Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sunday Afternoon Stroll

This afternoon after church we took a hike up to the top of Malkow Lookout (an old forestry lookout), where we had views of Hudson Bay Mountain, the glacier, the Babine and Telkwa mountain ranges and the community of Smithers. It took about an hour to get up to the top where we rested for a while and visited with other families who made the trek as well. We had something to eat, took some photographs and enjoyed the view immensely. We even saw a couple different paragliders enjoying the beautiful day.

So here's a few of the images I made while on the way up, at the top and then coming back down again. It was a lot of exercise and a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.








click on the above image for a larger panorama


notice the paraglider in the bottom left of the image



Friday, May 23, 2008

Trying to win the battle of the weeds

Hello everyone. I hope you're having a beautiful spring. We had a bit of rain here recently, and suddenly, everything is green again! I try to get outside whenever I can to pull up a few weeds, plant some seeds, and do some watering.I'm thankful for all of the perennials that the previous owners planted - it's fun seeing what comes up(other than the weeds - dandelions anyone ?) This morning I went over to my Mother-in-law's place in Telkwa, and together we visited some local growers to purchase some plants to put together a few flower pots/baskets. We didn't have enough time to do the potting, though, as I had to get back to Smithers to pick up Isaac from preschool. We'll try to get together again in the next couple of days.

Isaac loves to help me shop for groceries - pushing the cart, or carrying the baskets; helping me load the bags of fruit, showing me which treats he'd like to get... He really is a good helper, so I didn't mind taking him along with me this afternoon. We saw his teacher at one of the stores, so we stopped to chat with her for a few minutes. Isaac really enjoys her class.

It seems that God has been rewarding Curtis for his patience and diligence in regards to the business. After several months of researching and advertising and wondering when more business would come his way, suddenly he finds himself taking daily calls for passport photos (of course, it doesn't hurt that his competitor is temporarily out of commission due to technical problems), in charge of photos for numerous kids' soccer teams, planning a photo directory for our church, and looking into other possibilities as well. It's great to see his skills being put to good use.

Curtis gave me a beautiful gift for Mother's day this year - a framed copy of the photo he took of the first Calla Lily that grew in the garden at our townhouse in Abbotsford. It's gorgeous, and it brings back memories of the night I stood holding the umbrella over him as he took the photo in the rain. The gift now graces our mantle. Isaac also gave me a beautiful gift - a flower pot he coloured and decorated with coloured glass 'stones' in his Sunday School class, as well as a card and a little hand painted ladybug fridge magnet. Precious!

The other day, Curtis and Isaac came to join me on my lunch break at work, and Isaac came bearing a gift bag - when he found out they were coming to see me, he wanted to make me a card! How sweet! Lately he's been climbing into a big cardboard box and asking one or the other of us to tape up the box and gift wrap it for a present to the other parent. He gets quite put out when we try to explain that it's not a very safe idea.

One of the many gifts Isaac received for his birthday was some Lego from his great grandfather. I don't know who has more fun creating new things with it, Curtis or Isaac! Lego is a toy that can be enjoyed by many generations - a classic!

I'd better go. I've got to get up bright and early. Happy Spring everyone!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Websites for kids

Over the years as Isaac has been growing up, I've been consistently looking for fun, interactive websites that he can enjoy (and learn from too). So this morning, I thought I'd share the best ones that I've found thus far. In all cases click on the links to go to the different sites.

  1. Sesame Street Games
  2. Sesame Street Videos
  3. Bob the Builder (interactive flash-based games)
  4. Berenstain Bears
  5. Veggie Tales Fun
  6. Thomas the Tank Engine
  7. Videos of Construction Equipment
  8. Videos of Construction Equipment #2
  9. The Wiggles
  10. Winnie the Pooh
  11. Disney Characters
  12. Treehouse TV Kids Games
  13. PBS Kids Word World (This is Isaac's latest favourite site. It's amazing to watch him learn on his own how to navigate and how he is exploring and learning so much with little or no prompting from either Bonnie or me).

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Soccer-Spring Flowers-Laundry

After we were done riding quads this afternoon, Isaac stayed with Mom and Dad for a while (he was having too much fun to leave with me). I had to get back to Smithers to get to the soccer field where I'm shooting tomorrow night. I had to see what the light was going to be like where I'm going to be shooting the individual and team shots.

(As an aside, I was contacted a couple weeks ago by the photographer who used to do the soccer photography for the town for a number of years. To make a long story short, she no longer wishes to do this type of work anymore, and wondered if I would be interested in doing this kind of photography. Anyways, for now, I'm going to be doing 4 different age groups (with 4-5 teams/age group and 15-20 players/team) over the next several weeks. There's lots to prepare for...order forms, print displays, magazine cover/poster prep etc. Tomorrow night is the first time where I'll be doing the actual photography).

Anyways, after I was done with my tests at the field I stopped in at a particularly nice flower garden that exists behind what's known as the "old church" here in town. Here's the best of what I shot, cropped and edited for your viewing pleasure.

Then it was home to do laundry and dishes before Isaac got dropped off later in the evening. Now that Isaac's been bathed and has been asleep for an hour, I've been able to get these blog posts done while the laundry is drying.












Afternoon Fun

While Bonnie was at work this afternoon, Isaac and I went over to Mom and Dad's for a while. Dad had been out on his quad, and wondered if the two of us would like to come and join him. So we took a couple hours and went exploring in the back country. We eventually found an old airstrip with enough straight and open space for Isaac to drive himself (with either Dad or myself behind him). Dad figured it was practice for a couple years from now when Isaac's big enough to go out on a Papa/Grandson quad-camping trip.




No! We didn't stop for a little liquid refreshment. Dad likes to stop and clean up the trail as he goes along. Maybe he'll get enough cans to pay for some more gas one of these days.








The above photo was taken by my Mom, moments before Isaac started to swerve towards me as I was sitting on the other quad. Needless to say I got out of the way in a hurry, just in case things got out of control (which they didn't thankfully).


This was an action shot, not posed. He went by himself for a good number of feet before I took control back again.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Isaac's 5th Birthday

We had a party for Isaac this past Saturday and we hosted several of his friends from Preschool and Sunday School for a couple of hours. All things considered it went quite well. No real melt-downs of any kind. Just the normal 5-year-old-selfishness.

So here's the group in all their glory and then a shot of Isaac blowing out the candles on his cake.






As we've now moved into the week following his party, Isaac's preschool is having a little celebration for him this morning as well. So I took a few shots this morning of the cake Bonnie made last night that she's taking with her for the party.









This is the setup I used to get these cake shots.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Activities

We decided to plant something new in one of our garden beds in the backyard. As it turns out, it seems to be working better than an actual sandbox.



Yesterday my dad, nephew, Isaac and I went to load up some wood that Dad has been slowly splitting. So we brought it back and stacked it into our carport, and have a good start on fireplace fuel for the fall/winter. As good as I can estimate we loaded up and then unloaded/stacked approximately 300 cubic feet of wood.



Next week, Isaac has an event at preschool where the kids are supposed to dress up as kings/queens/princes etc. So we got a headstart on the costumes today and practiced our swordplay.