a cool edited photo

Okay, so this photo originally looked like this:


I tweaked a few things (like saturation) then saved a copy. To the copy, I changed the exposure to reveal the sand, then saved that. With both copies open in PSE, I put the lighter one on top of the darker one, then with the brush tool, I "revealed" the darker sky underneath, and finally blended the water's edge to get rid of any harsh lines. Pretty cool huh?

Fritz, Great gramma's b-day, family portrait

June

I watched Sydney a few times so that Carrie could pack for their move. I took her and Jamie down to Fritz one afternoon (notice how Sydney has ALL the sauces).

Great grandma turns 92 (my grandma). She has very bad dementia so it is always a little entertaining (and a bit sad). But she does love to see the kids and thankfully she still remembers who they are! The best part? The kids love the wheelchair rides!



...and of course they loved cake too!

...but mostly the frosting:

Down by the lake after the party:



Playing with Gramma & Grampa's train:
Here's a family portrait we got done back in May while we were in San Diego. It was supposed to be my mother's day present but it was pretty much a disaster. Both kids were grumpy (at 10:30 in the morning!), but we finally got a decent shot.

a bunch of unedited photos for you

I'm trying to be more consistent with my blogging, and seeing it is almost midnight, I am going to put off editing these photos to another day (since they are like, so 2 months ago anyways). So here you go.

Abby trying out the woolies from G&G neigh-neigh:

Wow, our grass was green at one time:
Jamie insisted he needed a hat one day when it was clearly warm outside (and notice how he wears it like his dad?):
Miss pigtails:
My neighbors flowers (hey, I've been gardening lately!):

I thought this was funny how they were sitting, but of course I couldn't get them both to look at the same time:

Jamie and Chad had a campout in the backyard one night. Jamie was so excited, he helped set it up and then they read a story or two before going to sleep. In the morning, Chad sent Jamie in the house when he woke up (about 7 am) while he (Chad, who else) continued to sleep for another few hours. But Jamie kept talking about his campout for several days after this, and was a bit confused when I told him we were ALL going to sleep in the tent out at Belfair (nevermind we have another tent!).

sand box and other springtime activities

One rainy day Jamie wanted to play in the sandbox so we put a hat on him:


But that did not suffice, so out came the sun umbrella (ironic, huh?):




And another day that Jamie and Abby were playing in the sand box (these pics are from when we first got new sand, needless to say, there is a lot less, at least in the sand box, now):




And some other activities that Jamie enjoyed this spring include: drawing on belly, wearing sister's flare jeans, and riding the bike in the house in pajamas and slippers (he doesn't know that this is a privilege most kids don't get!):




Our pink princess, these were taken before the pain-staking process of getting her eye-teeth in, at which point, she was not so "princessy":

seattle aquarium

Well, I was looking through my pictures and the blog archives and realized that I never blogged about our trip to the seattle aquarium way back in March. Chad had just returned from a trip out to sea working on one of the carriers, so we decided to have a family day in seattle. The aquarium has been newly remodeled and is really nice. Here are some pics:











Over by the pike place market they were filming a movie (I can't remember which one now):

Asleep at the market: