Beyond funny!

Now he sent this...

Summer's almost arrived in Montana

We can see the deer moving around.

Yep, won't be long now.

I can check Montana off my list...

Clearly my father in law must be crazy to send me these pictures right? He must know that this makes it official that I can't live there. He took these pictures THIS MORNING!!!!!! He said that they have been having a three day blizzard there! His caption....."You think you are sick of winter" What? Winter? It is spring here! No snow! Minnesota nice(finally)! Montana not so nice......So sorry hunny, I know your heart is in Montana but FYI, it is covered by two feet so snow right now. Hmm....what states are still on our list? Any ideas? Here is our wish list:

1. never below zero
2. Low taxes
3. not to far from Montana(maybe 400 miles)
4. Mike wants Mountains
5. I want the ocean
6. Good schools(out only issue with Utah)
7. A great church for Mark to work at so Jenny can move with me:-)
Not to insane right?

This picture makes me want to cry! If I had to shovel one more time I think I would be calling Uhaul.

The only nice thing about a spring snow storm is that the ground is usually warm enough to keep the roads clean.

How to make a dog happy...

Minnesota????? How can it be so darn cold one week and so darn hot the next? I kid you not when I tell you that we run our heaters one day and our AC the next. Today our temps hit the 90's!!!! Okay...let me tell you that it never hit 90 all of last year. Mike asked Chucky if he wanted to go swimming in our neighborhood pond to make use of the amazing day. I grabbed my camera and Matthew and I followed along(oh and Portis too)

Matthew wanted to hold on to Portis...Portis wanted to pull Matthew. I love this picture.

This is about as wet as Portis gets. One time at the dog park he saw a dog across a small stream. Little did he know that the stream got pretty deep. I kid you not when I tell you a stranger had to jump in and save our dog from drowning! It was the funniest thing ever. This man did it without even thinking twice about it. He probably still laughs about it to this day, as do we.

These geese were coming in to land. I wish the power poles were not in the shot! Everything else is so pretty...hmm...Photoshop? Maybe it adds to the picture.

Okay...now it is Charlie's turn to shine:-)

I think that I got some really great shots. I love being able to catch the water in flight.

Pretty cute for a grandpa dog right?

Naturally Matthew is playing in the water too.

Plopping down...

He swam for over an hour. He loved every minute of it.

Portis was just thrilled to see Charlie have so much fun.

Look..you can see his ribs. He is not fat:-)

I am really into depth of field and layers in my pictures. I love the duck sitting on the island in the background.

This is right before we left. He was so exhausted but refused to stop. He actually wobbled all the way home. He is actually crashed right now as I type. Sleeping hard on his dog bed...dreaming of his great day.

I caught this by accident. I tried to get him to do it again for a better shot but had no such luck.

I hope all of you had a day as nice as Chuck did:-)

Catching the light

Every night I see the sun set and the golden colors envelope the ground and I think "Oh wow this would be great light for pictures" However, it is always really windy, super cold, or bad timing. Not tonight! Mike and Matthew wanted to try flying the kite again(they tried last night but the wind stopped right as Mike got it put together. Ta da! Wonderful light for my pictures.
My favorite Matthew picture...ever!I love this shot.

Matthew really wanted this t-shirt from the Children's exchange. He has no idea who Green Day is. They sing a song called "Wake me up when September ends" Mike's theme song for Antelope Camp.

Typical Matt...cared about the Kite for 2 seconds and then became obsessed with the rocks and dirt on the ground.

Love this shot too. I wish Matthew was over to the right a little more but I still love it.

Putting the kite away.

I love this picture too. I am not sure what it is but I just think it is so fun. He thought that hanging out of the sun roof was the greatest thing ever. It made for some really fun shots.

Stay tuned for Friday...Jenny and I are going to take Matthew and her four amazingly adorable four on a photo shoot to a really cool old farm building! I can't wait.

Matt and Sam

My latest assignment for class had to do with shutter speed. It required me to photograph a moving target at several speeds. Matthew and Sam were more than willing to spend some time swinging so that I could get some shots. I love the shots! They turned out so cute and fun.
How great is is Matthew peaking under the swing. I just love that I caught that.

This is my favorite shot. I love the way that sand always looks in my photos. I also love the way Matthew looks.

My teacher really loves the layered look with subjects and so do I. This shot is so much fun.

I noticed that I managed to capture Sam's dirty knees too. Makes me smile to know that it is finally spring!

It was right before dusk so some of the shots were getting a little dark. The sky looked pretty cool though.

Addie meets my photography skills

This past weekend we meet up with some friends. I was able to get some great shots of the new Princess Addie. This is one of my favorite pics. I have some other fun ones I will have to post later. Did I mention that I am becoming a big fan of Photoshop!!hehe!

Matt and Jack

Knowing the days of having Matt's best friend right next door are limited, I relish the opportunity for them to do things together. Matthew returned to school on Tuesday and I brought Jack with me to pick him up from school. Matthew was beyond excited. I had been promising to take him to Oxbow Park when the weather was nice....in Minnesota who knows when that will be. The days are finally hitting 60 again so I figured it would be a perfect day to take them.
In typical Monica fashion my pictures are backwards. After Oxbow I took them to McDonalds. It seems that my favorite shot is always of another kid besides my own. This shot of Jack is my favorite of the day. I just love the sun on him.

I have Matthew convinced that I have to take 200 pictures a day for my class. To him mom bringing the camera into McDonald's is an everyday thing. Jack on the other hand looked at me like I was from mars. His mom got a new camera like mine recently too(see Easter egg hunt post) and they tease her about pulling her camera out for no reason but Jack had no idea how bad Matthew's mom was!

tough guys!

The deer that Matthew and Jack feed an apple to. This deer loved the apple. If you visit Oxbow take apple slices for him(or her)

I think that it's face looks like a Kangaroo!

This shot could have been so much better but the boys were freaked out by the little sign that said "Staff Only" that hung in front of the hay. I tried to explain that it was just to keep people from feeding the hay to the animals but they thought I was going to get them in big trouble. They jumped in looked at me and then jumped out.

Feeding the goat.

I love the badger. I don't know why but his grumpy attitude appeals to me. I leaned over as far as I could to get this shot and when he hissed at me I bet I jumped 5 feet. I was sure he was going to jump up and grab on to me.

Who does not love the River Otters! They are so cute and they talk to everyone watching them.

I love having the goat in the background.

There they are..pictures from my composition photo shoot assignment! And Matthew and Jack's big day out. Enjoy!