Memories, Dreams, and Reflections ~ 2015

I know it is has been a while since I last posted here.  Let's face it ... blogging takes time.  And I have just not taken the time to post anything.  Summer 2015 was incredibly busy with raising Monarchs.  And dealing with our house being hit by a car.  (More on that soon).  Then fall was incredibly busy with photo sessions and editing.  Then the holidays.  

And even now, when I typically have time to get caught up and work on projects that I didn't have time to do during the summer and fall, I have been blessed with more work opportunities.  A family session between Christmas and New Years and a wedding on New Year's Day.  I'm currently working my way through the wedding images and hope to have them finished up this weekend.  Especially since I need to report for jury duty selection on Monday morning.  Ugh.  Praying I don't get picked to be on a jury.

Anyway, I always like to participate in Ashley's Memories, Dreams, and Reflections recap each year, so I made a point to seek out the photos this year.  I will be honest and tell you that I took less photos of my family.  I had a tough time finding a photo for a few of the prompts.  Between butterflies and photographing clients, I apparently didn't pick my camera up as often as I would have liked.  I plan to change that also in 2016.

So here are my selections for 2015's memories, dreams, and reflections ...

{me}

If you know me, then you know I hate selfies.  But I did want to share a pic of a new t-shirt that I bought last summer.  So this is me.  Kind of.  :)

{i love you}

Doug and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary in November.  I had Keira take some pictures of us while we were both dressed up before we went out to dinner.  However, none of them turned out very well.  So we tried again on Christmas Eve.

{still laughing}

Since I realized that I hadn't taken many photos of my babies in a while, we set out one evening to remedy that.  Of course, the boys started getting silly.  Nick first, then Alex followed his lead.  I giggle every time I look at this photo.

{winter wonderland}

Honey loves the snow.  Although this particular day it was super cold and windy and even she didn't want to stay out long.

{birthday}

Nick asked for cold, hard cash for his birthday.  So my sister-in-law made sure to make that happen.  :)

{friends}

My friend, Sharon, and I met on Facebook through a photo-a-day group.  When we discovered that we lived close-ish to each other, we decided to meet up.  First at Phipp's Conservatory then at the zoo.  We both love photography and both places are great for photographers.  We both love the polar bears at the zoo also, so this was a perfect place for us to hang out.

{i was inspired}

I have been raising Monarchs for 6 years now and I had yet to take a photo of a Mama laying eggs or a couple mating.  Well, this year I got both.  The mating pair was taken with my phone though, so I still need to get a good shot of that.

{spring fever}

Nothing says spring like tulips.  

{travel or vacation}

We didn't take a vacation this year but we did go on several day trips.  This is a phone pic from one of them.

{summer days}

Butterfly season started a little later than usual for us this year thanks to all the rain, but once it got started, it consumed my summer days.  And some of my fall days.  We raised and released 1,062 Monarch butterflies along with some Black Swallowtails and Spicebush Swallowtails.  For a while there it was like a full-time job.  But one I wouldn't trade for anything.

{a day in my life}

These guys are always part of my days.

{all smiles}

Kobe appears to be smiling for me.  I just love her!

{autumn harvest}

Fall was such a busy time for me that I didn't seem to take many photos other than clients.  However, we did take a family day to go to Elk County to see the elk.  We came up empty in the morning but after lunch we were fortunate enough to see a few elk including this bull.

{family or home}

As I mentioned above our house got hit by a car in September.  I had planned to write a blog post about it (and I still might), but short story is the guy fell asleep at the wheel and our house ended up in his path.  This happened on a Saturday around 1:00 a.m.  The kicker is that we live about 100 feet off the road and up a hill.  Not a house that you would ever expect to get hit by a car.  This photo shows the wall that he took out.  Our homeowner's insurance had to cover the repairs since the driver didn't have insurance.  The house repairs just got finished on Tuesday.

{celebrate}

My in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year.  They didn't want any gifts, just a nice gathering of friends and family.  I offered to take pictures for them.  This photo is of Doug's two sisters, his parents, and him.  It had been a while since they had a family photo taken.

{let's do it again}

Can't wait for butterfly season to start again this year!

{i miss you}

Kobe is so much fun to play with at the zoo.  It has been a few months since I visited her and I miss her.  Must get back to the zoo soon!

{beautiful}

Keira participated in a princess day at a local banquet hall.  All the "princesses" (and the "queen") looked so beautiful.  Keira is 2nd from the left, beside Mary Ellen, the owner of The Gathering Spot, and the host of the princess day.

