Lightning

OK, I'm skipping ahead a little here...

 

But I had these pictures in my queue, so I might as well post them.

 

We were enjoying watching some very far off lightening from our deck one night this past September.  It was far enough away that we couldn't even hear thunder.

 

So Ben and I decided to hop in the car and race up to the cliffs to practice some lightning shots.  I was wearing my pajamas and flip flops (not a good idea, I discovered -- there were cactus up there).

 

You have to get the settings just right to capture a good lightning picture.  I'm still figuring out how to keep the city lights from being to blurry.  But the lightning looks pretty great.

 

But if you look really closely, it looks like there's a UFO in the clouds, and that kind of freaks me out.  I'm sure it's just the electricity, but still.  Freaky.

 

 

I changed lenses between some of the shots.  The pictures that are more bluish are from my 17-55, and the more greyish shots are from my telephoto.

 

We stayed up there for a long time, but as soon as we started hearing thunder, we hiked it out of there real quick.  There's no place less safe during a lightning storm than standing on the edge of a cliff!

Senior Pictures

Haley is a senior.

 

In high school.

 

I think I'm gonna die.

 

I will soon be the parent of a college student.  The parent of an adult.  Someone old enough to rent an apartment.  And have a career.  And get.... married.

 

But for the next few months, I will just be content that she is still in high school.

 

We went up to the mountains to take her senior pictures.  It really is quite a cost savings when you're a photographer.  Senior pictures can be ridiculously expensive.  So it was worth the drive up there, and buying lunch for all the rascals.  I had to bring all of them with me, and they sat *quietly* in the car while we jumped out to snap a few whenever we saw a great spot.

 

We took a few later in the day behind our house.  Luckily, we live right in front of an awesome field with an old barn.  I hope they never tear it down.  And I'm glad I didn't know this at the time, but there's a fox that lives back there.  We see him every day now.  He is red and has a really long tail, and he is only a tiny bit scary.  We keep the dog with us, just in case.

 

 

 

 

And just a few days after these pictures were taken, Haley had her wisdom teeth out.  That was a fun adventure.  She's glad she never has to do that again!

 

Matt's Birthday

Matt turned 5 this spring!

 

We let our kids have birthday parties ever year, of course.  But most of those are just small celebrations with the family at home.  On certain birthdays, they are allowed to have a big party, invite friends, and pick where they want to go.

 

And for their 5th birthdays, every single one of them has picked:

 

Drum roll please,

 

Chucky Cheese.

 

Ugghh.

 

I love not having to prepare or clean up my house after a party.  But I can't say that I love Chucky Cheese.  It's dirty, it kind of smells, and I can almost see the germs crawling around on the never-been-cleaned games.

 

But they love it, so, alas, we go.

 

 

Matt invited all of his preschool buddies, and every single one came!  It's a small preschool, so no problem.  He loved it, and everybody had a great time.  Gracie got pretty good at the basketball game.

 

Group pictures with Chucky (the little boy in the white shirt was a little concerned about Chucky. I don't think he liked him very much!)

 

The crown was a nice touch.  Matt didn't take it off for a very long time.

 

And the finale to the party was Matt having one minute in the ticket blower.  He put on a helmet and goggles, stepped in, and stuffed tickets down his shirt.  He thought it was hysterical.  So did we. 

 

Spring time is one of our favorite times of year.  We were a suffering from a little cabin fever this year, so Ben started biking the kids to school a few days a week.  It was cute to see Matthew on the tandem bike.  He looks so tiny back there!

 

 

Mother's Day came with our same tradition, breakfast in bed and some homemade gifts from the kids.  I love to see what they have done at school.  This year, Joey painted a cute flower pot.  The flower is now dead, because I have no skill at keeping anything that isn't human alive, but we still have the pot!  Maybe I need a cactus.

 

We love it when it rains really hard, because our cul de sac fills up with water for just a few minutes.  We splash and ride through it until it disappears down the drain.  A few minutes before this pic was taken, half the street was filled with rainwater.

Joey, the Baseball Man

Joey played baseball again this spring.  And this time, it was real baseball -- by that I mean not t-ball or coach pitch.

 

Real baseball.

 

Joey is fascinating to watch.  Besides being the cutest kid on the field, he really loves baseball.  And he gets baseball.

 

(Here he is retrieving a ball hit way into the outfield -- I know, it looks like he's in the middle of a forest.  It was a REALLY well hit ball:)

 

Joey is always thinking about where he needs to be.  He is always (well, ok, almost always) in a ready position before the ball is pitched.  And you can often see him giving instruction on where to be to his fellow teammates.

 

 

But the most interesting thing to see while watching Joey play is his hitting ritual.  It's an actual ritual that he does in the batter's box before each pitch. Sometimes he takes so long I think they're going to call delay of game on him. It's been the same every year, although this year the position of the bat evolved a little bit (think Kevin Youkilis).

 

Joey pounds the bat on home plate twice, then circles his bat two or three times, then takes his ready stance.  It seems to be effective, and he is one of the best hitters on the team, despite being one of the youngest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joey isn't just always ready while on the field.  As a base runner, he is READY TO GO. 

 

Every. Single. Time.

 

Joey is nothing if not consistent.

 

Head down, leaning forward, ready to push off the base. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when he goes, he goes!

 

 

I think this is one of my favorite pics from the season:

 

 

I told Joey he looks like the Road Runner, kicking up all that dirt and moving at the speed of light!  Love the expression of determination on his face, too:)

 

 

We can't wait until next season!

The Stick People

Wow...it's been a long time!  I actually had a hard time finding my own blog!!

 

So, please forgive me if I backtrack a little while.  A long while.  Like, maybe 6 months, at least.

 

I've had pictures ready to blog, I just haven't found the time.  It's been a little crazy around here.

 

But I'll start with this:

The Stick People

 

 

This spring we went to the school carnival.  There was a game where you could write down your guess of how many jelly bellies were in a container (a very, very large container).

 

Joey won!

 

We had jelly bellies for weeks.

 

The kids got sick of eating them, so instead, I came out to the kitchen one day to find them making stick people out of jelly bellies and toothpicks.

 

Grace, the mastermind behind this project, left jelly bean stick people all around the house for many days.  We can always count on Grace to do something a little quirky, and equally entertaining.