The River.

Day 1


Day 2


Perfect weather – not hot, not cold (albeit, not hot enough for the cold water to feel “refreshing”). Fearful Dog Dude fared better than I expected. But gosh, he’s a clueless dog. In the first picture of him … he’s trying to shake off the water while standing chest high in it! Not pictured: my two ski runs … in my shorty wetsuit leftover from BEFORE I had kids. Big Dude, after watching the humiliating spectacle of me getting into and out of said suit, decided NOT to try the same with his old wetsuit. ahem. No fish caught, but fun to cast. And Big Dude cracked up the Little Dudes with his cartoon quotes … “SpongeBob, does this look dangerous?!?”

Also not pictured, and I mention it only to keep things “real”: the whining. Oh, yes. And the endless questioning of when we would be returning to the car. sigh. BIG HUGE SIGH. One of my favorite places on earth. Little Dudes did NOT have my same appreciation for the place, the experience, the relaxation … Wanna know my theory why? My Dudes are part of the Gameboy/Xbox/Computer game generation. Methinks it’s robbed them of some of the simpler joys in life. And truly, that makes me sad. It also makes me consider the possibilities and pay-offs of a period of “prohibition” (hey, how ‘bout that alliteration?!?) … yo, Dudes, are you listening??? This is your most excellent opportunity to learn to pretend to love the simple joys in life before I yank the privileges of your gaming time!!!

Overall, though, a great couple days at the River … And now I need to get off the computer and go exercise so that getting into my wetsuit next time won’t be such an ordeal. Or, perhaps I’ll just go buy a new one … ;-)

Well, Hello Gorgeous!

Gosh, I’ve missed you …

And, yes.  That is snow on the mountains.  And yes, the water was COLD.  :-)

Shadow.

a hint/trace/scintilla, darkness/gloaming, a foreshowing/sign, protection/safety/cover/shelter, awning/umbrella



For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers:
our days on the earth are as a shadow... 1Chronicles 29:15


For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are as a shadow… Job 8:9


Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23:4


How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings. Psalm 36:7



He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” Psalm 91:1-2



For Thou hast been a defense for the helpless, a strength to the needy in his distress,
a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,
when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
Like heat in a drought, Thou dost subdue the uproar of aliens;
Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced. Isaiah 25:4-5



Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon
or a Sabbath day – things which are a mere shadow of what is to come;
but the substance belongs to Christ… If then you have been raised up with Christ,
keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Colossians 2:16-17, 3:1-2

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel … because of the tender mercy of our God,
with which the Sunrise from on high shall visit us,
to shine upon them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:68, 78-79

Fix it Friday & Totally Rad Presets

Don't miss the fix-it fun over at iHeartFaces. Here is this week's fix-it image using only Totally Rad Presets in Lightroom:

Magical. Glorious. Awesome! :: Orange County Family Photographer

Truly.  This shoot, this family, this location was all those things.  And more.

 

 

Becky, thank you oodles for humoring me and dragging all your gear out to the high desert so the boys could be boys!

 

 

 

And my deepest thanks to your family for serving our nation with the Marines.  It was my honor to take your pictures.

Sneak Peek: What in the World ...

are these guys doing?!?









Aha!



A sneek peek from a super fun shoot in an uber-amazing location with a super fun family who just happened to win my Inspire Me! contest. Shea Family, I can't wait to show you more!!!

Orange County Family Photographer

"What do these stones mean to you?"

So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe;
and Joshua said to them, "Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan,
and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel.
"Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying,
'What do these stones mean to you?' then you shall say to them,
'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD;
when it crossed the Jordan, the water of the Jordan were cut off.'
So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever."

... And it came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before.

Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month
and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.
And those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan,
Joshua set up at Gilgal.
And he said to the sons of Israel,
"When your children ask their fathers in time to to come,
saying 'What are these stones?' then you shall inform your children, saying,
'Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.'
For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed,
just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea,
which He dried up before us until we had crossed;
that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty,
so that you may fear the LORD your God forever."
Joshua 4: 4-7, 18-24

Our Baby is One Year Older ...

