Day 2 - Maybe a Little Too Much Squeezed Into One Day

We didn't want to waste one moment on the fun meter for our first full day of vacation.

We slept in, but only just a little. We all had breakfast in the house and dashed off to see "The Princess and the Frog". I really liked the story, but I was greatly disappointed with the artwork. I thought I was watching something on Cartoon Network; the quality was so poor. What has become of Disney? There was so much potential for creative expression in the swamp scenes. Oh well, I guess the era of Disney setting the artistic standard has ended.

After the movie, we went shopping and purchased some pajamas for the girls. Then we took them to see Santa Claus to sit on his lap and to ask for him what they wanted for Christmas. Even my shy Chloe was brave and direct. Chloe tells me she wants some Polly Pocket toy, but then I hear her ask Santa for roller skates! They took nice pictures of the girls with him, but I don't have a scanner with me, so I cannot share on my computer.

We came home, ate lunch, and then went out to pick out a Christmas tree for our vacation home. The girls had a fun time running around and acting crazy.

After setting up the tree, we decided to give the girls one of their presents early. Little did we know that the scooters required full assembly, but we all worked together as a team and had both of them put together in a very short time. It was getting dark, but there was still enough time for the girls to try them out on the short dead-end street where our home is situated. They scooted around until they were tired out.

We had dinner reservations for a nice restaurant nearby and one of the girls was acting up. I'll leave out her name because I try to keep this blog focused more on the good stuff, rather than the bad. She was moody, ill-mannered and obnoxious throughout dinner. Dad and I were both exerting all the patience we could muster, but the quality of the experience was sadly lacking. We realized that we were partly to blame because she was tired, cold and hungry (not a great combination). Amazingly, as we left the restaurant, we had several people, including the hostess comment on how well-behaved our girls were. I wonder what they're used to!

Today's pictures weren't the greatest, but I only took 10 all day, so there wasn't really much to choose from. I'll try to post pictures of the tree tomorrow.

Tomorrow is going to be a much slower day.

Christmas Vacation Begins!

I haven't had much time to blog lately. That's because Dad and I have both been working extra hard night and day in order to get ahead at work to be able to take two weeks off with the girls for Christmas break.

Thursday afternoon was the grand opening ceremony for our new animal shelter that I designed and built for our city. I love that my job allows me not only to design, but also to manage the construction....all the way down to ordering the final equipment, hanging the pictures and selecting a Christmas tree to dress up the place. It was a cold and foggy afternoon, but there was a good turnout. Since the shelter opened two weeks ago, there has been a noticeable increase in adoptions and there is room for future expansion.

You can click on any of the smaller pictures for a larger view.

Our animal control officer cuts the ribbon to her new animal shelter.
The front facade has animal imprints and pawprint cutouts.
A new lobby. The old facility didn't have a lobby. It was a small trailer.
New well-lit and heated kennels with outdoor runs for the dogs to go inside and outside at will.
Cat condos with separate toilet space. They have interior ventilation.
A "Get Acquainted" room for prospective parents to play with the dogs and cats.

Friday, I worked in the morning and then Dad and the girls picked me up just before noon to head off to glorious Carmel-By-the-Sea for a two week Christmas vacation. For the second year in a row, we rented a home. There are so many nice houses here for sale and a lot of owners rent them out while waiting for a buyer. It only took us 3 hours to reach our destination, leaving us with plenty of time to unpack, settle in, and make a trip to the beach before sunset.

This looks like the beginnings of a beautiful vacation! There are a lot more pictures and posts to follow.
This is the entry to our vacation rental in Carmel. The hydrangeas are in full bloom.

Chloe does the Happy Dance on the beach to celebrate.

Catching Up

I haven't posted in a very long time. It seems like life is extremely busy right now. Work is busy for both Pete and I. We had a very nice Thanksgiving with family. We brought the food over to Pete's parents house. It was a smaller gathering this year as other family members opted to go elsewhere, but it was still nice.

Now I have another cold, so my writing may be especially poor. We leave on vacation in less than two weeks, so we will probably be very busy getting life in order before then.

This past month Dad went sailing with some friends while I stayed home with the girls. Actually, we didn't stay home the whole time. We went to Huntington Gardens in Pasadena and met up with my sister for a day of exploring and fun. It was fantastic. I felt like I was back in China when we walked through the Chinese gardens. They seem so familiar.

I'll write more later. Time for some pictures. Click on any of the smaller ones for a larger view.

