Project 52 {26}

My favorite thing about you is:

Your compassion

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This week has been tricky.  As you've no doubt heard, we've been dealing with some pretty aggressive wildfires in the area.  In the area being about 15 miles away from the house - both a scary close distance and a whole world away.  Tricky because I had a need for information, but also felt like I needed to protect my kids.  I feel like they're still a bit young to start thinking about the losses of so many in this town, so I did my best to shelter them from the worst of it, but intuitive as Haley is, she picked up that this was a terrible thing.  I wanted them to know that our home was a safe place to be.  I didn't want them to think about this happening to anyone else's home, I just wanted them to feel safe.  Even when there were moments where I wasn't as sure.

Like I mentioned, Haley was aware of the situation.  But in her kind little huge heart she was beyond concerned about the "critters".  Have I mentioned she's sure she wants to be a zookeeper one day?  Yeah - her mind's made up.  She worried herself about the animals at the zoo (which are also safe).  She was worried that the wild animals were being forced from their habitat (her words), scared that they would starve as she realized that their food was being burned by the fire.  She was heartbroken.  We found on Facebook, a picture of a firefighter from Pueblo that had rescued a fawn and bandaged her hooves.  I showed this to her to help her to see that the firefighters were not only protecting homes but were helping to save the animals.  She was quite pleased and you could see the relief on her face when she comprehended that there was someone there acting on her behalf.  Like they were listening to her demands that the critters be taken care of.  She channeled her concern into the puppies, and is carrying her school of stuffed critters around the house with her - even wrangling Kale into babysitting them when she has responsibilities to take care of. 

We're safe, the worst is over.  Many have lost their homes, a few their lives.  We're thankful that non of our friends were among them.  We knew many who were evacuated (still are), but in the coming days they should be allowed back home.  It's been inspiring to watch the community come together over this, to meet each others' needs without a 2nd thought.  If you had something that was needed you gave it.   If you could take someone in, you did.  It's inspiring.  This city won't come out of this the same - but for all the hardship and loss, we've gained so much (easy to say though, with my roof over my head).  

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful .  

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.

Immersion is the best form of learning

When we first moved out here three years ago, my girlfriend casually mentioned that she was going to "join a local Roller Derby team, was I interested too?"  "Uh... No, I'm way not tough enough for that" was my response.  I'm the person who quit water polo because I didn't like conflict in the environment that I'm most comfortable in, the water.  Never mind that it had been years since I'd been on a pair of roller skates. I was out, but the idea was interesting, I told her we'd definitely go support her in a bout.  Three years later and (many) broken dates on my end (sorry), I finally made it out to one and (at Carri's urging), brought along my camera.

The morning of, I had a moment of panic when I was all of a sudden lacking confidence in my abilities (a common occurrence right before most of my shoots), and knew that with my manual focus zoom I just wasn't going to be anywhere near fast enough (and dude, let me tell you, this sport is fast).  This must require a new lens.  A trip to the store later my camera bag of tricks now contains a 55-300mm.  Jeff says I'm getting a card for Valentine's Day (I don't even need that).

When I pulled all seven-hundred-something (!!) photo's into the computer to start gratuitously deleting processing, I knew I wanted to take a very harsh, vivid, but shadowy kind of approach to processing them.  Most of them I totally got the look I was going for.  And how fun to completely change up my normal style, it was like Halloween for my processing.  Anyway, here are my top photos of the night and a few things I learned:

Working clockwise from the top left corner:

1.  A Jammer on the last jam of the night, the girl in the background cheering is the coach for the other team. It was great to watch how supportive everyone was of each other, regardless of the teams.  I also love her expression, you could tell she was really enjoying herself.  

2.  A ref's skates at half-time.  But more importantly, his socks.  Let me tell you, if you're a detail shooter, there's so much subject matter at one of these. 

3.  The "crappy wooden sign" to let you know where to turn off the main road.  It's right on the corner of this desolate lot, and just begged for a picture.  There I was in the middle of the road taking it.  

4.  My favorite shot of the night.  Two girls and their knee pads lined up waiting for the whistle.  

5.  Blood on the track.  Someone told me it wasn't real, they had some zombie thing here a couple weeks ago, but it so fit into the roughness of the whole event, I couldn't resist.  If you're a story telling kind of photographer, go to Roller Derby!

