Winter beauty

Just wanted to share these amazing photos of our frost this morning. I don't think I have ever seen such spiky crystals like this in person.  They are quickly disappearing as the day warms.

Our first basketball game...can you say "TANK"

I know what you are thinking...why would a mom post that, even if her kid was horrible, right?  Well hang with me here.

I know there is a lot of pictures here but trust me, I narrowed it down to 1/4th of what I had.

The boy with the yellow undershirt is Matthew's friend Kaden.  He is currently spending the night.

Here he is running away with the ball.

I love the look on his face here.

Matthew going for the ball...Yes, that is carpet. I know I was taken back too.

Matthew and Kaden in play

Mike and Jeremy(Kaden's dad and the head coach) seemed to get the tallest boys for the "Honkers"

Over here!!!

Once again Matthew got the hottest coach! On a side note: Doesn't this look like Matt and Jack sitting there.  It almost made me sad to look over there.  Earlier Saturday morning Matthew came up to me and said "Mom, do you know that I am going to be playing my game where I saw Jack play? It is such an honor to play where my best friend played"....yeah, I sighed too

I have to say that Jeremy was a great coach. I was really impressed by how well he did encouraging all the kids(even the green team) He was very good about getting in there and helping them.  He is not as cute as the assistant coach, but you can't have it all right?

This is one of my favorite shots.

Okay, this is probably my favorite shot of the day...only problem is, I don't know this boy.

The latest player on the team

Now meet Tank! Tank was left behind at the church.  He was the cutest, sweetest, stinkiest dog.  Jeremy volunteered to give him a ride home...He had a better idea...

He drove Jeremy to his house.

More on Mike's fur brother...Dory

It was not long after I met Mike that he showed me the picture of Dory in the kayak with Bob...smiling! Dory had three big loves in his life...The cabin, Water and Mike(oh and balls:-).

Here he is surfing with Bob

Bring on the big waves

Happy Happy Dog!

How wonderful is this shot.  Dory was just sitting there leading the way.
I will never forget the day shortly after Mike and I were married...I think it was even the week after. That Mike's parents called us at our condo to tell us that they had put Dory down.  It still makes me cry.  He was a really amazing dog.

More growing up a Willits...

Mike may have been an only child but he always had a fur sibling of some kind.  This picture really shocked Mike.  This was a dog that was really dear to him.  He has told me before about Dory trying to push him out of bed.  How funny that there was a picture out there of it.

Mike looks so much like Matthew in this. I bet he was around the same age.

I thought this was pretty funny after seeing the other photo.  No, that is not a polar bear in the background...That is Bud another fur sibling of Mike's.  When we first met(18 years ago, Monday) he still had Bud and Dory.

He and Dory at Mike(and Dory's) happy place.  The cabin that his family owned.

Another amazingly pretty place they traveled to.

I can't tell you how excited Mike and I get when we see another email from Bob with a picture attached. Mike is very lucky to have so many old photos from his childhood.

Dot...

Please join me in wishing Dot a Happy Birthday...

If you know her please leave a greeting on the comments section. You don't need to be logged in or have an account to do this.

Growing up with the Willits...

For Christmas we bought a slide converter for Bob...I think we are the ones reaping the rewards as he sends us new pictures that he has converted.  Every email is like "Christmas" all over again.

The Willits were good friends of the Reagan's...See old Ronnie, checking out Cheryl.

what do I even say here?

I guess white boys can jump! Matthew actually started basketball yesterday. He is going to love seeing these.

My poor blog..

I am in panic mode as I just discovered my blog has been hijacked! Please bear with me as I figure it out.

Chelsea...

Mike has a cousin Chelsea that lives in Georgia.  She was three when we started dating, now she is almost 21! She found this picture today and emailed it to me.  This would have been right before Mike ad I met.   Funny how much they both have changed:-)

The Egg

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this picture.  Despite the fact that my son sees a camera probably on average...twice a day, he thinks his mom has Canon written across my forehead...my big dreams of great shots from our New Years city trip... He still has moments of hating the camera.  This is one of those moments.  Matthew was done being photographed(he has a growing empathy for the famous) He decided to wrap himself in his blanket and dubbed himself "the egg".  I could not resist a few more shots before I honored his privacy request.

