Us Celebrating 4 years!

(cross posted on my personal blog)
Friday was C and I's date of being together for 4 years! On Tuesday, we went out to the Spit to celebrate. We ended up getting pizza from our favorite pizza place, but took photos while we waited for it to cook!

This is in the harbor. Making use of my new tripod!

Down at the beach where we got engaged!

East End Fire

We had a forest fire here 2 weeks ago, and this is a shot I took of the aftermath on May 19. Chilling, but showing the resiliency of the tree!

The Big Fire

I never did post about the big fire that was around here 2 weeks ago. A powerline caught the dead grass on fire and it just spread like crazy. It was located near my brother's house and all of his wife's relatives. It was pretty scary for a few days, but it is 100% contained now and just fine. But I did take some photos when I was at my niece's graduation on the 19th. Here are the best that turned out.

It was intriguing to see green and red on the trees, and sometimes on the same tree.

Two trees right next to each other.

My favorite shot. A tree partially burnt but not bright orange, right next to scorched ground.

My brother has already lost one house to fire, so we really were concerned about this one. It all turned out fine in the end, and there were a lot of thankful people in that neighborhood afterwards!

Tuesday on the Spit

Tuesday evening, C and I went out to the Spit for a while. On the way out, I looked over and saw an otter in the Inlet. I pulled over and started shooting away. He was close to the road, but not close enough for a great shot. Ah well, I tried :)

We spent a half hour at the harbor.

Seagulls are pretty obnoxious, but the ones at the harbor were not as afraid of humans, so I was able to get some close up shots of them.

This one's bill has a strange red spot on it!

Before we came home for the evening, we went to Mariner Park. There was this old car part on the beach, covered in barnacles. I think it turned out pretty cool! This is another shot I may have to put on my wall. I have some 8x10 frames that I could use and make a wall of miscellaneous things - like the rusty hook!

More new buds!

Tuesday has become the day I photograph the new buds on our tree apparently. Here it is this past Tuesday!

California: Parade

When we left Hawaii, we went to California to see some of my family. One of the days we were there, we watched a parade. The rodeo was that weekend, so it was full of horses.

Miss Cottonwood

Cute kid in his cowboy getup

Stay tuned for more Cali photos!

A Beach Walk

Pretty treacherous walkway!

C and I went for a windy walk on Monday afternoon. We went to the beach, but walked on the Beluga Slough trail. I have not walked the trail in such a long time.

Crane with a flock of seagulls in the background

We were fortunate to see cranes, ducks and the typical seagull.

It was a bit breezy, so we didn't stay too long, but it was still a good time.

A cute pine tree that I found :)

Augustine Volcano

C and I ran around after 8:30pm on Sunday night. This is taken from the Beluga Slough bike trail of Mt. Augustine and the Slough.

More of Augustine

We went to the beach after this and the colors of the sky were pretty incredible, and the sunset wasn't happening for another 2 hours!

Being Memorial weekend, there were campfires all over the beach. You can see smoke from one in the top right corner.

I went home for a couple of hours, and when 10:35 hit, I looked out the window to see the sky vibrant colors. I raced 15 minutes away from home to take some photos. This is Augustine again. The sunset I came for didn't look as good once I captured it, so I won't be sharing that :P

Fantastic Photos

I've decided to start showing off some of my favorite photo posts that I've come across elsewhere each week.

• The Animator's Wife's You Capture: Family post - fantastic silhouette photos of her family!
• Jose Villa - I love the simplicity of the post, and the shot is just great!
• Enticing the Light - Photographer musings
• MckMama - Blurry backgrounds!

Hopefully this will continue to be a good trend :)

You Capture: Family

This week's You Capture post is all about "Family."

I love to take Family shots!

This is my niece and her cousin at their 6th grade graduation last week.

This is Coworker JW and her new family. They've had some ups and downs and are still having them, but I couldn't resist a photo!

For our small group this week, we had a barbecue for Memorial Day. These are two brothers, (in matching clothes, nonetheless, but not twins) playing in the grass. I got a lot of shots that day of those 2 and another kid, but not a good one of the two brothers. Ah well!

And lastly, a photo of my family! My husband and I are celebrating 4 years of being together this week!

Tuesday's Sunshine

Tuesday, I went for a walk with my friend Lo. It was just gorgeous outside! I wasn't sure where we were going to walk, but we ended up walking on the bike trail on the main road. I think we walked at least 2 miles total, if not 3!

But it was really good to catch up on what's been happening in her life, and to just soak up the rays of sunshine! It was glorious!

Lawn Mowing Ash

Yesterday, I heard a lawn mower in a neighbor's yard. I looked outside and was grossed out but fascinated. All that dust you see in this photo? That is ash!

Our landlord hasn't mowed our lawn yet, but I'm sure it will look the same!