Fix-it Friday Autumn Beauty

Well, it's that time again and this week's editing challenge had a darling little beauty burried in a pile of leaves. I played around so much with the edits that I wasn't able to keep track of my steps, so I'll just let the pictures tell the story. I cropped and rotated the image to give the subject a slight tilt. Many others cropped out the tree and grass. This is a nice touch that gives the illusion of an endless sea of leaves. However, for me, I liked the green contrast from the grass and I thought the tree balanced out the subject, so I kept those elements in my final crop. I also thought this picture would work well with a painterly effect, so I played around with that too.

You can click on any picture for a larger view.


ORIGINAL

FIRST EDIT

PAINTING EDIT


For other great editing ideas, go here.

Staying Home

Today I had lots of big plans at work. I had an appointment with an accountant to audit one of my projects. I have three contractors scheduled to perform various tasks on another project and I have paperwork and design work to do for my next project. It was supposed to be productive.

But then, stuff happens when you're busy making plans. Here it started around midnight. Chloe woke me up to tell me her tummy hurt, just in time to make it to the bathroom. And so it began. Now it is 13 hours later and she is still sick to her tummy...no school, no work, no rest. I am hoping Dad can step in and give me a break in a little while.

I took a picture of her sitting by the fireplace, snuggled in a blanket. If only she felt as good as she looked. I am also throwing in a couple of miscellaneous pictures. One is a family portrait I took a couple of weeks ago. I cannot believe how difficult it is to get 13 people to not blink or make a funny face at the same time, especially when 5 are children. I don't really see a future in this for me, but it was sure fun to try.


Yesterday it was cloudy and gloomy all day. We didn't get any precious rain, just the clouds. Finally, right at sunset, the clouds broke apart enough to allow for a beautiful scene. I had to steal away a few minutes early to capture this image just down the road from my house.

I've got the girls to myself this weekend. Dad is going sailing to Catalina Island with friends. Hopefully, if we are all feeling well, we can get out and do something fun as well. Until next time!

Ninety Years Ago

Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States of America. World War I was over and the Treaty of Versailles was signed and the Nazi Party was formed in Germany. The sale of alcohol was prohibited. We were still ten years away from the Great Depression. The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series over the Chicago White Sox, taking the series in five games to three. Milk was a whopping 62 cents per gallon, bacon was 55 cents per pound and the average wage was a record $1272 per year. The average price of a new home was $5,626...........and Earl Williamson (my father) was born in Vernon Texas and later moved to Oklahoma as part of a family with 10 kids. Now, only three remain, including my dad.

This past weekend we traveled to Las Vegas and Pahrump Nevada to celebrate my father's 90th birthday. His health is good and his family is grateful. My brother couldn't make it at the last minute, but we did have a nice turnout all the way down to the great grand children. I am so happy that my daughters are able to see and know their grandparents, all four of them. It is more than I ever could have hoped for when we decided upon adoption.

All the rooms in Pahrump were booked Friday night so we stayed at a nice resort hotel in Vegas. We drove through Red Rock Canyon to take a couple of quick pictures on our way to Dad's birthday party. I reserved a dining room at the local winery restaurant and we had an amazing time visiting, swapping stories and enjoying each other's company, plus an amazing 5 course dinner. My sister, the florist, brought a beautiful exotic bouquet of flowers as a centerpiece and a carrot cake which was topped with airplanes in recognition of Dad's lifetime career of working on them and flying them.

As always, Chloe and Pearl had a great time and I lament that I did not get outside to take some great Fall vineyard shots with them. I was just having such a nice time with the family inside. By the time we finished, the sun had set but we were all thankful to have another wonderful memory to add to our collection.
We stopped off at Red Rock Canyon to shoot a couple of pictures before going to the party.
My sister made this beautiful arrangement.
Dad and Mom enjoy the company.
Grandaughter Lisa (my niece) and fiance Brent
Carrot cake with airplane toppers
Dad blows out the candles.
The next day Chloe and Pearl play with rocks at Grandpa and Grandma's house.
Daughter Nancy (my sister on far right) with grandson Brian and great-grandchildren Isabella and Greta.

Mom and Dad

Fix It Friday #35

ORIGINAL





This week's picture was way too perfect to start off with, so I was challenged to come up with different ways to edit it rather than "fix" it. I have been having a lot of fun making up presets in Lightroom. Mostly I create presets to give a unique color cast to an image, like purple or gold. With this picture, I sharpened and brightened the eyes in Photoshop. The rest is simple playing with the colors. I am showing several variations here. To see other edits, click here.

