Photo Challenge Day 23: Sunflare

Enjoying the sunshine in Monterey.

A longer post on our vacation to come!


I'm doing the 30 Day Photography Challenge. View the challenges

Day 22 - Daddy's Hands

Day 22 - Hands

I love watching my boys play together.

View all the challenges

Photo Challenge Day 20 and the Fair

So, I'm skipping Day 20 - it's a little too fancy for my non-fancy camera. Instead I'll tell you about the time we went to the County Fair.

Let me begin by saying, I am not a "fair" person. As a matter of fact, I kind of hate the fair. Just the thought of it makes me feel hot and dirty and have flashbacks to my years in small town television when I had spend a lot of time at the fair filming pageant competitions and art shows. You will never look at "scholarship competitions" the same way after you've spent countless hours standing behind a camera watching 6-22 year olds perform (mostly) really bad dance/singing/instrumental/acting (for those who can't sing, play an instrument or dance) routines, all the while connected by headphones to the director's truck hearing rude comments about each girl made by middle aged men while you discreetly tell bratty kids to quit climbing on the 6-foot tall scaffolding you're standing on because it shakes the camera. There were also the years that I stood outside the fair in a parking lot for 5 days helping to park cars as part of a church fundraiser. (Did I mention we usually had to haul trash and dirt out of it a few days before hand.) Yeah, I hate the fair.

That being said, the Alameda County Fair may have changed my opinion of the fair in general. It was clean, held on sprawling grounds, and just generally pleasant.

Luke liked the animals.

There were lots of cute little piglets!

And a momma cow and her calf

We saw a glimpse of Luke's future here...

and here...

And this, as usual, remains the same. :)

Justin's dream is to be a pig farmer.



Double Ferris Wheel - almost as rare as the "double rainbow," but not quite.

Did I mention how enamored I currently am with the "vintage film" polaroid effect on my smart phone? It makes everything look cooler.



Even I look a better in "vintage film." I think it evens out my pasty uneven skin tone.

Not at the fair, but it belongs in the same weekend - we watched fireworks this year in a cute little Lodi neighborhood. The street was blocked off and everyone just pulled their chairs outside and watched. I love small towns!

Oh, and Luke rode a pony. This was taken as the pony ride operator told me "no pictures from inside!"

Day 14: The Eyes Have It

Day 14 of the 30 Day Photography Challenge

Eyes

People always comment on Luke's eyes. The comment is usually followed by, "where did he get those eyes?" Since it is obvious that I had nothing to do with them, I always have to defer to Justin. "From his dad..." wah wah (sad trombone).

Luke's eyes may be rad, but not everyone has one of these:

Luke is One!

It's amazing how much a little person changes in their first year! The past few weeks have transformed my baby into a toddler. It's a frustrating, but wonderful process. Frustrating because it goes so fast that I feel I can barely keep up. I find myself wishing there was a way to throw a lasso around time and slow it down. There isn't, so I find myself hanging on for dear life, trying to soak in every fleeting moment and enjoying the ride!

Things about Luke as a 1-year-old:

He walks more and more, further and further every day.
He loves cars, climbing up things, waving, the mirror, crawling under things
He is fascinated by lights and loves to try and turn the light switches off and on

He points at everything and says, "da?" quite quizzically.

He loves the swings at the park.

He eats almost anything we give him, but seems to really enjoy pancakes

He almost has 6 teeth

He doesn't have a favorite toy, but does love to rub the satin on blankets or soft tags

He likes to read and will drag books over to us to read to him

He gets frustrated easily when he finds he can't do something

He is very sweet tempered and low maintenance

He has a big smile for almost everybody

And, I just love him!

The day before...

One year ago today...

I spent the day running errands with my mom. I had lunch at Round Table. I wore my "Due in December" tank top and the cashier at Target said, "are you really?" I put together a bookshelf. My mom told me my tummy "looked different." I had a friend over for what turned out to be a very abbreviated dinner.

Little did I know when I woke up on the morning of November 23rd that later that evening I would be at the hospital getting ready for my new life to begin!

The Birthday Party

I'll be posting an inordinate amount of pictures on facebook in the next few days, but here are a few pics to show you Luke's First Birthday Party. I didn't really want any particular theme other than the primary colors, but I threw in a few Sesame Street-inspired things because I love it! I even found a Sesame Street shirt when I was cleaning out boxes of my old clothes last weekend, so I decided it needed to make an apperance at the party too!

Sister-in-law Sommer takes credit for the awesome tissue paper poofs and the "Happy Birthday Luke" Banner

 

Happy first birthday sweet baby boy! 




(next year we're going to Chuck E Cheese) :)