6.  As my wuss-self anticipated, it's rough out there and people fall.  I loved her expression in this picture.  Just pissed mad.

8.  More skates lined up waiting for the whistle.  It was interesting to be able to be so up close and see all the personal details the girls put into their costumes and gear, my camera allowed me inside the safety tape, so I was able to observe so much more than your average spectator.  Lucky!

9.  Another Jammer (denoted by the star on the cap), getting ready to go, her make-up made it really difficult to resist shooting her.  I loved the intense focus in her eyes in this picture.  

Now, lest you think I've abandoned portrait/kid shooting, I did learn that, while action is fun, it's the people and the details that I really tend to enjoy.  However, learning to shoot action will undoubtedly serve me well when Haley and Kale start to really get into sports.  But then again, shooting my kids can sometimes be action (goodness they can be quick).  All of that said and learned I met this guy:

Meet Barris.  His mom is a Derby Girl, and I found him hanging out (camera in his hands the whole night) upstairs.  Super cool, polite kid that just has and old soul, kind of way about him (I couldn't resist his photo, he's a total natural - look at that face!).  Apparently he's into skateboarding, has some serious moves on the dance floor, you'll be seeing more of him here for sure.

I also met Al.  I'd show you a picture of him, but, like me, he had a camera to his face almost the whole night too.  He gave me about a million crazy useful pointers about where the good shots come from, how close I could get away with, and just photography stuff in general. Most strikingly he was really willing to help an amateur out.  So great.  Al, I totally appreciate it, thank you!!

Interested about Roller Derby or want to check out a bout?  Go here to learn more:  Missile Mountain Roller Derby

Project 52 {4}

My favorite thing about you is:

Your style.

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Every day is a battle with you, 5 year old.  Most of it stems from the fact that we live in Colorado and the weather is one of two options:  Very hot or very cold.  Inevitably, you will pick the least appropriate outfit for the weather, and we'll battle it out (we have to go to school 5 days a week and likely, if I let you just "figure it out", someone would arrest me for neglect).  Add to this the fact that you strongly dislike wearing jeans and would rather just wear your tights or sleeveless dress every day...  The other part of it is that you are me, and we are both stubborn and independent.  But then there are those days when we have no where to go and nothing to do.  I let you wear whatever your heart desires and you surprise me with the greatest outfits (sometimes the only thing that ties them together is the fluffy factor, or the color - not shade or hue - of pink).  You picked the above outfit on a (very) cold day in January, but it was one of those days.  And the fact that you paired it with a classic strand of pearls?  Perfect. 

I could take pictures of these kids' eyes for days.  I probably have a million of them already.  But this is the first time that I've loved her eyes without even seeing them in the picture.  This day we were trying to even up the good pictures of the kids since I took that one of Kale last week.

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful .  

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.

Balloon Classic Round 2

On of the things that kind of marks the end of our summer around here is the Annual Balloon Classic that takes place every Labor Day weekend. We went last year (kind of amazing to see how much they've grown since last year), and didn't want to miss out on it again this year. Once again we went early in the morning to watch lift off and some balloons almost didn't make it up since here in Colorado, while it might be nice on the ground, just a few more feet up and it can be a bit nasty, colder temperatures, gustier winds, etc. But most chose to head up and it was another big hit with the kids. Once again we went with some of our great friends and were able to get some fun family pictures, although it seems like the kids tag team on who wants to be the one to smile for the pictures. This day must have been Haley's because Kale is grumping in nearly all of them.

This was actually at the end of the day as we were on our way out. I love it because it's a family picture where we didn't dress-up, it just really represents how we are on a normal day (including me with a ponytail and sunglasses on). The only exception is Dude-a-Man who clearly didn't want his picture taken.

But then there's my little ham, with some "cheese" thrown in. One of the things we worked on before the wedding was a good smile for pictures, this is the byproduct of my hard work. I love this picture of her!

