Four girls and one boy for the weekend...

Griffin and I are currently visiting with Heather and Grammy!  Nate is out of town for the weekend so we all decided we would have an all girl retreat this weekend, of course Griffin is the one expetion to our all girl weekend.

I've been working on my photography assignments and I still am not pleased with my shooting style, but practice will give me what I am looking for! (At least this what I am hoping for*wink*)

I wish I could have got this picture without the post right behind his head!  Uuuuggghhh.  Such a cute smile!

We are all having fun and Griffin is having an especially good time because he gets to ride his trike all over the neighborhood. He just gets on it and rides all over.  Grammy, Tank, and Ella all love to go with Griffin around the neighborhood!

LJ and his new four wheeler

LJ finally got his four wheeler. The past couple weeks all we could do and talk about was four wheeler's! He finally found one he liked on Ebay and had it shipped from California. He is so happy with this purchase it just makes me smile because he is so happy!

He came in today and said,

LJ:"Tabby you said you wanted me to pose for some photo's well I've got a great opportunity for you"

Me: "Really?"

LJ: "Yes come and take some pictures of me on the four wheeler over in the circle."

Me: "Okay."

A few minutes pass and LJ comes running inside.

LJ:"Tabby you said we were going to take pictures I am waiting for you. The sun is going down and I want pictures in the day light!"

Me: "Oh, I didn't realize you wanted to do it right now."

LJ: "Well duh."

Had to get a picture of his pure concentration while on the four wheeler. He was sticking his tongue out a lot during our mock photo shoot! LOL

So everyone can enjoy the beauty of the four wheeler we had to get a close up of, you guessed it, the four wheeler! LOL
This is our favorite picture. It was also one of the pictures I turned in for my lighting photography assignment. This would be an example of side lighting.

Lazy Summer Nights

For the last few nights we have all been hanging out in the front yard. Griffin loves to ride his trike up and down the driveway and he is very good about not going in the street unless someone is with him. In the above picture Griffin was trying to follow Joe and LJ to the back yard but I think he realized it is really hard to pedal through the grass!

However, that doesn't stop him from scooting his trike wherever he goes. Yesterday we loaded up the car to make a run to Costco. Griffin lifted his trike up into the van and then said he was ready to go. I had a hard time explaining to him that you can't take your trike into Costco.

Joe and LJ like to ride their skateboards over jumps and up and down the driveway. LJ usually rides my bike up and down the street and Griffin will follow him around. We also go for walks around the neighborhood together.

The weather is just perfect at night. It is warm but cool at the same time. The only real complaint I have; is the mosquito's! We all get attacked as soon as the garage door goes up. Bug spray seems to help but there are still a few real pesky mosquito's that penetrate through the layers of bug spray!


Here is Joe in one of the rare moments he actually sits down.

Griffin loves to drink my Coke Zero. I put it on the ledge and he pulled his trike over so he could get it.

LJ has been so cooperative with my picture shoots. I always ask before I snap his picture and I've been able to get some really good pictures of him.

This is my favorite picture of LJ, ever! He just looks so relaxed and happy. Usually in his pictures he does some kind of goofy smile...but I told him to relax and look at me so I could get a quick picture.

Of course at the end of the night we all had to stop and enjoy the sunset. The beauty of it wasn't really captured by the photo but I am proud of myself for capturing the colors of the sunset!

Griffin

I love this picture of Griffin and I love Griffin. He is really hard to photograph because he is such a busy boy, but every once in awhile I can capture his cuteness!

Have a lovely day!

Manual Mode-Metering

Last week in my photography class we graduated to manual mode. So I have been practicing in

manual all week.

I must say at the beginning of the week I didn't really have a clue what I was doing but as the week progressed I got better. I learned this week that practice does make perfect! No, I am not perfect with my photography skills but I am learning things I never knew and I love shooting in manual, can't believe I waited so long to figure this out!Griffin was the perfect subject for me today. He just ran around and played and let me take pictures. He loves to run over and look at them on the LCD screen and then he says "Oh that's Grissen"!

The above photo has to be one of my favorites. He was dancing around and I just kind of stopped his movement, although a little is still showing.

