Memories in Photos Wednesday

It's always funny looking back at photos of my son. This one was when he was 7 months old. You know how some children are very messy when they eat? My son was never really like that for the longest time, so I decided to make him messy instead. I think his expression is appropriate - he was probably questioning me and my parenting. "Why did you slime baby food on my nose, mom?" No matter what was on his face he still looked so adorable! Good times.

If you're wondering where I've been - I have one word... Zazzle. I've been trying my hand in designing photos over there to upload, which has been nice. It's a challenge in a way but has been nice. Currently working on mostly breast cancer awareness, but have branched off to male breast cancer too. I'm no where near started nor no where near done with all my ideas since I have over 200 different ideas I want to create. If you want to check it out Tshirts for a cause is where you'll find it at. Although it is more then Tshirts, kind of didn't chose my username as good as I should have. Oh well :)

I got myself a new blog name (had to spell it lifeorsumthing like it on the blog site) but when I get things transferred I'll start the process of hopefully getting all my followers over there. That's kind of up to all my followers though! We'll see how it goes. I might wait until after my vacation in July in case.

More memories

March 6th and 7th some of our family came to visit!! Misty and Arnn brought their two children Jaimee and Connor down to visit since they had cheer-leading competition (for Jaimee) in Tacoma. So both days, after competition was over, they came over to our house and had some fun!! LOL the picture looks funny because most of the night Jaimee, Connor, and Andrew had licking fights. Unfortunately it ended when Andrew fell and bashed the corner of his head into my oak chest and started bleeding. I think the parents were more freaked out then he was. He was a champ though and now has the scar to prove it (picture on the right shows the scar a couple weeks after). It was a great weekend - some games, food, and a lot of talking.

March 13th was Seabeck, WA again. This time I actually did take my son and husband with. Andrew was wanting to play on the playground so Aldon took him and watched him while I took some beautiful pictures of the water and beach area. I was still testing out settings on my camera - some worked, some didn't. As always a ton of reject photos. This is one of my favorites - the water crashing in the front and in the background the clouds lightly covering the mountains. So beautiful. After I was done walking a while and taking a lot of pictures I went to the playground and had fun taking pictures of my son (and in the end realizing what settings you don't use with a super quick child). It was a great day, and very beautiful.

Originally I posted my two favorite pictures, but wanted to show more of them! March 18th Andrew and I went to Poulsbo, WA and walked along the boardwalk they have there. I noticed that the seagulls were eating their lunch - they would pick up a clam and drop it on the rocks below. The clam would break open enough so the seagulls could open it and get their meal out. It was somewhat gross, but pretty cool to hear the loud thunks of clams hitting the ground. Let me tell you - probably best to never stand under them when they're doing things like that or have a car near the water because I'm betting it'd do some serious damage. After watching this my son and I trailed the beach a little and found a playground for him to play on before we headed back, since it was a little chilly and we'd been out for a while.

Some more adventures

February 6th we took a walk back in a hiking trail that we have in Silverdale, WA. Every so often through the trees you could see a beautiful site of the mountains, fully covered with white snow and clouds grazing them. It was a beautiful site and definitely was interesting to take a hike. Not sure how long the trail was, but it took us probably an hour, hour and a half to finish and get back to the car. Granted I was taking a lot of pictures so we did stop rather often. I was amazed at how many people were in the trails too - we ran into a lot of people considering. It's definitely a nice place to get a little work out in and see some beauty on and off.

My mother came to visit for a week for my son's birthday, which is February 14th. Yes, he's my Valentine's babe and I'm so grateful for the gift. So we wanted to celebrate and have some fun so all of us went and spent about 1 1/2 hours having fun and bowling. Obviously Andrew needed some help so my husband was there helping him. Sadly Andrew bowled as good, if not better, then I did. He had a blast!! Afterward we went to have Dairy Queen - didn't actually get a birthday cake or candle but it didn't matter, he had a good time and that was all that mattered. As for his birthday present? He got a "bunk bed", and we said goodbye to his crib that turned into a toddler bed. It's not 100% a bunk bed, it's got a three step ladder and is meant for one child but has a dresser, storage spots, and a desk that slides out! It's spiffy and will last him a long time.

February 21st was a visit to Hansville, WA at Point No Point. We looked at the lighthouse, watched boats sail, saw dogs having a blast in the water and fetching sticks and took a long walk along the beach. We saw Seattle very close in the distance, but not close enough to get a perfect picture of it. It was so neat to see it that close, though! My husband over heard a couple looking at something and they had found a star fish on the beach!! We allowed Andrew to feel it nicely and I took about 30 pictures before we set it back into the water (it's bottom side had it's little "feet" still moving). We actually found out later they can survive a little while out side of the water but we preferred to be considerate enough to make sure it survived or had a better chance of it. Someone saw me and my camera and told me there had been Eagle's in the trees and pointed to one. Unfortunately by the time I switched to my longer lens the Eagle flew away. We didn't have any success seeing any more after that, but it was a great day otherwise. Andrew has his fun playing with sticks, making "designs" in the sand and got really dirty. Even the picture shows that.

February 28th we ventured off to Poulsbo, WA. We checked out the Poulsbo Marine Center and it's very interesting! They have this place where you can feel some of the marine life (kiddo was more interesting in playing with the water, of course). They also have an octopus named Bob who usually isn't that active and hangs out in the corner most of the day. Not sure what prompted him to but he put on a good show for me for about 20 minutes. Maybe he hated my flash but I sure did get some awesome pictures of him. Afterward we went to a state park nearby and Aldon watched our son while I went and took some pictures of the water/Hood Canal area. Before we headed home we visited one of the communities and I took some pictures of the beautiful houses - they're close together but all of them are so colorful!! Beautiful houses, but personally I wouldn't want to buy one because they'd be too close to the next house! I'd like space to roam.

Digital camera

My husband and I were talking about how I love photography and we discussed cameras. I said if I want to take really good photos I'd need a rather expensive camera... he agreed with me if that I made $1800 I could get whatever camera I would like! My husband is insane, but so sweet. However that's $1800 I haven't made but at least I know now I have motivation to get projects complete and see what else I can do to aim for a camera I'll love.

I know it's kind of insane but one of my thoughts was how much I love photography and my camera (which is 10 MP) just doesn't cut it on quality or professionalism. I've always wanted to take photos and being able to sell them but when you blow up most photos past a certain point they start getting gritty.

I wouldn't want necessarily the picture I have on this page - it's just the first digital camera SLR picture I found. It would take a lot of time, research and comparing on cameras for me to ever settle down on one. I have a while any way - because first I'd have to make $1800 lol. Then maybe someday I can take photos for a living... or get closer to that step!