Another Great Christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone. It was a lot of fun to watch the kids open their gifts and to open some stuff for me as well. Chels bought me some lights for a photo studio. Now I have to figure out how to use them correctly. I set them up and took a few pictures. Here is one of Tiaree.

I am excited to get this going. I have to get a brown background so I can take some head shots of my sister. Other than that I will just figure things out.

Christmas was good all around for the family and our trip to St. George was a blast. Kind of a whirlwind trip, but it was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures.

Did Santa eat everything.

Barbie Rapunzel, exactly what she wanted.

Anyone see a pattern?

Optimus Prime...the Transformer that can't be transformed.

 

She is opening Barbie in the Three Musketeers, the ring she is wearing was out of her stocking.

This is only a few of the pictures that were taken. Christmas was a lot of fun at our house and everywhere we went. I'm glad we got to spend time and have fun everywhere with our family.

Cool Picture from the Other Night

I love taking my camera and doing quick shots, sort of like shots from the hip. Anyway, I opened the door at Sam and Cait's for Erik and Ali on our progressive dinner and this is what I got. I think it turned out pretty cool.

I just thought this turned out pretty cool.

New Idea...Possible Tradition

A little while ago Chels' mom had an idea to do what she dubbed as the progressive dinner. Basically we start at someone's house eat part of a meal and then head to the next person's house until you get to the last house and have the 'main course'. So we scheduled it and did it on Saturday, December 19th. This was a lot more fun than I had anticipated. We started at Erik and Ali's apartment for soup. Jared and Emily brought a veggie tray since we didn't go to there house because the downstairs neighbor smokes and it is seeping into their apartment something fierce. I thought it would be fun to take a family picture at all the different houses.

Erik and Ali's

After a great soup and some veggies we headed to Sam and Cait's. This was probably the longest drive of the whole trip...sarcasm doesn't come across right in text. This stop on our trek was a cheese ball. As we got there Cait had put it out on the table and we were all chatting when we noticed that about half of it was gone because the kids started chowing. After meeting Officer Watts we all got our portion of cheese ball and took this...

Sam and Cait's

Following this we headed back to my house for the main course. With dinner at Grammy's on Sundays, she was ok with us skipping her house and doing the dinner at our house. We had a yummy taco bar that was a unanimous decision between the family for the main course.

Taco Bar Dinner

And for the final family picture of the night.

My House

It was a lot of fun and I hope that we can get this going again next year.

Merry Christmas.

RIP...for the time being

So I've had a loss in my IT family. My HP laptop has decided to give up the laptop ghost, for the time being. I think that there are some hardware issues and I was dumb and didn't get the extended warranty. So for now I am without a laptop. I'm hoping that one of these days I can get it fixed or get me a new one, but it is Chels' turn for a new laptop, so I'll have to work on this old desktop machine that I have for the time being and go back to using my work laptop more often. Well I just wanted to share that sad bit of news with you. Thanks.

Pictures While Driving

So I carpool to work, which is awesome because it saves on gas. Well the other night my friend and I were driving home from work and I grabbed my camera because the sunset looked really cool and I was going to try and snap a few shots while we were driving of it. Well I didn't get any of the sunset but decided to try taking pictures while we were driving on the freeway. Here is one of the shots that I really like. I'll post others on the Whadda Photos...

 

Another Fun Sunday Dinner

Today was Sunday dinner at the in-laws. It was a lot of fun. We had an awesome time and I got the camera out and took some pictures. Usually the Sunday dinner at the in-laws is eat and hang outside and chat, but when it's snowy outside then it makes it a little cold to hang out outside. So we tend to find things inside todo. Tonight the kids worked on a gingerbread train, that I never got pictures of, and then we just hung out.

I was washing dishes...

...and saw a cool reflection in a spoon and had a great idea for some pictures. Lucky for me I have a great sis-in-law that was willing and patient with me as I tried to be creative...

Once I was done playing with that, I finished the dishes and we all sat around the TV and watched some old home videos. As we were watching them I was laying on the floor taking pictures and go this one...

