Susan’s Photo Blog

We went to the parade in Brighton this morning.  Nick’s dad was working with the rotary club, helping to organize the start of the parade and, of course, the duck race after the parade.  :o)  Nick’s mom was in the parade with her Insight group (a group of business professionals).  Here are just a few snapshots of the morning.

The start of the parade.  I started tearing up as they walked by.  Everyone was standing and saluting and clapping.  It is so wonderful to be proud to be an American and have the freedoms we all enjoy and take for granted every day.

Alexis opening one of the many pieces of candy she collected:

Various area fire departments.  There were a LOT of firetrucks and they were loud!  Jubilee didn’t seem to mind them so much, but Alexis was not a fan of the loud trucks.  I should have snapped a picture with her hands over her ears.

I just thought this car was kind of cute.  :o)

A jump rope team.  They were fun to watch.

Jubilee sitting on the curb with Daddy, playing with the plunger we got from Benjamin Franklin plumber.

Grandma Patty giving Nick a “free hug.”  The Insight group was giving out free hugs, along with water bottles.  I didn’t get a good shot of her shirt, but it had huge letters on it, saying “Free hugs.”

We were near the end of the parade, so Patty came to sit with us after she reached the end.  Nick took a shot of us. :o)

Another fun group to watch was this fencing team.

Jubilee, enjoying being the second child.  Yes, that is a tootsie roll tootsie pop that my nearly 15 month old is devouring.

And, what is a good parade without some yummy cherry-lime flavor shave ice?  That was my treat for the day!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Here is my gorgeous new niece at just 5 days old!

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Uncle Howard (Nick’s dad’s Uncle) graciously allowed me to use his Nikon D700 for a few days.  I wasn’t planning to really use it much because I don’t want to get camera envy and get in a rush to upgrade my camera.  But, I did take it out last night when we went on a family walk.  It was fun to play with.  Here’s just one from last night:

As much as I enjoyed using the camera (thanks Uncle Howard!), I am still okay with my tusty little Rebel XTi.  It makes me work, and I think that is a good thing, at this point.  Some day though. . . .

Last October-ish, Alexis started asking if she could take karate classes.  She didn’t stop asking.  LOL  So, by the time her birthday rolled around in January, I figured she was really serious about it and told Grandma Patty that Alexis would love karate lessons for her birthday.  She’s been doing it for about 4 months now and really loves it.  I brought the camera the other day and grabbed a  couple of shots.  In hindsight, I really should have upped my ISO a bit, but I was quite distracted by trying to keep an eye on Jubilee, who likes to climb everything in sight!

The very beginning of class. . . there were a few students who came in after this.  There are usually 8-10 kids in her class.

Practicing the student creed, I believe.

The balance beam on the obstacle course.

I have an assignment that requires me to get pictures in soft light and hard light.  I got plenty of hard light pictures a week or so ago when it was bright and sunny.  Today we woke up to very overcast skies, which creates perfect soft light, so I got us all dressed and out the door for a walk around our neighborhood.  Here are just a few shots.  I’m not thrilled with the results, but they are what they are.

Don’t ask me what is going on with the angle in this one.  I just snapped it that way.

This is the last one I got before my battery died.  Of course, right after that happened, things got really adorably cute and lovely.  Jubilee walked over and sat on Alexis’s back and looked right at me as if she was posing for a picture.  Then, they both crawled under a nearby bench and peeked out at me, which would have been yet another adorable shot.  Stupid batteries.  Stupid all-day photoshoot of nautical antiques yesterday that drained my battery.  Okay, okay, it wasn’t the fault of the antiques.  I should have charged my battery when I got home. At any rate, this is probably the one I’ll end up using for my assignment.