Puzzlemaniac

Thomas has always loved jigsaw puzzles. He's better at doing them than me. My family didn't do puzzles for fun like David's did. Thomas did all of these by himself one afternoon this week. The big dinosaur one is pretty hard and that was the first time he'd done that one alone. He was pretty proud.

Swinging

Thomas and Evie swinging at Zilker Park in Austin Saturday night. Oh yeah, and a little bit of David and Chris too. ;-) I still need practice capturing good swinging photos. I never quite like the results.

Texas

How's this for a picture that screams "Texas!" I was standing in the yard of Snow's BBQ and turned around to check out the scenery. I quickly snapped this pic as the horse riders went by. It has it all: pickup truck, old rusting farm storage building (silo?), the BBQ sign, and horse riders. What more could you ask for?

Best Barbecue in Texas

So where did I go last weekend? I know you're dying to find out so I won't make you wait any longer. We went to Austin to visit Chris, Jennifer, and Evie. They'd just gotten their Texas Monthly in the mail and the feature article was about the 50 best barbecue places in the state. And number one was a little barbecue joint in Lexington, TX that's only open one day a week. They open at 8 am and stay open till the meat runs out, usually by noon. So we called our order in at 8:15 Saturday morning, left the house at 10, and got there a little after 11. When we walked in, they said, "Please tell us you preordered." Good thing we had. They made 2 1/2 times the amount of meat they usually do and still sold out by 10:15.
So how was it? The brisket was by far the best I'd ever tasted and I'm a Texas girl so I've had LOTS of brisket in my lifetime. It literally melted in our mouths. It was an awesome "Barbecue Adventure" as we liked to call it and definitely worth the drive.

Theater District

On our way to the theater, we passed this famous Chicago sign, I'm guessing it's the Chicago Theater. Would have liked to have had my tripod for some of these shots, but... And we saw....Wicked! And it was AWESOME!!! Definitely one of those musicals I'd see again and again. And the theater itself? Talk about ornate! Every single surface was covered with some beautiful texture. This shot is from the foyer. No photography allowed in the auditorium.

I think that's all the Chicago pics I want to share for now, at least until I have another lazy day and no pic to post. Expect a new location tomorrow. Aren't you excited? ;-)

Memorial Day

In honor of Memorial Day, I'm taking a break from Chicago pics to share these with you. I took them a couple weeks ago when we visited the DFW National Cemetery.

Definitely Chicago

I took this photo on the boat tour too. Thought it was a quintessential Chicago shot with the Sears Tower in the background (with the two antenna if you're not familiar with it) and "the L" in the foreground. And there's another one of those birds again. They're everywhere!

Strange Eel

We went to the Shedd Aquarium on Sunday and flash photography wasn't allowed so I tried experimenting. For this shot, my ISO is 1600 and shutter speed of 1/20. It's hard in such low light. Much more challenging conditions for me than at the hockey game.

Landmarks

The Wrigley building in the foreground and the Chicago Tribune building in the background. Took these pics on the architecture boat tour of the Chicago river which was very informative and entertaining.

The Bean

Is this an optical illusion? Nope. It's the underside of "The Bean," otherwise known as the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millenium Park. I think I'm in there about a million times. Look for me, I'm wearing a red jacket. :-)
Here's another view of it. It's impossible to shoot this without people in it. Maybe if you get out at dawn but we didn't want to get up that early when our children were at home waking their daddies up early and not us.

Chicago River

A view of the Chicago river from the Michigan Avenue bridge. The new Trump Tower is under construction on the right.

View

A view of Chicago from Shedd Aquarium. I was lucky to catch the bird in flight. I was just going for the buildings and boats.

Marshall Field Clock

Here's the first of what I'm sure will be at least a week of Chicago pictures. Had a fantastic time! Thought this was a pretty clock. The architecture of that old building was beautiful.

Jumping Grasshopper

Thomas leading the other kids singing their color songs. He's right in the middle of the "Green" song and they're all jumping like grasshoppers. Caterpillars are green and grasshoppers too. I know how to spell green. G-R-E-E-N. I love the joy on his face.

Expect some hopefully amazing shots from Chicago tomorrow. I'm pre-posting these so you won't miss my photography this weekend. :-) I haven't actually taken those amazing shots yet, but I have faith that I will. And I plan to take so many you will be sick of seeing Chicago pictures. ;-)

Thomas' Work

Here's Thomas standing with all of his work at Open House. He's holding his self portrait. The questionnaire mentioned on his blog is inside.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

James leading the group singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Can you guess which part they're singing?

Flower Boy

Thomas picked out flowers for all the mothers on Mother's Day. I got roses, Mom and Wanda got different colorful bouquets, and Grandma got my favorite flowers...tulips. Cute pic huh?

First Harvest

The first tomatoes were ready to harvest on Sunday. Thomas had decided that my mom was the first one to taste one of his tomatoes because she loves them so much. Then he let Dale, my grandma, and his brother have the other three that were ready to eat. He wouldn't eat one but was very excited about the process.

Mother's Day Shirt

Here's a pic of Jonathan wearing his I Love My Mommy shirt on Sunday. I tried for about 10 minutes to darken the bright background to no avail. So here you get a shot of him in the shade with the bright sun behind him. At least I remembered to use fill flash in the shade. I love his shirt though. Perfect thing to wear on Mother's Day which we were lucky enough to celebrate with both our moms and my grandma.

Dinosaur Dentist

Strawberries

Went to pick strawberries last Sunday. Jonathan had a blast and I'll post more on that later. For now, here's my best attempt at getting both boys. Typical, Thomas at least attempting to smile, fake though it is, for the camera while Jonathan is too busy dealing with the strawberry juice on his fingers.

Laundry Helper

Jonathan has been helping put things in the hamper. Usually it's clothes, but as I found out with this load, there are other items he deemed dirty as well.

Your Wish

Is my command. :-)

Actually I'd already taken it and was going to put it up tomorrow.

Ripening

Thomas' tomatoes are starting to ripen. Can't believe we've kept them alive this long! Not only alive but flourishing with 25-30 tomatoes on the plant.

Yea Dodgers!

The Dodgers after we beat the Yankees. Dayton's in the front with his glove. Thomas is the tall one by the open gate.

New Edit Process

I was playing around with some new editing options in Photoshop Elements. Whaddya think? I think the dirt looks better and the colors pop a little more. You might need to click on both images to see any difference.

Safe!

Landon, like about half the boys on Thomas' team, likes to slide into home plate even when it's not necessary. :-)

The Scorpion

Tried to show the movement of the ride while keeping some things crisp. Think this one is a better shot than on Thomas' blog, but you can't see him and David in this one.

Pretty Weed

This flower was growing in our yard. I took a quick pic before David mowed it down. Thomas got mad at him for doing it and said it looked pretty in our yard.

My Big Boy

Jonathan drinking juice in a big boy chair. He was very proud of himself.

Stagecoach

I'm still lazy so here's another one from Weatherford. The boys in a stagecoach.

Jailbirds

Haven't taken anything new this week so here's one from our afternoon in Weatherford. Two five year old jailbirds.