KerryAndGabe.com

Something that makes me happy: Giant cruise ships!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about when we might be able to cruise again. I love being on the ship! I’m not sure if we will want to take another vacation in December, though. We got back with only a week until Christmas, so December rushed by a bit quickly. Now we’re scrambling to get ready for the holiday.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that we can salvage a few good photos in the over 4000 photos that we have collected so far (with our photos and Melissa and Jason’s). So far, it doesn’t look that promising, but I’m sure I’ll feel better once I weed out the really bad ones. It’s going to take several passes to get down to a reasonable bunch of photos! I liked not lugging around the SLR, but I’m not sure I’m happy with the results.

Something happening around the house: My sister came over the other day to put together the huge kitchen that the kids are getting for Christmas from Aunt Kristin and Uncle Chad. The kids are going to love it! So far, the kids haven’t noticed it. It’s in the library (next to the Christmas tree, in the corner) hidden under a big sheet.

Something I’m reading: I’m not doing much reading, but I’m still on the 3rd book of the Percy Jackson series. I got it from the library before our trip, and it is about to expire. I wonder if it will be removed from my kindle if I’m not connected to wifi? I will find out soon! Fortunately, the Percy Jackson series is “always available” on the kindle at the library, so I won’t have to get back on a waiting list to check it out again.

Something Gabe is reading: He started reading Hyperion on the cruise. He finished The Hero of Ages.

Something I’m watching: We’re watching the last episodes of Survivor that aired while we were on the cruise, including the finale.

Something I’m playing: We played a lot of the trivia sessions on the cruise, including the progressive trivia. We were close to winning many sessions, but we did win the progressive trivia (the one with the best prizes!).

Something tasty: We had so many tasty things on the cruise!!! My favorite is probably the gruyere onion tart. We had lots of tasty desserts, too. It was a great week for food, at least when we were on the ship. Our food off the ship (in Fort Lauderdale and St. Maarten) was sub par. Fortunately, we ate almost all of the meals on the ship!

Something about both kiddos: The kids had a blast on the cruise. Their favorite thing was the carousel, but they also enjoyed meeting the DreamWorks characters. Some of the shows held their attention. They loved the beach, for the first time, so I think we may actually have some beach trips in our future. They loved the character meals and the parade. We enjoyed their reactions! Both kids are enjoying the Mr. Men and Little Misses books.

Something Maddie is doing (45 months old): Maddie has picked up on a couple of bad habits lately. She talks like her brother, even when she’s not repeating his speech. I have to constantly remind her not to talk like a baby/toddler. Her other habit comes out at random. She doesn’t do it all the time, but it’s a little annoying when she does it. She says “ya” for “you” over and over. I’m not sure where she picked up on this one! Maddie had so much fun on the cruise (her 3rd). Her favorite parts were the swimming pool and the carousel. Depending on her mood, she will tell you one or the other if you ask her about her favorite part. She had a lot of fun on the beach, which is a complete 180 from our other beach experiences. She usually hates it. She built sandcastles and mostly stayed in the sand, but she didn’t mind putting her feet in the water. She did not like the seaweed in the water on St. Maarten, but then again, neither did I. She continues to be a Daddy’s girl and still wants to be carried from time to time. She is asking Santa for mickey mouse, a truck, and an airplane set. She was concerned this morning that Santa wouldn’t know what to bring Cullen because we haven’t made a list for him yet. We made him a list tonight. Maddie did crafts on the plane and made everyone something special for their cabin doors. On the way back, she informed Daddy that this plane had “the tiny movies” (each seat back had a tv screen). Maddie had her very first sip of carbonated beverage, and she did not like it. She danced with Fiona and King Julian. Maddie was all about sitting next to Grandma at meals.

