Picture post 1 - testing out the new camera

I don't want to head out with a new camera and not have played around with settings, color, zoom, etc. So, what better subjects to shoot but my little family?

our baby, aka baby face - real name Lucy

my handsome stud! playing with black and white... love! gotta work on the focus though

midget face aka Willow. She's our vocal baby

Gus, king of the castle!

soaking up the sunshine

I am pleased with the pics so far, I need to get used to changing the settings to focus and picking up the light as I like it. Can't wait to keep taking more!

Its picture time!

I love taking pictures. All the time. Of people, places, lighting on trees and buildings, random objects, dance, everything!  I wish I had been able to take some photography classes at some point in my life, but I never have. Years ago, my dad bought me a lovely Nikon camera (film) that I took with me to Scotland and the Grand Canyon and many other places. Its still a great camera, but its just not feasible to shoot in film anymore. Years and years ago, I bought myself a little point and shoot digital camera. That thing was awesome. And it still works, but in this digital age, a 7 year old camera is ancient.
Over the last few years, I like to think that I've taken some pretty decent pictures. Whether it be with my own point and shoot or Stacey's lovely Nikon DSLR.
Examples are necessary of course:

So why am I talking about pictures and showing you ones I've taken? Because I got a NEW CAMERA!!!! Its not the fancy DSLR that I would love to get (1 day, maybe), but its new, its a nice middle step between a point and shoot and a DSLR and I can't wait to take pictures with it. Luckily camping this weekend will provide me with the perfect opportunity to test it out. Look for lots (and lots) of pictures to come!

Weekends are for....

for whatever you want! This past weekend we were busy, busy.  We spent all day Saturday hanging out with the awesome Parkhurst family - selling off our excess clothing, shoes, random household objects in a garage sale. It was awesome that Rob and Court let us bring all our crap over. And honestly, that was a great way to spend a Saturday!  It was a gorgeous sunny day, and I surprisingly got a bit sunburned! Surprise, summer is here!

We managed to get rid of a lot of stuff and hopefully will be partaking in another garage sale in a few weeks to get rid of the rest. After that - whatever is left gets shipped off to the Goodwill.

Saturday late afternoon and evening was spent in the company of Jay's "crew" of friends. It was a so nice to catch up with everyone, fill them in on wedding details and listen to them tell us how excited they are for our upcoming wedding.  Even though I know we still have a lot of work to do, it makes me feel good knowing there is a lot of excitement.

Sunday morning was a girls morning. Anne, MM and I went on an "urban hike". Typically we head up to the mountains for a long hike, but Sunday, we spent wandering the neighborhoods of downtown and heading to Cheeseman Park (one of my faves!).  MM is getting ready to start her own new journey, so there was lots of planning and discussing for the future!

Sunday afternoon was spent with my lovely man as we prepped our camping gear to head off this weekend. SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!  Look for the post and pictures after next weekend!

Spirit of Ireland

The Spirit of Ireland is my dance school's big yearly show.  Every year I stretch myself thin over, volunteering for numbers, helping out with the littles hair and make-up, etc.  This year I told myself no more. Haha. I partially met that goal.  I was originally slotted to be in 10 numbers. Yes, really. But by the time the show started, I had managed to take myself out of 5! So - I got to do some numbers I was really excited about. Rather than so many that I was worn out by the end.
Here are some pictures from the show!


pre-show rehearsal

one of our numbers to "We Will Rock You"

my favorite number - a 6 hand with my fellow &overs!

the 16-hand figure number

Dance struggles

Ahh, Irish dance.  Right now, I am in quite the love/hate relationship with you. I love you, because I love to dance. I love that feeling of learning something new, being able to remember little things and feeling the power and grace that I don't feel every single day. Especially the grace part, because really, where did the bruise come from?
But I hate you.  I hate that I am such a competitive person and am placing so horribly at competitions. I hate that its such a subjectively judged sport. I hate that I love it so much that even when I am placing last (seriously, what is going on) that instead of thinking about giving it up - I am just continuously beating myself up for what I am doing wrong.

Sigh.

Yesterday we had a feis.  I wasn't feeling overly confident about competing, but I didn't feel awful.  But awful is about how well I can describe how I did. Before even seeing the final results, I know I placed last or second to last. How do I know this? I can do math. Ha! Seriously though, when we have 7 dancers in a competition (Reels for example) and the score sheet thats posted places the top 5 and I am not on there, guess what? I placed in the bottom two. Not something to be overly proud of.

So what do I do? I have recorded myself dancing and can see what I need to work on. But... my teachers don't make it to competitions to see what I am doing wrong or what I need to work on. Do I look for new teachers? Do I just keep plugging along? The frustration is weighing me down.

hey look, I'm smiling! Before finding out how badly I placed.

On top of this, we have our big, annual dance show this coming Saturday.  Every year I over-extend myself to help out, herd the kiddos, do make-up and hair, dance in every number that needs bodies or sound. Every year. This year I told myself I was not going to do that. If anything, maybe I would skip doing the show altogether. Haha.  I wasn't given a choice. Seriously. It was - oh yea, we already put you in such and such numbers, so you have to sign up. Well ok then.