All in all it was a great evening, thanks Grammy for a great dinner. I also want to give a big shout out thanks to Ems, the fluffy white sheep, for making a nightgown for Tiaree. She is awesome with a sewing machine and I'm glad becuase my wife and I would have taken all week to do what she did in a single night. And the nightgown looks awesome, pictures to come later. But here is one of her cutting out the fabric.

Thanks Ems and Ali for all you help tonight. Thanks Jared and Erik for marrying such awesome women.

Picture and a laugh

Today's picture comes from one of the longest drives in to work ever. Total 2.5 hours to go what usually takes between 30 and 45 minutes. I wasn't driving so I thought it would be cool to pull the camera out and take some shots. I thought that the water drops on the windows looked cool. Then I thought, I should take a picture out the windshield when the wipers are moving and here's how it turned out.

ISO 200 45mm f/8.0 1/125 sec

 I thought it looked pretty cool.

Now for the laugh. I have a Volkswagen Jetta and really like my car. I've had it now for two plus years. I've read in the manual that I'm supposed to have a 6-disc CD changer in the trunk. They have pictures in the book of where in the trunk it could be located, so I'd look. Where the manual says there is a box that may be like and amplifier or something, but no cd changer. I just figured I didn't have the cool version of the car.  Last night I was looking for a way to change the break lights and such on the car and found a little compartment, that I've never noticed before. I thought, 'hmmm, what's in here?'. So I opened it, alas, the CD changer. I was laughing at myself and went and got Chels so she could laugh at me, I mean with me. So now I have a cool radio system in my car, sweet. Well it was there all along, I just wasn't cool, or smart, enough to find it. Well now that I've embarrassed myself I will go.

Enjoy the picture and the laugh.

Pictures With Snow

On Saturday it started snowing at our house. It was coming down prety nicely so I told Bree to put her shoes and coat on so I could get some pictures of her with the snow coming down. I took two with my small lense and took two with the long lens. The first two didn't turn out as I wanted them too. The first one with the long lens, the auto focus wasn't on so it turned out blurry. The final picture turned out pretty good. I liked it. Judge for yourselves...

Maybe Now...

Things are getting less hectic for me and so I'm hoping that I can get back to doing the Photo of the Day. It was kind of crazy there for a bit, but now life has settled a little.

So for today, I'm going to post a new Photo of the Day. And hopefully it won't be like the last few. Today's picture was taken yesterday and then I messed around with it in Lightroom.

ISO 800 28mm f/6.3 1/80 sec.

You can see the original picture on my photos blog. It is the first picture on that entry.

Photo of the Day - Cutie Pie

So I have four kids, 3 girls and 1 boy. It makes for some fun times around my house, especially when my son wears his shirt that says "Are sisters really necessary?" It is pretty funny. Yesteraday I grabbed my camera and was taking some pictures of my cute kids and got this shot when KK and I were just chillin' in the front room. She's eating a cookie in this picture and then we wonder why she doesn't eat her dinner. Silly child...

She is such a cutie pie. She has such a personality and can hold a great conversation for only being 3.

Picture of the Day - November 05, 2009

I got to a point today at work where my mind was tied up in a bunch of differnt things. It's what happens when I am working on multiple projects at once. So I decided to get out of the office and take some pictures. I went up to the Fort Douglas cemetary near Red Butte Gardens in Research Park. I'm playing with some of the things that I learned in my class the other day at pictureline.

Here is the original picture, then I turned it sepia for fun...

ISO 100 75mm f/5.6 1/160 sec

It was nice to get out for 30 minutes to take some pictures today. I will be posting more of what I took today on Whadda Photos... later today.

What a Slacker I've Been...

Sorry for being such a slacker. I don't know how many people read this blog, but I know how I am with some of the blogs that I am a regular reader of and how it's just a little disappointing when there isn't something new to read. Not that you are all disappointed that I've been gone for 2 weeks. Well, I'm back, for this one entry and we'll just have to see what happens. I did take a class on my camera today and they gave me some ideas of things that I need to start doing. So maybe I'll get out and get some pictures taken.