Something Cullen is doing (22 months old): Cullen had his very first plane ride (roundtrip, of course) and cruise. The plane ride on the way to Florida was not bad at all. Cullen remained fairly happy through the majority of it. He was entertained by reading the safety documentation, watching the tv screens, and reading the Mr. Men books. He got upset towards the end. I think his ears were hurting. The plane ride back wasn’t nearly as smooth. He was not happy to be on the plane, and he screamed a lot. His first real beach experience was good! He was fascinated with the water and loved playing in the sand. He was a good eater on the ship. His favorites were the fruit soups, broccoli, and savory bites (one of the bread options). He also took a liking to lettuce on the trip. Cullen is a Mommy’s boy. He insisted on sitting next to me for most meals. He was a sweet boy, but the 2 hour meals were a tad long for him at times. I don’t blame him. They are a tad long for all of us. He wasn’t sure about a few of the characters, especially King Julian and Shrek. He said, “I don’t like Shrek” and refused to meet him. He was entranced by Fiona. When Fiona visited him at our table, he looked after her longingly and said, “Come back, Fiona!” He is starting to be trained for photos and would repeatedly walk up to random spots on the ship, turn around, and look at me sweetly so that I would take his photo. He loved the carousel. He had fun exploring the ship, and he didn’t always want to hold someone’s hand. He started insisting that he hold his own hand. “Cullen, I need you to hold my hand.” “No, I hold my own hand.” Very clever. He was fascinated by the dragons, and when he says “dragon” it sounds like “fwagon.” One of my favorite moments on the trip was when we saw the How to Train Your Dragon ice show (yes, there was an ice skating rink on the cruise ship) and the dragons appeared for the first time. He gasped and said, “Dragon!” So cute. Last night was his first night in the “big boy bed,” his crib converted to a toddler bed. Fortunately, he’s not very far from the ground, and we put pillows next to his bed. He fell out of bed twice in the first couple hours last night, but he slept fine the rest of the time. He seems to be snoring up a storm at the moment in the big boy bed, so the transition is going well so far.

Something I am struggling with: I couldn’t get much done this week. I was exhausted from the cruise. We packed so much into last week, and we didn’t get as much sleep as we might like. I also had the sensation that I was still on the boat for almost 3 days. I didn’t like that at all. As a result, I didn’t get much that I wanted to get done for the holidays with my remaining shopping. I didn’t do any baking. I promised the teachers that I would do some baking after the new year.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We have now officially cruised on a megaship!

Something I’m looking forward to: Christmas!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: The annual Christmas date with Audrey makes me very happy! This year, we went to brunch at the Umstead hotel and then to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I had seen them perform years ago. What an amazing show! I hope to do a write up about it soon.

Something I’m thinking: The blog has been neglected lately. We’ve been extremely busy with getting ready for the holidays and our cruise.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that my family stays well between now and the end of the cruise. I’m paranoid about someone getting sick and missing the cruise.

Something happening around the house: Our annual poker tournament was on Saturday. Good times! The bonus room is still set up like a poker room with the chips as we left them late on Saturday.

Something I’m reading: I barely read this week, but I’m reading the 3rd book of the Percy Jackson series (on the kindle from the library!).

Something Gabe is reading: He’s almost finished with The Hero of Ages.

Something I’m watching: I went to see The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 with girlfriends. Yes, the movies aren’t great, but they are fun. We did see the trailer for The Hunger Games. I cannot wait for that one!!! It better be good!

Something I’m playing: We introduced Die Burgen von Burgund to Melissa and Jason.

Something tasty: The brunch at Heron’s was YUMMY!

Something about both kiddos: The kids are very excited about Christmas lights on our way home from work each day. I am looking forward to showing them the crazy decorated house near us, closer to Christmas. I think they are going to love the decorations on the ship as well! Cullen is already saying, “I like Christmas lights on cruise ship.” He started saying that at random once I told him that we would find lights and decorations on the ship.

Something Maddie is doing (45 months old): Most people don’t see the side of Maddie where she talks NONSTOP, but wow. That girl talks continuously when she’s at home or in the car or anywhere when it’s just our family. I swear, she doesn’t stop unless she’s in the presence of others. We don’t get a lot of silence in this household. I can’t remember the last time that she took a nap at home. Every once in a while, she will fall asleep in the car on a long trip. She does pretty well with “quiet time,” which is more of a break for us than it is for her! The down time benefits everyone!

Something Cullen is doing (22 months old): We taught him our “other” names this week, and he answers that Mommy is “Kerry” and that Daddy is “Gabe.” I tried to teach him his last name, but instead of saying his real last name, he insists that his last name is “Brudder.” Ha! I tell him, no, that’s not right and tell him his real last name, and he says, “No! Brudder! Stop saying that!” We’ve been having lots of conversations lately. It should be interesting to spend a week with him on vacation and then another week for the holiday. I always notice big developmental changes when he spends extended time with us.

Something I am struggling with: I did something to my shoulder, and it hurts like crazy. I hope it is better soon.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Somehow, I managed to get tickets to Les Miserables AND Wicked this week for dates next year. Woohoo! I’ve wanted to see both of those shows for a while. We’re also working on the arrangements for next year’s Disney trip!!! And…we’re getting ready to go on the cruise on the megaship.