{dress up}

We're pretty much past the days of dressing up (for play anyway).  However, they do still have a fun costume party at youth group.  Keira dressed up as a Geisha girl.

{macro}



Thanks to my macro lens and my stalking this Black Swallowtail egg, I was able to capture the tiny caterpillar hatching out of its egg and then turning around and eating the egg casing (the baby caterpillar's first meal).

{holidays}

My babies on Christmas Eve.

{my favorite}

It is really hard to pick one photo as a favorite, but I'm pretty happy with this one.  A Black Swallowtail (one of my babies perhaps) depositing an egg on my parsley plant.  They are super quick, so I was excited to capture her.

{don't ever change}

Silly, funny, loving, helpful.  I hope he never changes.

{just because}

I love her!  :)

{hopes and dreams}

Of course, I have lots of hopes and dreams.  For my family, our home, my business.  But I had to pick just one photo, so my hope is to help the Monarch population even more this year by raising LOTS more butterflies.  If you've never raised one, you should give it a try.  But be warned, you will be hooked.  :)

If you made it this far, congratulations!  And thank you!

Be sure to stop over to Ashley's and see her gorgeous pictures!

I hope to be back to blogging soon.  In the meantime, wishing you a blessed and Happy 2016!

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Family Getaway ~ Project 52 Week 34

Last week my P52 post only had one photo that I had taken with my little pocket camera because I just hadn't taken any pictures that week.  Well, this past week I more than made up for that.  I took LOADS of pictures.  With good reason too.  Doug and I took the boys on a couple day trips on Sunday and Monday.  (Keira was on a Missions trip with her Youth Group.)  And on Tuesday I shot a wedding!  And remember how I said I hope I get to shoot another wedding?  Well, I got contacted by a girl who saw the photos I had posted on Facebook about prices for her wedding.  I sent her a quote and we'll see.  Her wedding isn't until next August, so she has plenty of time to get back to me.

Anyway, back to week 34's photos ...

On Sunday we took a drive up to Pymatuning to see the fish.

Gross, huh?  But the boys loved it!  We fed them lots of bread and they just went nuts!  

We visited the fish nursery and ate lunch at a little roadside diner with really great food.  Afterwards we found a good spot and did some fishing.  I got tired of fishing after a while and decided I'd rather take pictures.  This dragonfly kept hovering in front of me so I tried to capture him with my camera.

Not perfect, but not bad.  I've never tried photographing a dragonfly in mid-air before.

I took more pics of our Sunday fun but still have to go through them.

On Monday we went to Living Treasures in Donegal.  They keep posting on their facebook page about all the babies that have been born there this year, so we wanted to go check them out.  However so far the only photo I have processed from our visit there is this one ...

Nick took this (and several more - he has a heavy finger) :) of Doug and me while we sat in the gazebo they have on the water.

Once we left the animal park, we drove a few more miles to Seven Springs and did summer tubing for an hour.

Nick refused to get out of the car when we got there.  He was determined he wasn't going to do this.  But I convinced him to give it a try and guess what?  He loved it!  Except he had to "train" with either Doug or me every time.  Until about 45 minutes in when he decided to try going alone.  Then for the last 10 minutes or so, he and Alex kept racing down the hill.

Both of these pictures were taken with my little pocket camera.  I left my D7000 in the car since I couldn't carry it while I was tubing.  One of the girls that works there took this one.  The track was a little muddy at the bottom, but it was still fun.  The track is made of this plastic material.  And the bottom of the tubes are a hard plastic.  In case you were wondering.  :)

The first time Alex rode down the hill he didn't make it the whole way.  So they broke out the baby oil and oiled up the bottom of our tubes each time.  Then we flew!  It was so much fun!  I really wish Keira could have been with us but she was having her own fun.  We'll go again next summer though.

Oh and in the above photo, Alex is celebrating because he raced us down the hill and he won. :)

Later in the week Nick found a praying mantis.  He was pretty cool.  (At least we think it was a "he").  

He kept climbing onto my camera when I was trying to take macro photos of him.  He even climbed all the way up my arm and into my hair before Nick grabbed him.

Last, Alex had his final violin lesson with Seth.

We really enjoyed getting to know Seth over the summer.  But Alex says he wants to learn to play the accordion now.  :)

Nick couldn't get over the fact that Seth looks like he could be Jack Black's brother.

So that was a small sampling of our week.  I'm hoping once the kids get back to school on Wednesday, I'll have more time to process photos.  I didn't get nearly as much editing done this summer as I had hoped.  But we had lots and lots of fun, which is what I'd rather the kids remember about the summer than mom sitting at the laptop the whole time.

How was your week?

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