Halloween 2009--Happy and Sad

After three and four years home with us, the girls are really getting into the swing of Halloween. It is so much fun for Kindergarteners and First Graders. Chloe and Pearl are still in the princess phase, so I told them it was time to move up to the "queen" level. Pearl decided to be the Queen of Hearts and after a couple hours of re-sizing her costume, she looked quite majestic. Chloe was dressed as the Queen of the Nile, Cleopatra. I thought it would be unique and original and that I would have fun with the make-up. Well, as it turned out, we ran into two other Cleopatra's at the park and Halloween parade and I am not as great a make-up artist as I thought I was. However, I was able to "fix" Chloe's running and smeared eyeliner in Photoshop. Take a look at the lovely picture below where she is crossing her eyes. Actually, out of character, Chloe was NOT in the mood to have her picture taken. What's the fun in all this dress-up and make-up if Mom can't get a picture to remember it by? At least Pearl was willing to pose for me and I had a lot of great shots of her.

On a very sad note, we learned when we arrived home from trick-or-treating, that our friend Catherine lost her husband Jimmy to the H1N1 flu. We had been anxiously reading updates whenever Catherine had time to post on Facebook and we were constantly thinking about what they must be going through. Catherine and Jimmy are adoptive parents like us. They adopted their little girl from China at the same time we adopted Chloe. As anxious parents waiting for referrals, we joined a support group called the "Sweet Peas" and Catherine and Jimmy were part of that group. Now it is with a heavy heart that we keep Catherine and her family in our thoughts as we wish them peace and comfort in their time of grief.







UPDATE: After the parade, we left the park and carnival early to go trick-or-treating. We just found out that Chloe won 1st prize and Pearl won 3rd prize for their Halloween costumes! I am so sorry they missed it.

Fixit Friday #34

BEFORE


AFTER



This week's lovely photo is a beautiful fairy. When I saw her, I knew I wanted to take a turn at editing this photo. She is sooo sweet.

First, I imported the picture into Lightroom. I rotated the image, which consequently, gave it a significant crop. I stopped the rotation when the crop got as tight as I was willing to go. Last week I made a preset I call Boys Town, it is basically some playing around with saturation and tones giving a golden-brown cast. I used that as a base and tweaked it a bit to give her a soft peachy look.

Then I opened the edited picture into Photoshop where I brightened and sharpened the eyes. I tried to blend out the bruises by using the clone tool at 50% and I cloned out a distracting branch from the background at 100%. Due to the small size, it was getting a bit pixely/grainy, so I used a noise-reduction program (Topaz Denoise). That made the picture a little too smooth, so I finished it off by placing a Florabella texture (nostalgia, soft light, 44% opacity) over it. It's still overly smooth, but in this case I like it.

To see the other edits, click here.

Happy Scarecrow Day

In case you hadn't heard, today is Scarecrow Day. Well, at least it is at Pearl's school. Chloe has a little cold, so we kept her out of school today.

I am not sure what the significance of this all is, but it meant Dad had to run to Target to buy Pearl some boy's clothes that she probaby won't ever wear again. The kids put on a special performance today for the parents (that were able to come at 8:30 in the morning) singing songs and dressing up. I managed to escape from work for a brief time to sneak a peak on the show. It sure is wonderful to have my home and work within 1 mile of the girls' school.

I took a few cute shots of Pearl before school. When we stepped outside and looked up, the sky was full of vultures riding the currents in the air. It is quite a sight to see over 60 giant birds circling your home. The picture below only shows about a third of them. I guess this means it isn't Scare-vulture day.

The Third Birthday Party in Four Weeks

The girls have been busy lately going to birthday parties. This time it was finally for someone their own age. One of Chloe's classmates, "E", finally turned 5 and her mom planned a Fancy Nancy Tea party for the girls. It was quite a treat and would have been perfect if not for the hot weather........again. The girls could dress up however they wanted, so Chloe chose an aqua ballerina dance outfit and Pearl wore her Belle princess dress.

On Sunday, Dad took Pearl to the local zoo for a special Halloween event. Chloe woke up sick and Mom stayed home with her. We played together and watched Animal Planet. I even snuck in a little editing time on the computer. That is why we have no pictures from Sunday.

You can click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

Grandpa's Birthday and a Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Sunday morning brought the annual family gathering to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. We met up at a favorite local Mexican restaurant and had a fun festive time with the usual games and players. There is something comforting in repeating a regular family tradition. It was very dark in the restaurant and I don't have a nice flash for my camera, so these pictures aren't among my best. I had to Photoshop a lot of the shiny flash off of people's faces, glasses, lips and teeth. Thank goodness for "denoise" software.

After brunch, we headed to the hills to visit a farm where the girls could pet some animals and then pick out pumpkins. It was HOT!!!! AGAIN!!! Not only was it hot, but it was also crowded and there were long lines......3 things I usually try to avoid at all costs. I think this is the hottest October I can ever remember. I guess we will bear almost anything to build fond memories for our girls. I think it was a big success and they were quite pleased with their pumpkins.
Berkeley and her mother Jane

The whole crew, mostly.

Grandpa admires his cake.

Cousin Cassie flashes a smile.