Something I’m looking forward to: ALLURE OF THE SEAS!!!

Something captured: Lasers! Fire! Headbanging violinists!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

For my birthday (in mid-September), I requested that Gabe agree to go bowling…for the first time ever! It was one of my goals to get him to do it, and he’s been very resistant to the idea. I had in him a trap, though…he couldn’t turn down birthday bowling!

I thought that I would ease him into the bowling thing by going to a fancy bowling place, Sparians Bowling Boutique and Bistro. We were joined by Melissa, Jason, and my sister (my brother-in-law couldn’t make it at the last minute). The evening started with me side swiping the babysitter’s car. Not good. We arrived at the place around 7pm.

They don’t take reservations for dinner or lanes, so we had to wait a little bit to get seated for dinner and were told they wouldn’t have lanes available for at least two hours. My sister was running a little late from work, so we were fine to wait a little bit.

The menu looked tasty, and the four of us went ahead and ordered since Kristin wasn’t sure how long she would be. There was a bit of confusion as I think they changed waitstaff about 5 minutes after we were seated. The new waiter was clueless. He said something about this being only his third day, and that he didn’t receive much training at this establishment. He obviously didn’t know the menu at all, forgot our orders and came back to ask about it twice, and ended up bringing the wrong food after all. We had to get our own drinks from the bar a couple of times. We asked for several things (extra plates, refills, salad that we didn’t receive, etc) that we never got from him. The service was just awful. We waited forever to track down the waiter and get our check when we were ready to bowl. When the manager asked us how everything was, we told him we were less than happy with our waiter. Apparently, the manager had only been there for a few days as well. We were not impressed by the dinner service, to say the least.

Some of the food was tasty, and other parts were mediocre. I’m glad we had one of those coupon book coupons. I wouldn’t likely eat there again, based on our experience. The best part about the meal was that we happened to be there for a trivia night. They came around with index cards and pens and asked us if we wanted to play trivia, so we said, “of course!” (though we had no idea what it was). We didn’t win, but we weren’t the worst. The slow service was bearable with the entertainment of the trivia game.

They texted us to let us know that the lane was ready before we were finished with dinner, so we had them put us back on the list. We all headed to the lanes after we finished the trivia game and dinner, and it was already much later than we had anticipated. I think it was close to 10pm before we started our first of two games.

None of us had been bowling in quite some time (and Gabe had never been), so it took us a while to get our bearings. We had a shaky start.

We still had a fun night out!

We celebrated all of our birthdays with Melissa and Jason this year. We had some trouble on the lanes as our lane attendant was a little odd. At some point after Melissa had a string of bad frames, he asked Melissa if she would like bumpers for her turn. She had just bowled 8 in that frame, so we were a bit baffled by his timing and rudeness. We couldn’t tell if he was joking or serious. He also observed us at times and made suggestions about what we were doing wrong. I guess he was just trying to be helpful, but it really came off the wrong way. We get it dude. We suck at bowling! It’s ok, though. We’re just here to have fun.

I’m glad that my sister was able to join us after a rough day at work!

Kristin points out her strike on the scoreboard!

At some point, we had a lot of trouble on our lane. The pins kept getting knocked over before we would start bowling, and then they wouldn’t be counted correctly. Sometimes the machine would accidentally drop the pins when clearing in mid-frame. Once it threw the pins down the lane towards us. We had so many issues, and they weren’t very attentive in addressing them. We finally requested a new lane (at this point, the lanes weren’t too crowded). The new lane behaved much better, but all of us were getting tired and had lost our bowling mojo (not that we really had it to begin with).

Gabe even enjoyed himself! He said that he wouldn’t mind going bowling again sometime. See? It wasn’t so bad after all.

Next time, we won’t go to Sparians. The idea is great, but the implementation left something to be desired. It was something different to do, but next time we’ll just go to a regular bowling alley. Sparians has such potential to be a great time. Based on our experience, I can’t really recommend it. We had fun despite the fender bender, bad service, rude attendants, lane mishaps, and mostly terrible scores. The company made up for all of it! Happy birthday to me!

Something that makes me happy: The timing of the refinance and the final payment of our cruise was excellent. We both closed on the refinance and put the final cruise payment on our credit card on Wednesday.

Something I’m reading: I got notification that my first library kindle book was available for download. I started and finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I look forward to discussing it at our November book club meeting. I’m also reading Rebel Angels. We discussed the first book of that series at book club this week, and the club’s opinions were mixed. I like the series just well enough to keep reading it, but I don’t think I’d highly recommend it.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s still reading Mistborn.

