Photo Contest - 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th!

I talked Lacey into entering a local photo contest, she never thinks her photos are any good and of course I do. You could only enter three in a category so we chose three for plant life, three for animals (Lacey's favorite subject) and one for scenic. We could have done more and have ideas for great candidates for next year's contest, but this was our first one so we started with some of Lacey's favorite photos.

There were not a whole lot of youth photos entered, but the competition with Lacey were all members of the local camera club. So, for being an amateur with no camera club experience we were thrilled for her to even place in the competition. Her winning photographs are on their way to the local Library to be on display for the next three weeks. Here they are:

First place ribbon in Animals, her picture of the Lynx named "Misa":
Second place ribbon in Animals, her black and white of Lily, named "Tiger Lily":

Third place ribbon in Animals for her sepia picture of Lily, named "Goobers":

Yes, if you are keeping track, she ran the Animals category! There was a fourth place ribbon won by another youth but Lacey took 1st, 2nd and 3rd! Lacey is conveniently standing in front of her competitor's picture. =)

Fourth place ribbon in Plant Life for her picture of a dahlia, named "Pink Petals":

She doesn't look happy here but she is, just bad timing by Mom.

These were the other pictures she entered. I think they are wonderful, especially the purple flower below and the picture of the trees. I use them for computer backgrounds off and on just to enjoy.

Looking at the pictures that other youth and adults entered really inspired Lacey to take some more photographs. She has as good of an eye for taking pictures as anybody in that camera club. I would like her to take some of the classes where they teach how to use the manual settings on the camera so she could do even more fun things but I'm not sure she will. The guy who runs the camera club encouraged her to join them as well and I hope she takes him up on it. I may attend one of the meetings with her and we'll see.......she is so talented and doesn't even realize it.

It's a Silver!

Sorry for the crummy picture but I didn't have time to grab the camera so the Blackberry had to do. Bowling alley lighting and 2.0 Blackberry camera capability make for a pretty poor picture. Picture aside......Seth had a great game at Regionals. He bowled 109 and 114 which are a few points above his average. His friend Tanner received the Gold and had an awesome game 30 points above his average! He was just on fire. Seth bowled really well and received medals right along side his good friends Tanner and AJ. He also found a ball at the bowling alley that is really cool looking. We might consider it for birthday. He throws his new ball (16#) well on some days and not so well on others so we may go to a 14 or 15 pounder for a break.

First Artwork

Seth's art class did their first piece of clay work. It is a clay tile about 4"x4". I think the general idea was to do a geometric design allowing for a border.
It's a miracle that this fragile clay survived getting home. The tile was diligently wrapped in newspaper many times and I cannot say enough for the buffer power of newpaper! It was dropped on the floor at school at one point besides being shuffled from class to the locker to the backpack. I was at the school and picked it up to bring it home so it wouldn't have to suffer through a bus ride home. I started to unwrap it when I got in the car and realized it was wrapped so tightly that I couldn't get down to the tile to see it so I decided to wait until I got home. Thank goodness! The tile was on my passenger seat with just a bit of the newspaper torn away. On my way down the hill by our house, a chocolate lab ran right out in front of my van, I slammed on the brakes so hard that everything in the car was projected forward and I still only missed the dog by a mere inch. The tile ended up hitting the dash and landing on the carpet of the passenger side. I figured it was toast (or crumbs in this case). I was amazed to see that it survived without any scar to prove it's adventurous journey.

Carving Time

It's that time of year again. Even though we never get trick or treaters so we are the only ones who get to enjoy the carved pumpkins, the kids always want to do them. Seth chose the witch pattern and Lacey a Halloween cat. Seth assisted by poking out the pieces after I cut them out (the cutting was rather intricate on his).
Lacey carved hers herself. Using a battery operated saw/knife. It was a little scary for Mom! She managed to do a really good job and no blood was shed.

Here's the witch:

And the cat:

They look pretty cool, huh?

Blazers!

Our seats at the Blazers game. Yes, they are nosebleed seats, but it is my inaugural jump into season tickets. We all have to start somewhere!

Anyway, the game was great, somewhat quiet due to it being a pre-season game and a pretty easy win over Golden State. The Blazers did let the Warriors get too close a couple of times but they managed a 118-105 win. Of course, when the Blazers get over 100 in a game everybody gets a free chalupa at Taco Bell.
Taylor was thrilled, I gave her my coupon so her and Jeff can have a free snack!