The Girls. It's not uncommon when we head out for us to split into pairs, The Dude prefers "Dude time" with Dad, and Haley likes "Girls Club". We race in almost everything we do as it seems to be the best motivator to get her to do anything and if Girls Club wins, it's a good day, on the occasion that Boys Club beats us... well, we're working on being a good sport which isn't easy to do when you come from two highly competitive parents.

Yup, wouldn't be the Balloon Classic if I didn't have some random scenery pictures of hot air balloons being blown up.

Yeah, this was pretty much the morning. Haley learned how to do "Bunny Ears" for pictures, yup kid, real hilarious and original. None the less, she did them everywhere, so here she is doing that and the boys are wrestling, like they do all. the. time.

MmmmHmmm. More scenery pictures. Or, random picture of a lady taking a picture, your call.

And they're off! They go take a quick dip in a lake, then they head off on their float.

Haley just informed me that in this picture they're playing tag. I think that someday they're going to be embarrassed that I have a picture like this. These two go to the same pre-school and may even start kindergarten together, not to mention they only live right up the street from us. The only thing missing is the Dude, who's usually in on it too.

A Special Adventure

So with Jeff being gone for training right now, it was just me and the kids for Mother's Day. We woke up, enjoyed our biscuits with honey and jam, then headed out for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was really important to me to make this day more special than just a regular day at home with the kids, and the weather just couldn't be beat. In fact, I dressed the kids in a t-shirt and jeans, and brought sweatshirts just in case it got cold, but we would have been fine dressed in our summer clothes. I've been looking forward to today for about a week and it was more than I ever could have hoped for.

Couple things, first, I forgot the camera and by the time I had two kids buckled in, and the house alarm set, I wasn't going back in. So, I decided that my iPhone would be just fine, and it turned out I just had one less thing to carry in the stroller, the phone did great. These first three pictures I took with the regular camera then played with them a little bit with an app called Tilt Shift Generator. I was really happy with how they looked on my phone, but when they're a little bigger, I might have overdone it, but I still really enjoy this app. My only complaint about the iPhone camera is that there's no zoom (except the good, old fashioned, walk your a$$ up to the subject kind).

One of the things that CMZ is known for is their abundant population of giraffes, if I remember right from the last time we were there at Halloween, they have more than any other zoo in the world, and they have a TON. Today we got to see two baby giraffes that were about 4 months old. SO cute. We got crackers to feed them, Haley wasn't even remotely interested (despite the fact that she loves to give Atlas and Bella treats). Kale, loved it! The first one he threw right into their paddock, the next ones I showed him how to make them reach for it so that their long black tongue would reach out to us, and he thought that was pretty cool. But, since it was just the three of us, no pictures of actual giraffes, or us feeding.

The kids, at the very beginning, ready for a fun day at the zoo, shades and all.

When we went for Boo at the Zoo, neither kid was going anywhere near the train, today, they had so much fun. They smiled a ton and Kale kept saying "whooooa" as it went around the corner.

We also went into the Budgie Buddies display. It had a ton of parakeets of all different colors in there and you could feed them a tiny bit of bird seed on a stick. I thought there was no way in a million years Haley would touch this with a ten foot pole...

I was wrong! She thought it was so neat that the little birdies would come right up to her and let her feed them. She was also pretty enthralled with the waterfall they had in there for a birdie bath. On any other day she would have climbed right in there, but she must have known that it was a special day and kept out.

Poor Kale, had a difficult time with his cast. I would set him up to look at the critters (the oldest breed of cat in the world - acted just like a typical house cat), but when it was time to turn and look at the camera (phone), he had a really difficult time turning around, so a lot of pictures have just one kid looking at the camera (phone).

This was at the bear display... we called the fishies "bear food". A lot of the animals were really up and at 'em today. We saw the bear wake up from his nap, then take a 5 minute pee. We also saw one of the elephants poop. I'm pretty sure the fact that elephants and bears "listen to their potty" was the #1 highlight of the day for Haley.

Yup, see, they trade off.

They have a really fun place for the kids to really get out of their stroller, crawl around and even a mini petting zoo. These are my little hatchlings. I enjoy that Kale is pointing at Haley like she needs to do more hatching.

I suckered a poor lady (who I'm pretty sure had never seen an iPhone in her life) into trying to take our picture. She was really good about it and took a couple for us. The kids are less than cooperative at taking group photos, so this was the best we got. At least I have proof that I was there with them on Mother's Day.