Something I’m watching: Too many shows! Not enough time!

Something I’m playing: My development team played a game of 7 Wonders during lunch on Friday.

Something tasty: I finally got my very own stand mixer, and I made Triple Chip Cookies. Yum!

Something about both kiddos: Catherine came to take photos of us! I can’t wait to see them.

Something Maddie is doing (43 months old): She continues to add new lessons at school. Today, she did some sort of “number roll” which involved the numbers 1-9 and counting out stones for each number. I’m not surprised that she did well on this one, but she apparently impressed her teachers!

Something Cullen is doing (20 months old): Every week, it’s the same update, but I continue to be impressed with his vocabulary. It’s impossible to catalog everything new that he is saying each week. He adds words and sentence structure. This week, he saw a school bus pass us and said, “I saw a school bus!” We walked past two double strollers of babies at daycare, and he said, “lots of babies!” and just after that we passed a bunch of rocks and he said, “lots of rocks!” He continues to be my sweet little boy. He has started to get really good at bedtime stalling techniques, mostly in the form of asking for lots of hugs and kisses from anyone around. And I think I’ll fall for it every time because it’s so ridiculously sweet.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We paid for the cruise on Allure of the Seas, so we’re that much closer to fulfilling our mega-ship goal!

Something I learned: I learned how to get a kindle book from the library (and how to return it when finished). Aside from the potentially long waiting list, it was a very easy process!

Something I’m looking forward to: Gabe’s birthday, dinner/games with friends, the zoo, and the pumpkin patch. Big week! Our plans for the mountains this weekend fell through, but I think we’ll be spending time with the same friends at the zoo instead. The weather should be perfect!

Something captured: My newest little kitchen helper. My sweet boy!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Four days of games. Just finished up this year’s That Board Gaming Thing (TBGT) last night, and I was too exhausted to come up with a post.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about all the various ways that I can get in more sleep and more games next year. I only had about 3 hours of sleep each night, and that’s really not enough for me to function reasonably. I enjoy the late night crowd…but the kids still wake me up at 7am. We might have to do something differently next year.

Something happening around the house: I don’t really get how the house can be such a disaster when we haven’t even been here for 4 days. Oh. Right. I guess it’s probably because it was a disaster when we left.

Something I’m reading: I finished A Great and Terrible Beauty (this month’s book club selection) and sorta started on Rebel Angels. I just didn’t have time for reading this week between preparing for TBGT and attending it.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished Dooms Day Book and started on Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.

Something I’m watching: Not much, but we’re about to start watching a bunch of stuff. I did catch a few episodes of Jake and the Neverland Pirates with the kids. Yo Ho!

Something I’m playing: Le Havre, Forbidden Island (twice), The Adventurers, King of Tokyo (3 times), Thunderstone, Catch Charades, Quarriors (3 times), Cornucopia, Attika, Jaipur, Witch’s Brew, For Sale, Fortune Cookie Charades, Time’s Up (twice), Galaxy Trucker (twice), Rallyman, Tobago, Jamaica, Songburst, 7 Wonders w/ Leaders Expansion, Fits, and London. Gabe played Le Havre, Quarriors, Cornucopia, Attika, Witch’s Brew, For Sale, King of Tokyo, Kingsburg, Cargo Noir, and Die Burgen von Burgund.

Something tasty: Gabe bought me Whimsical Cookies for my birthday. Yum!

Something about both kiddos: We stayed in the hotel for TBGT for 3 nights, and we tried to put the kids in the same room. One night, they finally went to sleep almost two hours later. My sister came to the hotel one night so that Gabe and I could both play some games. Maddie kept getting out of her bed to get something out of her backpack. Kristin was watching them on the video monitor and returning to tell Maddie to get back in her bed. She did this several times and then removed her backpack. She then heard Maddie say to Cullen, “Cullen, we can’t let her come back in and see us!” She was the instigator this time, keeping Cullen up. “Baby, don’t go to sleep, baby. Baby, wake up!” By Sunday midday, the kids were a bit cranky from several days of missed sleep. I think for the cruise, we’re going to have to separate them. I’m a little worried that we’ve ruined them after sharing a room on two trips. Maddie’s going to be disappointed not to have Cullen in the same room next time!

