Mommy and Me

Me and the girls at Point Cabrillo Lighthouse.  YAY Vacation!!!
Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

New Dresses and the Park

A good friend made matching dresses for the girls. It was a super easy dress to make. And they are seriously cute. Being unseasonably warm around 80*, I let them wear the summer dresses today and we ventured out to the park. 

I wanted to practice using my wide angle lens some and maybe practice some motion photos where the background is blurred and the subject is in focus. I failed miserably, so you won't see any of those. But what you will see is two super cute little girls in matching dresses. :)

I love the look on her face here.

Audrey insisted on pushing Annie on the swing.

Might be my favorite photo of her.  <3

I love this photo - but was super bummed that she's blurry.  Sigh......  

Her shoe fell off and she had to fix it.  Notice her pink toenails???

walking to the park

walking to the park

My Joshua

See this man right here to the left?  The goofy guy trying to juggle?  The one with the bald head?  Mouth wide open?  Oh .. and a ton of tattoos!?!?!?  

I love him.  He's pretty awesome.  And guess what - he loves me too.  :)

He is goofy.  He's super goofy.  That's part of his charm.  And part of what makes him a good dad.  He's also caring.  He genuinely cares for people and hurts when they hurt and laughs when they laugh.  And he's a godly man.  He loves God and is training his children up to love God too.

Today is our 4th anniversary.  Not many years.  But that's OK.  Cause ya gotta get through the single digits before you hit the double digits.  Someday we'll hit 40 or 50.  I'd love to hit 60, but don't know that we'll be around that long.  

I love you Joshua.  Happy Anniversary.

Audrey Goofy

Audrey loves to pose for the camera, which is good since I love to take pictures. Here she is being mildly goofy lying in bed. I love the color cast these have, even though it's not realistic at all. 

I love the light coming from the lamp out of the picture.  It adds some depth and almost drama to the photo.

 

I was playing around with different focal lengths and understanding how they change the perspective of the subject and surroundings by more than just bringing the subject closer.

Mommy and Me Monday

Went away for the weekend with the family to my MIL's house. it was a great little weekend away. I helped my niece take photos of lines for her photography class, we went for a long run (set a distance PR of 14 miles), and we just enjoyed each other's company.


Annie got a new toy that she enjoyed playing with. Josh snapped a photo of the two of us playing with the toy.



We also got a family photo taken.



The rest of the photos from the weekend can be found in my flickr set here.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/biochemtine/sets/72157631668954317/with/8044542156/

Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

Happiest Little Girl in Church

Saturday night, a good friend of ours released a full length worship album.  To celebrate, she held a concert at church.  Audrey LOVES her music and knows a lot of the songs.  Her favorite song is a techno song inspired by Lady Gaga (if you can imagine a worship song inspired by her....).

For the last song, Devoted, Audrey ran up to the front of the church to dance and see better.  She was invited up on stage and got to sing and dance with her.  She was so happy and excited.  I was so happy for her that I cried.

An Audrey Funny

Over labor day weekend we went to my mother in-law's. Their little town has a large Paul Bunyan Days festival over Labor Day weekend. One of the events is a tricycle race followed by a kiddie parade. The kids dress in costume appropriate for the theme and make little floats out of bicycles and wagons.

While we were waiting for the parade to start, Audrey looked at me all concerned and said, "But mom? Where's the kitties?"

Gone .....

This past weekend, Josh, the girls and I went out of town to visit his mom for Paul Bunyon Days.  Andrew and Kymberly were spending the weekend with their mom.  It was Andrew's last weekend at his mom's house before leaving for boot camp.  Not 30 seconds after we had finished our conversation with Josh's mom about when boot camp graduation would be, we got a phone call from Andrew.  He and his buddy were being called up early.  They were to report at the recruiter's office on Monday at 11 am.

We high-tailed it out of there, wanting to be home with Andrew for his last weekend.  We thought we had another week, but the Marine Corps had other ideas.

Sunday morning we went to church as a family.  Andrew's mom joined him for the morning as well.  It was a nice time of worship.  And Pastor M. called us up to the front to pray for Andrew as he goes on his journey.

