Birthday Pics

Some photos from Liam's birthday yesterday. My learning with the camera continues. I got some good shots yesterday, but almost all of them have a pretty heavy warm orange cast to them, and somewhere along the line I seem to have deactivated the auto flash option on the camera. I'm getting better at understanding what the camera settings do, just not so good at actually USING them. Still, nothing a little post-processing can't fix.

It's tough to catch in a photo, but the Hungry Hungry Hippos action was fast and furious.

Liam's prolonged "I Won Hungry Hungry Hippos Happy Dance"

His 'cake' was actually one ginormous chocolate chip cookie.

Liam is FOUR!

In honor of our sweet little boy's fourth birthday, here are four of my favorite pictures of him (and you realize that it is an impossible task to select only four pictures, but I did it somehow).

And I'll include a couple of great recent comments from Liam as well:

Mom, when I grow up, I’m going to be a football player. And when I next grow up, I’m going to be a baseball player. And when I third grow up, I’m going to be a soccer player.

Wow! How many times are you going to grow up?

Four.

* * * * *

Mom, when Dad took us to get donuts, I got a Papa John Long with sprinkles, and Logan got a Papa John Long with sprinkles.

Happy Birthday, Liam! We love you!

Baby Love: Liam's Affection for Cousin Carter

While I was looking at the updated photos of my nephew on Lisa's blog, Liam came over to take a peek...

"Oh, this is Carter! I just LOVE Carter!"

The Rocketeers

Finally, FINALLY, the weather has been a)warm and b)sunny enough to get outside with the camera and do some shooting. The boys and I spent a good portion of yesterday outside braving the wind to have some fun with Logan's rocket launch pad. Thanks to the Lennings for this entirely awesome birthday present for Logan, with which we were able to clear the huge locust tree in the back. You step/stomp/sit heavily on a rubber airbag to send the rocket skyward, and the boys had great fun trying to jump on it as hard as they could and see how high the rockets would go. With a little more space and a little less restraint, I'm thinking that FAA or NASA notification may be needed for future flights.

At any rate, the photos turned out fairly well. I've been experimenting with fast f-stops and fairly shallow depths of field, mostly because it tends to blur and de-emphasize the backgrounds which, let's face it, tend to be a lot of subdivision goings-on which aren't always the best backdrop. Unfortunately, using a fast f-stop with auto-focus means that the thing you're trying to get sharp and in-focus isn't always what the camera thinks, so sometimes I get a shot of a fuzzy Liam and a nice, crisp sidewalk in the background. I need to get a little better with the manual focus, I think.






Those fuzzy white blobs in this shot are actually very close and out-of-focus flower petals from the pear trees in the yard.



I think that at some point I'm probably just going to have to take the camera outside with the manual and a couple of hours to kill and work through all of the options. It's a vast improvement over our last camera but I know that I'm still not getting the full potential out of it.

Jammies

Tonight, Liam decided to wear fleece, footed pjs. The weather is relatively spring-like at the moment, so I asked Liam if he was sure he didn't want to wear some cooler pajamas. He answered, "No, I like these. They're snug."

Spring Break is Over

Okay, so the photo project isn't doing much, because a) it turns out there aren't as many old photos as I thought, and b) the weather hasn't been nice enough to get out and take new ones yet. There are only so many interesting photos that I can take inside our house. But spring is just around the corner! I can tell! Yeah, so we had a snowstorm a couple of nights ago, but still!

Here are a couple of shots from Spring break. There are more I'll get to, but these are the ones I started with. First up is a shot of Liam at Grandpa Phil's 60th birthday breakfast. It's a good shot because it captures perfectly Liam's response to having his photo taken, which is typically something like "NAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh....."



The second is a great group shot of the boys with their cousins at...well, I don't know where this is, because I wasn't there. It appears to be Oz. Is it just me or are Tin Man and the Lion a little creepy looking?

