A year ago … seems so long

I’m just apparently not feeling like blogging lately, must be the big yard projects and the new job that are taking up all my time….  So, I thought it was time to look back and see what we were doing last year at this time.

 

On the Carousel at the zoo

 

At the beach being silly

 

Getting ready for football season with Daddy

 

Playing on our newly installed stairs

 

And last, but not least – getting ear tubes.  Thank goodness for ear tubes!  I had totally forgotten about this and now it seems perfectly normal to not have ear infections anymore along with endless rounds of antibiotics and no sleeping for anyone. 

AMEN!  Thanks goodness!

 

Poor little boy – he was so scared and feeling funny because of getting knocked out.  He just wanted his Daddy so bad. 

Camping at Pearrygin Lake

We went camping at Pearrygin Lake near Winthrop, WA this last weekend and had a great time. We camped with Lance’s cousin and his wife and daughter, Gwen. They were sharing toys and holding hands – it was so cute. Although the lake was pretty small and crowded, we ended up having a good time with just being out doors and relaxing.

We ate ice cream in Winthrop on Saturday night and it was SO good! Alex had chocolate peanut butter ice cream, Lance had moose tracks and I had a lemon custard which was to die for! YUM YUM!

They were even having contests about who could take big bites!

Gwen loved Alex’s scooter and Alex loved Gwen’s motorized car (which lost battery after not too long). The did such a great job of sharing and taking turns, I was very impressed with two 2 year olds!

New camera

Oh La La

 

I got a new camera and it’s a beast!    It’s heavy, complicated and challenging!  Just what I need!

 

The Canon 40D.  A “professional” camera!

 

At 10.1 megapixels it takes huge/beautiful pictures and I also purchase a super new lens, too!  The 24-70mm f/2.8L lens – the super duper lens that everyone who’s anyone recommends.  (I think I read somewhere that the “L” stands for luxury because this is the top of the line for lenses for Canon – or “glass” as pros would call it!)  It weighs a ton – but with the pictures I took tonight to test it out – it was worth every hard earned penny (or thousands of pennies, or hundreds of thousands, but who’s counting?).   It has a 3” screen and a live view mode – just like a point and shoot where you can see the live picture without having to put your eye to the camera. 

 

So far, I have no buyers remorse, which is odd considering how much I spent on it!  Maybe it’s because this came out of my severance money and after all that trouble – I feel like I deserve a little bit for me….

 

I don’t know whether it’s the new camera or the new lens or both, but the color that came straight out of the camera is so much better than my old (but still my baby!) Canon Rebel XT.  I think it might have been on the decline after 4-5 years and a good solid ~10,000 pictures taken.  I mean – just look at it – look at the greens, blues and pinks! 

 

I’m going to be dreaming in color tonight!!!

 

New website

Ta Da!

I have a new website, after much research and soul searching.

www.allisont.com

Come check it out!

It's my website for my budding photography business. Stop by and let me know what you think. It will be changing and I will have a blog there, as well. I will change my portfolio pictures as I get more and more and we'll see where this thing goes....

Holy Gravel BATMAN!

 

That’s what a friend said to me as she saw the piles of gravel at our house! 

 

We have a TON (well, actually ~30 tons or 60,000 lbs!) of gravel at our house right now and we’re slowly working our way through it.  This is the BIG project that we are trying to get done before the rains hit in the fall. 

 

Well, one of the big projects at least…. I’ll let you know a few of them… and wait on some others….

 

Yes – we got two huge dump truck full loads of gravel.  Alex just loved playing on it and has had to have a bath every night because he is so dirty.  This gravel is for the driveway on the side of the garage.  It will be so nice to have a pathway to the back yard, extra space to park a vehicle and a place to put the garbage can and recycling. 

Here’s our next project – wait wait – there is still more….  We are putting in not just one – but two flagstone pathways near our front entrance of our house.  And you’ll see the other pile of gravel – the huge pile just sitting there on the grass.  Yep – we’re crazy!  That pile is partially going to be used in the backyard and we are going to spread out the rest for a nice base thin layer for a lawn renovation.  I got the idea here (Ann Lovejoy article) and have wanted to do it for a couple of years now.  We’ve had a lot of problems with the gravel in the front yard because it is so compact that it would only really grow weeds.   Well, the article says the gravel will provide an area for the grass roots to get some air and hopefully grow better.