Well today I have a Picture of the Day. Tonight we, meaning the scouts and leaders, went on a tour through the Cathedral of the Madeline for our activity. It is a beautiful building inside and out. I have lived in Utah all my life and have never gone into this awesome building. (Awesome in the true sense of the word) This building has some awesome artwork in it and it looks really cool on the outside as well. I will have to get back in the daylight hours for pictures of the outside, but here is one I took of the inside:

It was really neat to go on a tour of this building. If you want to take a group, you can go to the website for the Cathedral and there is a visitor link where you can find information regarding tours of the building. We were guided on our tour by Deacon Lynn Johnson who was very good and the boys had a great time hearing from him.

Been a Few Days

Well here it is...Wednesday andI have been a slacker at this blog stuff. I haven't gotten out a whole lot to get pictures taken, I need to soon though. I find taking pictures a good release and something else to do. Over the next couple of weeks I will be working on a side project and probably won't get out much, so I'll either ignore the blog stuff or give you pictures from the archive.

Today's picture was taken on our trip to Logan a couple weeks ago. It was one of those times that was a right place, right time to catch this picture. I have tried to get pictures kind of like this where you have just a second to react and my timer is usually on or something that doesn't get me a good picture. This one turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

ISO 200 300mm f/5.6 1/320 sec.

Good Morning

Good Monday morning to everyone reading this, hopefully on Monday. If not on Monday, good enter day of week here morning to you. I got up this morning and rode the train into work. It wasn't too bad, except as I was on the train I kept seeing light flashing and thought it was the train lights. Nope. It was lightning. I discovered that as I was walking to my office from the train station near the University of Utah Institute this morning, in the rain. Oh well, what do you do. I'm not afraid of a little rain, I did live in Ireland for two years.

Well here it is Monday again. It was a great weekend. Friday night was a Halloween party at some friends, Saturday was Priesthood Leadership meeting at the Conference Center, cleaning the garage, and a session at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Sunday, we took our 4 kids and ventured to the Conference Center for the general session of our Stake/Regional Conference. I was amazed at how well the kids, bored as they were, behaved for the almost 3 hours we were there (2 for the session, almost 1 for getting there early). I have some good kids, when they want to be. I also finished Paths of Glory, a new book by Jeffery Archer. It was great and I'll review it later on.

I took a few pictures over the weekend. I saw something this morning that I thought would be an awesome picture, but because I took the train, I didn't have my camera. My point and shoot hasn't made it back to the work bag since I let Jarik use it on our recent Logan trip. Maybe I'll get lucky one of these days and get a picture of what I thought was so cool. If not, you'll live forever in suspense.

So here is a picture from the weekend that I will say is going to be the PotD for the weekend. And hopefully I can post something again later, with more pictures.

Picture of the Day - October 14, 2009

So tonight I got bored and started playing around with my camera. I don't have any lights specifically for photography, so I used a desk lamp with a sheet. Didn't work. I wanted to play with the depth of field stuff again. Didn't work how I wanted it to, I'm guessing because the shutter speed was so high that it just gathered in all sorts of light. If you have some pointers on depth of field, please comment and let me know. I'm using a Canon Rebel XT camera in the Av mode. Thanks...

Here is a picture that I took and it probably worked the best out of the few that I took. I'll post the others on Whadda Photos....

ISO 200 25mm f/4.5 0.6 seconds

Picture of the Day - October 13, 2009

Today's picture of the day comes from the trip to Logan on Saturday. We were having a potty break in the Nutrition Sciences building on the USU campus. The kids sat on the stairs and I took this picture from below them.

I've got some work to do on these types of pictures. I didn't change my settings from taking pictures outside like I should have.

Picture of the Day - October 12, 2009

On our trip to Logan I took 354 pictures. I added a bunch of pictures to the archive so that when I miss my normal PotD, I have a bunch of new pictures to pull from.

Today's PotD is of the statue called Synergy on the Utah State University campus. I have always thought that this was a cool statue and I've taken many pictures of it, but this is probably one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Fun Saturday, Sick Sunday...

It was a fun weekend, minus the sickness that seemed to jump in and take over the house.

