Seen roaming around my home...

Sugar and more sugar...

So first we took the boys to the beach for some run around and some hot chocolate with marshmallows...

And, just in case they weren't sugared up enough, Big Dude (who likes to be unpredictable) swung by a candy shop on the way home and told the dudes they could each pick a little something...









When we got home, we made french toast for dinner.

Yes, as a matter of fact, the eldest two dudes were still buzzing quite late at night. Youngest Dude, surprisingly, and despite all the sugar, conked out early. Good times in Keller-land.

The View from my Room...

Panorama Style!



FxMixer did a fantastic panorama tutorial a couple weeks ago. He made it simple enough that even I could understand it. So following his simple instructions (did I mention that I really appreciate keeping it simple?!?!), I set my white balance for "Sun", fired off four overlapping pictures (without a tripod - gasp!), opened them all in Photoshop and "stitched" them together. Even without a tripod, or any amount of meticulous shooting on my part, Photoshop easily stitched these together. I soooooooo wish I'd known about this little trick last month when we were at the Grand Canyon. sigh.

So, anyway, this was just my simple, quick practice image. To see some gorgeous panoramic landscapes, head over to FxMixer's blog.

Growing in my 'hood this week...

Wii Rock!

Please take note of the Dudes' awesome Spiderman impersonations. ;-)



Pretty much weekly we head to the local YMCA so the boys can burn off some energy at the Rock Wall. It's been a great place to go for fun exercise. And the boys have always wanted to go just for the sake of the wall. Until recently. The Y decided to "new & improve" itself by making the Rock Wall room into a "Kid Zone" room, complete with a large screen tv and Wii. Gag, cough, cough, sputter with indignation. A gym. Adding a tv. And video games. Can you hear the expletives I'm thinking?!? Now, when we go, these are the words we say first: "Climb to the top 5x BEFORE you play the Wii." sigh.

Rivers shall flow...

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying
"If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said,
'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"
John 7:37-38

Fix It Fridays at I Heart Faces

This Friday Fix-it at I Heart Faces was too much fun. A gorgeous girl + a beautiful dreamy background made for fabulous editing possibilities.

Head on over to see the edits, read the "how-tos" (mini Photoshop lessons in and of themselves!), and try your own hand at editing this image.

Wishes...

Gosh I wish this dear family lived around the corner (or even next door!), just so we could hang out more often and enjoy each other. Alas, they live on the other side of the world. sigh.

What to do with all those digital pictures you've taken...

Print them in a book. And the good news: this is WAY cheaper & faster than scrapbooking.



Here are a few pages from our 2007 book. Just so you know ... these are all pictures from before I had the magic of Lightroom at my beck and call. So these are SOOC or converted to b&w or sepia with iPhoto and the printer does a terrific job with them as is.




So here is my family. My dear ol' Daddy with his favored Lemondrop. My cousins and the beautiful girls they married. My Uncle. My Grammy. Unfortunately my Aunt is hiding on the folded-over portion, and my Mom and I don't show up til the next page.




And here's our whole Washington family. And the white Christmas we got to share. Too much fun. Oh yeah. And Lightroom had officially rocked my photographic world on this trip.

Enter 2008 ...











So here's the 4-1-1. I used MyPublisher.com. I think they do a terrific job for a reasonable price. If you use them, be sure and look online for coupons. Costco offers a 20% discount. Often MyPublisher runs a buy one book, get the 2nd free. Or 40% off orders over $100. To give you an idea: each of these books was about 100 pages (the max number they'll allow in one book). I got 40-50% off each order. Each page ended up costing about $.50!!!

edited to add: each of these pages, except the floral pages, are just standard lay-outs (drag & drop) from MyPublisher. The floral pages I designed first in my Lumapix software and then "dragged" them in as a single .jpg photo.

Mom's Birthday

While Mom and I ate Blackberry Gingerbread Cake and perused our way through her gift, Papa kept the dudes entertained with a little "friendly" game of Texas Hold 'Em.

I Heart Faces - Wonder

I love that my boys seem to love the River as much as I do. Here's my Middle Dude standing on the shore, seemingly lost and content in the moment.



As a fix-it Friday contributor, I'm not eligible to win the contests, but I enjoy playing along for the fun of it. Feel free to drop on by I Heart Faces for some fun and inspiration.

More Sunset Splendor, Silhouettes, and Seaweed

Love.

For God So LoVed the world.
That He gAve
His onLy
BegottEn Son
That whosoever
Believeth In Him
Should Not perish,
But have Everlasting life.
John 3:16

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is from God;
and everyoe who loves is born of God and knows God.
The one who does not love does not know God,
for GOD IS LOVE.
By this the love of God was manifested in us,
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world
so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1John4: 7-11

Happy Valentine's Day

Change your perspective...

... specifically, hold your camera down near the ground.



*I* wasn't down on the ground. I just held the camera down there. I set it in program mode (similar to full-auto) just for the heck of it. And was so tickled with the result.



(again, these are all SOOC images. the contrast/sharpness/saturation is boosted in-camera).