Maiden Trek

Finally, all of the stars aligned and made everything come together so Seth could accomplish a maiden trek on his scooter. We found a paved path - check, helmet on - check, the weather was actually nice - check, had Seth and scooter at the paved path with nice weather - check!

It wasn't without some difficulty of course, Seth always assumes first that he cannot accomplish the task at hand. So, after I unloaded the behemoth scooter and had it all ready to go, Seth would not get on it. We had a little struggle but he eventually got on and made his way across the parking lot and onto the path. Then, there was maneuvering around the post that blocks the path so vehicles won't decide to go for a joyride. He got off the scooter and was done. Well.....Mom wasn't done so we had a little standoff -- about 5 minutes -- but I'm pretty good at waiting him out anymore. After a small amount of bribing (I might have threatened to take away his movies for life), and a healthy staredown to see if I really meant it, he got on the scooter and took off at full speed.

He had a blast! I am so glad that this turned out to be such a fun experience because he now knows that he is more than capable, I mean just check out the turns he was doing!

He is excited to do this again and I now know that there is no problem with him keeping up with Lacey and I on a bike. We did 5 miles (2.5 each direction) and the scooter didn't even come off a full-charge. It is supposed to do 10 miles easily and I think it would have done 20. The entire path is 6.25 miles so I don't know if I would chance it unless I had another adult with me who could ride to the car and drive to our nearest location just in case it ran out of juice. I would be curious to know how far it would actually go. There are a few nice rises on this path where the scooter can be heard bogging down a bit but it didn't really slow it much and for the most part the path is relatively flat. The hillier the path of course the more the battery would be drained.

All in all, I am very pleased with how the ride went. I have a few obnoxious bruises for my troubles, both of which were not totally the fault of the scooter but happened as I was preparing to put the scooter in the car or when I was securing it once there.

Is this absurd or what!?

Hawke's New Digs

Hawke has a new home! We decided he had to be bored with his tiny little platform in his other house. So, after a lot of searching, I found a wire cage which incorporated tubes. Hawke loves it! We had to do a little tough-love teaching for him to utilize the tubes, but he has figured it out. He still will sometimes kamikaze off the top shelf all the way to the bottom, but he's getting better. This usually happens when he fills his cheeks from the top feeder (where he is in this photo) and then can't comfortably fit in the tubes -- so he just jumps. For some reason, he doesn't like to eat when up on the top shelf. A hamster with acrophobia -- perhaps.

He finally discovered that he likes his cottage too! Is that an adorable face or what?

The Last Drop

Just ask Lily. The last drop is the best. She will beg and beg for a little dribble of anything that comes out of a bottle. Beer, wine, root beer, cream soda -- she doesn't care, it's the bottle that she is fascinated with. Here is her latest exchange.

If I look at it longingly, maybe he'll get the hint.
Pleeeeaaaasssseee Dad, can I, can I???

That's good....I'd like a little more!

Aaaah, that's it!

Thank you! Thank you very much, let me clean your face!

Maybe if I sweet talk, he'll find another drop.

12 Pounds of Fish in 15 Minutes!

Today was the Special Fishing Day at our local hatchery. We were allowed five fish and it took only minutes to fill our quota. The picture below is Seth telling his dad the "perfect place" that he should cast the bait.
And, the product of that cast. This is Seth's second fish and he wanted to thread the line in like he had seen Phil (our volunteer) do with the first fish.

Seth and Erik reeling in the biggest fish of the five -- a 5 pounder.

Showing off his big fish for the cameras!

And, showing off the whole haul -- 12 pounds total.

After fishing, there is a shooting gallery where the kids could shoot a pellet gun at a target. Check out the concentration here. Lacey is actually a very good shot -- watch out!

More concentration here:

As usual, it was a great day. Short considering we caught the fish, had them weighed and cleaned, shot the pellet guns and had the fish on ice and headed home in one hour! That's what happens when you get there early, you get really hungry fish. Very fun!

Dear Mr. President

Lacey, along with some other 5th graders, received the President's Outstanding Academic Achievement Certificate. She received a number of other certificates too which you can see spelled out in her letter, but the one she was the most proud of was this one signed by the President.

So......when you want to thank the President, you write him a letter, like this:

This will be going in the good ol USPS tomorrow, so let's cross our fingers and see if she gets an answer. She asked me if I thought Malia could write to her but I told her I think they are pretty strict parents and there would be thousands of kids that might want to be her pen-pal...so probably not. She agreed that was true, it might be too much to ask. = )