i am in love ..

my little hunk of love is here for a few days ..

if you need me i will be unavailable ..

happy 4th on the 6th !

this is mr. happy as a firecracker !

he did not want me taking any pictures .. none .. not a one .. especially of him ..

ellie on the other hand did not mind .. 

we meet up with jay and his crew .. 

and my mom and dad ..

we ate pizza .. swam .. 

took a nap ..

and twirled sparklers .. 

and then we sat back and watched ..

it was a great night .. 

happy 4th on the 6th everyone .. 

i bet you can't stay on ..

syd is here for the week of july 4th so we took advantage of a quiet tuesday and went out on the lake ..

our goal was to do as much as possible ..

to fall off the tube and crash going over the wake as many times as possible ..

to drink as much of the lake water as possible because our mouths were open from screaming ..

to master the back flip fall off ..

to fly .. 

and to land the front roll off crash .. 

i am happy to say that our goal was accomplished ..

boat night ..

we just got a chance to have our first family boat night ..

it would help if my family were home more often !

i am not sure what caught his eye .. 

so we ate dinner at the landings and then headed home while watching the sunset ..

i love these nights .. 

the paddle board ..

we sell paddle boards at work ..

my brilliant friend brooke was in one day and made the comment 

on what a great "core" workout a paddle board would be ..

"ugh" was all i could say ..

well the topic came up again at work today ..

so i had the guys load the 12 ft long board into the back of jeff's truck and bring it home .. 

i picked up the kids and was telling mom that i brought a paddle board home ..

she thinks that she might want to give it a spin to ..

the kids immediately chimed in .. oh me to ..

i was trying to explain that the paddle board is just for me and granny ..

all i got was why can't i try ..

later i said ..

so .. we come home .. eat breakfast for dinner and then head down to the dock

with the board ..

side note .. i really needed to change my camera lens and check my settings 

before i took this picture .. but when i said hang on .. they kept walking ..

so this picture will have to do ..

anyway .. 

i got 1 turn on the paddle board ..

the kids got 3 turns on the paddle board ..

my plans of quiet time paddling out to the mouth of my cove are gone ..

just me and the water and the sunset .. not going to happen ..

instead i have to hurry back to the dock

 to shouting children jumping up and down on the dock hollaring my turn .. my turn .. 

ellie told jeff that he needs to bring another home ..

jeff said why ..

i am thinking she is going to say so that she can paddle with me ..

instead she says so that cash can paddle with her ..

"ugh"

is all i can say .. 

dog kisses ..

ginger saw that the kids were outside so she had to come over and check out what was going on .. 

and then she saw ellie ..

she loves ellie .. 

ellie loves her .. 

kiss kiss .. 

camera class ..

yesterday mindy from mjw photography come over to teach a camera class ..

ruth and i had been talking about how we would love to go to camera school ..

so ruth found mindy through another friend and we talked her into coming over ..

it was awesome !!

i never thought that i would say this ..

but shooting in manual is soooooo EASY !!!!

thankfully the kids didn't mind helping us out and giving us something to photograph .. 

i took all these pics on total manual ..

spot metering ..

single point focal point

shutter speed

aperture .. 

set all the settings myself ..

i am giddy !!!!

mindy you are brilliant .. thank you so much !!

you can read about mindy here ..

http://www.focusbymjw.com