A Scrap of Life

Brian's parents got us a zoo membership last Christmas and purchased the upgraded version, which comes with tickets to ZooLights.  We hadn't been to ZooLights since the kids were really tiny.  I remember strollers and babies, so it was a really long time ago.  Now that we had free tickets I thought it was time to visited again. I did my research and visited the zoo website for information.  The website said that the parking lot usually fills up by 5:30pm on busy nights.  We were going a Thursday night, so I wasn't worried about it being too busy.  We left the house at 4:15, figuring we'd be at the zoo by 5:00.  Well, by the time we reached the zoo at 5:09, the parking lot was closed and full.  Oh joy.  We looked for a spot anyways, but it was 20 minutes wasted wandering around those lots.  We finally went to the alternate parking a mile away and found a spot, then waited in line for the bus.  By the time we finally got to the gate...

Yes, I've been absent from my blog for some time now.  There are many excuses but it really comes down to life getting in the way.  The blog just isn't my priority when I've got all those other things going on, but I'm going to keep plugging away at it, even if it's more sporadic than I'd like. The big news, for me at least, is that I got a new computer!  My old one kept crashing on me and one day it just ceased to work.  Thank goodness for my good friend Melinda and her husband, who suggested getting a hard drive with a daily backup.  I am so thankful for that backup!  The only thing I lost in the crash was my email contacts, and that I can live with. Here's the other big news... That is Chase with his new drivers permit!  He's pretty excited about it.  I, on the other hand, drove with him yesterday for the first time and am less excited about it.  Teaching a kid to drive is scary!  Here's hoping I love through it all! LOL

In our house you stop getting Halloween costumes once you reach middle school, after which you need to use your own ingenuity to make a costume from what we have.  Tristan did just that, using his clothes and assorted props (with the help of an old t-shirt, which I cut and sewed into his little hat) and became Shadow Link.  Some sort of Legend of Zelda character... don't ask me for more information because I have no idea! You may remember seeing similar photos of him, only in green, last spring on the blog, when he dressed up as original Link for character day at school. Chase had some friends stop by so he decided to throw on a quick outfit and head out with them.  I have no photographic proof of it, but he went as Shadow... I think another Legend of Zelda character.  Yes, it's popular in our house right now. With Tristan's advent to middle school, we had only one costume to buy this year.  Carissa decided early on that she wanted to be Red Riding ...

... these two get along.  It doesn't last very long... in another breath it's all over and they are annoying each other once again.

Oh yes, it has arrived. Much to soon for my tastes, but what do you do? We took advantage of the unseasonable nice fall days last week and took a trip to the local pumpkin patch, Bernet Farms. We walked the fields for a while before choosing pumpkins, then looked at the animals and headed on our way.   On the way out of the patch I really fell in love with the light and just plopped the kids down and started shooting.  (Tristan's "I'm a gangsta" pose. LOL)   

Yes, I know summer is long gone.  I have been absolutely jammed with back-to-school, work and photography.  I am thankful that it's all working out and I truly love doing it all, but it's been hard to juggle the needs and wants of my family, my work and my photography.  I'm hanging in there though and feel good that I'm currently caught up on it all.  YEAH! Now comes the time for a bit of a close to summer by posting some photos left over from our summer fun.  In no particular order... Carissa and the boys were all cast in a movie called "Pageant Girl" that was filmed here in Scappoose this summer.  It's definitely not a Hollywood Blockbuster - it will be lucky to make it to a film festival somewhere.  They didn't allow us to film on set so I got nothing of the boys, who both spent about 6 hours on set as extras.  Carissa, however, was part of the pageant scenes, which called for paparazzi - thus I was allowed to take photos.  Here...