Seafair Torchlight Parade 2012

This weekend was the Seafair Torchlight Parade in Seattle.  It's the largest parade in the pacific northwest and the community float was entered in the parade.  It definately made for a long weekend!

First stop was to eat dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which was the inspiration for the float this year.

Our hotel was in Tukwila and the float had to be ready and in place super early in the morning, so the dads went with the float early and the girls had a little more time to get ready.  In order to get to the float location, we had to take the hotel shuttle to the light rail system, ride the rail to Westlake Mall, take the monorail from Westlake to Seattle Center, and walk from Seattle Center to the float location.  The girls spent some time texting while waiting for the monorail. ;)

Pretty girls!

Cheesy girls!

Posing with some other parade entrants:

A by the Puyallup float...she loves pigs!

Posing on the red carpet with some Disney stars.  I don't know who they are, though.

Princess toes cooling off in the water before the parade.

A posing with the float director:

It was a long day, but a good day.  The girls had a great time and enjoyed the parade, so that's what makes it worth it.

Senior Pictures

A is going to be a senior this year!  I can hardly believe I will have a senior, a kindergartener, and one in the middle!  Talk about bookends!

Anyway, A says if I have someone else take her pictures besides me, I probably won't be happy.  My argument is that I'm not a professional photographer and someone else could probably do a much better job.  And then she replies, but do you really want t spend a bunch of money and end up wishing that I had just done them in the first place?

I have a hard time arguing with that one!  So here are some shots I've already taken.  I would LOVE some input as to which ones you like, don't like, etc.  The second one from the bottom I've already printed in an 8x10 and hung it on the wall.



Let me know what you think!

Beach Trip {Sunday Snapshot}

We spent the weekend at Lincoln City, Oregon.  A wanted some pictures taken at the beach for her senior pictures and I wanted some of the kids together at the beach.  I'm disappointed in my shots.  I needed a reflector, I think, because their faces are just too dark.

I love this one of Cara, though.  She just nauturally strikes a pose when she gets in front of the camera. ;)

I might print this one:

I got some good senior pics, I think.  I took them in the morning, but the lighting still wasn't as good as I would have liked.  I will post those later this week.

The photos were taken with my Cannon T2si, zoom lens.  I ran them through Florabella clean color and did a little touch up on Cara's face in the top pic to even out her skin tone.

For more Sunday Snapshots, click here:

Swimming Lessons

Cara had her first day of summer swimming lessons today.  We tried to do indoor swimming lessons earlier this spring, but it was hard to work out the times with A's Miss Zillah stuff.  Plus the teacher didn't really seem to have any rhyme or reason to his lessons.  So we just quit.

Sh was so excited to go today!

She's trying to do what the teacher says, yet still smile for the camera.

 Cara with one of her teachers.

She was super cold by the end of the lesson, but she had a great time and is excited to go back tomorrow.

Annual Doctor Visit and A Pleasant Surprise

Cara had her annual doctor visit in Seattle today.  We knew it was going to be a biggie because she hasn't had shots in over a year.  Her doctor had also mentioned (last year) that she would need to have her blood work redone at this visit.  So Cara was prepared for both shots and blood work.

In China Cara had a positive TB test, but a clear chest x-ray.  When we took her in to see the doctor in Seattle, he did the TB blood test, which was negative.  Today Cara had another TB test and the blood test.  If one of these tests is positive, she will have to do the 9 month TB treatment; we've put it off long enough.

So, all in all, today Cara had 3 shots, 1 TB skin test, and 8 vials of blood drawn!  And she was a trooper!  She counted, "1, 2, 3" for each shot and the only time she cried was for the anticipation of the blood draw.  Once the needle was in, she stopped crying.

She got to pick a prize at the lab (toy helicopter) and a treat from us (strawberry ice cream).  She also got to buy some water balloons.

When we got home I asked her if I could take some pictures out in the yard so we could show her band aid from her shot.





Her brother went with her today, too, so I think that eased some of her anxiety.



 And when I got home and checked my favorite sites/blogs, I noticed that I received an honorable mention for my Sunday Snapshot!  How exciting!  People enter some fantastic shots every week and I am always impressed by the abilities of the photographers.  To me, an honorable mention is HUGE!  Yay!  Thanks, Stefanie!



Saturday on the Snake

It's been pretty hot the past few days in central Washington.  On Saturday A finished working early and decided to come with us to the Snake River.  The water wasn't too cold, so she gave knee boarding a try for the first time this year.

She only crashed a couple of times. ;)

I always love the views on the Snake.  So pretty!

Cara wanted to try riding the tube for the first time.  Here she is, all smiles with her sister ready to go:

Here she is once the boat started moving:

We got her off the tube in a hurry, but later she wanted to try it again and rode the tube all the way back to the launch.  We had two very tired girls with us by the time the day was done.

I look forward to going many more times this summer.

Black and White {Sunday Snapshot}

I've never processed in black and white much before; just prints of the kids to hang in their bathroom.  But I thought I would give it a try this week.  I snapped these shots of my sassy girl out in the pasture.  This is Cara's signature pose:

She looks so serious here!  Not like my usual smiley girl.

Both shots were taken at 8:45 pm PST.  They were shot with a Cannon T2i and 1.8 lens and processed with Florabella clean black and white.  I did warm up the tone a little bit.

For more Sunday Snapshots, click here:

4th of July Parade

This morning A had a parade in Toppenish for 4th of July.  It was extra special because the girls' sashes came in with their names on them.  The dads suprised the girls with the new sashes.

The back of A's sash:

All the girls together:

A fooling around on one of the parade entries:

The float won 1st place and the Sweepstakes award:

A and S:

A had a kiss for her brother:

Next parade will be the end of this month.  Seafair parade in Seattle.

Happy 4th of July!

My Almost Birthday Present

My birthday is in 3 days.  J asked me what I wanted and I told him something for my camera.  Well, this morning I downloaded Florabella Retouch and Makeover actions.

I snapped these pictures last night out in the pasture at 8:45 and messed around with them with the Florabella actions for Photoshop.

I don't know how to edit out the "wispies,"  but I think they look ok.

I don't really know how to go back in to the action layers and adjust for brightness and contrast once the action has run.

This was the last shot I took.  She was trying to look tough. ;)  I would have liked to lighten up the background and maybe toned down the hair color, but I'm not sure how to do that.

I think I'm going to have lots of fun with this present!  Happy early Birthday to me!