Still in the petting zoo exhibit, there were some chickens near by. Parakeets are okay, chickens are not apparently, as you can tell by her clenched fists. She's ready to sock them if they come any closer. I admit it would have been a little entertaining to see her knock a chicken out for coming too close.

She seems concerned that she's sitting on a giant frog.

Kale waited all day to see a turtle (or tortoise), we saw three of them. I guess they glue a washer on top of them because they like to burrow under the ground and when they do that they use a metal detector to find them. At least that's what the sign said.

Growing up with my mom she was always really into snakes and reptiles in general. I loved this because she showed me that there was nothing to be afraid of when it comes to snakes and other things like that. I try really hard to be like that with my kids now. On the way in to the reptile house they had a Desert King Snake to pet. Haley was NOT interested, but I showed her how I did it and it was okay. On the way out she reconsidered, she pet it twice. I was so proud of her bravery.

And in the final, and probably the most ironic picture of the day... Kale, on a "Cycle' with his "Cycle" shirt that says "I do my own stunts" and his cast. He thought it was pretty cool to sit up there.

So, a really great Mother's Day. I'm proud of myself for getting out and making the day special on my own - I reclaimed a bit of my independence today (something I'd been lacking with two sick and broken kids). I won't call it perfect, we definitely missed Daddy, but it was as close as it could get. Two really well behaved kids, and a very "special adventure".

Coldstone's got nothin' on us!

So, at precisely 8:00 last night it started to snow, like first it wasn't there, then there were three inches out there. That kind of snow. Which out here in Colorado Springs goes by the name of "Spring Snow". It's still cold, it still fills up our driveway, and it still blows into huge drifts in the back yard, the only difference, as far as I can tell, is that it comes after the 21st of March and in far larger quantities than plain old winter snow (WTF?!).

Being that it is in fact spring, I decided to use this snow day as a spring cleaning day, after all, it is a "Spring Snow" Day. I rearranged the play room (also known as the front living room to those of you that don't have kids that necessitate an entire room full of toys) and did a good clean on it. Read: down on hands and knees scrubbing the scum off the base boards, and removing a build-up of crayon that seems to have spread beyond the dining room (A.K.A. the art room... My house is like one big homey classroom). The great thing about having a three year old daughter? You can convince her that the Magic Eraser really is magic and if she scrubs at stuff it's like being Cinderella (bonus points for having the costume on hand so she can truly dress the part). Maybe life with two really is getting easier.

Once I got bored with cleaning (and that didn't take long) we decided to use the "Spring Snow" to make Ice Cream ala Paula Deen. I remember doing this as a kid while babysitting in South Dakota and it being yummy and figured that if I could make it back then, now should be no issue... thankfully, I was right.

Now, I mentioned before that it was cold out there and I really didn't want to get all bundled up for the 15 foot trudge across the back yard for the snow that hasn't already been yellowed. So I sent my kid. She likes any excuse to put her boots on, also, please note her cooking apron since again, in the spirit of dressing the part and this was a kitchen activity, said apron must be worn.

She got two of the required eight cups of snow before I was bundled up to trudge the 15 feet. Dang It!

Add to the eight cups of snow, one can of Sweetened Condensed Milk and a teaspoon of vanilla...

...Stir, and serve.

Haley was all kinds of interested in stirring it, but when it came time to taste, she just couldn't get over the idea that it was made of snow, and I couldn't have paid her to try some. The Dude on the other hand LOVED it.

He loved it A LOT!

Ate it like I've never seen him eat ice cream (or maybe he just wanted to participate, his sister might not hold out on this forever). In the spirit of a snow day full of spring cleaning, we ate it straight from the bowl sitting on the floor. What was left we packaged into little Ziploc containers and we'll see how well it freezes and stores. Haley jumped back into things to help me take the containers and put them in the fridge.

Then it was time for the clean-up crew to go to work. Mission accomplished. It was super yummy and well worth keeping a can of sweetened condensed milk on hand in the future.

