Twenty-five or Six to Four

This past weekend I was one of over 32,600 photographers who explored their city for a photo-walk. It was put on by the Photoshop people, http://worldwidephotowalk.com/ and there were 50 people in our group walking around downtown chicago taking pictures. Here are some of mine.

Posting for David

This is Jaci posting for David to let you all know that no he hasn't fallen of the face of the earth, no a dragon has not turned him to ashes, no he is not off on an African Safari taking pictures (though he would love to be) and no, he didn't get frozen like a popsicle by all the snow here. He is simply a hardworking husband, a loving daddy, a faithful churchmember, a Mr. Fix it, a hero...the list goes on. These things combined keep him busy busy. He just told me the other day that that's what marriage and family is all about, you don't think about yourself first. Well, I'm the first to say that David is the most unselfish, giving person I know. It's because of this that he hasn't had time to blog. He is simply the best!

Play The Game

Normally I don't participate in email or blog "tagging" games. I guess I just don't play well with others. But tonight I was tagged by my sister Ashlee. In this game, you find your pictures folder, and then go to the 4th folder and find the 4th picture and post it. All of my pictures are in folders by Year to make them easier to find. My 4th folder is 2001 and I don't have many digital photos going back that far, but that year for Christmas my brother and sisters and I had a photo taken with Santa Claus. Around that time I was also experimenting with photo editing, so I made five copies of our photo and put one of our faces on everyone else's in each one. It just so happens that the 4th photo in this folder is the one I made of Ashlee's face on each of ours. My photoshop skills were not that great back then, but I found it amusing.


So here you go Ashlee, see if you tag me again.

Walk This Way

Brian's troop had a hike last weekend and since they needed another adult, I was invited. We went up Lake 22 in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (pretty close to Mt. Pilchuck). It was only 5.4 miles round trip but it feels like it got a lot longer since I last hiked it more than 15 years ago.

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh

Like Jaci, I'm trying to play catch up on my blog. Back in April, Brian's scout troop went on their first campout of the season and Dads were invited. So I went along and took pictures (surprise).

Like any young scout, it doesn't matter if the fire is already lit, they will try to light it again if it means they get to keep playing with the matches.

Then they get to set up the tent. Since this was a scout trip and not a "family" trip, I got to just sit back and supervise.

When it got dark, it was time to play in the fire again. Followed by capture the flag and s'mores. I guess some things never change.

The next morning, the boys made breakfast. Luckily, I packed a few extra granola bars for just such an emergency.

West End Girls

Last month I flew up to Alaska to visit my sister Angie who just had a baby. She has two other girls, and at first they weren't too sure of this strange man with a camera, but by the end of my trip they kept asking me to take their picture. So here are a few.

I also spent some time visiting some of the local sights. I visited the Matanuska Glacier and Denali National Park but I just haven't had time to get my pictures all put together. That will have to be a blog post for a different night.

All in all, it was a great, great trip. Not sure I could get used to the 20 hours of daylight like we had, but I saw some beautiful country, lots of moose and got to see Angie and her family. I can't wait for her to have another kid so I can make another trip up there.

The rest of my pictures of the girls can be found here.

Take Me To The River

Ashlee and her family came to town for the 4th of July so we got the gang together at that summer time favorite hang-out, Cascade Park (a.k.a. Papa's river).

The water was extremely cold, but that didn't keep the kids out. Cindy combed the beach looking for rocks for her rock garden.
Rusty entertained the grand-nieces/nephews on the rope swing.

And Emilee smoked him at a game of tether-ball. When Rusty had enough of the kids, Brady took over. Ethan just sort of sat around, with a funny grin on his face, and not always sure what was going on.

Come to think of it, so did Unlce Rusty.And here are a few more shots from the day.

I touched up this one of Brady a bit, I kind of like it.

And the entire set of full sized photos can be found here.

http://farstead.smugmug.com/gallery/5346558_RTHip/1/326969015_AGAA7#P-1-20