Sunday afternoon Andrew came over and hung out with us in a quiet house.  He played legos with his sisters.  He got last words of wisdom from his dad.  Then we all went together to his mom's house for a nice family dinner.  In 4 years, it's the first time both families got together for a meal.  Sure, we've had constituents together and been at large celebrations together, but this is the only time we've had a meal, just the 10 of us.  It was a nice dinner.  There were no tears.  Just chatting and fun and goofiness.  The girls enjoyed being chased around the kitchen and proved that kids can only have fun if they are screaming.

Then Monday the dreaded event happened.  We drove Andrew to the recruiter's office.  We gave hugs.  We cried.  We encouraged.  We loved.  We cried.  I took lots of pictures.  

Which brings me to today.   I'm not typically an emotional person.  It takes quite a bit to make me cry.  I did cry when we left him in the hands of the recruiters.  But it passed pretty quickly.  I've been the strong one in all this.  Ready to see Andrew continue on his way and mature and grow and gain direction in his life.  Knowing that this is what's best for him.  As his step-mom, I'm not as connected as Josh and Andrew's mom.  I've felt more pain in the last 24 hours than I realized I would.  I think about what Andrew is going through and my heart hurts.  My stomach gets knots.  And then sitting down for a few hours to edit 200+ photos of us saying good-bye to him.  And it hurts even more.  If I'm this sad and heart broken over him being gone, I can only imagine how his mom and dad and sister feel.

About 20 minutes ago we finally got the phone call we've been waiting 24 hours for.  That "Recruit Roosa has arrived safely in MCRD" and we'll hear from him via USPS in a couple weeks.  A COUPLE WEEKS!?!?!?!  I have to wait that long to hear from him?  That long until I can get his address to send him a letter?  I've already written one letter.  I'm sure I have another couple ready to write too.  His first mail from us will likely be several letters in one large envelope.

I'm excited for who he will become.  I'm excited to see his transformation.  I'm pleased that he has direction and a future.  The Marines will be good for him, and he'll be good for the Marines.

2 days down, only 12 weeks and 5 days to go.

 

Date Weekend

Josh and I cashed in all our past and future favors with a very dear friend to watch the girls for a weekend. We dropped them off on Friday after work and met them at church on Sunday morning. So we had about 36 hours to do whatever we wanted on OUR schedule. Grocery shop alone. Eat a quiet and leisurely dinner. Sleep without fear of being woken in 2 hours. Sleep IN. Just imagine the possibilities.

Saturday morning we slept in and then went to brunch. We enjoyed mimosas and high fatty food.


Then we hopped on BART and went into the city to just explore. We got off BART and just went down a street that looked interesting. We went to Union Square to see all the best shopping. Wandered around Williams-Sonoma, went into a friend's favorite store Lululemon. I'd never been there and hear such great things about them that I had to check them out.


We saw China Town so we wandered in that direction. Then ended up in Little Italy where we had a Cannolo (yes - cannolo - cannoli is plural and cannolo is singular). Then saw the signs to get to Coit Tower, so we went up that way. Then back down to Little Italy we saw Lombard street (the world's crooked-est street). We walked up Lombard street and then found ourselves in Russian Hill. Found a cute little "mini-park" that literally was a slab of cement, some flowers and a couple benches on an old house lot. We wandered around some more, found the Cable Car Museum and looked in there.

Then meandered and ended up at Fisherman's Wharf. We took a tour of the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien, a Liberty Ship from WWII. Then headed over to Pier 39 for some dinner. We both saw some things we'd never seen before and ended up walking about 10 miles - up and down the big hills. It was a lot of fun, and something we'd love to do again, but in a different part of the city.

I just took my small point-and-shoot camera. There were times I wish I had my SLR so I could get a better view or adjust my exposure or really be artistic with my composition, but for the most part I'm glad all I had was my P&S. Made it a lot easier to carry it around.

Here are a few photos of our day (if you click on any of the photos, they should take you to my flickr page where you can view all of them).

