Jump!

This weeks assignment over at DPS is “Jump.”  Yesterday Sydney and I headed out to the horse pasture and I snapped a few pics… but I’m not happy with any of them.  I waited until around 4 o’clock when I knew the sun would be in the right spot but things just didn’t work out. 

Here’s Sydney jumping from one of the fences.  The sky is way blown out and Sydney looks like she’s jumping “up” rather than down… and do her feet really look like they are in the air? 

Sydney threw some sticks for Blue but do you know how hard it is to photograph a jumping Blue Heeler dog??  This shot was about the best I could do.  He sort of looks like he’s walking on his back legs and I think it’s because he just doesn’t jump near as high as he used to… most likely because he’s packed on a whole lotta weight since he was neutered!

So now we’re on the hunt for a “jump” shot… and I don’t have a clue what to do.  Anyone want to throw out a few suggestions?  If all else fails I will go with one of the above shots so please feel free to comment on which one and the most votes wins. :)

UPDATE:

Dallas dropped in for a quick visit today so I got her on the trampoline and took a few pics.  I’m liking this picture! :)

Lexi

Today my oldest daughter Dally had laundry to do and she comes to her favourite laundromat, that would be here.

She had my grandbaby Lexi with her and Lexi is... well... no different than all three of my own children. They were screamers, and not content to sit and play quietly... ever. Oh Dal thought she had it easy when Lexi was born a month premature and she had to wake her to feed her, but boy oh boy things have changed.

Call it colic, irritable baby syndrome, gastric reflux, or whatever... we just call it cranky baby and apparently it runs in our blood... very deep. But those cranky babies turn into wonderful toddlers and eventually pretty mellow children so maybe it's all rolled into the baby stage and it's over and done early :) In my younger days this is what I kept telling myself so I didn't go insane :)

For the most part Lexi is like this...

...and this, tears sitting in her eyes after a screaming fit.

But every once in awhile, when the stars and planets line up perfectly, you get this!

And then you feel better knowing that she is happy some of the time :)

While Dally was here I got her to pose for a portrait picture. I have a few more photos to complete for my final assignment and the course I'm taking will be done. I've also created a watermark for future pictures.

Normally I would run a bit of a Photoshop clean-up on the picture but because I have to submit it I can't :( It pretty much has to be SOOC (straight out of the camera) and very little tweaking can be done.


You don't often see me on the blog but before leaving Dally snapped this picture with her own camera. It's the first picture of Lexi and I together :)

Zipped to Kamloops

Dallas and I zipped off to Kamloops early this morning.  The insurance expires on my truck tomorrow and, for reasons I won't go into here, I won't renew it in Lillooet, although I do get it from the same company over in Kamloops.  It wouldn't have been such a hard hit on my wallet today if I didn't have to pay for six points on my license!  I blogged one speeding ticket I got back in May but didn't have the heart to blog that I got another one just four months after that one (blush).  By getting two tickets in one year that's six points, so besides paying the ticket fines (roughly $350.00) they send you a bill for (hang onto your hats) $300 dollars for penalty points!  Two tickets, 2 fines, & 6 points = $650.00, yeesh that would have bought a nice lens for my camera!  Needless to say I've been sticking pretty darn close to the limit when I drive :)  But now that my birthday has passed I can get one speeding ticket and not pay any penalty points as long as I don't get two... I should have floored it on the way home today! (kidding, I'm kidding!)

I had to drive into Lillooet to pick up Dal because she was scared to drive out this way due to the Big Slide.  We had a heck of a windstorm last night and there were quite a few rocks down in the slide... actually some were actively coming down when I drove through and I'm pretty sure the guy behind me might have gotten hit.  When I drive through the slide I really try to time it (speed up, slow down) to avoid the active rocks but sometimes you can't help but get hit.  The other key thing is to drive fast and at the same time dodge the rocks that have already come down.  The less time you're in there the less chance of being hit :)

The weather was okay this morning but when we hit Pavilion we were in for a shock!  Dallas grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures from the truck.