Ultimate Frisbee ...

...Not because of the rules of the Frisbee game itself, but because of the awesome location -- the spectacular visual aesthetics. I didn't even mind that all of these photos came out blurry. (like last post, each of these images is SOOC).

Moss Cove: Hot Chocolate, Take 2

This time we remembered the matches, and no one (cough cough, Littlest Dude) had a melt-down.



Some evening particulars: the sunset was to die for; Littlest Dude was thrilled to wear his favorite new Dinosaur t-shirt (that was formerly the favorite of both his older siblings!); the hot chocolate was delicious; the weather was warm; and the tide level was back to normal (notice: all the rocks are covered this time - same beach 7 days later).



Some camera particulars: I toyed with the settings on my camera. I've now had my "big girl" camera for a year, and I still only know a small fraction of the many capabilities that it has. So I often play around with settings just to see what happens. This time I edited the "Picture Style" by bumping the Sharpening, Contrast and Color Saturation in the menu section. Each of the pictures on this post is totally, completely SOOC. Truth be told, I probably boosted the camera settings (sharpness, contrast, saturation) too high, but I LOVE the effect. And it was quite fun NOT to have to add anything to these.

The down side? I probably couldn't use these camera settings for portraits - at least not a sunset time (or probably in shadows). All our faces came out quite strongly orange. But hey, I can always do a quickie b&w conversion:

Which all leads to my photo tip for the day: Play with your camera settings. Just about any digital camera will let you adjust your settings. Read all about it in your camera manuals. Experiment. See what happens. Have fun!

I Heart Faces - Silly Week!

This was a hilarious morning. The boys had just discovered the camera/playback mode on the computer. All sorts of dramatic, silly theatrics ensued.

Even though, as a Friday Fix-it Contributor, I'm not eligible to win the contests over at I Heart Faces, I can't resist joining in the fun. Hop on over to be inspired. And I guarantee this week's theme and images will make you smile!

Moss Cove: Hot Chocolate, Take 1

January in SoCal is usually pretty fun. Every year I've been here, there's been a "freak summer" week or two or three. So we went to the beach to enjoy the extra low tide, the sunset, and some hot chocolate.





Milk. check. Chocolate. check. cups. check. camping coffee pot. check. butane. check.



But, alas, no fire. We forgot matches. And Littlest Dude was NOT interested in having cold chocolate. All was not well with the universe...

... til Big Dude brought out the "light" toys. And peace and harmony and happiness were restored.





Too bad I didn't know Big Dude had light tricks up his sleeves. Or I woulda brought my tripod. :-(







Despite our lack of fire, a good time was [mostly] had by all.

Revelation

... and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood,
and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father;
to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him;
and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.
Even so. Amen.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

Revelation 1:5-8

I Heart Date Nights.

Errand without kiddos, including getting a new MacBook Pro from Apple, because they couldn't fix our old one. (We'll probably list this new one on Ebay. Any takers? We'll make you a deal...). Thai food dinner. Cards at the coffee shop.

Big Dude let me win. By a large margin ... I'm just sayin'... ;-)

Some pretty eye candy. Really. Candy. Sitting outside a fun, tho totally overpriced, candy shop.



addendum for clarity: we didn't BUY a new MacBook Pro. Apple GAVE us a new one in exchange for our old one (that spent more than a month with them over this last year) that they were NOT able to fix. In our case, it totally paid to buy that Apple Care package back when we originally purchased the computer.

I LOVE the wisdom...

of iMonk. I especially enjoyed the wisdom and wit of this post that compares two "religions".

Here are a couple snippets:

"Religion #1:

God is mean, angry and easily provoked. From day 1, we’ve all been a disappointment, and God is–justly–planning to punish us forever. At the last minute, thanks to Jesus stepping in to calm him down, he decides to be gracious.

But don’t do anything to mess that up. Peace is fragile around here.

Religion #2

God is gracious, loving, kind, generous and open-hearted. He rejoices in us as his creations, and is grieved that our sins have made us his enemies and caused so much brokenness and pain. In Jesus, he shows us what kind of God he is and restores the joy that should belong to the children of such a Father. True to his promises, he will bless all people in Jesus, and restore the world by his resurrection victory.

You can’t do anything to mess this up. God’s got his heart set on a universe wide celebration. ..."

"We have far too many people selling religion #1. Like the Pharisees, they are the authorized representatives of the grumpy, ticked off, hacked off, very, very angry God who MIGHT….maybe, MIGHT let you off the hook….MAYBE…..IF–and it’s a very big IF–you manage to believe enough, obey enough, get the theology questions right enough, find your way to the right church, follow the right script and get the details right, down to the last “amen.” ...