 

See the border bricks?  Well that is going to be a new garden, instead of lawn!  I’m excited to go shopping for some new plants to fill in the space soon!

AND THEN – if that wasn’t enough – we have to get our house painted and therefore we had to do some preparation.  Our front stairs had some dry rot so Lance and his Dad  built us some beautiful new stairs – just waiting to get painted!!!

25 random things about Alex

1. hates band-aids more than the boo boo itself

2. drinks a lot of fluids, we go through 2 gallons a week just for him

3. he is fearless

4. he is very social and loves to have friends

5. he is very hug-y and kiss-y

6. when something is wrong, he wants his mommy to kiss his boo boos, and then it feels better

7.  needs to have his back rubbed before he goes to sleep each night, twice, or more

8. has a funny sense of humor, even at age 2.5

9.  loves to be tickled

10. loves big trucks

11.  knows how to open up the refrigerator already

12. is having trouble sleeping again

13. partially due to teeth coming in – 2 year molars

14. partially because we are looking for new preschools

15. partially because of all the changes in our lives (new jobs, etc)

16. partially – who knows why?

17. But, when we do finally bring him to bed with us, he does settle down quickly and falls asleep

18. But, then sleeps in until 7:30 AM!!!

19. he doesn’t like it when Mommy or Daddy do things for him

20. sometimes he still wants Mommy or Daddy to do things for him (like carry him)

21. he wants to be a garbage man when he grows up, either that or a bus driver or a fire truck drivers

22. doesn’t like to wear shoes or socks lately

23. he likes spinning so much that he gets dizzy and falls down

24. his favorite show is sesame street

25. he likes to help his Daddy park the car when he comes home and even puts the it into Park!

Megan and Brian’s wedding

We attended my cousin Megan’s wedding this weekend and had such a fun time.  We are truly blessed with such a wonderful family.  What a wonderful wedding in a lovely setting.  Of course, I snapped a few shots here and there and wanted to share the best.  Here you go…

 

The groom as he watched his bride come down the isle

The groomsmen – Cousin Owen is on the right

The beautiful and glowing bride - Megan EThe emotional Dad – Uncle Mikey The ring exchange And Finally the KISS!

The happy couple

 

The merging of 2 families

My Uncle Mikey giving a toast to the newlyweds

Our little helper

 

We have some exciting projects to show you… but all in good time. 

 

We have dust and dirt everywhere.  We are tracking sand into our house and it’s all over everything.  Trust me – this project is GOOD!

 

First, we have a fabulous helper that we must show you.  He never tires out, he never gets hungry or thirsty and he is just an all around little helper.  He always is helpful and never complains.

 

Putting on socks

Alex put on his socks, well Daddys socks - all by himself!

Sequim

We visited Sequim and had a lovely lavender time. The lavender was in full bloom and we visited a farm and stocked up on some lavender scented things. We went to Hurricane Ridge and got above the fog. We went for a short hike and smelled some of the forest fires and saw the smoke. Alex wanted to be carried A LOT, he seems to be going in between “big-kid” and “little-kid”. His teeth are still bothering him quite a bit and he is biting on everything, I feel like I have an infant again. He will stick toys in his mouth even though he never did this when teething before.

Oh – Dad just put a raspberry in the bucket…. I’ll take it out …. and eat it!

We picked blueberries and raspberries at the wonderful Graymarsh farms and came home with close to 10 lbs of berries!

Papa T. picking berries, and eating a few too!

Bama Connie had a guitar that was so tempting to play with, but she found Alex her ukulele that was just the right size. He loved playing it and signing many songs. They sang twinkle twinkle and many other songs.

We also visited the Olympic Game Farm where there are lots of animals, everything from zebras, lions, tigers, bears, oh my! Goats, chickens, bunnies, peacocks, bison, elk, deer, llamas… and on and on. You can feed them (whole wheat only) bread and they come right up to your car. This zebra was really friendly. And since there were lions there – Alex was so cute – he found himself in the rearview mirror and was practicing his ROARing – very loudly. Can’t you just hear it now?

I spotted this eagle on the way out of the game farm and decided it was just too cool not to take a picture.