Halloween 2014

November 1, 2014 10:17 am

Heather has been anticipating Halloween ever since her pirate costume arrived a few weeks ago. She would tell us all about how she was going to dress up as a pirate with her pumpkin bucket (which she remembered from last year) and go to houses and get candy.

On a whim I decided to try using off-camera flash for a few of her pictures.  Luckily they came out fantastic.  This is my favorite picture (Jess held the flash on-level with the pumpkin about 10 feet to my left; and this was with that 50mm prime lens that I think is just fantastic):

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Pentax K-7, Pentax DA 50mm. f/8.0, 1/100s, ISO 100. Off-camera flash ~10 feet to the left.

Heather “helped” design and cut the pumpkin. It came out pretty well. Sorry for the slightly fuzzy picture. We discovered (by looking at these pumpkin-carving pictures) that Heather had smudged Jess’ camera lens.

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No idea what she’s doing in this picture. Possibly trying to match the pumpkins’ faces.

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From house to house she would do this adorable little trot/run thing.  She fell once and some candy fell out of her bucket.  She got a little scraped up and had a minor meltdown (mostly about the candy).  Then she decided to best way to feel better would to get up and go to the next house.

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This is the walkway to our front door.  I had the lights off to get this picture the way I wanted it.

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After we returned home Heather still had a blast handing out candy.  She may have actually enjoyed handing it out more than getting it.  Often she would refuse to give out any candy until a kid told her what they were dressed up as.

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Heather’s Birthday 2014

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We delayed celebrating Heather’s 3rd birthday until the 29th because she had been sick all weekend and was just barely recovering. We figured she’d have more fun if she weren’t exhausted and if she were able to eat more than bread and crackers.

Every time we go to the grocery store Heather wants a balloon so we promised to get her one for her birthday.  We went to the store while I was home for lunch to get it.  Unfortunately, the first two she picked were not in stock (seriously, really hard to keep them in stock or remove them from the display?).  She finally settled on this one, and it’s hardly left her side since she got it.

IMGP2311asThat evening we had cake, presents, and a video chat with grandparents.  Heather helped decorate the cake with the sprinkles.

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Heather is in love with Hi-Ho Cherry-O.  She figured it out pretty quick and wants to play it all the time.

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The doctor outfit is a big hit.  She’ll give anyone a checkup.  She’s always careful to explain that the shot might hurt just a little bit.

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Playing with the stamp kit.  She loves “arting” as she calls it.  With the crazy week of her being sick, her birthday, Halloween, and a party on Saturday she hasn’t been able to do much.  So she’ll be glad when things calm down again and she gets to play with all the art/craft supplies.

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We’re having a party today (Saturday) for her friends for which she is super excited.

Heather by the Window

October 26, 2014 3:12 pm

A couple of weeks ago I was taking some pictures of Heather by the window.  I like this one best.  This was with the 50mm prime lens again.  I really like this lens, something about the images it produces is very pleasing, but I can’t say what.

The focus is just a bit off from her eyes, but that’s what happens with a squirmy kid and f/1.8.  Maybe one day I’ll be good enough to catch it just right.

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Pentax K-7, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/100s, ISO 100. Only window lighting.

Heather the Horse

October 3, 2014 5:46 pm

Heather helped me bake some oatmeal cookies last Sunday.  We were getting out all the ingredients (one of her favorite things to do) and she asked if she could eat some oats.  Well, why not?  So I gave her a few.  And she loved them.  So she asked for more, and more, and more.  I think she ate over a 1/8 of a cup before I cut her off.  Just raw, rolled oats.  What a goon.

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Camping

September 13, 2014 12:59 pm

P1010176asHeather has watched a number of TV show episodes that involve camping.  So when, a few months back, we asked her if she wanted to go camping she was ecstatic.  She knew all about it.  She told us about setting up a tent, and sleeping bags, and a fire, and marshmallows, and on and on.  We decided to play it safe for a first-time-camping experience.  We booked a site at Del Valle, which is just on the edge of town, for a Friday night back in August.  If the night turned into a disaster we could just bail and drive home since we’d only be 15 minutes away.

In the future we won’t be returning to Del Valle.  Apparently it’s kind of a party campground.  There aren’t enough bushes and trees to separate camp sites so it’s mostly like camping in a huge group with a bunch of people you don’t want to interact with.  Regardless, Heather had a blast.  She ate a hot dog in a bun for the first time and she had her first S’more.  She thought the S’more was alright, but wanted the marshmallow and chocolate without the graham crackers (funny, since this morning she ate an entire package of graham crackers).

We survived the night, went home and then everyone took a 3-hour nap.

Last weekend was the Daddy-Daughter Campout with church, for which Heather was also super excited.  It was up in Redwood Regional Park.  The main benefit there is that it’s a singular group site.  There are no other camp sites around it so you have much more isolation.  That and there are a lot of trees and bushes.  The camp site is a cleared area within all this growth.  That was a more pleasant experience overall.

Heather was a trooper and didn’t even fuss when it was discovered I had not, in fact, packed the hot dog buns and ketchup like I thought I had.  She happily ate her hot dog without either.  My night would have been a little more comfortable had I checked the air mattress before leaving though.  It had a pretty substantial hole in it so I was flat on the ground by midnight.  Heather slept great on a pile of blankets.

She’s already asking when we can go camping again.  So I guess we need to start buying useful equipment instead of just making do with whatever we can find.