Can you believe snow in April?  Heck yesterday we just got our first hummingbird at the Ranch and I hung up the feeders!  Pavilion must be quite a bit higher than Lillooet to get this much snow.  All the snow was gone when we came through heading for home so it must have mildly warmed up during the day, but it wasn't exactly what I call hot.

Dal took a photo of a waterfall and it's frozen solid, brrrr.

Just before hitting Pavilion Lake I hollered at Dal that there was a coyote near the road.  She managed to get a quick couple of shots and this was about the clearest one.  I didn't have the right lens on my camera so I think she did pretty good getting a pic of the coyote at all :)

After shopping at Costco, Wal-Mart, and Michaels we headed for home.  About 15-20 minutes out of Kamloops we stopped at the "Balancing Rock."  The lake in the photo is Kamloops Lake.

A closeup of the rock.  One of these days I'm sure that rock is going to come tumbling down but it's been there ever since I can remember so you never know ;)

On the Lillooet/Cache Creek highway we stopped at Pavillion Lake and I snapped some pics of the only island on it.  I have no idea who owns it but it's quite a quaint little place.  It's a very tiny island quite close to the road and you can practically throw a rock across to it.  The water is so clear you can see the bottom and at the right time of year you can see schools of fish swimming by the shore.

Left side of the island.

This is the right side of the island.

In the winter the owners can walk to their cabin because the lake is frozen solid.  Lots of people go ice fishing, and seeing skidoo's (and the occasional truck) on the ice is quite common.  It looks like there used to be a wharf because old timbers lay under the water. I guess this time of year, and all summer long, they go by boat or raft now that the wharf is gone.

Well that was my day, I'm beat and heading for bed, have a great night all :)

A Baby Shower!

Thank you Aunty Lou (Orra) for Dallas & Lexi's baby shower today!

The food was awesome!  Jo (Aunty Lou's sister) made baby burgers and they were adorable.  I baked and decorated the cake and if Sydney ever finds my smaller tips, wherever she put them, the next one won't have such thick letters... grrh kids!

Here's Dal holding up a little pair of rubber boots for Lexi.  When she gets older she can help change pipes on the ranch with me! :)

And isn't this adorable!!  Such a teeny bathing suit!

Relax time... in about ten years when you finally get a spare minute Dal LOL!

In the kitchen at the nummy table ;)

Here's a lady that will always hold a special place in my heart.  It's Orra's mom Mrs. V.  She's known me since I was 5 years old, and even put up with our antics through the teen years... not that we ever did anything bad... I'll never tell and neither will Lou ;)

After the shower Sydney and I ordered Chinese to take home and while waiting for it we did a quick trip out to Seton Lake.  I'll upload some pics tomorrow 'cause I'm beat tonight...  I hope everyone's weekend was great!

Random Post

It's time for one of those random posts that I so like.  Where you can just blab on about anything...


I took a quick trip to town this morning.  I have to time things just right because the Big Slide is currently being worked on (another bandaid) and it's only open before 9:00 AM, between noon and 1:00, and after 4:00 PM, five days a week.  I had an appointment at 10:20 so was able to squeeze a quick visit in with Dally and a quick run to the grocery store before the slide closed after lunch.


On the way home I stopped after going through the Big Slide.  I wanted pics of the crew working but it was pretty unsafe to park anywhere so I drove through and parked on the other side.  I couldn't see any of the crew and ended up just snapping some pics of the river.  This is looking towards Lillooet, on the right side you can see the road I just travelled to get here.

On the way in there was a few sheep at the bottom of 9 Mile Hill.  When I first pulled up they were in the middle of the road licking the salt, there was no one behind me so I was able to hang around for 10 minutes or so snapping pics.  As I inched closer to them they took off up the hill.

This one looks like it must be about a year old, a real cutey.

This one is a bit older and it's missing one of it's horns.

I think he was getting bored with me and started nodding off.

