Baptisms, Beaches, and BBQs

Yesterday was a day filled with family.  Nick's parents were in town for a conference and his Grandparents had driven up from the interior to be there for the cousins' baptisms.  We arrived at the lake around 3pm, just in time to listen to 14 young people (between the ages of 13 and 22) give their testimonies.  Our cousin Sasha, who does a lot of public speaking, had us all in stitches and Nick's dad (immediately to the right of Sasha in the white shirt) and Nick's grandpa (immediately to the left of Sasha in plaid) prayed for him:

Next up was his older brother, Eli, whose mom (tucked in the back) and Grandma prayed for him:

After a couple hours of listening to all the young people's stories (and getting a little choked up on more than one occasion), we headed back to the icy cold water where the boys' dad baptized them:

Afterwards, we stole the boys away for a couple hours for a family BBQ dinner and birthday celebration for Sasha.  

Pretty soon, they'll be too big for you, Nick....

No, Grandma, you're not in my way.  You're exactly where I want you to be :)

Mother and son....

Right before we left, Nick pointed up into the tree behind me where this massive bird was perched.  I complained a LOT about only having an 85mm.  I even got Nick to come over so I could climb up on his shoulders to try and get a few feet closer.  This shows how far I will go for a shot.  I am TERRIFIED of sitting on someone's shoulder's, but I barely gave it a thought with that bird up there.  Needless to say, it didn't help much.  

In the end, I just ended up zooming in almost 100% when editing and it worked alright for this shot since my settings were decent enough to keep him from getting too fuzzy or grainy.

Do you see the attitude that bird is giving us?  We threw all sorts of food at it, trying to get it to budge.  When no one was looking, Grandpa pulled out a sling shot and fired at the branch to try and jiggle it loose.  (He's a shockingly good shot, and no we didn't hit the bird).  Finally he hit the branch soundly enough to get the bird's attention, but then it just flew away :(

As the sun disappeared, we headed back to Nick's Aunt and Uncle's place for chai teas and board games.  Well, some played, some napped, and some edited photos ;)

Sun, Summer Days, and Sisters

My husband came into downtown today to meet me for a late lunch and then work at a coffee shop for a couple hours until I was done at the office.  When 4pm rolled around, we headed off to meet up with his sister, Stevie, who is in town for a conference and hit the beach.  Sadly, we realized that we had not been to the beach in TWO YEARS.  Man, we need to get a life....  Like that's seriously pathetic considering we work right by it!  

We hung out with each other and these rather large geese that would not MOVE.  He let me walk right up to him, sit in front of him, and take his photo....

Nick and Stevie played in the freezing cold waves, soaking their pant legs, while I took pictures and sat in the sand.  (I'm the less fun one).  Here Stevie is giving Nick lessons on how to curtsey.

Skipping shells (because they work better than rocks):

Nick's family is from the prairies so they get REALLY excited to be near the ocean.  I didn't even tell her to pose here.  She's just loving it THAT much, lol.

As we got hungry we headed over to this new poutine place that Nick found when he was working a wedding last weekend and it was delicious.  Totally worth ignoring my dairy allergy for!

It had huge windows that opened right onto the busy street that you could sit by:

We had about an hour left after dinner before we had to head our separate ways, so we strolled back to the beach to catch the last of the sun.

And then I decided that I should master shooting in backlighting conditions.  I thought I would be awesome at this.  I was wrong.  Stevie and Nick were very accommodating in ignoring me while I practiced on them.

Well... for the most part ;)

Photography 365 Project: (Days 154 - 155 - Piano Funnies)

Tuesday life was started to feel EXTRA hectic (if that's possible).  Dinner (yes, a REAL dinner) made it into the oven around 10pm and also served as lunch for the following day.

Today, Wednesday, I was sooo tired when I woke up.  I was dragging my heels through the entire day at the office and wondering how I was going to find the energy to teach five students at the end of it.  And then I started to teach, and I remembered how much I love my job.  Especially teaching this one particular family whose kids are a riot.  In the 30 minutes I spent with this little guy the following conversations ensued:

Conversation #1:

Me:  You're missing something!  (Pointing at his absent front teeth).  Did you get something for that?

Him:  Yeah!  $5!

Me:  You're rich!  What are you going to buy me?  Are you going to buy me something?

Him:  Sure!