Later at the pumpkin patch.

Apples Apples Apples & Mushrooms

Today was another low-key Saturday with the family. Last night we all went to see the movie "Where the Wild Things Are". The girls really loved it. I was bored through most of it and I really hate it when the camera bounces around too much during the action scenes. It makes me sick. I have had to walk out of movies ("Hannah and Her Sisters") for just that reason. When we put on home videos, I can only watch a few minutes before the nausea sets in.

We took the girls into town today to play at the park. We were trying to find an adoption gathering, but we lost the flyer and when we drove by the park, we didn't see anyone we recognized. I guess we must have gotten either the date or time incorrect.

Later in the afternoon, Chloe and I went out into the back yard to take some pictures. I expected to see all of the apples rotting on the ground. We have lived in our home for almost 7 years and have never used the apples from our trees. To my surprise, there were still quite a few decent fruit clinging to the trees, so we picked them. I let Chloe play around a bit and I just aimed the camera. I was able to collect enough apples to make an apple pie and two batches of apple muffins............yum!


Chloe picks an apple.


Chloe finds a vulture feather to add to her collection.


Chloe finds a make-shift table for her treasures. It needs a little dusting off.


Chloe studies her finds. She's not sure if the twig will make the final cut.

After setting down the feather and pine cone, Chloe shows her apple.

Chloe makes the final still life arrangement.


Chloe's final creation.


On the way back into the house, we spotted these large flat mushrooms in the yard.


Here's what they look like at ground view.


More mushrooms from the front yard


I think this bunch looks like a fairy village.

Blogger Brain Block & a Birthday

For some reason, it hadn't occurred to me to blog the past few days. I guess I was sidetracked with thoughts of processing the hundreds of photos I took last weekend. I was so glad to get through them all that I forgot to set a few aside for the blog. The weather was another distraction. We were expecting a real big rain storm and all we ended up with was a severe dust storm that wreaked havoc in our yard, filling our pool full of pine needles and our roof with large tree limbs. It wasn't even cold enough to light a fire in the fireplace.

On another note, I was asked by an acquaintance to do a family photo shoot and for some reason, I couldn't turn them down. What was I thinking? I cannot take family portraits!! They haven't even seen my work. I told them there would be no charge, as I will be doing it for the experience. They still plan on offering something and if they do, I will apply it towards one of our sponsorships for a foster family for a Chinese orphan at Grace and Hope. If you are interested in helping a child in need of a foster family, head on over and click on "How to Help".

While I am loving photography, I have no interest in making this a profession. I do just fine as a full-time engineer. I have had my fill of frustrating photo attempts this week that serve as a reminder that I have so much to learn. Last weekend brought us another birthday party and I agreed to capture every moment. This time the party was for the lovely miss Lily. She turned two years old.

A clown lady came and painted faces and made balloon animals.


The clown lady poses with the birthday girl Lily

Miranda shows her little sister how to swing at the pinata.
But Lily prefers to kiss the pinata.
Pearl is eager to give the pinata a big whack!!!
Lily enjoys the candy from the pinata. She is wearing a pair of satin squeaky shoes that we picked up in China that Chloe never wore. I love the bottoms!
Lily flirts with cousin Nathan. I think she's trying to bum a ride.
A homeless guy strolls by the party. He is apparently collecting aprons. I guess there is another party across the street, according to the banner.
Big brother Addison takes one for the team. He allows the face-painting clown to paint a tatoo on his arm and then tries to convince us it says "Wow". It's just upside-down.
Lily really enjoys her cake.
Even the dog wants in on the action.
Quin shows us his colorful candy from the pinata.
Uncle Taylor holds his daughter Ellie, almost the same age as Lily.
Aunt Olivia plays with her daughter Morgan, also the same age as Lily.
Presents!
Lily opens the present from Chloe and Pearl. It's a talking Kai Lan doll.
Lily is in love with this doll

Lily loves Kai Lan so much that she kisses her and then begs to take her to bed later that night.

Fix-It Friday #31

Over at I ♥ Faces, is the newest photo editing challenge. I decided to give it another try. I really enjoy playing around with other people's photos and this little guy was especially handsome.

BEFORE


First I imported the picture into Lightroom and warmed up the white balance, darkened the blacks, saturated the blues, added a slight vignette, desaturated the oranges and then played with some split-tones. I added a bit of gold highlights and blued-up the shadows. Next, I imported it into CS4 where I cleaned up some food on his face and some scratches on his forehead. I dodged some shadows on his cheek a bit. I smoothed the image and then finished it off with a Florabella texture at 35% on soft light blending mode(cool Sugar & Spice). It may sound like a lot, but it only took a few short minutes.

AFTER


For other clever edits, head on over to I ♥ Faces