A True Colorado Experience

Ohhh my gosh... finally! I've posted the pictures of our trip up to Farish. What a hidden gem! We drove about 45 minutes from our house up into the mountains (for those of you who are familiar with the area, or want to google map it, it's not too far from Woodland Park - the town, not the zoo you Seattlites). It's a resort type of place that has meeting facilities, and also overnight camping and cabins and is available only to military. We went up with our good friends and neighbors Spiro, Andrea and Yanni (who is about 5 months younger than Haley).

Jeff has gone up there to play since he was a cadet, and was reintroduced to it only a couple days before we went up, by a buddy who took him ice fishing for the first time ever. Yep, he's picked up another hobby (don't tell my garage or basement, I don't know if they can take another one).

We checked in at the front office and spent $15 to rent a pair of skates each for Jeff, Haley and me, and also rented a purple toboggan. Kale was left out of the skates because he's only been walking for a bit more than 4 months, and snow boots are tough enough for the guy. Haley played with her skates for about 15 minutes and decided it just wasn't for her yet (never mind the smallest pair they had was about 4 sizes too big for her). The best part of the day was that we were the only ones on the ice... that meant lots of "rule" breaking and fun for the kids. We brought the toboggan out and hauled the kids all over the place.

Haley had taken her turns being swung around on the toboggan, and decided she wanted to take a turn pulling Mommy (Daddy helped push).

Daddy pulled both of us on the saucer around the ice, but we took a self portrait before we got going.

Spiro wasn't a fan of the skates but he was a great train engine. He's got a hold of Yanni's sled, who's holding Haley's sled, who's holding Kale's sled. I think the kids could have done this all afternoon.

Like I said earlier, he's only been walking around for about 4 months and that ice stuff can be kind of tricky. This was about as high up as he could get himself without help. But how cute is that hat?

Never one to miss a photo opportunity, this is likely a sneak peek at our 2010 Christmas card. This place is so gorgeous and quintessential Colorado we just couldn't resist a family photo (especially when there's another family there to take the picture for us).

We returned the favor, and by favor I mean my daughter was standing behind the camera making faces at Yanni to make him smile, he was more than happy to make them back at her... Duh! Andrea said that she didn't even know Yanni was making that face, she was laughing at Haley. We took a bunch of pictures of their family, but this one was my favorite!

This is a picture looking down through the ice. The little white circles are bubbles that got stuck on their way up. The cracks are everywhere, but not in a dangerous kind of way, moreover they just showed us how deeply frozen the ice was. Jeff said that where he was fishing (only about 100 yards from where we were skating) it was about 24" deep. It was truly beautiful. They had swept and slightly groomed a circle for skating and an oval for broom ball. We mostly hung out on the oval but the family pictures were taken on the circle.

After we were done ice skating we snuck into the cabin kitchen and used their stove to heat up some soup and chili, fed the kids their PBJs. It was great, they had a bunch of large tables that were able to seat all 7 of us. When we were done there, it was on to the sledding hills. They have 3 of them up there - 2 for sleds, and 1 for tubes. We tried the sledding hill first but after Kale and I rearranged a hay bale going way too fast, we moved to halfway down the tube hill. It was perfect for the kids. We also took the dogs up with us and they had a total ball running all over the place up there. I think they forgot that they don't usually run that much in a normal day. They were spent and slept the whole way down.

Jeff was getting ready to do a run down the hill and the kids were hanging out on a hay bale. Haley had to give Daddy a kiss before he went.

My favorite picture of the day and it's not even my kid! Yanni was having so much fun sledding down the hill and I was at the bottom to take pictures of the smiles when they landed.

Kale was super duper tired at the end of the day and wanted to hang out with Daddy. Daddy was happy to give him tickles that perked him right up.

We thought I could get the same reaction out of him and this is the best I could do without a binky in his mouth.

In the spirit of the Vancouver Olympics: Someday when Haley is competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics as a figure skater, this is going to be one of those pictures they show before she skates - her first time ever on the ice. But we have a lot of work to get to that spot. Doesn't she look like she knows what she's doing though?

On our way home, Kale never even made it to pavement before he fell asleep, and Haley wasn't long after. They woke up once we got home, so we popped in a movie, found a "gaga" and "gagi" and cuddled them up on the couch.

It was a really great family day and one I hope we're able to repeat soon.