Mimosas with breakfast

The only chinese looking building we saw in Chinatown.  I think it was a medical clinic.

Church in Little Italy.

View of the Bay Bridge from Coit Tower

Top of Lombard Street looking down

Sneaking a kiss while I'm trying to snap a photo in Russian Hill's Mini Park

A time I wished I had my SLR.  The texture of these buildings was neat.  And the colors and brickwork and chipped paint.  They were really cool looking and this photo doesn't do them justice.

The pullies in the cable car museum.

Another time my SLR would've been nice.  Again ... lots of texture and neat colors in the museum.

The stairs into the USS Jeremiah O'Brien

Through a porthole looking out

One piston of the engine.  Video footage of this ship's pistons was used in James Cameron's The Titanic.

Just for fun

The Anchor

Are you sick yet?

Thought this was pretty cool

Random

It's been far too long since I've posted.  I just don't have much time for blog posts.  Most of my spare computer time is used editing photos.

I spent 5 days earlier this month at my BFF's Wild West Themed wedding.  It was such a great time.  

We've been battling the heat.

The girls have been healthy for 6 weeks now.  Shocker!

Annie is sleeping much better at night, even night weaned and almost all the way through.  We're working on getting Audrey up easier in the morning so she can stay up a little later at night.

Andrew leaves for boot camp in 5 weeks.  

Kymi has band camp in a week.

Josh and I are continuing to run.  He's training for a marathon and I'm training for another half marathon to do with my neighbor.  

Late June my grandmother passed away.  I wrote the following memories in an email to my mom/sister and another one to Josh.

 I’ve spent the last 15 minutes reminiscing about all our summers at the cottage.  Washing off with the hose outside.  Running up and down the sand dunes.  Walking to the playground with Joel and Rachel.  Joel and I teaching the younger cousins how to play poker.  Grampa sorting endless baseball cards and giving the damaged cards to Chad. The old rusty swingset under the oak tree.  And speaking of the oak tree, those darn acorns.  Man those hurt when you stepped on them barefoot. Wandering the woods across the street, avoiding the poison ivy. Going to the Willoughbee’s (sp?) for some candy and visiting. Those bunk beds too close to the ceiling.  Hit my head almost every morning when I woke up. The carpet walkway to the beach that wasn’t ever long enough so we still had to endure the hot sand.  The sand all over the carpet, defeating the purpose of the carpet.  Gramma ALWAYS baking or cleaning or cooking in the kitchen.  She NEVER stopped. Doing puzzles at the kitchen table. Building card houses in the living room.  Gramma hanging our underwear on the clothes line.  I never understood why we couldn’t just use the dryer. 

There was a park about ½ mile from the cottage that we walked to a lot when we couldn’t go swimming.  And there were sand dunes.  We’d run up them as fast as we could and always run out of steam halfway up.  And then run down and fall and end up just sliding or rolling down the hill.  And come home covered in sand in our clothes.  In our pockes and undies.  There was a hose on the side of the house with a shower head type attachment and we’d all have to clean our feet (and the rest of ourselves) there.  All the little kids would get totally naked and wash off.  It was embarrassing when you reached a certain age.  Then we go inside.  The bathroom had a direct door to the outside so we would just go inside and shower without tracking water or sand throughout the cottage. One year in early July, I was marching in and out of the house.  I had found a small American Flag and was carrying it.  I think I was even wearing my blue shorts and red shirt, I don’t remember for sure.  Anyway, I was marching all over the place.  Grampa got so upset.  “Quit slamming the door.  In or out.”  Gramma said, “What are you doing Chris?”  “I’m marching in the 4^th of July parade Gramma.”  And she had a brilliant idea.  She decided that Nicole and Megan and I would get all decked out in our best patriotic clothes and grab flags and march in the parade that week.  As the parade came by our cottage (we were pretty early on the street I think) she just found a hole and shoved us in.  I think it was Megan who freaked out and refused to go in, so Nicole and I marched alone.  Or maybe they both did.  I don’t remember very well.  But I marched in the 4^th of July parade for the cottage.  My first ever parade.