The Roses

We have three rose bushes in our backyard. When they bloom, I have fun taking all sorts of pictures of them. They look so pretty!

This summer I made several bouquets to set on the tables when we had friends over for dinner in the backyard. I used roses as the main flowers, along with lavender, hostas, violets, maple leaves, and some little white flowers that I don't know the name of.

Red roses would have to be my favorite.



What's your favorite flower?

Daisies at the Park

After all the rain lately, we've finally been getting some warm weather. Yesterday was sunny and warm, so we spontaneously decided to go have a picnic at the park. The grass was filled with thousands of little daises, one of my favorite flowers to take photos of.

Tiana made a daisy chain necklace, bracelet, and ankle bracelet.

There were small patches of sun peaking through the trees, lighting up the daisies. They looked to pretty!

Dandelion

Something as simple as a weed can become a really cool photo. Who knew dandelions looked so neat close up? It reminds me of my favorite Pixar movie, A Bug's Life.

The Tulips: Take 2

Last Thursday we visited the tulip fields again, this time with four other families. We had a fun time walking around the fields while talking and taking tons of pictures. Afterward we headed to the park where we had lunch and hung out for an hour or two.

Most of the girls. This is what happens when I ask them to pose. :)

There was no shortage of mud or puddles.


There was lots of picture taking going on!


This one is a very similar shot to the one I got last year.


Bethany holding Charese.

Tulip Photos Are Coming!

We had a wonderful time at the tulip fields yesterday with four other families. After we all arrived, we spent two hours talking, walking, and taking lots pictures. I've got most of the photos I want to share edited, but I have several left to do before I write up my post, but for now here's a little preview.

The Tulip Fields: Take 1

Last Friday we went to the tulip fields with some family. My aunt was visiting from out of town and my cousin had never been before, so we thought it would be fun to do. We're also going again tomorrow, but with friends. That shall be lots of fun as well!

My cousin Callie with her daughters Elizabeth and Emelia.

These white ones were some of my favorites. They look so pretty!

Cousins!

Cherry Blossoms

We didn't have any plans on Easter Sunday, so in the morning we decided to go to the University and see the cherry blossoms. I didn't know these type of trees got so big, but they look so pretty.

We wandered around the campus for a bit as well. This lamp, which must have been 3-4 feet tall, looked really neat. The original photo was plain looking, so I decided to give it a dark, moody look. I'm quite fond of how it turned out.

Spring

Spring is finally here! For the last couple weeks, if you looked outside, you'd see signs of spring. The trees are blossoming, the birds are tweeting, and yesterday we finally got some warm weather!

Until yesterday, it's been quite cold out. Oh, and we've had lots of rain as well. But yesterday it warmed up and today's the same, warm and sunny. We'll have to see if it lasts...

Water droplets aren't particularly "spring-y", but I thought it looked cool and decided to throw it in here anyways.

The 35mm

For a while now I've been wanting to purchase a new lens, the 35mm f/1.8. Last week I decided to look it up online again, and Amazon had it $25 off! I was super excited that I was able to save a little bit on it and I purchased it that night. It arrived in Tuesday's mail, but was only able to play with it a little bit, since it was getting dark and I had to make dinner. I was only able to take a couple dozen photos, but I can already love it and I definitely see it getting a lot of use. It auto focuses really well and I can get really close up to subjects.


This is one of the first photos I took with it. Like I mentioned earlier, it was getting dark, so I had to bump up my ISO a bit, which added a lot of grain. I was able to fix it up a little in Photoshop, though.

An Afternoon Walk

Sunday afternoon we decided to go for a walk on a trail near my dad's work.

I thought this wood bridge looked neat.

We passed by a pond with a few dozen ducks that quickly swam towards any people they saw. 

Lavender

The lavender bush in my front yard has been blooming the last week. Every time I go out there, I always find lots of bees buzzing around from flower to flower. They rarely sit for long, which can make it hard to get a close of shot of them.

"Flowers appear on the earth; 

the season of singing has come, 

the cooing of doves is heard in our land."
Song of Solomon 2:12

Summertime

Saturday we spend the morning doing yard work, but then later in the afternoon Daniel had tons of fun playing with water balloons. He would fill them up, then my dad would try to hit him while Daniel ran around.

Last school year I took a French class at our homeschool co-op. This year we're not doing any co-ops, so I've started teaching myself French. I've checked out all sorts of books on the subject in our library system and have been trying different books out, figuring out what works best for me. I'm really liking the Easy French Reader, that I picked up at Half Price Books (one of my favorite stores). 





Tuesday afternoon we had my friends Carrie and Rose over and we had a fun afternoon walking all around the neighborhood, along with my siblings. Then we went to Starbucks before browsing around Fred Meyer, where we listened to all the birthday cards with music, looked at the toys, and tested out all the furniture.





I'm not usually a big reader, but lately I've really been enjoying some of Agatha Christie's book. We discovered the Poirot movies and TV shows earlier this year and really enjoy them, so I decided to give the books a try. So far I've only read the books with Hercule Poirot, the Belgium detective, and right now I'm currently in the middle of my fifth one, The Mystery of the Blue Train. Christie does a marvelous job of keeping the reader guessing who the murder is throughout the book.

What have you been doing this summer?

A Hiking We Will Go

My family and I went on a short hike, one mile each way. It rained quite a bit while we were driving to the trail head, but we stayed dry while we were there. The sun even came out, eventually. The trail followed the river for the first part, until we started going uphill.

It was quite cold on the way up and the trail was filled with mud puddles. I loved all the water drops the rain had left on all the leaves.

I thought these white flowers were pretty.



The trail lead us to this, Franklin Falls.