4 years!

(cross posted on my photography blog, to be posted later this week)
Friday will be C and I's date of being together for 4 years! On Tuesday, we went out to the Spit to celebrate. We ended up getting pizza from our favorite pizza place, but took photos while we waited for it to cook!

This is in the harbor. Making use of my new tripod!

Down at the beach where we got engaged!

Photos from the weekend

It rained a couple of weeks ago, and then the sun came out. I went outside and loved the rain drops on this spruce tree.

On Saturday night, I walked to the top of our road because the sun was shining on the mountains in a spectacular way.

Everyday, I drive past this little dirt road and everyday I would tell myself that I needed a photo of it. Well, Saturday night, I walked to it. It has a lot of personality, don't you think?

What I learned this Week

I've kind of stopped participating in this blog carnival, but I've decided to pick it up again for this week.

In Hawaii and California on our trip, I tried out two different candy stores. I consider myself a slight chocolate connoisseur (k, not really) since working in a chocolate store for 3 years. I love to try out new chocolates, but they are never as good as what I'm used to. And I don't think it is a complete bias on my part. I am just now reviewing this as I am nearly done with the pieces I purchased finally.

Chocolate

We went into a Godiva store, which had all types of weird truffles. I got several - "cheesecake," "strawberry banana," and an "apple tart" or something. They were all....very close to their natural flavors, but those flavors just don't belong in chocolate!

At the Rocky Mountain Candy Factory, which I have gone into before, I finally got two pieces of "Seafoam." At my work, we get customers that ask for it constantly. My boss says that Seafoam is hard to get right and is not worth it for us to make. Needless to say, I got two pieces to try. Last night, I finally ate one of them. Or rather, took a few bites. I was not impressed in the least. It had a horrible after taste!

So, I've learned this week that sticking with flavors you know is sometimes best!

For more "What I've Learned this Week," visit Jo Lynne!

The Holiday Weekend

Holiday weekends are never a holiday in the tourist business. Memorial Weekend is no exception. Saturday was frantically busy at work. Sunday, not as much, but steady. And Monday? Not even close.

Sunday night, I made C come with me to the two beaches in town. One beach was converged upon by motorhomes, so that was out. We went back to the second beach, and there were several campfires and picnics. But it was windy. We watched some kites being flown and turned around and came home.

The sunsets nowadays are hitting 11pm. I have pretty much given up on catching any for the summer. The direction the sun sets in the sky is just far enough that I have to drive about 12-15 minutes away from our place to see it. Which I am not usually willing to do at 11pm! But Sunday night, I looked out the window at 10:35, and the clouds were a lovely shade of pink. So I hopped in the car, (by myself, mind you) and drove to the lookout where I knew I could see the sun set. I could just barely watch the end of it. It was a nice jaunt, but a bit chilly after the sunset. I got home about 11:15, when I needed to go to bed to be up by 7.

C had Monday off, and I didn't. I had the morning shift yesterday, and by the time the day wore on, there were 3 of us there plus my boss. We had few customers, as everyone was heading back up the road to head to work today. My coworkers and I started working on the projects a bit too much, not leaving anything for the next couple of days. Boss walks up to me, and says "Well, why don't you go home? There's no point in there being 4 of us here. Besides, C's at home. Go have some fun with him!"

I was a bit surprised, but pleased. It took me about a half hour after that to finally leave, but I still left 1.5 hours early. That was nice!

It was a gorgeously beautiful outside, but pretty windy. I drug C outside with me and we wanted to find a more calm place to take photos. We drove out to the Spit and stepped out of the car. It was so windy! People were fishing like there was no tomorrow, but I hopped back into the car.

Me and the mountains

We went to the other beach, and ended up walking along a trail that I haven't done in years. There were several cranes and ducks out in the swampy areas. None were close enough for me to really get a good shot of any of them, but I tried :P We left after a bit and headed to our small group meeting.

I kept hearing people talking about Memorial Day barbecues and such. I was a bit saddened that I wouldn't be participating in one until I thought about it and realized that our small group was having one. I don't know why that didn't register, but whatever.

We had a great time with 8 families. Half of us ate outside, in the wind and sunshine, and the other half ate inside. It ended up being C and I and the families with kids old enough to run around :P

The 3 kids and their pushki swords :P

The 3 oldest were given dead pushki sticks to run around with. Not really the smartest idea as all are under the age of 4, but it turned out ok :P All in all, it was a fun evening!

We came home about 9pm, and it was still really warm out. I wanted to do something with friends, but no one was available at that time of night :P Usually someone is, I just never take them up on the offer! I ended up reading a book and finishing it at 2am (it was a 980 page book I started on our trip). C and I woke up at 11:30. And it's another gorgeous day today! I have made tentative plans with a friend for later today. I can't wait!