Seriously....how cute is "the egg"  :-0

Elevators have the best light!

This is a shot of Matthew about to push the {18} for us on the elevator.  I love all shots taken in elevators.  They always have the best light.  I really like the look of this picture.





I am so excited to see so many of the photographers I love judging. I have also found a few new ones to follow.

I am normally a SOOC camera fan. But I love the brown bag texture I added to this photo. It gave it an old world feel. Seemed perfect for a "New Years" photo.

Thank you for Jimmy John's

Once we checked into our hotel we decided to walk around downtown Minneapolis to find a place to eat.  Mike and Matthew were both STARVING! Regardless..we could not agree on what sounded good.  We passed up many places as both boys complained of it being "too cold to be outside"  Finally out of desperation we decided to feed Matthew at Jimmy John's.  He scarfed the "double his normal size sandwich" down quickly.  I realized that he was not joking about being a very hungry kid...forced to walk in the freezing cold...late at night.  The sandwich renewed his strength and we were off to explore some more.

I forgot to add that while we were there a man came in and gave Mike and I a hat and a crown to wear so we could be as dapper as Matthew.  It was really cute.

Breakfast on New Years Day

We had a hard time deciding what to eat on our big adventure to the city.  We finally settled for a very busy IHOP.  Actually, this particular IHOP has some history with Matthew and I(he did not remember). This is the place that Jenny and I have frequented when she rides with me to pick up Mike from the airport on his late night returns from Antelope Camp.  This is not far from the airport and open 24 hours so it works perfect to sit and wait at.  One year we even took Matthew and Hannah with us.
None of my pictures turned out amazing...but as I have learned sometimes pictures do not have to be perfect to tell a story.  Like for example how your 7 year old holds a mug when he drinks his hot chocolate...and where you ate breakfast at.  

The View from 2010

The best part about our room at the Hyatt was the 18th floor view...I loved looking out our window in awe of it.  Matthew did too.  It amazes me to think about the difference in space between Montana where you can see for miles, and being in a city full of skyscrapers and thinking about the thousands of people in the same square footage.  Both are equally exciting for me.  I love a good mountain view, and I love a good city scene.  I wish we could have stayed up until midnight to see if there were fireworks...we tried.

looking right...

Greetings from the indoors of Minnesota

As I enjoy my last day of Christmas vacation with no intent of leaving the house...it is currently well below zero outside.  I have started looking back at some of the things I have learned with PS this year and practicing again.  I am going to use the New Years Eve pictures that I want to share with all of you with my old lessons.  This is lesson #1 adding a frame and a word to a photo.
This was taken from the pool at the hotel we stayed at.  Mike and I decided at the last minute to try Priceline and make an offer on a hotel in downtown Minneapolis for New Year's Eve.  We were successful at booking a room at the Hyatt downtown for a great deal.  The pool was pretty basic but perfect for Matthew.   Stay tuned for more photos from NYE

A year in review

It has been a good year. We visited Montana and stayed
2009...
healthy. Here are a few of the things I won't forget from the past year

1. Matthew's 1st grade teacher. Mrs. Judy Olson was fantastic. I did not think we would have another teacher as great as her until I met Mrs. Demmer.

2. Seeing Matthew's first heart break when his best friend in the whole world moved away. I still cry when I see some of the pictures. We still miss you Jack.

3. Our trip to Montana. There is nothing like family.

4. Taking Matthew and Kaden to the Dells. I will never forget how cute they were. I really think they had the best time ever.

5. Locking Jenny and Mark out of their house after they drove 20 hours straight(Jenny being sick and having a fever too)

6. My photography class that started me on the track to my new love.

7. Thinking back over the last ten years....that is a whole new post.

A preview of our New Year...

I have tried three times now to upload all my favorite pictures from last night with nothing but failure.  Here is a preview.
Happy New Year to all of you!  I hope your night was as fun as ours...even with the excitement we all crashed at 11:45:-) There is always next year, I guess.