As is clear in the photo, they're never all looking at the camera at once. Also, it looks like Liam might have a future as a professional tough-guy, maybe a bouncer or celebrity bodyguard.

It's An Off Week

I had hoped to get more new photos up by now, but the boys are off in KC on Spring Break vacation, and I don't have the new camera with me. But, I'm still working on retouching some of the older photos.

This is a fairly early photo we took of Liam, again at the botanical garden here in St. Louis. It's basically 50 acres of nothing but excellent photo opportunities. This photo is a little overexposed, as his clothes are almost washed out. Playing with the brightness helped a little bit, as did converting it to black and white. I like it because it's the only photo we took of him that day where he's actually looking at the camera.



This one I like just because the lighting and angle all worked out really well. There are a couple more where he's actually reading the books instead of throwing them around, even if he is reading them upside down.

Photo Project - March 10

This is one of my favorite photos of Logan, and it's not even a very good quality photo. This was taken back in 2004 in the middle of the English garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden down in Shaw Park. I love the composition and feeling of spring when I look at it, but it was taken with our first digital camera, and the overall quality of the photo itself is not that great. So, I used it as a guinea pig to explore some photo manipulation techniques. Added a vignette, and oversaturated the colors and contrast. I'm attempting to recreate a bit of a lomography effect, but given the source material (the photo is loaded with greens and blues, hardly any reds) the end result isn't quite what I'd like. But it's not too bad.



Interestingly, that day at the Botanical Garden really stands out in my memory. It was a perfect spring day, about 70 and ridiculously sunny. Logan was only about two and running around acres of garden for a couple of hours was still a source of wonder. I'm not sure he'd get the same enjoyment out of it now.

The Cobapple 2009 Photo Project

I've been thinking about ways to improve the frequency and content of this blog, since it appears you all are still coming here fairly frequently and we're not really doing much.  It also happens that we just got a new camera, a Nikon D40, thanks to Circuit City's bankruptcy and a sweet 30% off sale.  So I'm excited about exploring photography a little more in-depth, now that I have a DSLR camera that is quite a bit better than what we've been shooting with.

I'm also exploring my options for photo editing, since a lot of good photography these days is made in post-processing.  The perfect opportunity to use that lies in the thousands and thousands of photos we've shot over the last 7-8 years and hardly touched because we shoot a LOT of photos, dump them on the hard drive, and then forget about them.  So what I'm envisioning for the rest of the year is a combination of old, retouched photos that you may not have seen, plus new photos from the new camera.  Hopefully I can start to expand my photography skills and get away from the old standard bad-lighting, poor-focus, indoor snapshots of the boys.  

To get things kicked off, here are a couple of photos I took of Liam painting over the weekend.  I converted them to black and white to tone down a lot of the clashing colors in his pajamas, and to bring out the shape of his paintings instead of the primary colors.  I also experimented with a different shooting angle.  What do you think?

Updates Coming...

It's rather amusing that I believe we have updated the overall theme and color scheme of this blog about 3-4 times in the last two months, but not the actual content. I suspect readers would prefer the latter.

I have an idea for some upcoming photo content, so keep your eyes peeled...

(By the way honey, this green polka-dot thing is not doing it for me.)

The Photo Finish

Here are some photos from Logan's Pinewood Derby last weekend.

Logan's car - "Fire and Flames"

Logan with his car on the track

And they're off - Logan's car is second from the left. Sadly, this is about as close as it ever stayed to the rest of the pack.

Logan and denmates

I Feel I Should Explain Myself

We're back from the holidays, all the gifts are put away or into use, and 2009 is well underway. Naturally, that means back to the weekly rush of activities and whatnot, and for Logan that means back into Scouts full speed.

Unfortunately, full speed was pretty pathetic. Last Saturday was Logan's first Pinewood Derby for Tiger Scouts, and we'd been working on his car off-and-on since Christmas. It was a pretty simple design, in fact most of the time and work was spent on the paint job. The idea behind the Derby is for the Scout to do most of the work, with assistance as necessary, and I wanted Logan to be involved and do as much as he could. I think that's a good way to get a lot out of his Scout activities.

