American Flag on Memorial Day

American Flag on Memorial Day, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I am so thankful for the heroes that have made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure our freedom. Please take a moment to read this post by Admiral James Stavridis - blog.usni.org/2011/05/28/the-words-they-leave-to-us-adm-j...

Sunday Brunch

fruit salad, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

Our church didn't have services here today, so my mom invited us over for Sunday brunch. She planned sourdough waffles and blueberry syrup - deciousness! I offered to bring a fruit salad, and my mother-in-law brought whipped cream...doesn't all that sound like a perfect combination? It was.

I didn't remember to take pictures of the waffles, syrup, and whipped cream. Oops. Something happened to them. They were on a plate, and then they were gone. Sorry. Well, not really sorry. They were absolutely magnificent!! The fabulous sourdough waffles, the tart blueberry syrup, the creamy/sweet whipped cream...ahhhhhhh. It was wonderful. Oh yeah, and the fruit salad tasted fresh and summery too.

Thank you, Mom! It was just perfect, and we all really enjoyed it!

I think my mom found the secret to getting yard work done too. After the perfect meal we went outside and dug up this part, tilled that part, transplanted these, weeded those...and Caleb relocated some worms. He's a very careful gardener - he even knew the new flower bed needed worms.

Can you guess what I did after I came home? Yes, it starts with "n" and ends with "ap". What a nice Sunday!

Rainbow Pitstop

Rainbow Pitstop, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

As we were coming home from Dale's baseball game we saw this lovely rainbow. We were actually able to see the entire thing, but I didn't have a lens that would capture it (I need a wide-angle!) and I haven't put my panorama together yet. I love the serenity of this photo.

I also love the fact that when we stopped in the roadside pullout to take pictures, my kids hopped out, oohed and aahed, and then started picking up garbage along the side of the pullout and road. Without any prompting from me, they just picked up trash and found a bag in the car to keep it in. Awesomeness! I love those people!

I love these puffypinkballs.

I love these puffypinkballs., a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

I got a new add-on for my Retro Camera app (for my cell phone) and I tried it out on these puffypinkballs. (What are they really called?) I love them, and I like the aged look to the photo, but I will take some "real" shots with my good camera too.

We've been having quite a bit of non-camera-friendly weather lately. It's kind of a bummer. I would like to get out and take some joyful pictures of my kids! I love this blog - http://www.kellehampton.com/ - I love studying her joyful kid photos. Maybe I'll get to take some tomorrow.

A trip to Michele's

My friend Michele has two Norwegian Fjord mares that recently had the most adorable babies...


We had a baseball game out in her neighborhood, so we stopped by to see the horses. Oh my goodness - they are the cutest things!!! So soft, sweet, funny...we all loved them! The one little lady - Tule' (pronounced Tula) - loved all the kids, but Kristi especially. She followed her around and kept begging for more attention. The other little lady - Tine' (pronounced Tina - they are Norwegian, after all) - was more shy, but quite willing to be photographed. They are both so beautiful. The mamas, Tone' and Tessa, were content to nibble grain while we admired their offspring. All 4 are lovely ladies, and it was a fun visit.

A new experiment

I’ve been trying out a new (to me) concept of “freelensing.” Here are a couple shots I’ve taken this way…

This was one of my first attempts, and I removed my 28-135mm lens and turned it around backwards to get the macro effect. Here is a shot of this stem of flowers with the lens mounted properly…

This one was taken with my 50mm lens removed and turned backwards…

Here is one taken with the 28-135mm removed and held in its normal orientation…

Now I’m going to go back to planning camping trips! I love planning camping trips! I think I might even like the planning more than the implementing. But it’s all fun. I do wish I could get a fold up kitchen that would unfold and be complete – sink, stove, garbage can, canopy…all set up in one motion. But I guess I’ll make do with the setup we’ve been using.

(You may remember this shot from last year’s South Dakota trip.)

Fields of Sunshine

Fields of Sunshine, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

I stopped on a side road on the way home from Hamilton to take this shot of the lovely sunshine flowers. They sure do make a pretty field!

I took this photo with my HTC Incredible. I used to hate posting cell phone photos on my blog, but I have a different view on that now. First, I have a great cell phone! It takes 8mp photos, and it's quite fast. I love the results I get from it. But beyond that, I have concluded that one does not have to have the big guns (Canon 7d in my case) to get good photos, or to capture memories. Sometimes it's more important to use what you have available - if I had waited until I could come back with my 7d this field would have been full of poofyheads. That might be a nice photo in itself, but not the lovely spring image that I feel I captured here. Granted, the quality is not perfect, and the window glare in the bottom left might be a distraction, but the moment - the spring beauty - is here for me to remember.

I have found this especially important when it comes to shots of the kids. Some of my favorite kid photos have been taken with a cell phone because I had that in my pocket. Those moments would be lost to me and to my loyal readers/viewers if I had to go get the DSLR. So...all that to say this...I am so thankful for my cell phone camera!

Here are a few of my favorite cell phone shots (if you get the email version of this blog, please go to the web version to see the additional photos).