Saturday started with Jarik's soccer game. They didn't do very well, but Jarik had a good time. He loves playing goalie and does a pretty good job at it. He even stuck in there while they were kicking him when he was trying to get the ball. He likes soccer, so that is good. And I think it eases Chels' fear of him playing football, although he's told me he wants to play football. we'll see what happens.

After the soccer game we headed to Logan for the day. We spent some time on campus and then headed to First Dam and then to the Temple, then to Adam's Park, and on to dinner at Bluebird (thanks again Sam and Camilla). Then we headed home. It was a fun and exciting day, which is good because of what has gone on since then.

We were all sleeping well when I hear Chels jump up and say, KK just threw up. I was gone so I didn't hear it, but there is nothing better than being woken up in the middle of a great night sleep just to clean up puke. Not the only time I'll get this awesome fatherly responsiblity this weekend. After cleaning up the mess and getting KK's bed ready for her to sleep in again, I came in my room and laid down ready to go back to sleep, feeling very nauseous myself. Willing myself to get to sleep, the nauseousness went away as I drifted off to sleep. Sunday morning came and Chels and Tiaree both woke up with sour, nasty stomachs, I decided to take Jarik and Bree to church with me. I was feeling pretty good and went thorough the day with a headache. Then last night after dinner I started feeling sick again. I just figured it was the headache and that it would go away once I got some sleep. So in bed by 10:30 so I could get up for work. And then it happened again, this time it was Tiaree that had just thrown up. This was disgusting, causing me to loose it a little. Eventually got it all cleaned up and then back to bed. The alarm went off and the sick stomach feeling hit me pretty hard. Anyway, to end a long blog with probably way TMI, I stayed home from work.

With one final soccer game and Koins for Karsen at Chili's, it will be interesting to see if the stomachache goes away before then. I think dinner from Chili's will be more of a take out thing for lunch tomorrow. Time to get something to kill the migraine that is now going on two days worth. Stupid headache.

Picture of the Day - October 09, 2009

Today's picture of the day comes to you once again from the picture archive. I was going to go out and take some pictures today but that never did.

I was goofing off down in St. George when we were down there last. Sitting around bored with nothing to do you...find things to do. This was a fun picture to play with. I do have others of this globe that I took as well.

Legacy Bridge - PotD

Today I finally found the key for the padlock and got out of the office for about 45 minutes and took some pictures. I choose as my subject today the Legacy Bridge on the University campus. It is the bridge that spans Mario Capecchi drive. It is a pretty cool bridge and was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics here in Salt Lake City. I had in mind that it had some different aspects to it and so when I got there to take pictures, and those aspects weren't there, I was a little disappointed. What do you do? Well I just decided to do my best to take some pictures that would be cool. I'll let you be the judge. I'll post one of my favorites here but will post the rest on Whadda Photo and Video blog.

Great News - PotD

Spreading the good news. My nephew, Karsen, had a procedure tonight to see how the skin graft is doing. Things are going great and he gets to go home tomorrow. So for the Photo of the Day I've taken the picture from Karsen's blog. I also want to take time to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers and money that you have all given and hopefully will continue to give those things as Karsen goes through the remainder of his life. Thanks!!



Don't forget Chili's in Riverton on Monday, October 12th and the 5K run on the 24th of October. Thanks!!

Stumbled Again...Doh!

So I missed my PotD yesterday. Tuesdays are hard, especially lately with how lazy I've been. Tuesdays are mutual night and when I get home from that I'm ready for bed. Last night I had to do some work as well, which took a lot longer that I had anticipated. So...to make a long story short, I just didn't do a blog. Nor did I get a picture taken to put up. So this morning, I've decided to put up one of my older shots as the Photo of the Day for yesterday.

The picture I chose today, for yesterday, was taken on June 16, 2008 from the Storm Mountain picnic area up Big Cottonwood Canyon. I was playing with some settings on the camera and got this picture. I love having the mountains here in Utah! They are awesome.

Let's Try This Again

So, last night I wrote this extensive blog that would have changed the life of anyone who read it. Well, blog saved the first paragraph then my wonderful wireless network decided that my computer only need to have limited access and I didn't notice until it was too late. So for the life changing blog, oh well. I guess you'll have to tune in again to see if I get the blogspiration, a cool new word, to write something cool and exciting that will change your life. But for now, you are stuck with my mere ramblings.

