My Garden

This is such a nice sight. The green house is empty. Well, except for the zucchini, but by time this post is posted that plant will be in the ground.

This is my new raised garden. It looks really nice in the yard. Steve built another one on the other side of the lawn for the zucchini plants.

Now if we can get the weather to cooperate it would be nice. We have had thunder storms and rain like you would not believe. The next week is supposed to warm up so we are keeping our fingers crossed. I want tomatoes this year.

We are excited

We are very excited for tomorrow to come. DJ is coming for a visit. As so as Megan heard her whole face lit up. If you have not been following my blog for the last couple of years you can check it out here. DJ'S Story


He is supposed to be here for the month and Megan is making plans like crazy. She just keeps telling everyone, my best friend is coming. I have to admit, I am going to be happy to see him again.

I love this picture of the two of them, and more important, I love Megans hair in this pic. I think I am going to make her have this hair style again. And for the record, DJ has that same stupid smile in every picture I have of him.

My New Toy

It started with this. A birthday gift from my parents a few years ago.

I always loved taking pictures. This turned out to be a great camera. I took tons of pictures and still carry this around in my purse.

Then we decided to go to Disney Land. My beloved camera was getting old and very slow. I upgrade to this one.

I really liked my first Fuji camera and decided to go that way. This one is a loaded up point and shoot. I could play around with aperture's and shutter speeds without having to make the big investment yet. I wasn't ready for that.

I learned alot with this camera. One of the most important things I learned, was what I really needed in a camera. I needed something I could shoot action pictures with and it would take good low light pictures. Let's face it, I spend most of my time watching some sort of sporting event. Jason is showing a real interest in the theater. I needed something that could do both of these.

I also had a real love for Nikon camera's and it started when I was a teenager. I always liked the way it feels in my hand and the buttons just make sense to me. I didn't read the professional reviews, I could care less. I would stop people at wrestling tournaments, football games, hiking and ask them what they thought of their camera's. Both Nikon owners and Cannon owners. I asked them what they liked and didn't like. What lenses they use the most and what they thought was a waste. I figured the best advice would come from people shooting the same kinds of pictures that I do. I even spent some time with the photographer from the sports department of the college and got his opinion. Each had it's pros and con's but it really came down to is, which one felt good in my hand.

Nikon won hands down. I ended up with the D3000 a entry level camera but one that will be perfect for me for now. Eventually someday I will upgrade but for now this baby is what I need. I have taken it every where and it has not failed me yet. With the camera came a very nice multi purpose lens but of course not one that would do the job I needed. I need to get good shots from a long ways away.


This baby is doing the trick. I absolutely love it. It makes the camera a lot heavier but the shots have been worth it. I have really gotten some great soccer shots and I can't wait until football season to start. With this camera comes some down falls. My ability to take a lot of shots fast, has given me hundreds of pictures to go through. And, there is a long list of lenses and other accessories that I now want to buy.

Here is a picture of my little actor. He is fresh out of a stage makeup workshop.

So for now, I will stop complaining about needing a new camera. At least for a week or two.

Hiking

One of the things I love about this area is it's surroundings. We are in a valley but all around us is the beautiful blue mountains. We try to take advantage of our hiking trials and mushroom hunting as often as we can.

We haven't done much mushroom hunting because of the weather. Jason, Megan and I did hike one of our favorite trails last week. I was a little unsure because our rivers have been so high and there have been a lot of flash floods. So after checking the local weather and the weather in the mountains, we set off.




This is one of my favorite trails. During the spring you can hear the baby owls and eagles in their nest's. I took our Christmas pictures here a couple of years ago. The picture above is one I used for my new heading.



This butterfly found a home on Megans shoulder. She found it by the truck as soon as we got there and it stayed on her shoulder until we left. We have seen lots of butterflies here, birds and evidence of beavers. I guess that's why we are the beaver state. HaHaHa



Jason wasn't feeling that great so we didn't stay long. Anthony was working the stock show so he wasn't with us. This was the second day of sunny weather that we had seen in months.




Megan remembering that it is tick season. Gotta love her pants.



Of course, none of us thought about ticks. As you can see from the way that they are dressed. We were so excited about being out in the sun that we forgot about dressing appropriately.



He is thinking, "Mom, stop taking pictures and lets go."

Cleaning out Pictures

I will admit, that I love my new camera. It does have one down side. It's the ability to take hundreds of pictures in such a short time. It means that I can snap pictures of Anthony as he runs from third base all the way to sliding into home. But it also means I have to go through 200 pictures of just one game.

That is what I have been working on today. I still can't bring myself to start working on the Yak Attack pictures, there are so many of them. To make matters worse, most of the shots are good. LOL, what can I say, I love my camera. I will talk more about it in another post. I just haven't gotten to that yet. Ugggghhhh.

Before I get to posting pictures, I do have one bit of really exciting news. DJ, Megans best friend will be here later in the week. Megan is beside herself and keeps telling people "my best friend is coming." I will keep you posted.

JASON'S LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.

We finished the year off with a spelling test. One of the fun things about homeshooling is the flexibility in teaching. I can do whatever I want. So I decided to give Jason is last spelling test with shaving cream. He had a blast and I may use this more often next year.


CUB SCOUTS

Cub scouts has ended for the year. Jason has advanced from a Bear to a Webalo. We spent last week doing a cub scout day camp. I got to lead Jason's pack. What an adventure. We had the camp outside, of course. First day was beautiful, second day we had lighting, wind rain and tornado warnings. Needless to say that after the second storm worked it way through for the day, we ended early. The last day had to be moved inside. Thank you Jessie for running such a good program. You will be missed next year.





That is it for right now, I will have another post shortly. Jason wants to play the WII with me. I wish I could say I am going to go and bet him, but he really wipes the floor with me.

Day #2 of Sunshine

Today is the second day in a row that we have had sunshine. Something we haven't seen in months. Yesterday we filled our new raised garden with dirt and getting it ready to plant. Today me and the kids are going hiking.

That's it for a post from me. I am going outside and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.