Something Maddie is doing (42 months old): She’s learning how to spell certain words (obviously it’s memorization at this point, but it’s still exciting!). She has been able to spell her first name for a while, and now she can spell “mom” and “dad.” She’s able to spell it out loud as well as write it. I noticed that she started writing “MOM” on some of her papers (in addition to “MADDIE”). She’s also getting much better with her coloring. At dinner the other day, she colored a sheet from the restaurant and mostly stayed in the lines. I was impressed! I think that her Crayola video game has been helping with that. She does quite a bit of coloring on there.

Something Cullen is doing (19 months old): Little boy can throw a tantrum! This isn’t exactly new, but he really is good at the whole “I’m unhappy and now I’m going to throw myself on the floor and scream about it” thing. I’m sure that his increasing ability to communicate should help. He now says things like “Maddie right there” (for identifying where people and things are), “Goldfish in here” (when referring to his goldfish in his snack cup), “I don’t like it” (he says this in a variety of situations), “Get Maddie” (when he gets into the car and we head over to pick up Maddie), and “Get me book” (or whatever else he has dropped that is out of reach).

Something I am struggling with: I thought I was experiencing allergies on Sunday night and Monday morning, but by Monday afternoon, I knew I was sick. Ugh! Bad timing! I didn’t feel well on my birthday on Tuesday, but I took a vacation anyway and got my license renewed and went shopping at the outlet mall. And then we had one of Maddie and Cullen’s teachers babysit on Tuesday evening, and I backed out of the driveway and sideswiped her car. I felt awful about that! I don’t have a good track record when it comes to backing up. Can we just invent a car that rotates around for me?

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I took Gabe bowling for his first time ever!!! Yes, that was on my “life goals” list. I think he’ll actually go again sometime.

Something I learned: Tons of new games!

Something I’m looking forward to: Not too many plans this week, thankfully. I do have a wedding to attend next Saturday, and one of Maddie’s best buddies is having a birthday party.

Something captured: My family at TBGT!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Gathering to play board games with friends.

Something I’m thinking: I did think about what I was doing and how I felt 10 years ago (Facebook and the media do not want you to forget it, not that I would anyway).

Something happening around the house: We had a pre-TBGT games night on Saturday. Fun times! I think the kiddos had a good time, too, as evidenced by almost every toy in the house getting some play time.

Something I’m reading: I decided to stop reading Four Corners of the Sky. It was ok, but it wasn’t riveting. I decided to move onto A Great and Terrible Beauty, which is this month’s book club selection. Unfortunately, it seems that several club members have read it and did not care for it. I don’t mind it so far, but I haven’t gotten too far.

Something Gabe is reading: Dooms Day Book by Connie Willis.

Something I’m watching: Football, football, and football…not exactly by choice.

Something I’m playing: Saturday, I had the chance to play 7 Wonders, Macao, and Notre Dame.

Something Maddie is doing (42 months old): We are working on her not being so upset about things that people say to her. Lately, her brother has been taunting and teasing her about things. She wants to be first every time we do anything, like get seated at the dinner table. She has to get into her seat before Cullen gets into his high chair. We usually let her because Cullen just doesn’t care that much at the moment. But then Cullen will say, “I first” and look at her like he’s waiting to see her reaction. She gets very upset and whines, “CULLEN SAYS HE WAS FIRST BUT I WAS FIRST!!!” We’re having a hard time getting through to her that it doesn’t matter what Cullen says. She had a similar issue with a classmate who told her that she can’t count this week. She decided that since repeatedly telling her friend that she CAN count was ineffective, that biting might be a better approach. This is the 2nd time that we have had a biting incident (same victim). We had a big talk about all the things that we can do other than biting to solve her issues. Hopefully, it won’t happen again. Maddie was working on her penmanship this afternoon. She did a pretty good job of writing all of our names (she had to ask us how “Kerry,” “Gabe,” and “Cullen” were spelled, but she did great!). I’m so proud of her!

Something Cullen is doing (19 months old): As I mentioned in Maddie’s summary, he has started intentionally taunting Maddie. It’s amazing how early that this sort of thing starts. Oh my goodness. His favorite taunt right now is to say that he was first at the table (when he was not), just to watch and see how Maddie reacts. He’ll look at her and say, “I first!” and gets this little grin as he waits for her reaction. Today, Maddie hadn’t had a snack yet and Cullen had a snack cup with goldfish. She said, “I want a snack!” and Cullen imitated her (“I want a snack”) and waved his snack cup near her. I think he’s been doing forms of this for weeks, but I’m just now realizing he’s doing a lot of this stuff on purpose. He’s also picked up on the taunt, “Ha ha a boo-boo” from Maddie, and I have seen him with a toy that she wants saying “ha ha a boo-boo” while he carries it around the living room. This reminds me of when my sister used to tease me and say that she was older than me since her birthday was in February and mine was in September. When we were really little, somehow this really got to me. I wonder when Cullen is going to figure out that one (since his birthday is in January and Maddie’s is in February). I predict that it will drive Maddie crazy when he does. Cullen is a sweet boy, and he’s very into his Mommy right now. He doesn’t like to be separated from me. It’s sweet, but it breaks my heart when I have to leave him at daycare or like tonight when I went to dinner with a girlfriend.