I've got a couple photos for you tonight, one to make up from yesterday and one that I took today that I thought was pretty cool.


Yesterday after General Conference, while Chels and I were making dinner, Chels had walked to the entryway from the front room to the kitchen and saw Jarik just listening to his iPod and staring out the window. She called me over to take a look and thought it would be a cool picture. So I snapped one of him. When this picture was taken, he knew what I was doing, but was cool enough to pose for me. He's a great kid.



This was taken this morning, October 5th, 2009, when I went out to my car to go to work. I thought the designs were cool and since I'm taking my camera with me more often, I pulled it out and snapped a few shots. I figured I had some time while I let the car warm up and hopefully do most of the work on the windows for me.

Here's a question that I was thinking about as I write this blog. The captions or description of the pictures, should they go above or below the picture? I've seen it both ways and while it is above, it doesn't leave a gap, but below it does. If that sentence even made sense. Let me know in the comments what you think would be better. I've given you and example of both in this blog.

Great Weekend - No PotD

What a great weekend it was. General Conference was great! All of the talks were awesome and were what I needed to hear. I really like President Monson's (listen) Sunday morning talk when he talked about the different service opportunities that members of the church did for his birthday. It was cool. And then Elder Holland (listen) gave a great talk on the Book of Mormon. I don't usually talk much about religious things on this blog, but that was a powerful witness of the Book of Mormon. My first thought after it was over was 'Wow, that was powerful'. You can listen to any of the talks online.

I had a bunch more stuff written on this weekend but it is now all gone. Stupid computer and my wireless connection deciding to take a poop all at the same time I want to publish. Well I'll publish again tomorrow, I took a couple pictures of Jarik today, but haven't pulled them off the camera, so I'll post one of them tomorrow for the make-up PotD. Goodnight!

Back to the PotD

It has been a long week and I have been very lazy when it comes to most things. So unfortunately for my 3 readers, I've been slacking off. For this I apologize.

Today I decided that it was time to get off my lazy butt and blog and give you a Picture of the Day. I know you are shocked...try not to faint. (Yes, I have a big head that you all care enough to even fake fainting to make me feel good)

Today's pictures were taken on Saturday this last weekend. I was out doing some work trying to keep my mind off things and was cleaning up when my wife spotted this little guy running across the drive way. Is drive way one word or two? Anyway, I had her get my camera and I snapped these shots:





Yes, this spider was bigger than my friend's chihuahua. OK, I'm exaggerating, but it was close.

He, I don't know how to tell a spiders gender so I'm calling him a he, didn't live much longer after these pictures were taken, because as I was taking pictures he tried to attack me, probably for calling him a he and she was a she. Ok, he...she...now I'm confused, let's just stick with he, was headed for the garage and I couldn't let him in there, so I flicked him and it pretty much killed him. RIP poor spider.

Here are the things I think about. Do spiders have families that expect them home? Is there like spider news? Do they buy there spider televisions from a spider Best Buy store? Really, these are the questions that the government should be spending my tax dollars on. OK, time to get back to work. Sorry for wasting your time.

Sad, sad day

Today was one of those days that you wish you could go to sleep and wake up to the same music like Bill Murray did in Groundhog day. Take the hours of this day and just rewind them to early this morning when a few of us woke up thinking today was going to be a good day. I am usually not too serious on this blog, but today I just need to say how great family is, especially in times of tragedy.

Today my nephew Karsen unfortunately lost part of his left leg, from mid-calf down, in a horrible accident. Being the kid that he is, he asked for a band-aid when the accident happened and though his mom and dad were in shambles, he was a calm, cool little man.

The part of the day that gives me hope that this world is still an awesome place is the support that Rick, Nic, and their family received on this horrible day. Karsen's great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, friends, and neighbors, were all there willing to do what it took to take the pain of today away as best they could. To step up and go outside of their normal routine to show great love to them. And while the events of today will long live in the memories of those involved, Karsen will continue to grow up with what we now see, more clearly than ever, one of the greatest support groups this world has to offer...his entire family. He will have that same family to encourage him as he does things that all growing boys want to do. Knowing Karsen, we will see him excel in sports and other activities just as much as the next kid with great will and determination.