So for the next week, my life is going to be consumed by dance. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, all day Saturday.

Let you know how it all goes!

Summer plans

Happy May Day!!!!

Since its the beginning of May, and I have already started planned our summer activities (not ones that have anything to do with wedding planning) I figured I would share what we're planning!

Camping, lots and lots and lots of camping. As much as I can possibly squeeze into the summer. Seriously.  We've actually bought an America the Beautiful parks pass for the summer.  It will stick on the truck and we'll be able to visit all the awesome National Parks without having to pay additional entrance fees. Which is good...because in a few weeks we're starting off our camping summer with a trip down to Mesa Verde.  I have never been and am really excited to see it!

 

Then we'll be headed over to Arches and Canyonlands in Utah! I know we talked about going last year, but this year its actually happening. :) Campsites have been reserved.

 



 

What else is on tap? As much hiking as the girls and I can fit in as well!  Lots of outdoors time. Thats my plan. Bring it on summertime!

Wedding planning update

So.. we have less than 6 months until the wedding. (CRAZY!)  And Jay and I have finally gotten back around to talking about wedding stuff.

We met with the amazing MM on Friday to discuss invitations.  She's got some awesome paper skills and Jay has some awesome artist skills, so between the two of them, they are looking pretty awesome. I am not giving any hints - but after they are sent out, I will probably post a pic of them up here.

We've narrowed down our food choices to 3 possibilities.  Looks like we'll be doing some food truck stalking in the near future! Denver has an awesome variety of food trucks that serve really yummy and delicious food. We are pretty excited about having one at our wedding.

We've also been looking at hotels to stay at the night of our wedding.  We will be taking an actual honeymoon, but there is something so fun about staying out on your wedding night.  We've decided that we want a hotel with some serious character so that our pre-ceremony pics (first look!) will be more than just a simple hotel lobby.  Again, Denver has a great variety of old, quirky and character filled hotels.  Our photographer might have to weigh in on our choices (Stacey?)

Speaking of photogs, I asked Stace to do the photos for our wedding, since I LOVE LOVE LOVE her pictures. Perfectly timed candid photos, natural light, happiness oozing from the pictures. Needless to say - her departure to Australia might cause some issues. BUT I am hoping that she'll be back in October. And yes, before you ask, I have back ups that I can contact just in case.  But I would prefer to idealistically hope that Stace will be there.

As for the rest... its literally all minor details. Types of flowers in our decorations. The timeline for the day, etc., etc. I am excited at our progress... and can't wait to see how much more we figure out!

Farewell to Stacey

This past Saturday night, Courtnay and I threw Stacey a going away party. It was mostly our Irish dance family, but we had a couple extra guests as well. It was fun, food filled and emotional. I didn't take a lot of pictures (none actually) so I have created a photo montage from over the years.

I can't believe that its been almost 7 years of knowing, dancing and spending time with Stacey.  She has become part of the family! And I will miss her soo much. Jay and I are already talking about a trip to the land of Oz, and Stacey will be (she'd better be, at least!) returning to Denver for my wedding and her friend Jenny's wedding in October.

Stacey Betty, dance will never be the same without you as my figures partner, my dance buddy, girl time in the car and so much more. Good luck on your newest, most exciting adventure yet. I love you!         

              (cue photo montage)

 

 

 



Girl's Weekend

A couple of weekends ago - I spent the weekend with Heather and Mary Margaret up in Breck.  It was lovely! And random. And fun...

Enjoy the little things

Its been a while since I posted last, but not because I haven't been busy and enjoying the spring/winter bipolar Colorado weather. Or spending time with friends. Or dancing.  Because I am!  However, when I think of blogging, sometimes I look back on my day or my weekend and think, "well that's not exciting enough to blog about".  When in reality, those little things are what I should be blogging about!

So with that in mind, I will try to be better about blogging about the little things. Life is about enjoying the little things!

Speaking of... already this spring, I have been able to go hiking! A little brisk and cool, but so lovely!

Wedding planning is still continuing... I haven't done a whole lot lately, but checking out food options, hair ideas and all the little things that come with weddings.

If you didn't already know, Jay and I have had a roommate for that last month or so (and will until the beginning of May), Miss Stacey!  She's moving to Australia soon, so luckily our guestroom has become her transitional space as she slowly but surely gets rid of more and more stuff. I love having her stay with us!  It will make her leaving THAT MUCH HARDER.  Especially since Monday nights have become "girl's nights" again! We used to have them when I lived alone on Tuesdays... dinner and tv and gossip! Last Monday we tried out a new recipe!  Check it out on Stacey's blog.

On that note... I will try to stay more updated! Fingers crossed :)

Big Cat

Gus, one of our cats, thinks he's the man of the house. I have overheard Jay arguing with him over this point a couple of times (yes - its as hilarious as it sounds). But... an example of Gus' self-centerness? He likes to hang with the Big Cats.

And sit at the table like one of his humans.