Athleticism

It's raining again and I'm catching up on pictures, can you tell?

For those who know us, neither Bryan nor I are athletic.  Bryan has the build for it but only enjoys a few sports.  Brandon, however, is ALL athlete!  Our siblings enjoy rubbing in that we have days and days worth of sitting watching sports coming up because he is so athletic.  As long as I have a camera near by to capture my boy enjoying playing sports, I'm okay with that.

Mother's day we went for a walk/bike ride to Bender and there were several teams playing baseball.  Brandon was completely fascinated with it and Auntie Cheryl did a good job explaining the game to him.  When we got back home she helped him learn some throwing skills in the back yard.  We're still practicing.

Bryan and Cheryl went to play tennis in the evening.  Brandon desperately wanted to go watch so after a bath and some supper I took them over there to "watch".  The watching didn't last very long!  Brandon soon decided it was his job to become the ball fetcher.

Seen Brandon's hands?  He's just itching to touch those balls.

Then, after finishing their last game, Bryan called Brandon over to try play and he did SO well!

He dropped the ball for himself and hit it...

 Sometimes he missed...

Then Bryan started dropping the balls for him...

and he hit most of them...

He hit with flare...

and nice form...

and Micah took over the ball fetcher job! :)

Yep, we have sports in our future.  :)

Blessings

Precious Moments: "I LOVE getting muddy, Mama!"

With all the beautifully sunny weather we've been having lately, we've been spending lots of time outside.  Alas, my children think 73/74 degrees is hot... *sigh*. 

Brandon came up to me one day and said, "Mama, can I get muddy?"  Sunny day + water + sand box = priceless fun.  Of course I said yes.  The wide smile and "Thank you, Mama! I LOVE getting muddy." made the cringing in my head at all the extra laundry coming up in the next couple months rather insignificant.

I got out of there soon after, fearing for the cleanly safety of my camera.  They were pretty covered in mud by the end of the afternoon and their smiles were as wide as they could get.

Surprise Visit

For a whole week I kept a secret--and boy oh boy was it hard!!

Saturday night Cheryl showed up at our door and surprised Bryan.  Sunday morning she went over to Sally Hiemstra before church and surprised her for Mother's day, and when Don and Sally came over for lunch after church, Cheryl surprised her mom.  It was so fun!!

Tuesday both Sallys, Cheryl, the boys and I took a day to play together.  We went down to Washington Park in Anacortes and soaked up some beautiful sunshine and fellowship.

They tried to do a train but it didn't work so well.

Love this picture with all three throwing rocks together.

Micah learned to say "boap" (boat) that day.  His daddy was very proud.

P52 theme last week was "Mothers".  Here's a self-portrait with my two boys up in a tree.

Telling everyone when it was their turn to do the rocket launcher.

Auntie Cheryl got the boys some bubbles and it was the perfect way to end the day.

And I have especially enjoyed all week long, my beautiful Mother's day flowers from my boys.  So precious!



Blessings on your week.

Flowers Galor!

A couple weeks ago, knowing how much I thoroughly enjoy photographing flowers, David over at Vander Giessen Nursery invited me to come take pictures of the plethora of flowers and plants they have.  Thursday was a beautifully sunny day, Brandon was at a friend's house playing and I knew Micah would love wandering around, so we headed over there and had some fun.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Thanks for the fun, David.  Hope your Mother's Day rush goes well.

A Week in Quick Review

So many times I've read and heard "Zero out your camera after a 'shoot'."  Usually I do, but not last week.  I had to take a quick picture last week so I changed my setting to jpeg...and forgot to change it back so I have a whole weeks worth of pictures in jpeg and it's DRIVING ME NUTS!  After working with RAW for so long and having all that wonderful data to play with, I have nothing to work with on these pictures and it bothers me.  Anyway, guess I learned my lesson.  Hopefully.

Here are a few pictures in review of our past week...

After a very emotionally up and down day last Friday we went out to the boat park after supper to enjoy some sunshine and de-stress...it was cold, but beautiful.

Brandon was SLAMMING on the boat breaks.

Micah's little legs kicking out of a slide as he tries to get out crack me up every time.

Saturday Bryan took Brandon out to Don and Sally's to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels.  It didn't take long before he was up and going I'm told.  Sunday we went for a walk to the park to give him some more practice. 

Wobbly start.

"Oops, guess I need to watch where I'm going at the same time as riding."

He was getting mad at not being able to get up and going so he started yelling and jumping up and down.  Like the good parents we are, Bryan and I sat on the bench and laughed--it's a good thing he couldn't hear us.  ;)

"Yep, the goal post is still here!"  (The boy on the big bike is a terrible bully!  We've had more then one encounter with him.)

When we got back Bryan lowered the trike to Micah's size.

It won't take long before he's zooming either.

Monday we took a break from grocery shopping and went to the park for a picnic lunch.  I'm excited for June to roll in so we can start our regular park days again.

He looks so old and grown up in this picture.  When did that happen?

The rest of the week was on and off sunny so we spent as much time outside as possible.  The rest of the time was spent trying to catch up from three of us being sick last week.  Thursday I visited a nursery here in town and took pictures of all the beautiful blooms and tables full of flowers--it was fun but another day's post.

Finally, this week's P52 theme was "Still Life".  This is a still life photo representing what much of my outdoor time has entailed.  ;) (Yes, I skipped last week.  One skipped week out of almost half a year though is pretty good, I'd say.)

Blessings on your weekend and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you amazing mother's out there.