Photo Phun

My dear friend has let me borrow her AMAZING camera for a little bit, which she can do since she has gotten an UBER-AMAZING camera recently. It has been more difficult to figure out than I thought it was going to be, but I have refused to let myself use the automatic mode therefore making it necessary to learn the ins and outs. The other day I was outside at my in-laws house with Ally trying to work on my camera skills. There are a couple pictures that I was able to snap accidentally but absolutely love them.

I love how Ally is out of focus.

It makes me feel a sense of wonder.

Like that could be me playing with the red wagon.

Or running without a care in the world.

This one I tried really hard to do and also love it.

So these are my first photos with a nice camera. It has been a really fun hobby to have added to my daily life.

A Hazard Waiting to Happen

We moved into a house in June and it has been non stop fun... well adventure. There has been a couple of fun projects that we have completed that have greatly improved our living arrangements. When we finally got a food pantry we took living luxuriously to the next level. Well a couple of Saturdays ago we did our first major yard work project. There was this huge tree next to our house, well the trunk of it was huge anyway. The leaves and branches looked like it was a young tree but the trunk looked like it was old. Then it was painted in some places making it look like it had been termite infested at one point. Here is the before pic.

You can kinda see the paint to try and stop the termites. So that was the tree, big trunk and little branches. Then one Saturday our friend Calan came over and what did they want to do? Maybe play with a chainsaw and cut this bad boy down. So they go to work and what they found inside that trunk is astounding! It was completly hollowed out! There was a two inch ring and then the rest was completely gone. I was busy watching kids while the big part came down, so this is them toward the end:

Here is Pete digging in it:

Then standing in it, trying to show how deep it is:

Here is the awesome shot of the trunk:

And that is the story of our tree that was a hazard waiting to happen.

Super Bowl in the Sand Box

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it has been awhile. I was encouraged to start blogging again by my lovely sister Jane so this story is dedicated to her. It was Super Bowl Sunday and we were chillin' at Pete's parent's house. We were all having a grand ole time in a packed house, lots of yummy food, and a BIG TV. Ally was running around with the other kids or grandma, I was feeding Tank, and Pete was watching the game. I had just finished up feeding Tank and as I am walking out of the back room I hear some little kid say: "no, Ally isn't out front with us". Then I hear Grandma say, "no, I haven't seen Ally for awhile". Then the search was on: random people started yelling out that Ally isn't there, no Ally isn't here, no Ally isn't anywhere! It was getting to the point where I was about to start panicking and then I hear, very faintly, "Ally is in the backyard in the sandbox". I rush to the backyard just to see her with my own eyes and this is what I see:

Oh, I love my daughter.

The long awaited gift

Before Pete and I started dating, he made me promise to make sure that he went skydiving before he died. We had been saying that it would be a present to each other for a while. It stated with our second anniversary present, then Christmas, then our third anniversary present, then Pete's Birthday. Finally, on December 23, when both of us realized that we hadn't gotten each other anything for Christmas, I said "Pete we are going skydiving on December 30 as our Christmas present to each other". We invited Jeff, Pete's brother, and on December 30th all of us drove out to the Perris Valley Skydiving Center. Unfortunately it was cloudy and it needs to be clear enough to see the ground from the airplane, When your are being dropped from 12500 feet, that's a lot of space that needs to be clear. Luckily all of us are teachers and were able to go back the next day, with it being vacation and all. And as a double bonus Steve, another one of Pete's brothers, was able to go. So we made our journey back to Perris Valley and took the leap. It was amazing! The rush and excitement of the jump lasted the whole day. Every time I try to explain what I felt and don't do it justice. Just know that it was amazing. I still look at the blue sky and remember back to the feeling of free falling and it makes me think that I won't be any less nervous the next time I go. It was amazing!

Our Little Airplane. There were like 15 of us jammed in there to go 12500 feet just to jump out.

This Picture was backlit so I tried to photoshop it but didn't spend enough time on it, oh well. This was after our jump.

First Halloween

For Ally's first Halloween we went to our church's Sugar Rush. It was a ton of fun. For the majority of the night we ran some games. We were in charge of bowling and the game where you have to knock over the cans with a bean bag. We tried bowling with Ally but she didn't slide down the board to well. She was good at knocking over the cans but it became a little old always having to pick up the cans.

Ally and I were originally going to dress up as Angela (Me) and a cat (Ally). This is funny if you watch The Office. We changed our minds because it would have taken planning and we didn't know if Pete should be Andy or Dwight. Either one would not have been up to date with the show but it would have been really fun. So we figured out a better threesome to be: an inappropriately dressed foreign soccer player, a referee, and a soccer ball. The best part of our costumes was that everyone figured out who we were without heaving to explain it.

Unfortunantly I was the only one who took pictures with our camera so I was not in any. But there was a photo booth where Ally and I were the test subjects to make sure the lighting was correct. There were many pictures taken and of course this is the one that came out but it is the only one that I have of my outfit.

summer: exit stage left

Well summer is over. Not to say that it went quick. In fact it went quite slow and I loved every second of it. It was great getting to hang out with Ally. She is getting so big and is crawling everywhere. She is smiling and laughing more as well. My favorite thing that she is doing right now is resting her head on my chest for like two seconds (she is not a cuddler at all). I thought it would be hard to go back to work but on the first day back, when I returned home Ally gave me a big smile and crawled right for me. I loved it! She makes it worth leaving just so I can return home again. If you can believe it I am not going to post a picture. But don't worry I will again soon..... All right I have to, it just doesn't feel right otherwise.

Wiffle Ball

My husband has become a huge wiffle ball guy. It started out as a little hobby where he would go outside and make a wiffle ball dance like crazy. Then he searched on the internet one day to find if their was a legal strike zone designed for wiffle ball and a whole world opened up for him. There are official rules including double plays, there is no base running, and there are even tournaments that lead up to a world series. Then we met this guy named Richard and we call him the wiff master. Richard came out to Corona and led practicies and encouraged Petey to get into the tournaments. Petey was finally able to play in a tournament a weekend ago. His team consisted of Jay Hobbs and Steve Taynton. The first game of their careers they were annihilated which was very fitting. I think it brought them down to earth. I do have to admit that the tournament was a lot of fun and the most bizarre part of the whole tournament is that I ran into a girl that I used to play club soccer with.