Foto Story Friday #121- Fall is in the air

Round here the leaves are changing color and falling to the ground.  That is not really a surprise since we have already had snow!  I am glad that the sun has returned and that the snow has left for a while.  I'm glad to enjoy the cooler days but not at all ready for the cold of winter.  We have a very weather sensitive tree, I've no idea what kind of tree it is but it is always the first to release it's leaves every year.  On Monday after school the twins and I went out to enjoy the perfect day.  They were SO excited to have the leaves on the ground that they WANTED to rake them all up!

Who would argue with free happy rakers?!  So once we located the shed key and got those rakes out, they went to work, raking their little hearts out!

Don't you just want to join her in the raking duties?  Once they got all the leaves raked up, the neighbor kid even came over to help, because the plan was to jump right in!

And jump they did!  Running and splatting or butt bombing, it didn't matter as long as they ran, jumped and had fun!!

Fun they had!  They played for hours and hours!  from 3pm to 7pm when I convinced them to come in for dinner.

Tuesday was just as perfect a day and the tree had given us a blessing of way more leaves to rake up and jump into!

Some of us took it easy in the hammock!  Every once in awhile he needs to take a break! :)  Plus he has good ideas, like : "hey. go get your bikes and plow through the leaf pile!"

You only have to tell them once!  they ran for the bikes and squabbled over who would go first.  Em won as Scott remembered that he had a flat tire :(

Thankfully Em was nice enough to share her bike and he got his chance to play leaf plow!

Fall is defiantly in the air and on the ground and all around..... enjoy it because it is fleeting!




Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Foto Story Friday #120-- Navy Band Country Current

On Monday, the United States Navy band, Country Current, came to Little 'ole Glendive to perform.    They were outstanding!  They played todays country hits as well as a few from back in the day.  They really kicked it up in their blue grass songs as well.  Most of those songs were written by the band members.
(all these pictures were taken w/o flash)

We had good seats in the high school auditorium and I attempted to take photos from my seat without the use of the flash.  In order to do that one must have a steady hand and bump up the ISO. (you could have a tripod and that would be easier.... but I didn't bring any of the 3 I own....)

My kids left the flyer behind at Grandpa's thus I don't know anyone's names..... Went to Grandpa's and got the flyer!  MU1 Kenny Horton emcee-ed sang lead and played the guitar.

Now, MU1 Joseph Friedman, he really got into the music.

MUC Patrick White plays a pretty mean fiddle.
About half way thru the concert, I couldn't sit still any longer, but the problem was that I happened to be in the middle of the row.  My feet were antsy and I really wanted to get up front and take pictures from there.

After stepping on some poor little old lady's foot, I got out of the row and down front.  He posed for me, and as luck would have it, the photo actually turned out!!  A few years ago another military band came and performed, but you weren't allowed to take photos, so I was excited to be able to take pictures at this one.

It was very difficult to take a good photo of the drummer as, MU1 Christina Catalanotto, was behind this partition.  She is the only female member of the band.  The rose among thorns as she was introduced.

They were fun to watch and listen to.

This one is a bit too grainy, but I still like it.

A mandolin played by the guy who also plays the fiddle.  I liked it but again it's a bit grainy.    My Grandpa played both of these instruments.  He passed away before I ever met him but my parents had a recording of him playing the fiddle, he was good.

Lead Vocal

Multi tasking!

As well as playing the electric  bass guitar, MU1 Jeremy Middleton, plays the biggest cello like thing.  When they were playing the blue grass music, he traded his guitar for this cello thing which is actually called a string bass.  I so wanted to be closer at that time to get some shot of the string bass, but he was towards the back of the stage and I couldn't get any good ones. :(

MUCS Keith Arneson was always so serious while he was playing either the guitar or the banjo.  When he was introduced, they said he is the comedian of the group!  He was kinda funny when he took a few mins to chat with us.  They played all the songs for each branch of the service and had those who have served, are serving or had family members who are or had been in each branch stand when they played their song.  It was very cool.    I took pictures of the crowd, but they were very VERY grainy so I'm not posting them.  Afterwards they came down and visited with any who wanted to visit.    I got a few decent shots of the kids shaking hands.

All in all, it was a good evening and I would recommend you attend a concert if  they come close to you.
MU1- Musician First Class
MUC- Chief Musician
MUCS- Senior Chief Musician




Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Foto Story Friday #119--senior out takes

I had the opportunity to do senior photos for a beautiful young woman this past Saturday afternoon.  We had a great time and got some AWESOME photos of her!  You know that I can't just take photos of her face though, so here are some of the fun ones or the out takes.

Watch your step!  there are these old crumbly debris filled steps that she began to traverse, but decided there were just too many bugs....

 In an attempt to get real smiles her mom was making her laugh and teasing her about a boy she finds attractive.  She was so funny!  "He is SO hot!"

"Ohhhhhhh he's so so...."

This is so Kenna! :)

Either the engineer or the conductor on this passing train I guess felt we were out of bounds and dumped water on her as they passed!

She said: "there's this really cool place, but it's kinda slippery......"  We got there, no problem, even snapped a few photos, then she was heading back and slipped and splash and sliding around!  I thought she might go over the edge and fall into the river!

Couldn't quite cover up the mud splatters!

Balance and steady hands.... she was trying to get up in the tree!

Just playing with the editing tools.
To see more of this lovely young woman click here and here.



Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Foto Story Friday #118-- flora and fauna

I know you are all tired of my Yellowstone trip so I thought I'd share some of the flowers and berries and even one mushroom that I found camping and a few while we hiked trails in Yellowstone.

I've no idea what kind of berries they are, but they caught my eye because they were bright red.

A delicate purple bloom.

Indian Paint Brush.

Just a cool looking flower explosion.

Huckleberry bush!! Oh how I love me some huckleberries! :)

Pretty in purple~!

Lilly pads have the coolest blooms~!

It is hard to take pix of these without falling into the pond!

This huge shroom was growing out of a tree stump.  It was pretty cool.

not sure what it is but I liked the way it looked.

A delicate blue bell and more of the climbing purple ones.

Some neat little blue flowers that were along the boardwalk.



Hosted by Cecily and Lolli