When you turn off Highway 12 (the road I live on) the first thing you see when heading into town is the mountains.  The building in the picture is the Forestry Office, although I think it's closed up due to government cutbacks but I'm not sure.

Dallas had totally forgot that I was coming to town and hadn't had a shower yet so I went up to her place instead of meeting at a restaurant.

No visit to town would be complete if I didn't see my precious granddaughter Lexi.  Dallas took her to the doc regarding her birthmark (although I do not remember this mark when she was born!) we're hoping it doesn't get any bigger or she will have to have it removed when she's older.  It's cosmetic so the doctor said Dallas would have to pay for the removal, I think that's crazy, our medical services plan should pay for something like that!!

Oh one last photo, I almost forgot.  Here's Dal's cat Shady.  She is the most vicious cat I've ever run into... well she's good with Dal but man alive this cat does not like strangers, or dogs, or bears,... or... anyone except Dal. :)  Okay I admit I'm not a cat person but doesn't this thing look mean?

Look at the whiskers!  Maybe the longer the whiskers the meaner the cat (our cat Billy has short whiskers and is pretty friendly).

Happy Birthday Dally!

Just a quick message to wish my oldest daughter a Happy Birthday!  A quarter of a century can sure fly by :)

First Family Portrait

Here's the first family photo of my daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law :)


Dallas, Lexi, and Duane all came out on Christmas day and after the presents were opened, the turkey in the oven, and the kids playing, we headed off to my studio (it's supposed to be my second bathroom someday, nothing fancy :)) and snapped a few pics. I'm so happy Lexi stayed awake for the entire time!


At 5lbs 7oz Lexi pretty much fits in her Daddy's hand, unlike her mother who was a hefty 8lbs when I had her!

Awww, she's smiling :)

Just to give you an idea on how small she is (she was born almost a month premature) here's her and Duane's hand.



And finally the last one, tuckered out and ready for dreamland.

Oh my!

Long story short: I'm on my way out the door to Kamloops Hospital. Dally is going to have her baby today! It will take me about two hours to get there so I'm making this brief. I guess my "what should I be called" post was just in time!

Pregnancy Pictures

My "baby" with her "baby."

Here's a few pictures of Dallas, Duane, and even Jevan getting into the action.  The time is getting close, less than a month to go, and I'll be a GRANDMA!!  Okay we already have a "Grandma" on the ranch so can anyone come up with something a bit more original?  Dally wanted to call me GG (Gee Gee), but I'm not comfortable with that.  Anyone?  This is gonna be stuck to me until I die so I'd like it to sound good.... help! 

I feel like I'm putting an ad in the paper:

WANTED:
A hip name to give to a person who is really too young to be a grandma... any reasonable offer considered.  Cannot be Grandma, Oma, or Nanny.

Edit:  A few people have asked who took the pictures of Dallas, just wanted to let you all know I did.  I put up a green screen, cleaned out what is supposed to be my spare bathroom one day, and set up a tripod and snapped away.  It was fun :) 

Write Your Name with a Sparkler

Last night when Dallas and Duane brought back the kids from Trick or Treating they also brought back this:

Ain't she a beaut?  Filled to the brim with "ooohs & ahhhs" galore!  I set my camera up on a tripod and, as hard as it is, I managed to get a few shots.

Sitting on our step is a pumpkin Jevan carved in school, we were officially informed that his name is "Sparky."

Sydney and Jevan were having a blast with sparklers.

Using sparklers Sydney spelled out letters for her name, afterwards I pieced them together with a photo program and here's how it turned out.  On fireworks mode my camera really picks up the sparklers but I wouldn't try this without a tripod.

Then Dallas got in on the fun, her and Sydney share some letters so she only had to do a few extra.  We often call her Dally, the nickname her Grandpa gave her the day she was born.

Even Duane got in on the fun.  I have to say he sure has a steady hand!

I think Sydney would use sparklers year 'round if they were available.  You can barely see her in the middle of the photo but her hands are sure moving.

A sad sight at the end of the night :(