Blurred Motion

Oh how I love our new camera. I say "new" even though we've had our Cannon Rebel XSi for about 5 months, because I know that I still don't use it to it's fullest capacity.

Today I was looking through the user manual and I was reminded of a trick I learned about looong ago (talking high school photography), where you follow the action and blur the background. I always thought those pictures turned out so cool. So I tested it with our camera. After some failed attempts I finally got a few shots I liked. The last one is my favorite. I like how the ball is about to fly out of the picture.

Back in photography 101, we didn't use digital cameras (man, I suddenly feel really old), so I know I have a lot to learn. I'm really excited about a class that Sam and I are planning on taking in several weeks. It's through a local camera shop, but all about using our specific camera. Should be fun.

On a side note, Samantha took a really good nap after throwing the big blue ball up in the air for an hour.

1971

Sean and me (around 1976)

Happy Birthday brother! Here's a few other interesting occurrences of 1971 (besides you being born of course):

1. The debut of All In The Family
2. Evel Knievel jumps a record 19 cars
3. The original "Shamu" died
4. Florida's Walt Disney World opened
5. Method Man, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez, Tupac, and Snoop Dog were born

Hope you have an amazing birthday!

Dinoland at Zilker Gardens

This morning we took a trip to the Zilker Botanical Gardens with our friend Lisa and her children, James and Izzy. The gardens are currently hosting an awesome dinosaur exhibit where you can walk along an outdoor trail and view life size dinosaur models. Of course the kids loved every minute of it.

It's been about 10 years since I've been to the gardens, so I was really excited about the outing. We would make a point to visit every once in a while growing up. I can even remember having picnics by the rose garden with my Mema. Lots of good memories, so I was glad to be starting what will hopefully be a tradition for Samantha and Jack.

Samantha and James on one of several butterfly benches at the park.

Jack in the little white gazebo.

A red dragonfly by one of the Koi ponds

clean-up day

This Saturday was clean up the backyard day. There were several beds I've been meaning to spend time on lately, but haven't had the chance.

The bed of wind-ripped cannas were cut back. I don't know if this is the best time to cut back cannas, but I do know from experience that they are not easy to kill, so I'm sure they will be back vigorous as ever, next spring. I did feel a little sorry for the tons of anoles that were displaced from their home. Hopefully they find a nice place nearby.

My over-populated cluster of purple cone flowers needed a major thinning out. It took a while to work into the jungle, but I ended up with several buckets full of cone flowers for my parents and brother's yards.

We weeded and pruned and I'm happy to say the backyard looks a little more tame.

I'm not the only one happy about the yard work. Last night I woke up around 2 in the morning to loud squeaks and grunts. It sounded like two animals fighting in our backyard, but I couldn't figure out what kind of animal. Not cats, dogs, coyotes... Armadillos! They make noises right?! I looked over at Sam and he was of course, snoozing right through it. After about half an hour, they moved on and I fell back to sleep. This morning the newly tilled beds and our lawn were covered with armadillo holes. They do make noise. I googled it. And they probably weren't fighting, but just looking for food. Apparently they are noisy scavengers and become very excited when they find food. Funny. I can't say I mind them though. They eat grub worms and other harmful bugs and it looks like they even aerated our lawn for us!

(the bottom, left picture is of our neighbor's banana plant. It's actually making bananas this year AND they're on our side of the fence!)

Hot Air and Peas

This morning while eating breakfast, we looked out the window and thought a hot air balloon was about to land in our backyard. They were really low. In fact we got to talk to them as they passed over our house.




Unrelated, but also a little unusual is what my daughter requested for breakfast. Peas please!!
If your 3 year old wanted vegetables for breakfast, could you say no?

Celebrating...

An incredibly successful 1st day of preschool for Samantha!

No crying at all. She walked right into her class and started playing. I told her I was leaving and that I'd pick her up after lunch, then we'd go home and make brownies together (a favorite activity). She just said "ok" and kept playing!

She had a great time. We're so PROUD of our little girl.

Hoping the rest of the week goes so smooth.

dyeing noodles

Yesterday was supposed to be Samantha's first day of preschool. She woke up at 1 a.m. with a sore throat and stuffed up nose. Bummer. So instead of spreading the joy to all of her new little friends at school, we stayed home and did arts and crafts.

I decided to dye noodles. It turned out to be pretty fun and really easy. Just a little rubbing alcohol and food coloring in a zip lock. Shake the noodles in the bag and then lay them out on wax paper. The alcohol evaporates so fast that the noodles were dry after about 15 minutes.

We made noodle bracelets and necklaces and pretty noodles rode in the backs of all of the toy trucks in the house. Then Jack discovered that you could smash them on the tile and they break up into nice little noodle shards. Time to clean up.

Mustang Island

The four of us made a quick trip to Port Aransas this week for an end of summer beach trip. It was beautiful. The weather was nice and the beaches weren't crowded. This was the second trip for both kids. Samantha remembered the beach from last year, but Jack was only 4 months old, so this was his first memorable experience. He was so impressed with all of the "dirt."

Here's some of my favorite pictures.

Headed down the boardwalk on the first evening.

Helping the tide destroy a sandcastle.

Samantha's hermit crab.

Samantha kept saying "I want to stay here forever!"

watching a helicopter

One night we drove down to Mustang Island State Park and walked around. Sam and I hadn't been there in years and wanted to check it out. It was deserted except for a couple of guys surfing. We took the kids out onto a jetty and found some pretty impressive scallop shells stuck in between the granite rocks.

Anyway, we can't wait to go back, and hopefully stay a little longer next time. The kids are getting to be an age were these trips are so much fun for everyone. That's good considering Samantha has decided we should live at the beach.

"Or maybe the mountains in a yellow house."

"That would be ok too."