best one I got him.

Next I loaded some of my favorites into Lightroom and Photoshop. Here's a few examples of what I came up with. There is also a few shots I put on Flickr last week.

Waterfall Odyssey

A group on Flickr decided to take a Saturday and visit as many waterfalls as possible. It is always interesting to be around other photographers because you are sure to learn something just by watching and listening. I was planning on going on Saturday with about 8 other people.

On the Wednesday prior, the guy organizing the event had to cancel due to a death in his family. The Friday prior came and nobody on Flickr was talking. I decided to make a map and gets some plans going. I emailed five people to see if they were going to make it.
My replies came back Friday afternoon. One forgot and made other plans, one said his wife was sick, two backed out for an unknown reason, and the last said he would meet me at 9am. The group went from eight to two but I was still excited.

My phone started ringing Saturday morning and my partner was backing out. Chance of rain.
If you have been reading around here for very long, you probably know that I do not handle changing plans very well.

I went to the computer and stared at Google maps. I didn't want to hike by myself but I was definitely going out. I started laying out a route and Cari said she would join me. We decided to make it a family trip into the mountains.

Here's a map of our route:

View Larger Map

Our first stop was the town of Newry, SC. The town was built around a textile mill and has never changed. There is a post office, the original mill store, the mill, and a block of mill homes.
Randy and I poked our head in the first floor of the mill but I decided not to head upstairs while the girls waited in the car. It was pretty spooky in there. Lots of equipment and furniture has remained since the huge mill closed. Maybe Rake will come up and explore the building with me some day. We left Newry and headed up to North Carolina. Whitewater falls only requires a half mile hike on a paved trail. The short trail meant I wouldn't have to listen to whiny kids. At the end of the trail there are approximately 300 steps down to the observation platform. There was a sign at the top begging you not to climb on the rocks. It said that 15 people have died there by falling. At the observation platform, Meredith looked through binoculars and said, "I can see a dead person!" I think it scared the old couple that was there. Not that she saw a dead body but that she said it with such pleasure. After recovering from the climb out, we got back in the car and headed East. We stopped at the only restaurant near lake Toxaway. It was a cute restaurant with outdoor seating. Too bad they made us wait over an hour for our chicken sandwiches.

On the way back home we stopped at one more waterfall. Twin Falls doesn't require a very long hike so the kids didn't complain very much. I let them climb up to the base of the falls and splash around for a while. Then Randy decided it was cool to slip and slide down the rock and crash into Meredith. We decided to go before a kid cracked their head open.

The five of us had a good day exploring and seeing a few waterfalls. I ended up with a couple of good shots as a bonus.

It didn't even rain.

Mr. No Name

The poll ended in a tie. Odd numbered days = Carrot, even numbered days = Tommy Boy.
That's what I proposed this morning before church. The kids didn't like that idea and Cari wouldn't comment.

After church we let Randy have the tie break and he named the kitty Tommy Boy.