The other day one of the thoughts that I posted, 'What will tomorrow bring?', is ringing loudly in my head right now. The hard part is that we can never answer that question without living tomorrow and take the things that we are "handed" each day. The nice part is that our Heavenly Father knows us. He knows our strengths and weaknesses and, though we can't understand sometimes, He gives us roadblocks that we need to get over. He has promised us though, that He will never give us more than we can handle. Our families are an important support group in this world to help each of us through those trials. I hope we can all stand back and see that, without having to go through horrible experiences, that we can and need to be close and depend on one another.

Karsen will bounce back. He will learn to adjust accordingly to the prosthetic and will be running and jumping with his cousins in no time. I can just imagine, the short story about a great football player who lost his foot when he was 3 years old.

Please don't forget them in your prayers.

On a lighter note, Jaxon, Karsen's older brother, just informed me that "Karsen is going to have a transformer leg". We sure love the little ones.

Photo of the Day - Mental Image

So for the PotD today I would like to do a mental image. Just because I didn't actually get a picture of what it was. Today Jarik had soccer practice and he rode his bike. Tiaree came and she rode her razor scooter. I just walked because look at me, I could use the exercise.

Well after practice Tiaree jumped on her scooter and Jarik jumped on his bike and they started heading home. Tiaree was nice enough to go slow and talk my ear off as we headed home. I decided maybe I could get there faster if I was on the scooter but didn't want to be a mean dad and take the scooter from Tiaree. So I had her get on my back and then I rode the scooter home. There were a couple people laughing at us on the way up the street. Just as we were getting to our house, Tiaree said that she wished mom could see us. Well the garage was open and Chels just happened to see us as we came up the street and started laughing. So needless to say, though we didn't get a picture of it, I figured that we could give you the mental image of me giving Tiaree a piggy back while riding a razor scooter. When you say it that way you could say we belong in a circus, which I would probably have to agree with you on.

Photo of the Day - Sticky Mouse

Today's picture wasn't taken today. Tuesdays are a bad day to try and get out and take pictures. It is a pretty busy day. This picture was taken in Zion National Park on the Emerald Pools hike between the pools and the Grotto picnic area. I think that Bree or Tiaree saw it and said that it was Toodles from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and that he had crashed. If you don't know who Toodles is, get the Disney Channel and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. If you are older than about 5 it might be a good idea to find a son/daughter or niece /nephew that is about that age. That or you can take my word for it that is what Toodles looks like.

Random Thoughts...

I'm sitting here at work waiting for things to open or copy and was just letting my mind wander and here are some of the things I thought about:

What is witty that I can put as my FB status?
What's for dinner? -Spaghetti, homemade bread, and something else yummy. Chels told me earlier.
What will tomorrow bring? -This is my favorite random thought because tomorrow is always a mystery.

Well there are just a few as I sit here waiting. Watch for the PotD later tonight.

Photo of the Day - Soccer Boy

Soccer is one of Jarik's favorite sports. He is pretty good at it as well. He's got a pretty good kick and he's pretty fast. On the team he is on this year, he is one of the tallest kids. He has a lot of friends on the team and loves to just go out there and run. This was a good shot of him and hopefully I can get more. The kids on his team are pretty good and they will come together as a team, after all they are only 7-8 years old.

Photo of the Day - Last Days of Summer

So today was one of those blah Sundays. It was hard to get out of bed. It was hard to do the church thing. It was hard to get in the mood to do much of anything. We had a family dinner planned at Erik and Ali's new apartment downtown. It was pretty cool apartment and our bar-b-que was on the roof of the apartment building. It was tough to want to go but it was a lot of fun. I love hanging out with the Bingham's but sometimes it is just tough to do the hang out thing. But I'm glad we went. After dinner, we, Chels and I, Erik and Ali, and Grammy and Papa, went to the park on South Temple and 1300 East and had a great time. I took my camera and was taking picture. Today's picture of the day is KK on the swing at the park while the sun was going down. I figured that this was one of the better shots that I got.