Me:  Awesome, are you going to buy me a new car?

Him:  NO!!

Me:  Why not?!  I thought you said you were going to buy me something.

Him:  I can't.

Me:  How come?

Him:  Because you can't buy a car for $5.

Me:  Oh... how much do you need to buy a car?

Him:  $200.

Conversation #2:

Me:  How well do you think you played the song on a scale of 1 - 10?

Him:  1.

Me:  Are you sure you only played it at a 1?  Cause you know you need at least a 7 out of 10 for a sticker.

Him:  1.

Me:  Okay.... ? (He actually played it about a 5 out of 10).

Him:  *whispering and leaning into my ear*  I actually said 1 because I wanted to play it again.

Me:  *whispering back into his ear*  Okay, I won't tell anyone.  Go ahead and play it again ;)

Conversation #3:

This conversation followed him hearing me quickly ask his mom's permission to post this picture on the internet.

Him:  I'm going to be on Facebook!?

Me:  Yep.

Him:  What does that mean?



Oh, kid... it means you just made my day.

Photography 365 Project: (Days 145 - 153)

Where has the last nine days gone!?  Sometimes time seems to fly by so quickly it leaves me wondering what happened when and how we got to today!  I'm so thankful for this 365 project which leaves me a little remnant of each day so that it isn't forgotten, or doesn't blend too thoroughly into the mundaneness / hectic-ness of living!

Sunday, May 25, is already slipping from my mind.  I remember eating almost that entire loaf of sourdough bread by myself accompanied by Lipton soup.  This tells me that Nick wasn't home because I wouldn't be subsisting off of bread and soup alone if he was around.  I also remember almost spilling the soup in my bed.  Thus, I'm fairly certain that I spent... oh no - I got it now.  I spent the day in my pajamas working on my computer from home while watching Netflix.  Nick was at work filming an event.

Monday I remember feeling uninspired.  Whenever I feel uninspired I tend to get more creative with my shots.  I know that seems like the opposite should be true, but it's like I try extra hard to make up for my lack of ideas.  This also was the shot that I submitted into our monthly 365 competition for "dramatic light" sponsored by ClickinMoms.

Tuesday I was tired.  I remember how tired I felt because I didn't even have enough energy to venture more than 3 feet from the bed to take this shot after work.  I noticed how tattered Nick's jeans were and promptly asked him to take them off so I could shoot them since they looked kind of cool.  He's very patient with my sometimes ridiculous requests!

Wednesday I was not feeling well at all.  I barely survived work (but had to stay all day as the meeting was super important or else I would have gone home).  I was SO thankful my students that night moved their lessons to the following week (of their own accord, too!).  I came home absolutely wrecked to find Nick had dragged our queen-sized mattress into the living room in front of the t.v. for me so I could watch shows, and ordered us pizza (for him) and chicken wings (dairy free - for me).  What a keeper he is!

Thursday I had a piano practice date with a friend of mine who is playing a duet with me at my students' recital in mid-June.  We are finally starting to get it together, and it doesn't sound like a bunch of noise.  Hopefully we can get a couple more practices in before the 15th!

Friday I had a LONG-standing date with a girl from church.  We've been trying to get together for months, and it finally happened.  She is a pianist as well, so we made some dinner, hung out, and she helped me learn some improvising techniques.  I also taught my first online photography mentoring class this night, and it was super fun!

Saturday I had the opportunity to be a second-shooter for a friend of mine at my first wedding gig.  He is kindly letting me use all my own shots for my portfolio, so here's just a sneak peek :)

Sunday was our Life Group (small group at church) Summer wrap-up.  Nick went to church in the morning as he was on the video team for both services, but I crashed and died after such a long week.  I got up around lunch and we headed out to Abbotsford for an afternoon of mini-golf and go-karting.  Well... I just took pictures of the go-karts.  I had no desire to speed around a tiny track in a plastic car.  Nick on the other hand....

Monday night after teaching, I asked Nick if we could go buy some chicken wings.   Partially because I wanted chicken wings for dinner and partially because I didn't have a photo yet, and the grocery store seemed more interesting than my house.  I was not disappointed!  We ended up finally eating at almost 10pm, and I think we've started a bad habit, since today it's now almost 9pm and neither of us are hungry yet....

Hopefully this week won't run away on me quite so quickly, but if it does, see you in a bit!