Yes, it's been forever

I apologize for the lack of posts, but this summer has been super crazy! I'm not even sure where to start.

I'll give a brief overview:
From July 3- Aug. 7, Brooklyn and I went to Missouri to stay with my parents. It was a great time. Very relaxing and we got plenty of school shopping done at the outlet malls.

Fun at the waterpark


Picking berries


Mom and Dad


Dad and I at the Royals ballgame


So...during that time...
July 4-11..Jason and Evan went to Panorama, British Columbia. They took a friend of Evan's along. We used points from our timeshare and they stayed in a 2 bedroom hotel. Jason said it was amazing!

Aug 3-9..Evan went to the infamous camp that I last blogged about. Unfortunately, some moron sent their kid to camp KNOWING they were sick with a flu like virus, which turned out to be the Norwalk virus and nearly half the kids got sent home on the 7th (Evan included...lots of throwing up, which Brooklyn got 2 days later..skipped Jason and myself), and by the morning of the 8th, they closed the camp completely and sent everyone home to disinfect. Evan said he had a great time before he got sick so that's all that matters.

Aug 17-20... Evan had hockey camp here in town. They skated 5 hours a day (out of the 6 hours they were there), and he learned quite a bit and loved it. He was tired by the end, had leg cramps, but said he would do it all over again.

Now, school is back in full swing, which also means kids' activities. For now, Brooklyn does jazz and ballet and both kids have swim lessons. Once hockey starts (next month), we will officially be going crazy, but nothing like a lot of rushing around and busyness to make the winters go faster!

Evan is now in 4th grade (just turned 10!!!) and Brooklyn started the morning program in Kindg. And trust me...I actually considered putting her in an afternoon program at a different school, as well. Hehe

My 4th Grader!




My Kindergartener

WAH!!! I want to go to camp, too!

We are sending Evan to camp this summer...well, not "summer", because it's only for a week (for some reason, they do not allow you to send them for more than week. Not that I'm wanting to get rid of him, but after camp last year, he wanted to go for a longer period of time).

Evan's camp had an open house on Sunday for families to go to and check out the camp, do some of the activities, and meet the staff. Can I just say, WOW! This place was amazing! I admit, I didn't have high hopes after last year's camp (Evan had fun, but the place was a dump!), so anything a step up would've WOW'd me. But seriously...WOW! They gave everyone guided tours in wagons around the area, and you could get off at any point and participate in the activities.

For starters, the tour took us around to the horse corral (already a step up from last year's camp which did not have horses). I expected to see 6-7 horses..at the VERY most, 10. Nope. They had 75 HORSES!!! Can you believe it?! The kids first learn to ride around the corral, and then later in the week for the campers, they go on trail rides. WOW!!! They had an indoor corral which also had an indoor rock climbing wall for rainy days. (I don't have a pic of the horses, because it was sprinkling when we went around that area, and I didn't want to get my camera wet.)

They had a riflery range (air rifles for kids under 13, real ones for 13 and up). So, we took a few turns shooting. I am proud to admit that I hit the target on my first and only try...and I've never picked up a real gun in my life. Super soakers are about as close as I get.




Next we stopped by the small man-made lake. Again, I don't have a lot of pics, but it had a zip line that you go on and drop into the lake, a diving board, a huge (this sucker was at least 30 feet on a deep slope) slip-n-slide, and of course, canoes!


Then we walked over to the rope course and outdoor rock climbing wall. TRES COOL!!! I wish I had better pics. Pfffffttt on rain!




At this point, it started pouring down rain! And it didn't let up. We didn't want to wait for a wagon to come by to take us back to the main lodge, so we set out on the back paths. We got a good look at the cabins and let me tell you...these things are nice! Nice hardwood floors (like the new laminate flooring), 4 bunk beds for campers, and two singles for the counselors. VERY spacious! I was beyond impressed.

Here's one more pic of Evan....and to think...they cancelled the open house last weekend because they were expecting light sprinkles. (I think you can click on the pic to see exactly how drenched we were)



Check out the camp website to get a better idea of the rope course, etc.
http://www.dallasvalley.com/summer98.htm

When's it going to be my turn to go to camp???

My pathetic attempt at being all arty fartsy

Well, as most of y'all know, my mom used to work in the photography business. She used an old camera that used (GASP!) FILM! No digital stuff for her.

I worked at her studio for a while and really loved it. I never became as good as her, but I was really proud of myself.

Now...if you know me, you'll know that I'm a pretty boring person. I don't have hobbies (just can't find anything that I'm really into), I'm very much a homebody, and I like things fairly lowkey. Which is also the reason why I've been so depressed being here. I have nothing to do for myself. SO...I decided to try and get back into photography again. Little did I know that in the nearly 15 years it's been since I worked at the studio, the world has gone and changed their opinion on photography. Gone are the days of posed, studio portraits. Enter the days of outdoor, avant garde pictures. Off the cuff, kids pouting, pics from behind...those are the norm. With LOTS of editing! But...I still love it. So, I went and got a digital SLR camera (it's not over the top, but maybe I'll build up to that point) and started playing around.

I still need to learn all the cool buttons and functions, all the lingo (aperture, f-stop, ISO, shutter speed, bokeh), but I'll get there. SO..in the meantime, I thought I'd share just a few pics that I've taken. Enjoy! And keep in mind..I don't have a cool editing program...YET. Oh yeah...Evan is still in school (and doesn't care for his picture to be taken) so Brooklyn has graciously volunteered to by my guinea pig.

Sorry for the confusion

Hey everyone...(well, the 3 or 4 of you that actually read)...sorry about the change in the blog address. I started my original blog with my old gmail account. When I deleted it, I didn't realize that I couldn't change my email on here. SO..I have a new gmail, thus a new blog address. Danke!