He's cute and quirky and sweet and imaginative. He keeps our household safe from the Char and never fails to restock our Honey-Apple-Pie supply. We love him oodles.



And, yes: He did pick out that party hat all by himself. And he loved it freely and unself-consciously ... right up until the moment his big brothers told him he looked like a clown. sigh.

A Glorious Day for a Field Trip

… to the gorgeous Starr Ranch Sanctuary.  Sunny, breezy, 80s – a bird presentation, a hike, and lunch.  More pictures here.

Our Sunday Drive …

and errand took us to Redondo Beach.  From there, we tooled through Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, El Segundo, Marina del Rey, and ended up in Venice at Middle Dude’s favorite lunch place.  Despite Venice’s overall gritty grungy “flavor”, this neat location gave me my “sweet shot” of the week.  To see more sweet shots from around the world, head over to Darcy’s sweet spot on the ‘net:

Dont’cha love this orange corridor?  I do!

Feed the World and Increase your Vocabulary ;-)

Just saw this over at P-Dub’s.  Go ahead and play along.  It’s fun.  It’s good for you – keeps that gray matter fresh.  And presumably it helps feed the world (tho, it does beg the question as to WHY I’d have to take vocabulary quizzes to get that rice where it belongs).

Go ahead.  Play.  You don’t have to sign-up for anything.  Or identify yourself.  Just click on a bunch of right answers.  :-)

Updated: I'm topping out each time at level 44. How far are y'all getting?

My 100 week streak broken...

But I highly recommend visiting Anita for a stunning & encouraging scripture + image fix ... Psalm 143:8

Eldest Dude has a blog.

An oh-so-humble (NOT!) blog. Even as I type, I'm holding back my pride-goeth lecture.

For his Great Books class, he recently completed an assignment to write a fictionalized account of a tragedy (the terms of which were defined in his Aristotle readings). He married Science Fiction + Gothic Comic Book + Great Books and greatly exceeded the maximum word count for his assignment. [grin]

And now he wants to share with all the world (well, all three of you visiting today - Hi Mom!) his uncut version:

Read it here. :-)

i Heart Red River Paper!

and right this very moment, Red River Paper is having a giveaway at iHeartFaces.

Last year Red River Paper sent me a sample box of their gorgeous papers.  As luck (unluck?) would have it, my printer and computer were not playing nicely together at the time that I received the box of goodies; and being the complete techno-phobe that I am, I pretended the problem didn’t exist until recently.  And I sighed.  And I stomped.  I might have shed a couple tears.  Or not.  Anywhooo, my knight in technological shining armor (aka Big Dude) came to my rescue and made all my machines play together nicely.  And I finally tried these papers.  And I. LOVED. them. 

Here are some sample pictures of the annual family collage that I made (for my boys’ albums) and printed on various papers.  Keep in mind these are MACRO images (very close-up) so that you can see the paper details larger than life. 

Here’s the collage, printed on (from left to right):  River Linen, Aurora Fine Art White, and Arctic Polar Luster.

 

Close-up, same order as above:

Linen:

Aurora Fine Art:

Linen:

Aurora Fine Art:

And for birthday cards I just printed, here is double sided Polar Matte:

 

And here’s the super fabulous part of Red River Paper.  They make their ICC-profiles super-duper accessible.  Which makes it easy to make your printed product look like the image on your computer screen.  (rant:  I shoot with Canon gear.  I have a Canon printer.  In the past I’ve bought Canon Paper.  Wouldn’t you think Canon would provide ICC-profiles for their own paper to print in their own machines?  But, they don’t.  Not that I could ever easily find or incorporate.  Shame on Canon.  Kudos to Red River!  Rant over.)

So, head over to iHeartFaces and see if you can win …

Cirque Du Soleil …

… wasn’t the only quirky thing we saw last week in Del Mar.

 

Daddy’s Haircutting Motto:

Fast.  But handsome.  :-)

Aliso Viejo Family Photographer :: Being Neighbors …

allows us the total convenience of ten minute photoshoots, like this one just before Bela and Mommy head off to a baby shower!  :-)

 

Peace. Let not your heart be troubled.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you:
not as the world gives, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27