This photo had a few things wrong with it but I touched it up in photo shop and I quite like how it turned out. It is kind of timeless and just a perfect way to remember Griffin. He is after all very serious about mowing.

More Vegas photo's

We had to stop and take some pictures of ourselves by the motorcycles just for Griffin. There were tons of motorcycles outside of the Hard Rock Cafe. We didn't go in just stopped to take some photo's on our long walk down the strip!

Can't got to Vegas without getting your picture taken with Elvis!

Joe and I went and saw the Blue Man Group. It was really neat and nothing like I expected. I thought they were going to playing their pipes more but they were kind of clowning around. It was fun and the theater and sound system were totally fabulous. I would recommend going to the show just make sure you get some discounted tickets. I think I would have been a little upset if I paid their full asking price for the show.

Yeah I know I have a funny look. The guy who we asked to take our picture was taking a really long time! There was a huge line of people waiting to get their picture taken with a blue man and he was just taking his sweet ole' time. At least we ended up with a memorable photo!

Recording Motion Picture

This is my photograph of recording motion using shutter speed. I saw this flag at our Elementary school and I thought it would be the perfect thing for me to practicing shooting! (Remember I am talking photography here*wink*)

Griffin and I went on a nature walk today. He ran around collected sticks and threw rocks in the water while I practiced my photography.

Perhaps tomorrow Joe will take us for a hike so I can work on my next two assignments for this week. I am kind of behind but I am really trying to learn the concept before I move on!

Freezing Motion Lesson

I am taking an online photography class. One of the assignments for this week was to take a picture of something or someone moving and freeze the motion. We also need to take a picture to show motion but I haven't mastered it yet.

Joe was gracious enough to allow me to photograph him while he was at the skate park messing around. This was one of his favorite shots. I might share some of my other ones as well but this is the one I turned in for my assignment and so far I've gotten positive feedback, but haven't heard from my instructor yet.

LJ is staying with us and he has also been a good guinea pig. I took some photo's of him and Griffin playing yesterday. Tonight I have stamping so everyone will get a break from me and my camera but I have three more assignments to do this week. EEEKKS I've got to get started!

Las Vegas...my gambling experience

Joe and I were able to go to Las Vegas in July. We dropped Griffin off with my Mom and Heather for the week and flew out of Idaho. It really was a lot of fun for just the two of us to be away for so long. I totally forgot what life was like before Griffin.

I had a bit of trouble getting our photo's because Joe uploaded them to his computer which has some kind of funky bug, anyways I figured out how to network my computer to his so now I have access to all my stuff!! Yeah!

I will share a few pictures from our trip over the next couple of days!

This was my first time ever to sit down and play the slots! I totally do not understand how or why people like to sit and play these all day. I am sure there is a strategy but I never took the time to figure it out.I actually won something! I think my voucher was for $1.80, so I won .80. I called it good.

Again I really wasn't mesmerized by the slots...but it was fun and I won something.
I was a little disappointed that I got a paper voucher because I had a vision of me running from slot to slot with a cup scooping up my winnings. The paper voucher made it nice. You can take them from machine to machine or you can take them to the casino ATM and get real money. Totally fabulous! You can also put in a $100 in the casino ATM and tell it what kind of change you want back. Now that is one smart machine!

Ciao for now peeps!

David and Jerilynn June Wedding

So I know I haven't updated my blog in a long while, and I do have a wonderful excuse...our computer had a virus and I couldn't upload anything, just getting on the Internet was hard enough. Joe tried to fix it and just ended up getting Nortan Anitvirus. There are still a few glitches but it is working better!

In June we were invited to Joe's sister Jerilynn's wedding. She was married in Couer d' Alene on a beautiful June day.

Her and David had a wonderful ceremony. I loved the outdoor setting, the flowers, the music, Jerilynn's super cute dress, and of course seeing David and Jerilynn so happy together!

It was a super special time because all of Joe's brothers and sisters were able to attend! Including Gordan who is currently residing in Ireland! Gordon was able to bring two of his three children, Fiona, and Christine. My oh my they have grown!



Here is a picture of all the Anderson siblings together, such a cute and fun bunch!

Below is a picture of everyone on the Anderson side of the family!


Griffin really enjoyed playing with Christine. All the kids had a blast dancing to the music and just being together!