Happenings of the last month-ish

Looking through my point & shoot camera I realized there have been several things that have happened in the last month that I haven't mentioned a thing about. I'm glad I keep that little thing with me to document some of these events, otherwise, I just might forget. I'll try and keep it short and sweet and full of pics, here we go...

I had my 25th birthday at the end of May. Dan & I celebrated by going to the temple, shopping, and THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY!!!! Mmmm, my favorite. We ended the day by going to visit some friends from Mesa that moved to the Portland area, Liza and Scott. We had a great time chatting with them. It was fun for me to have someone to talk to from home. All in all it was a fantastic day. I love hanging out with my best friend... (who LOVES getting his picture taken in public)Sometime in May my co-workers threw me a baby shower. They were very generous and we even got some great homemade gifts like this chair next to me. Very cute...

The last weekend in May I went to Boise to meet up with my best friends from grad school, Ashley and Audrey. They are two of my favorite people. It's a guaranteed good time when we get together. What did we do in Boise? Well, mostly sat around, talked, and ate good food. I need no more entertainment when with these girls. (yup, they even got the ugly laugh out of me, on more than 1 occasion)

Andrew even got some love...

They took be hiking even though I was 7 1/2 months prego, thanks guys, I had a blast!

Audrey sure LOVED that sweet mango rice...

"Hey Audrey, can we have some?"

No doubt, a great time. THANKS GIRLS!!!
I finished work on June 12th. YAY!!! I am very excited to be done with my job and to move on to being a full time mom. I will miss these guys though...

Then my niece Brimley came to visit, but we'll save that for a posting of its own...

The day after Brimley left, I was in charge of a young women's campout (which Dan so graciously helped out with...a lot). I was glad to get at least one camping trip in this summer. Those flame broiled hot dogs and s'mores never tasted so good. We had a great time and yes, I did get a good nights sleep thanks to a very comfortable blow up mattress. Slept like a baby. I should have taken a picture of my pregnant self trying to get off the blow up mattress in the morning but no such luck, instead you get to look at these cute girls...Since then I've been organizing the baby's room, reading, and working on projects, but mostly swimming in my in-laws new swimming pool! At about 3:30pm every day I head over and can guarantee I won't be swimming alone. There aren't very many people around here with pools so it always becomes a neighborhood party. I'm sure there will be plenty of pool pics to come. Not too bad of a summer so far but the best is yet to come!!!

Mad TV

Brimley showed me this video while she was here and we could not stop quoting it. Hilarious!
The day she left I was a mess and could NOT stop crying. I was finally able to gain control when I starting thinking about this video and thinking of specific quotes from it "own that pony tail, work that up-do". Gotta love those little strategies.

Prego Pics

Brimley was kind enough to take a few pictures of me while she was here. There's my Andrew! I'll be 33 weeks on Wednesday. Time is flying!

Fun with Brimley!

Just a little taste of the fun we are having while Brimley's in town. What a foxy lady!!!

Black & White

I am so happy to finally know how to make a good black and white conversion of a photo. The first picture was an attempt I made at Christmas time of pics I took of my nephew.... weak! The second was done using my new skills learned from my class. It's actually black and white and not just gray all over. I love how his eyes turned out! What a cute kid.

FYI: Prego pics coming soon... I just need to get them on the computer!

Alien Daze Parade/Photo class

Here in my city there is an extremely quirky annual event called the UFO Festival. Apparently McMinnville was the sight of one of the most authentic UFO sightings recorded. So now they have this 2 day festival with speakers, documentaries, food, fun, and the Alien Daze Parade. This was my first year attending the parade although I have heard a lot about it.
My latest photo assignment was to use my technical skills and be intentional.
(I went with my great friend Kristine and her son Ryder)

I took my camera with the intent to capture the incredible quirkiness of it all. People get REALLY into it and go all out with their floats and costumes. This was quite the humorous event and I tried to capture that feeling.

Here are my favorites:



On this one I was hoping to catch how much the kids were enjoying all the craziness. I love the little kid with his mom who is loving it but not so sure he wants to get too close (the right side of the pic is cut off, click on it to see the full thing).



This was a group of 'ninja's' doing a choregraphed performance. They were extremely fierce with their face paint and strong movements. I wanted to capture how 'insync' they were so I added part of the other guy, but not as in focus (although on this blog he gets cut off, don't know why but you can click on it to see the full pic). I also loved his face with the intense look and making sure he was in line with his team.



Another extremely funny thing about this event was seeing all of the adults decked out in their craziest alien attire, no reservations. They were strutting their stuff, especially this guy. I also like that this shot has the ultra confident green alien with the santa and alien in the sleigh in the background. I think the shops in the background also give it a nice "small town" feeling.



It was such an amazingly beautiful sunny day, one of the first of the season. No doubt, everyone there was enjoying being outside with the sun shining in their faces. The look on this woman's face I think captures it all. Once again, that crazy confident adult dressed up to the hilt and absolutely enjoying every minute of it. I blurred the back a little but I like that you can still see that she is surrounded by masses of people and she appears to be totally oblivious to it.

I also tried my hand at some B&W conversions. Here's what I came up with.


Who knew Dan could be so "blue steel"





I have been learning so much from this photography class. Wendy is an AMAZING teacher!

Uku class

Here's another one. My nephew Paxton is the 2nd one on the couch, brown pants, and Smith is on the couch in the hat.

Bubbly

I'm not sure my nephews could be any more studly. They're taking ukulele lessons and this video is from their concert. My nephew, Smith, is the one in the middle. Oh man, I miss watching those kids grow up.

Laugh it up!

For all those out there who read my last posting and thought, "just wait". Well, I think I'm starting to see what you're talking about. (As they all laugh the "I told you so" laugh). I've come to the realization this last week that I'm getting pretty big and I still have 2 1/2 MONTHS LEFT! Hmmmm, does that mean I'm going to get bigger?! I could see this getting 'not so fun'.

I do have to say though, Andrew has been VERY active this last week and I still REALLY love that part.