   

As you can tell…

…life has been very busy in Scrivnerburg! We’ve had a lot of baseball games…

Spring (and flowers) has really sprung…

We’ve celebrated National Chocolate Chip Day with chocolate chip pancakes…

And after an afternoon spent with Caleb, Mom and Elaine planting flowers, I went on a search for the Daily Shoot assignment, “leading lines.”

We’ve been busy!

Lovely Weather!

Lovely weather storyboard, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
It is a gloriously beautiful day in Western Montana! FINALLY! The weather is perfect, the kids are outside, the sky is blue...ahhhhhhhh.

I loved this view...

IMAG0217-1, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

I took this shot with my cell phone on the way to Hamilton. Spring is slowly working its way into the valley.

It was a good Mother's Day, although my sweetie wasn't here to celebrate it with us. While he was attending church and shopping in Indiana, we attended church and worked our little fingers to the bone here.

Andrew and Caleb cooked scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast today, and then we all headed off to church. When we came home Austin and Nathan prepared pizza for lunch, and then all of us started cleaning the front yard and the front of the house. I told the kids if they worked hard and did a good job I'd take them to Dairy Queen. It seems kinda crazy for a near-hermit like me to take 6 kids to DQ by myself, but I thought it would probably be the incentive they needed to work. It was a good plan - they all worked really well, and my house looks so so so so so much better! The broken toys are gone from the front yard, the mud is off the front of the house, the mess is out of the flower beds...yay!

So we headed to Nana's to drop off her Mother's Day flowers, and then we all went to DQ. They were almost perfect! It wasn't even stressful for me! Whoohoo!

We all enjoyed our ice cream, and then came home and collapsed all over the living room. We were so tired and stuffed with ice cream that we didn't even get around to the dinner Dale wanted to cook until 8pm!

It was really a nice Mother's Day! Thanks, kiddos!

Caleb at Tylers Party

Caleb at Tylers party.jpg, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

I took my four younger boys to a birthday party today. They had a good time playing in someone else's yard and eating Spiderman cake. Caleb wore his Spiderman mask on his head most of the time. Goofy boy.

After the party we went to K&S Nursery in Corvallis. I love that place, but my appreciation is nothing compared to Caleb's opinion. All the boys were eagerly choosing hanging baskets for Grandma, and finding treasures they wanted, but Caleb was asking, "What's this one? Doesn't this one smell good? Will this one keep having flowers?" I asked them how old one has to be to become an apprentice at the nursery - I'm sure Caleb would love it! They said he's a bit on the young side. Bummers.

It's a Bug's Life

It's a bug's life, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

I wanted to capture the detail in these budding maple leaves...they're so tiny, and rough...very interesting. I've never photographed them at this stage. While I was studying and shooting this one somebody showed up for the photo op! Have I mentioned how much I love my 7d? The detail and sharpness I get with this camera just thrills me!

Another point - the fact that these leaves are coming out and the ant was crawling around means that spring really and truly is here! Whoohoo! Caleb keeps picking dandelions and asking me each time if it means spring is here. It's really hard to teach kids about the seasons when the seasons just won't change!

Random Dandy

Random dandy edit, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
The Daily Shoot assignment was "randomness." The first dandelion bouquet of the season has gone to seed...but it was the first random thing that caught my attention. I like how it looks now as much as when it was yellow.

Was it supposed to be about baseball?

When we go to our children’s baseball games we’re probably supposed to focus on that…and take pictures of that…right? Oops. I found this irresistible “little” guy that had my attention for a whole lot of the game.

I have the bit of Caleb’s head in here just so you can really get an idea of how big this baby is. He’s 15 weeks old, and he’s humongous! And adorable! And sweet! His name is Zeus, and I just love him!

Oh yeah…and Austin played baseball.

(He’s batting.)

A lot of our family life revolves around baseball right now. For about 6-8 weeks every spring we seem to do almost nothing but baseball. These junior boys of summer have been having a great time!

Such a happy/sad day

Fancy and Ken left this morning for Indiana. I am so excited for Fancy, and I am very proud of her. She has come so far and become such a loving, caring young woman. I can’t wait to see what God does with her now! But I’m also sad because we are all going to miss her so much. I keep reminding myself that this is the way it’s supposed to be…they’re supposed to grow up and move on into life. That’s right.

I made a video for the graduation party – it seems like just the thing to share on this amazing day in Fancy’s life – the day she steps out of the familiarity and comfort of Scrivnerburg and into the big, amazing world.

Seven Goofy Scrivner Kids

Seven goofy Scrivner kids, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

We spent some time at a park today, visiting with Fancy and Dale's birth mom, goofing off, and taking pictures. I wanted one more shot of all 7 kids together...so what do I get? Goofiness. What do you expect in Scrivnerburg?

Fancy the Graduate

Fancy the graduate, a photo by Elli :-) on Flickr.

Fancy did it! She made it through high school! They even gave her a diploma! We are so proud of her. She's had quite the journey to get here. I know that all of that was just preparing her for an amazing life! Fancy, in the words of the Great Nate the Bean, you're magnificent!

We had a wonderful party for her at the church after the ceremony - many people came out to celebrate with her and wish her well on the next leg of this great journey. Overall, it was a wonderful day!

Next comes the sad part...Fancy is leaving Tuesday for Indiana. We will all miss her, but there is one person who is just devastated at the thought of her departure...

Fancy finds herself comforting Caleb often.