Something I am struggling with: I want to buy a new purse, and I’m trying to decide which one (and how much I want to spend). I know. My life is rough. Happy birthday to me!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’m making Gabe go bowling for the first time ever. Can you believe he’s never been bowling? That’s what I asked of him for my birthday. He was tricked! He couldn’t say no!

Something I learned: I reacquainted myself with the fact that I do not like Moon Dough nor will I be buying any for the kids ever again. We bought a small pack of it for Maddie at some point. It does work really well in the special molds, but it’s awful, awful stuff. It crumbles like crazy and gets EVERYWHERE. We’ll stick to Play Doh, thanks!

Something I’m looking forward to: My birthday, making Gabe go bowling, and That Board Gaming Thing! I am so excited about 4 days of board gaming! Woohoo!!! Gabe and I are taking off work on Thursday and Friday so that we can both play while the kids are in daycare. It’s going to be great. We’re taking turns the rest of the time (and my sister is even going to babysit for us one night).

Something captured: We took Maddie to lunch at the cafe on Friday, and she was very excited!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Our final assignment in photography class was to photograph an acquaintance. Honestly, I put very little effort into this assignment. I just didn’t have time to make too many excursions, so I ended up using photos that I took during class. I know that the point of the assignment was probably to practice working with a model that you do not know well. I’m sure we were supposed to have a more formal session, providing direction to the models as we were shooting. The first one was taken during one of our classes where we were practicing challenging backlit situations. I liked how it turned out (and it helped that our model was trying out different poses). The second was taken during our field trip.

After I went to class, I was bummed and a little annoyed. My photos got ripped to shreds. People just didn’t seem to like them at all. I didn’t think that the photos were great, but I hadn’t thought that they were the worst photos ever. Of course, many people brought photos of their friends, kids, and even one of a classmate’s mom. I wished I had just ignored the acquaintance part of the assignment, too. I could have easily gone out in the yard and taken photos of the kids. Oh well.

At the last minute, I decided to experiment with post processing on some of the mediocre photos that I had taken on the field trip. I submitted the following two photos of classmates as well (yes, the first one is an edit of the 2nd one above).

In May, we had a fundraiser for Team B-Patrol at Wine & Design, a bring-your-own wine painting studio. They provide all the supplies and an instructor, and everyone creates the same painting step by step. They have some variations on this idea with special sessions where you can paint your child, house, or pet. I would love to do one of those sometime! Well, except for the pet part.

Anyway. We had a great time, and we raised money for the National MS Society. I can get a little hung up in the details (how far should that branch be from the edge? exactly how many flowers should I draw? how much white should I mix into that blob of blue?). I had to keep reminding myself that my plans for the painting were my 3-year old’s room. She loved it! She wants me to paint another one for Cullen.

I always have a fun time seeing my sister!

We had 16 total participants, and half of them were our friends. We were pleased to get some random people from the community to help our cause.

My finished masterpiece!

My sister and I posed with our final pieces of art.

Our group of artists!

Most of us plan to be back sometime soon! My sister has already gone back and painted one of her pets…now, I guess she will have to find time to come back and paint the other 3!

We took a field trip to a local hotel. I had never been to the hotel, but I was familiar with some of the grounds as it is very close to my work. I was largely uninspired by the field trip. I ended up taking a ton of photos of a fountain on the pond, but I didn’t like any of them. I just couldn’t find anything that interested me. I had hoped for more guidance during the field trip, but it was more of a “walk around and get photos of things” type of outing. Oh well. I think I learned a few things, anyway. I wasn’t happy with my photos. These are the ones that I chose to show the class.

When I went on my excursions for Cityscapes, I tried also to get some photos for our Urban Landmarks assignment. The best I could do is to take photos of the Free Expression Tunnel at NC State. I knew I wanted to try some HDR techniques, so I experimented with the tripod and exposure bracketing. I learned a few things in the process. Now I know I should have tried a wider range of exposures, and I probably should have taken a couple more exposures as well). I was reasonably happy with the results.