Hanging out

Allie likes to snooze in her car seat but usually she is slumped over forward looking terribly uncomfortable. She apparently figured out how to fix that problem.
And here we have Mr. Luke. He motivates us to clear the table immediately. If you find yourself out of the room for just a bit (say to change Wes), Luke will always sneak back into the dining room and arrange a dessert concoction.
He named this dish "squalid."
Love Cave Canyon is at the top of our street. All the neighborhood kids call it by this name because there is a cave with the word "Love" spray painted on it. In fact all the graffiti is quite nice. By the way, on rare occasion, Luke gets his hair combed. And on rare occasion, it stays combed for a little while too.
Allie wanted to go to the neighbor's house and play Sunday. We told her she needs to stay with her family. So she decided to put mom's makeup on and do some glamor shots. Unfortunately she forgot to brush her teeth. America's top model watch out...

Hurricane Dolly

Hurricane Dolly hit TX (and other areas) with a lot of force. It was later downgraded to a Tropical Storm. As it continued on into southern NM it became Severe Weather. As it reached the Sandias with clouds and sprinkles it was downgraded to a couple of cold kids who wanted a snack. That might have been it's fiercest point.

We took the Tram to the top of the Sandias for a little adventure this morning. It was chillier than we had expected but not unbearable. Really what is was was BEAUTIFUL. There where so many pretty wild flowers and the rain has made everything so green. What a beautiful planet the Lord has given to us.
Jason stuck his hand out the Tram car window to take a shot of this canyon. We are about 1000 feet off the ground. Anyone have a parachute?Here we are eating our snack and huddling to stay warm. Poor Dad... alone in the cold so he could take our picture.

Hey lady... you smuggling something?
...oh... it's a baby!

Pioneer Day

Vic asked me what we were doing for the "24th of July". Remember folks... only UT celebrates the holiday. But this year we celebrated as well with a day at the lake. The youth went up for a day of water skiing and water fun. Jason was the only member of the bishopric able to go and so the kids and I decided to crash the party and tag along with dad. It was so much FUN! The only time Allie wasn't in the water swimming around was when she was in the canoe or the ski boat. She and Jason rode behind on the tube. She had a great time hanging on for dear life albeit they were driving relatively slow. Jason got to take his turn driving the boat as well and pulling skiers. Luke really isn't crazy about he water. He usually becomes catatonic and just wants to be held.

"Buoy Boy". He really didn't seem to care. I guess he didn't know it is not supposed to fit like that!
There. That's better.
Some of the youth in our ward.

This is what all that "swimming" does. Nice to have a recliner to relax in on the beach.
After the lake our little family took a drive in the mountains (Cibola National Forest) to check out some future camp spots. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! We had beef stroganoff for dinner (a backpacking meal) and played in the cold creek. Wesley had a fun as well. Hey Molly... do you recognize this outfit?


I think everyone agrees that music can be so powerful. My brother Vic wrote on his blog about moments in life where you feel overwhelming happiness. They tend to be simple often seemingly ordinary moments. We had one of those moments as we drove down a bumpy dirt road in the most beautiful wilderness with no one around, singing and "dancing" together- just our little family. This is a video of Luke rocking out. I could not get over how cute and funny I thought it was. We had to do a bit of editing work on the video... to cut out Jason and my singing.


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Nerd notes:
1) I played with the $30 100-300mm manually focused lens (because the AF was broken) I bought a while back. It is a pretty poor lens as it turned out but shows some of the cool things that a long lens will do. The photo of the three kids in the water, the ski boat and the canoe make you think that the three groups are all close to each other-- not so, this is just a compression artifact of a long lens (300mm in this case).
2) The pic of Luke's dirty face in the back of the truck on the other hand was shot @ 18mm, the widest setting of the lens that came with the camera. At 18mm his head (just a few inches off the front of the lens) is distorted in a cool way. So scene compression at 300mm and distortion at 18mm. The good portrait lenses (what I usually use) fall in at about 50-85mm...
3) Pic of kids sitting on the beach shows how a flash during the daytime can help out w/ lighting. (Same w/ Luke's legs hanging off the lawn chair).

Kissing Buddies

These two need to tone it down:

Vinegaroon

This is a vinegaroon. Their defense mechanism is they spray something that smells like vinegar with their long whipping tail. EXACTLY like vinegar. And this is what greeted me when I came home from "visiting teaching" the other week (see "The Breakup"). It was right above the front door. Long ago the Anasazi Indians believed that if you returned from your travels and found a vinegaroon in your path at home it was a sign of good fortune and safe keeping. Vinegar preserves things and so your family and possessions would also be well "preserved."
Ok I just totally made that up. For me to come home and be greeted by this LARGE beast... um... I was not too excited about it. And I was not about to walk through the front door and under him waiting to pounce on me. They are actually very docile. They eat bugs and will leave you alone. Unless of course you are trying to catch it and get it out of your bathroom. Then they will spray you with their vinegar. And how do I know this? The first time I ever saw one of these horrifying creatures I thought it was a huge black scorpion (a very common mistake made by most people). I had never heard of a vinegaroon before. I was SCREAMING for Jason to come save me. He came skipping down the hall pretending to scream like a girl- making fun of me. I was standing on top of the toilet (I think on top of the tank itself if I remember) and when Jason came into the bathroom.. the screaming like a girl was no longer an act! Oh the memories. It makes me laugh EVERY time I think about it. It was so worth sharing my bathroom with a vinegaroon to see Jason scream and jump like he did that night.