We have far too few Christians who are overwhelmed at the news that God has fired the bookkeepers, sent home the bean counters, dismissed the religion cops and bought party hats for the grumpy old people. The big announcement is this: In Jesus, we discover that God is just sloppy with his amazing grace and completely beyond common sense when it comes to his love. Just to enhance his reputation as the God who knows how to throw a party, he’s inviting all of us back home, no tickets necessary, no dress code, for a party that will last, literally, forever. " ... [bold emphasis is mine]

"God’s gracious face makes our religion fall apart. It takes away all our soapboxes. It shuts our mouths, because none of us deserve it and all of us can have it. God’s love and grace are so far beyond our ideas of what they ought to be that none of our ideas about God can survive the good news that comes in Jesus. Jesus is a salvation, grace, goodness, God revolution. ..."

Feel free to drop by the original post to read the rest of the article and the punch line. It's good.

I married my husband, mostly, because he made me laugh.

This morning, Big Dude noticed I didn't have a post. So he made one up for me. Here's what he said...

Please pray for us in Southern California. It's raining. And the wind is blowing. And I have to wear a jacket to work.

The River continued

Since we couldn't stop and sit awhile on the dock at Grammy's old place, we pulled off the road over at the old, free boat launch instead. After all, a few hours had passed without the boys throwing any rocks.

Same vista, different processing:



This is my all-time favorite stretch of water on my favorite river in which to waterski. Of course, right now, this stretch is unski-able; the water's too low. But that's ok. It's not like we dragged our boat along on our trip to the Grand Canyon.

Where Kona, the Dog Dude, is standing is usually ski-able River.








Goodbye, Sweet River. Til next time.



Thus ends 12 days of posts with nearly 200 photos of our 2 1/2 day roadtrip. I told Big Dude I was finally done with all the editing. His words were music to my ears: "So, where are we going next?" :-)

The River

I hereby apologize. I'm about to post a bunch more "point and shoot out a moving car window" pictures. Of a place I love. Along a drive that evokes numerous childhood memories.



A drive to my favorite place, that my dear sweet husband suggested we could just "swing by" on our way home (where "swing by" = tacking 3 hours onto our journey home, after two former long days of driving). All because he knows I love this place beyond reason.



Please ignore the bug-splatter windshield. Aren't the mountains pretty?



In 1970 my grandparents sold their bowling alley and left big city life behind when they bought a humble mobile home park below the Parker Dam on the Colorado River. We visited (from Northern California) at least once or twice per year. My brother and I usually spent one+ week per summer with my grandparents on the River.



And at least once a week, Grammy and I would drive into Lake Havasu City to get groceries. Each grocery run usually included lunch (with a rootbeer float!) at Dairy Queen, which was very yummy. This particular joint below did NOT exist on that piece of dirt when I was a kid. Or we wouldn't have been eating at Dairy Queen!



Meet the corniest tourist trap ever. We often stopped in there, too. They had a neat candle shop that I liked to rummage through. Grammy humored me. They also had a bunch of shops that sold "real pieces" of the London Bridge. oh bother.



It's only about a 30 minute drive between Lake Havasu City and my grandparent's place, but despite the gorgeous scenery, that seemed like a f-o-r-e-v-e-r drive when we were zipping along in Grammy's green Hornet without air-conditioning in 115* weather! All we wanted was to be back at the River and jumping in it.



This drive really hasn't changed much in 30+ years.





We always knew we were getting really close to home as we crossed the Bill Williams River (a tributary that dumps into Lake Havasu, which is just a dammed up portion of the Colorado River).







We had to just drive right by Grammy & Papa's old place. It was sold a few years back. No more mobile homes. Now it's six homes and a gate that blocks entrance (so no pretty sunset pics from the dock. sigh). But no problem. I figured we could just take nice sunset pics from the dam. But alas, there's high security on the dam now. No stopping. No pedestrians allowed. So this is the best I got. Too bad, so sad.





Over the dam, on the California side of the River, you can see their old place: the 4th & 5th docks from the bottom left.



And now there's just one more stop on our brief 2 1/2 day road trip - y'know, the 2 1/2 day roadtrip that I've turned into 12 days of posts :-). Last post tomorrow.

This is certainly NOT California Cuisine.

CRACKER BARREL!!!

This place was a total experience, I tell ya. Big Dude ordered chicken fried chicken with fried okra off the Fancy Fixin's section of the menu. I got a grilled chicken cheddar sandwich (and scraped, I kid you not, about 1/4 cup mayo off the bread!!). The boys got mac n' cheese and chicken fingers. All very good. Tho, that said, even if we had Cracker Barrels in SoCal, I don't think we'd go again. My waistline thanks me.

This guy was hanging out outside by our table. Playing checkers against himself. But you can't tell me he was impartially playing. I think he totally favored the reds.



Thus ends our lunch adventure. Next stop: one of my two favorite places on earth.

The Long Drive Home...

Yup, I'm just goober enough to take pictures out the windows on the drive home. Especially since the clouds made for a spectacular vista the whole way.

We'd heard that the best pictures are taken from the middle of the road. So we tried it.





Here's a section of the old Route 66...



... not long before we pulled off into the town of Kingman, where we dined like true Southerners ... at a Cracker Barrel. A first for this Cali born and bred girl.

Psalm 68/4

Scripture hanging at the Hermit's Rest, Grand Canyon.