Photo of the Day - Creepy

So this summer I had a couple of firsts out in the wilderness. During my Wood Badge course I a skunk walked through my camp. That just happened to be the first time I've ever seen a skunk in the wilderness. Well over the Labor Day weekend we went to Zion National Park and went on the Emerald Pools hike. As we were crossing the bridge, I noticed this family sitting on a fallen tree. Just as I started to look away, I noticed that this family jumped out and ran from the tree. I then noticed this snake slithering across the ground. Yep first time I have seen a rattlesnake in the wilderness. I grabbed my 'long' lens and put it on. I know that you aren't supposed to get too close but I wanted some cool pictures of this snake. I did get yelled at to get away from the snake by my mom. It made me feel like a kid again which was awesome. Of course I ignored her, what is a kid supposed to do when their parents are warning them of danger. Well enjoy. (P.S. This picture is on my facebook page.)

Yesterday's POTD

Well I knew this was a bad week. After 4.5 hours of sleep I went to work then came home and worked on the yard, which btw is coming along great, and decided when I was done that sleep was more important that finding a picture and all that stuff. I will have a POTD posted this evening for today so stay tuned.

Picture of the Day - Sept. 15, 2009

So I was thinking about it and this was a bad week to start the POTD. I'm putting in a new front yard and have been skipping lunch at work so that I can get out of there a little earlier and haven't had time to go take some pictures that I want to take. Next week I will hopefully have time to go out and get some picture taken.

Today I was reading in a book that I have that talks about my camera and some of the features. I read the part that they talk about depth of field and the setting on the camera that you can use to set your f-stop or aperture on the camera and the camera will choose the best shutter speed for the shot. So I tried shooting our racquetball activity in Av mode on the camera.



Enjoy...

Photo of the Day - Friends Are Awesome

Sam Gowans and I after putting in the sprinklers. Kerry Hyland was there helping as well just wasn't in the picture.

I just want you to know that I will rarely be in the 'Photo of the Day' but I needed to have this as the photo of the day and comment on how awesome of friends I have. I am a very lucky person when it comes to friends. I have many friends that I have had since I was young. I have friends that I have just become more acquainted in the last few years since we moved into our house. A couple of friends, Sam Gowans (pictured) and Kerry Hyland (not pictured), helped me dig some trenches and redo my sprinklers so that I can put some sod down this weekend. Which I wouldn't have without another friend. Then there are a bunch of friends coming over on Wednesday to help move some dirt around. I can't list everyone by name but I want to just send a shout out to all those people that I can consider my friend and that consider me a friend. Thanks.

New Feature...Photo of the Day

So I've decided to start doing a photo of the day on this blog. There is sort of two-fold reason and I'm pretty sure it won't last too long, but I'm going to try. The two-fold reasons are, I want to blog more and I want to get better at taking and 'developing' pictures. It may not be a lot of text, but I'm hoping to always have a picture.

For today's picture I want to start off with my beautiful daughter Bree.



She was the 'Star' in her class at school so I had her stand against the wall and shot a few pictures. She is just so dang cute.

Another day has come...

Well it is Thursday today and tomorrow we are headed to St. George. The kids are all excited and giddy for the trip down to Utah's Dixie. I'm excited too, I love going down there and seeing my mom. It's always fun filled and way too busy when we go down, but I'm not complaining.

Last night/this morning, sometime when I was dreaming, I had this dream that made me feel like the only safe place today was in my bed. Maybe that is why I slept in today. I had one of those dreams that you dread what is going to happen all day and nothing usually happens. When I finally got up realizing that I couldn't hide from the day everything went well. Everyone was in a good mood. Jarik and I had a fun little boxing/fighting/slapping/kicking fight. He was trying to get some $$ Chels had on her dresser and we basically boxed it out. It was fun. Then the drive to work was smooth, even with the crash on 6200 S. Now I'm at work and should focus on the things that need to be done, but I wanted to take a moment to blog again and see if I can't get this to be regular again. Not that I have any readers. Well have a great Thursday.

