takin' pictures

Along with taking a picture a day for a year, I really want to be better at taking portraits. Especially when we're hanging out with friends. That way, as we put together photo albums they'll be filled with more things than {pretty} pictures of rocks and Lukas and I making funny faces. Plus, these will be the ones we'll enjoying looking back on and our kids will groan about. "Gosh Mom! Why do we need to have all these pictures of you and your OLD friends?!" Building up ammo for our {future} kids, we're nice {future} parents like that.

So, when we got together for a little football watching last weekend I made sure to take out my camera. And while all eyes were on the game I tried to get a little bit creative on my portrait taking. Though the low angle isn't always the most flattering and my skills with off camera flash could use lots of work... everyone's got to start somewhere right?

Zach details the intricacies of throwing a perfect spiral.

The crowd a little bit worried.

Then, with a few minutes left in the game dinner was ready. Fish tacos and yummy salad were gobbled up quite quickly. Amazing, considering our skills for packing away snacks just a little bit earlier. I guess when it's yummy there's no stopping us.

After dinner I tried for one last candid shot... except my sneak attack was not that sneaky and I was caught.

{bean hollow}

A weekend at home... a seemly rare event. So far we've filled it quite splendidly. Sleeping in, a little house cleaning {ok, not exciting but it was much needed}, a sunset trip to the coast, dinner to-go... and that was just yesterday!

Today, we'll head across the bay to hang out with this cool family. We'll take some pictures, watch some football, dinner... sounds lovely.

Here's to weekends that recharge and get you ready for the next adventure.

a little snow and a whole lot of driving...

As promised {a few} more details about our winter travels...

The first stop on our annual winter trip was Death Valley. Filled with alien-like landscapes, its a place of great photographic imagination. But I have to say, after being there twice, it doesn't really capture my imagination so much. We spent our first two sunrises at the Mesquite Dunes. The dunes seemed to transform before us as the light began to spill over the mountains that rim the valley. The ripples of the dunes caught the light and shadows, becoming more defined. Not a bad way to spend the first moments of the day.

Lukas whittled us a little dreidel and we "gambled" away the middle of the day. That, and scouting our next photographic spot. We explored Badwater, Devil's Golf Course, Dante's View, Artist's Drive, and some salt flats. We kept busy!

During our explorations the car began to groan horribly when I turned the wheel. Sorry car, but we'll need to continue making turns on this trip. A stop at the tobacco spitting mechanic in Death Valley confirmed the suspicion... power steering leak. With a $2 bottle of fluid the groaning stopped and we were pretty stoked. Until a few minutes later back at the camp site I peered under the car and it was leaking furiously. Worried, I took it back to the mechanic who said, yeah it's leaking - just keep putting fluid in. Nothing he can do there. So with assurances that the car wasn't going to spontaneous explode we continued about our business.

And our business took us from Death Valley through Zion National Park {unexpectedly} to Bryce Canyon. And Bryce was spectacular. Red rock hoodoos, a light dusting of snow, beautiful sunrises and sunsets. We were worried that the mild winter we've been having might mean no snow at Bryce Canyon. But, while the dusting wasn't fresh, there was just enough snow to really make the canyon pop.

By this point in the trip we'd stopped putting power steering fluid in the car. We had decided that it didn't make sense to just keep pouring it on the ground and adding it didn't seem to make turning the wheel any easier. Bring on the toned arms, we said!

Still, we were ready to leave the land of unexciting microwaved dinners and beautiful landscapes 3 days later {as planned} for a little more camping. Our last stop was to be try number 2 at Valley of Fire in Nevada. On try 1 last year we made the bad decision to stay in a little motel just outside the park in a little blip on the map called Overton. This year we were smart and snagged ourselves a campsite nestled among the red rocks of the park. The red rocks, platforms for the tents and covered picnic tables made us feel like we'd landed on the set of a 1960s aliens on Mars movie. It was just that awesome.

This year Valley of Fire was a win too because we found "the wave". And it was just a little disappointing to realize when we found it that last year we were just steps away, but hadn't found it. It is this amazing swoop of red and white marbled rock that looks like salt water taffy being pulled and stretched. If I had been ready to write VoF off the list after last year, this year brought the park right back on the list.

