Having fun with photos

My girls love taking photos (yes I include my wife in that mix)! And boy we have been taking a lot of pictures as of late.

When you have a beautiful mountain in your backyard, there are a lot of opportunities.  The funny thing is that we used to this a lot more.  I mean go into the Open Spaces nearby after I got home from work.  We would hike, then run the hills.  It was so relaxing and was really helpful in reducing anxiety.

Well, last Thursday, we incorporated our family worship night as hike in the mountains.  Family Worship night for our family, as Jehovah's Witnesses, means that we look at ways to strengthen our relationship with our heavenly father Jehovah.  We have done everything from bible plays, to building a miniature Noah's ark, watching videos on JW Broadcasting, etc.  The key here though is to find something that the whole family can enjoy. To be honest, my wife is better at coming up with the ideas for family worship; however, I wanted to figure how we could incorporate a hike into the mix.


Basically our hike was out of Mitchell Canyon and our goal was to find as many examples of Jehovah's for key attributes: Wisdom, Power, Justice, and Love.

It is pretty easy to find example of three out of the four; however, it was kind of a stretch for Justice.  Let's just say, I figured that poison oak and woodpeckers were examples of those.

On Sunday, we went back on the mountain.  It's been beautiful around here and with a full moon, plenty of picture opportunities.   Included below are a few of these.  By far, I love spending time on the mountain with my family.

Until next time......

Hello....Is there Anyone Out There?

Okay....running three blogs and then getting busy with life means that you let all three blogs to suffer.  Yes there has been a lot going on.  But I will promise to work on updating this one too.  This one is dedicated to the family.  So I will feature what has been going on with them more often going forward as well as any trips that occur.

My other blog is more dedicated to running and trail pictures.  That said, I will showcase some of these pictures here.

I guess photography runs in the family.  Our daughter Emma has just started her blog which focuses on her favorite hobby.  It is titled Wander Through the Lense. You will find all of her photography there.

Anyways, I will probably use this more as a photo-log.

Catching up:

Samoa Sam...the new addition to the family

Emma using her Camera in Monterrey

Setting up for the perfect picture

Emma Setting up for Snow on Mt. Diablo

Myles and a friend making and trying out there boats

Early Morning High Jinks

When you realize that it has been over a year!

Well you can really say that I have neglected this blog for a while now.  Not that there wasn't stuff to post, quite the opposite.  The kids continue to grow, I am back at AAA (where I over four years ago), and have been swamped.

So that said,  here are some random pictures for the last year to illustrate what's been going on.

Sophie went to fifth grade camp and Beth got to join the party!

Grandma and Grandpa visited and Skype the kids every week.

 I returned to AAA, Insurance this time, and visited the different claims centers across the country.

We became a two vehicle family.....and Beth finally got her truck!

 Sophie graduated 5th grade and became a middle school student.

 We rediscovered our love of day trips and visiting places we have never seen, like the gold mining town of Columbia....

 We also did our annual Shasta Lake camping trip which included a ride on a Patio boat up Squaw Creek.

This meant, due to the drought of course, dodging the snags at the mouth of the creek, but there was plenty of water to have fun and relax.

 And also meant a bit of trolling up the McCloud. 


 

And eating greasy but good camping breakfasts!

 

And it wouldn't be a camping trip without a good nap or bike ride.

 Speaking of bike riding.....Emma and I learned the fun of mountain biking.  I have only run one race this year, a 10K, and greatly cut back on my running and bike riding.  However, this has meant that the times I do I get to have a lot of fun with my family!

 We finally, after four years, made it back to Disneyland!

We decided that we take advantage of "California Pricing and Payment Options" to get annual passes.

This was a goal all year for me.  30 years ago, my parents and sisters and I made the trip down to Disneyland, visited Magic Mountain and Universal. I was a sophomore in high school.

Ironically, my wife was with her family the same weeks we were there going to the same parks.  Mind you she was in 2nd grade at the time.  

Well to come back 30 years later with our family, with our youngest in 3rd grade, well, it was pretty wild to think about.

Now we will be making several trips in the coming year!

 Yeah, I did say I ran one run this year, the 10K.  However, I would be remiss to also acknowledge the "Color Run" we did as a family.

Running along the Embaradero, AT&T park, and having people throw color corn starch at you was fun and after our first big rain of the year made for a really fun and beautiful morning!

Which brings you up to this past week.  We have been busy with hikes, bowling, ice skating, seeing the movie "The Good Dinosaur," and just plain relaxing.   

 So no promises, and basically this might have been a one shot deal, but that basically catches you up on the going-ons.

Oh, one last thing, I have discovered Periscope and Instagram.  I do post on those more frequently so to keep up, you can find us there also.

A sample of Periscope is found here:

 

Ocean Beach - Warm and Sunny Yeah!

So today, since we had a free day off, we decided to go to Ocean Beach.  The temperature was in the upper 70's at the beach with the water temperatures about 65.  Since it was going to be close to 100 at home, we opted for the 40 minute drive to the beach.

Enjoy the pictures:

The true meaning of "sandwich," and no they were not Tuna Fish.

The kids love body surfing.

 

April 2013

So to say we have been busy is an understatement.  Hopefully these pictures give a bit of a summary of what we have been doing the last couple of months.  Next week we will be going camping and fishing up at Shasta Lake and will have the pictures up shortly after. Going up to the lake around the 15th of May always seems like revisiting my childhood and my grandparents.

Going on a hike with the new ccongregation, the Circuit Overseer, and his wife.  There were over 47 on the hike in Castle Rock Regional Park.

A couple of fun trips to Sky High which hosts a bunch of trampolines.

This years memorial picture.  The kids are growing fast.

A trip to the A's with Myles friend Mitchell.  The new congregation has boys Myles age so he now as a lot of friends.

Two crazy A's fans!

This random picture was taken when we were checking out a new field service territory.  We have everything from rural to city.  It has been an awesome change.

We were treated to a horseback ride by Beth's dad up at Redwood Regional Park.  There was fun for all!

 Finally, these are iridescent clouds.  They are pretty rare in this latitude.  Basically it it caused by ice crystals at very high altitudes.  I was running Lafayette Reservoir and saw the clouds appear twice.  I almost thought they were man made.  It was beautiful!