Here is my knight in shining armour's photos with the sharpie for scale. The vinegaroon was on the stuccoed wall right above our front door. We had to hold up the marker and Jason had to really reach up close to him to get the shots just right. Yes, we have both gotten braver since our first meeting that night in the bathroom.

Swim Party

Allie's swimming lessons have ended but we all agree that practice makes perfect! So does learning to say the word "speedo". Count how many times Luke tries.



We have gotten to know our neighbors better and have really appreciated the benefits our relationship have provided. Our neighbor Teri cut her huge pool in half. It is now about 10x10 and she likes her water warm. Which is a good thing because after all of my AZ years... I think it's too cold to swim in Albuquerque. With a few exceptions- one of those being Teri's pool.
A TRUE water bed.

Kirtland Air Force Base Summer Bash

Every Summer Kirtland Air Force Base (where I work) hosts a "Summer Bash." They fly in a V-22 Osprey, a Bell Huey, and a U-60 Blackhawk. Half of this huge grass field is full of kid bouncers and slides, the other half has a stage with a live band (very good), new/old car displays, food... The mistake we always make is going too late. Joy and the kids picked me up and after eating a ton of home made Chinese food at one tent (hmmm) we hit the displays.
Allie and I got "stuck" in this Huey during a downpour. Joy, Luke and Wes ran for cover under the wings of the Osprey. Allie talked to the pilot forever and could not convince him we should fly over to save Joy and the boys (she sure tried). The rain finally slowed down and we ran for the Osprey.
Here are Luke and Allie getting ready for their parachute jump out of the Osprey. The Scouts on base set up a rope bridge that Allie thought was pretty cool.

Notice the lack of arch on this poor little girl. She and her dad need to go to the doc I guess.

Jay: we saw this gas sipping hybrid SUV driving around and thought you might like it for your next vehicle.
Allie goofing around with Wesley's chupón (pacifier).
Luke in front of the Blackhawk. One nice thing about staying late and after the monsoon rain is having the aircraft to yourself.************************
Nerdy section:

Krista, Photogs: The first pic in the post is both under-saturated (giving it a "sugary-metallic" look as Joy would say), and over-contrasty. Click on it to see it better. I forgot to decrease the ISO after leaving the Osprey cabin where there was no light and I pumped it up to ISO 1600 which is quite noisy for my 30D. The alternative is using a flash which usually makes for ugly lighting when used from the same angle as the lens (strobist.com talks about creatively using flashes from off-angles). When a shot I like turns out less than focused or "grainy" from using a noisy ISO setting, I usually change it to black and white were focus is not as critical and grain looks interesting - some with blue or green tints in this case for fun... (I shoot everything RAW then develop on the computer later -- this allows full control over camera settings after the fact). I forgot my two other cheapie lenses and only brought a 50mm prime (portrait lens) --- wished I had the wide-angle for kids+aircraft.

We have a bunch of unpublished posts- we'll try and put one out per day for a while...

Here are some videos and a snapshot from last year's Summer Bash using the P&S camera. The video doesn't do justice to how close we were to this thing when it took off. They painted a circle on the grass around it that was only perhaps 25 yards from the Osprey. When it took off the wind and heat were amazing- it scared a then three year old Allie as you will see...


The grass after the Osprey launch:
You can see who the baby was last year before he turned into a hippie.

Prognosis: "Your son has two thumbs"

Yesterday we had our appointment with the specialist to look at Wesley's thumb. After 4 hours they basically said "Your son has two thumbs. We will cut one off." We were prepared for the long wait but I was a little disapointed with the lack of discussion. I guess when we go back in 6 months for the follow appt. we will discuss the surgery a little more then. At that time we will set a surgery date. They did say (after we questioned them) that between 1 and 2 years old is the prime time. That way he is big enough/old enough and yet he won't have learned too many motor skills with two thumbs to then turn around and relearn them with one. I know this is a thumb only a mother could love but it still breaks my heart that we will be losing one.

We were a little surprised looking at the X-rays. I thought it would have looked differently. I didn't think he had a knuckle on the outer thumb because that one doesn't bend. Now I don't know why it doesn't bend. It is longer so perhaps therein lies the problem? You will see in the above x-ray my thumb (and skin and finger nail) holding little Wesley's hand. I don't know why that warms my heart... a "picture" of me holding my baby's hand. Oooh we just love him down to his little bones!
These are all shots from three different angles.