We caught some great light here as well. A wonderful thing for the photographer... and I found it pretty amazing too. Then, after two nights, we were on the road again - this time headed home. We pulled out of the park a little after 4am on New Year's Day. As we drove along the road in the middle of nowhere east of Las Vegas we saw fire works off in the distance. Then at the intersection, right in the middle of the road just in front of the car a sparkly green pyrotechnic exploded. To say we were unthrilled {really, that isn't a word?} by that shocking display would be an understatement.

Still, we made it through the early morning in Vegas without incident and eventually we made it back to Santa Cruz where the little guy was waiting for us. And that's how, this winter, we did a little snow and a whole lot of driving.

{P.S. If you were wondering about our buff arms and power steering... the arms never really got that buff - darn - and the power steering leak was a loose tube. A quick and not arm-and-a-leg expensive fix later the car is turning like butter. Guess it's back to pushups should I want to ever have toned arms.}

a little summer in winter

Although winter really isn't much like winter around here this year, the cold cold mornings have me daydreaming a little bit about summer. Except summers here tend to be very windy. Thinking of windy and summers led me to the sweet Windy Day print from Backyard Baby. And that {along with this little challenge} got me daydreaming some more.

Let me share my daydreams with you... Summer in the Backyard:

{1} Backyard Baby Aqua Windy Day

{2} Amelia Cotton Tempting Turquoise Dotted Swiss

{3} Backyard Baby Gray Bug Jars

{4} Essential Dots Moss

{5} Bespoken Citrus Stitchery

{6} Coming Home Birch Wood Barn Siding

{7} Get Together Gray Flock of Birds

{8} Essential Dots Spring Green on White

{9} Flannel Ruby Sherbet Sundae

{10} Juicy Blossoms While Doodle Flowers

{11} Now We're Going Places White Tossed Bicycles

{12} Paris Apartment Slate le Linge d'Epoque

{13} Kona Cotton Caribbean

{14} Riley Blake Designs Lime Solid

{15} Stella Light Pink

Happy {daydream} sewing!

one moment every day

Starting in the new year, Lukas challenged me to complete Project 365. A picture taken every day for a straight year. I got my start a few days into 2012, but still planned to go 365 days. And I did great for 4 days. And then we went to Yosemite and I only took a couple videos that Saturday before I was required to put my gloves back on. {quite impressive that Lukas could stand to have his gloves off to capture some great images!}

I started again. Lukas said instead of 365, maybe I should just see how many days in a row I can go. I hope my next personal best, after this dismal 4 day streak, will be 365. Fingers crossed.

Check out the daily capture here: onemomenteveryday

we Yak Trax

And it was cold! As usual, it was before dawn when we loaded up the car yesterday morning. We drove east under pink clouded skies. Our destination? Tioga Pass in Yosemite. Normally by this time of year the pass has been long closed. But without any major snow there's been no need to close the pass. Instead, people are making the most of it - even iceskating on Tenaya Lake. So, we made the most of it too!

Making the most of it we scouted out the frozen lakes along 120. And then we had the bright idea to don our YakTrax. Putting on the YakTrax was a good idea... the 3.5 mile hike straight up at 9,000 feet not as great of an idea. We made it to Lower Cathedral Lake and the wind was gusting and cold!

When we got to the frozen lake we stripped down and quickly got into our thermals. Good thing we brought them on the hike. It was bitterly cold! It didn't help that we were there at sunset. That did mean we got hike back for 2 hours in the dark. Good thing we had the GPS to find our path back. No repeats of a previous trip to Yosemite {see lesson #2}.

While we were hiking up and sucking air, waiting for the sunset, and hiking down in the dark the question we kept asking was, "Is it worth it?!" Now home and warm we'd say the answer is yes.

We finished up the quick little trip with a sunrise stop at Tenaya Lake. Then a few hours later we were home. Quick, cold, fun little adventure.

how we finished the year... the bullet points

And here's how we finished up 2011...

::a drive to Death Valley

::sunrises at the Dunes

::Hanukah candles light on a table in the campground

::another drive, this time to Bryce Canyon and without power steering

::an awesome sunrise over the canyon

::3 too many microwaved dinners

::another drive without power steering to Valley of Fire

::an awesome sunset over the red rocky ground

::the last and longest drive without power steering

Some day a real post should come... pictures, details and such. Until then... Happy New Year!