Pictures...

So I've been thinking about it since the other night that I want to get out and take more pictures. Pictures are so fun to take. I wish I had the time to take classes and what not. It would be fun to learn all the ins and outs and such. I know with digital there are so many things that you can do with pictures these days. I will get some more taken soon and post them. :) Laters!!

Haven't Posted in a While

So I haven't posted in a while. I don't have an excuse either, well except for laziness. One of these days I'll take more time to post thoughts and what not. Tonight however, I wanted to take a second to post and show a couple pictures that I took this evening. Last night there was a really cool sunset with the smoke from fires in the area. I didn't have my camera with me so I missed out. Tonight I was thinking that we'd have some of the same cool effects so I took the family and we headed to the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple and took some pictures.



I am not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination and I just like to play but I thought this turned out pretty nice. I will put a few more up on my photo blog.

Father's Day Weekend Fun

Today is Father's Day and it has been a good day and a good weekend. I'm just glad that I have the next week off to keep having fun.

Yesterday we went to the zoo with Twilight Mom's. It was fun until it started pouring rain and everyone got cold. We headed out of there and then headed downtown to find some other stuff to do. We decided to take a tour of the Conference Center and it was pretty cool. I think Chels will get the pictures of it up on her blog. It was a good time. Then on the way home, I thought of something fun we could do as a family. We stopped at Lowe's and bought 100' of rope and the to Walmart to get some clothespins and we made a fort in the basement.

The view from behind


The view from the 'front door'


The view of the TV


After we got the fort built, we had dinner in the fort and watched Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring. It was awesome.

Then today, after church, we headed up to Logan for some geocaching and some BBQ'd hot dogs. We walked around campus and had a lot of fun. The kids are probably sick of hearing 'this is where we lived', 'this is where I had class', etc. They enjoyed running to look at all the sculptures on campus, especially the french fries. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll have to drive up to Logan to see for yourselves. Our pictures that I took on the 'A', the True Aggie 'A', were all overexposed. Stupid me and my stupid camera. I fixed it up the best I could and I think it looks different but good.



After church today I got some gifts from the kids that they made at church. Part of the gifts were that they needed to write something to us and this is what Tiaree wrote.

Dear Dad,

I think you are the best dad ever! I love the surprises you do.

Tiaree

I'm glad I can keep the kids happy. I hope that all the father's that read this had a happy father's day.

Correction from Yesteday

In my attempt at being funny, I made my wife a little upset. In yesterday's blog I said that if I had gone home Tuesday night, I would "probably be bored telling the kids no they couldn't have candy and watching Chels read her books or blogs or TM stuff". Apparently she didn't like my joke and thinking about it it wasn't very funny. She said that we would have figured out something fun to do because it was my birthday. Everyone needs to know that I love my wife dearly and don't like doing things to upset her and Chels needs to know that I am sorry for making it sound like it would have been a boring night if I would have come home.

Fun Birthday Evening

So last night we were planning on going to the Tabernacle Choir concert but were told that kids couldn't get in. So I was going to head home and just sit there and probably be bored telling the kids no they couldn't have candy and watching Chels read her books or blogs or TM stuff. So I decided that we could meet as a family downtown and go through a tour of the Conference Center because we've been wanting to do that for a while now. So we met downtown and had dinner at the Gateway and then took the train up to Temple Square to walk by and listen to the music through the doors of the Tabernacle, they took the speakers down that piped the music to the outside. Well we found out that 5 and above could go in and that KK could go in the cry room. So we decided to catch the last half of the concert and it was enjoyable. I had my camera and used it as an opportunity to snap a few of the choir and such...

When we got there we didn't think they were going to let us in so take pictures the best I can right...


Right up against the glass, you can see Grammy and Papa if you look closely...


Mack Wilberg (sp?) telling them to get on key, according to Grammy...


Speaking of Grammy...


Papa clapping to Cindy. This was the last clap of the song...


My kids and Grammy and Papa. This is one of my favorite because they are the only people looking at the camera and smiling...


Picture 1


Picture 2


Please comment and tell me which one you like more, picture 1 or picture 2