That Snow Joke!

Last weekend we finally made it up to see Jason's parents. "The Inlaws"- well actually I love them so that whole connotation is lost on me. Anyway, one of the highlights of the visit was their hot tub. This is kind of fun- the last time we were at their house was Christmas of '03. Jason and I were planning to surprise the family with our announcement that I was 7 weeks pregnant with what would turn out to be Kelsey (whew, that didn't come out sounding too nice, did it?) Logan was only 8 months old. Grant, Jason and Poppy played in the hot tub with these very same rescue heroes that you see in this picture! How fun! At the time (in '03), Grant was BIG TIME into Rescue Heroes, and we brought some with us. Wendy Waters and Billy Blazes, seen here, along with someone else whose clever name escapes me at the moment, were especially cool because they had water hoses they could squirt. Eventually our family outgrew Rescue Heroes and got rid of (and mostly forgot about) them. Well, we were so excited when Jason's mom pulled these characters out, that we apparently left behind on our last visit 7 years ago! It was Kelsey and Logan's first time in the hot tub, and although Grant says he remembers, he was only 3 1/2 so I'm thinking he just remembers hearing about it.


Oh, and for the record: the highlight of my trip was mixing up Mojitos with Jason's mom;)

Okay, here we are doing school. But first, you might remember this:

Uh huh, he still likes to sit in chairs that are too small for him, with legs hanging off all sides. I love this dog.



It finally occurred to me that I don't have to be the only one who does any work around here, and so I taught the minions to do laundry. Guess what? They *LOVE* it. They fight over whose turn it is. Cracks me up. Here's Kelsey, using the kitty litter as a stepstool so she can reach into the washer.


The kids have been begging me for years to buy a stupid coconut so they could crack it open. Last week, I got tired of hearing about it and brought one home. The next morning they were in the kitchen bright and early, armed with a hammer. The coconut milk (juice, water?) was nasty. Now I can browse the produce section in peace.


Big news! I bought a lens I thought I would never touch. No variable ap lens was good enough for the likes of *me*. It's amazing what a limited budget and a football playing kid will do to change your mind. Here's why: I finally got a dslr after having sacrificed my true love D700 in the name of a vacation to see a Mouse. I needed lenses. It was like starting over. I couldn't, however, afford all the lenses I wanted. So I chose carefully. I started with the 50 1.4, of course. The must have. Then, after literally agonizing and reading reviews for days, I chose the 85 1.8 (I agonized over the 1.4 vs the 1.8). Jason was a go for the 1.4, but the cost, being like 3x more, was just too hard to justify. A few days later, I found a deal too good to pass up on the 35 1.8. Oh wow, I LOVE that lens. Sooo sharp. Anyway, I wasn't in love with the 85 1.8. Enter the ....

wait for it...

Nikon 70-300 3.5-5.6

I KNOW! I never thought. But someone on Clickin Moms was selling one, so I started looking into it. I called B&H and talked at length with a sales person. I realized that, in order to get the zoom i wanted for Grant's football, I was either stuck with the 85 1.8 which, for the limited zoom, wasn't all that. I ended up returning the 85 and purchasing the 70-300 from B&H refurbished. Turns out, I LOVE it.

Check out this shot. Tell me that bokeh is not gorgeous. (I know, I was in such a hurry to test it I used an orange. This was taken moments after taking it out of the box).


You see, bokeh is determined not just by your depth of field, or aperture, but also by your focal distance (this baby has a great focal distance) and distance from subject. The closer you are to your subject, the greater your bokeh. The orange was shot at f/5.6 and 300mm. I was right at the minimal focal distance (if I got any closer to the orange I wouldn't have been able to focus).

I never took these facts into consideration before. All I knew was you needed a wide aperture to get good bokeh. Not so, my friends.

Okay, in keeping with the nature of this post, I will continue randomly jumping around.

We visited COSI in Columbus last week while Jason spent the day at the Columbus VA. We would later continue on our way to his parents for the weekend.

This leetle lizard was shot with my lovely 35mm lens.


This is about as close as you're gonna get to a self portrait. I was hiding behind Logan to snap this ball on a display that proves the earth rotates. It continues to swing back and forth all the time, while the earth's rotation causes it to gradually knock all the balls off the rim. It was fun to wait for it to knock the next ball off.


Logan, the Lego man, created this ship and asked me to photograph it so he could submit it to Lego magazine. We will be anxiously watching our mail for the next issue. Fun!


And finally, what the hell?!?!? It is snowing tonight. Um, hello, Spring is in 10 days. I'm over it. Poor Grant had to practice in this cold, wet snow on a cold, flooded field. He didn't even dress for it because he was so sure practice would be cancelled. Oh well, it'll toughen him up.