What it is not, apparently, is a good way to do well at a Pinewood Derby.

Logan came in dead last. Out of 15. I take full responsibility, since it appears that the primary culprit was his car's inability to even cross the finish line. Not heavy enough, you see. The cars have a weight limit of 5 ounces, which means most cars clock in at 4.9 thanks to carefully attached weights. We had no derby car weights, and Logan's car was about 3.5 ounces. I correctly predicted that his car would accelerate just as quickly as the others (as gravitational acceleration is independent of mass), but I failed to account for the momentum it would need to keep going. Ah well, live and learn.

His car was also a little lacking in the appearance department, and that I'm a little more disappointed with. Not in Logan's car - in everyone else's. As I said, the Derby is supposed to be about the kids building the cars, for the most part. Most, if not all of the other cars at the race, were clearly the product of a lot of adult labor. From the car design to the paint job to the polished finish, there were some really, really well-done cars. Now, I have a fair judgment as to the abilities of a 7-year-old, and if those kids built those cars then I know of some high-paying skilled machinist jobs they can slide into TODAY.

So in the end, I'm rather proud of Logan's car. Logan designed it, Logan helped cut it out, Logan helped paint it, and Logan also seems to really like it.

But next year, we'll make some changes.

December Catch-All

So, we've been pretty busy with the holidays and neither Jill or I have had a whole lot of time to blog. Biggest thing going on these days was Logan's 7th birthday - we celebrated at home last weekend and he had some friends for a party on Wednesday. Overall things went pretty well. It's getting to the point where birthday/Christmas shopping for the boys is kind of difficult. I mean, they have so many toys that most of them don't get played with as it is. This birthday was primarily LEGOs and a couple of Xbox 360 games, with a supplement of always-appreciated art supplies from Jan and Kathy. Logan seemed to be pretty satisfied with everything, although the wide-eyed reverence he gave to the 360 game was tough to beat. His birthday party Wednesday was at Chuck E. Cheese, which frankly I was looking forward to about as much as back-alley dental work. I had heard a lot about Chuck E. Cheese over the years, almost all of it bad, and I was prepared for the worst. Entirely unfounded, as the evening actually went off really well. Not too crowded, the place was fairly clean and if not for the overloud music loops blasting at certain points in the place, would have been almost perfect. As it was, the party turned out great.

Gearing up for the holidays now and hopefully we'll be able to see some of you over the next couple of weeks. It just occurred to me that we typically do one of those "Year-Ending Holiday Letter" things at this point on Cobapple to catch everyone up on what's been going on with us all year. You can't tell, but I just sat for 5 minutes thinking of all that I could write about and it wasn't much. So, here's the condensed version. Logan's been doing well in first grade, at times probably not being challenged enough, but he still seems to like school so aces there. Liam's been enjoying preschool, and we continue to fight the Sisyphean task that is potty training with him. I've spent the last year working Business Development here at work, learning all about the fascinatingly irritating world of politics and defense procurement. Jill's been doing everything else. We had a great vacation to South Carolina back in September (go read the archives if you missed it), and are thinking of trekking to Colorado for next year.

The boys are both doing well, and getting excited about Christmas. Logan is getting heavily into Indiana Jones, although we haven't let him see any of the movies yet (the LEGO versions are more his speed for now). Liam is basically into whatever Logan is into - the big brother worship is going strong. Right now one of his big things is bookmarks. Logan has been reading chapter books, and they're usually too long to finish in one night (or even two or three), so we've had to bookmark his spot. Liam thinks this is just tremendous. So now, he likes to call a sudden halt to his books about 2/3 of the way through as declare "OK - this is where we're leffing off." Then he'll stick in a bookmark and call it done. He's very proud of himself.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The other day Logan drew the most beautiful picture. It was completely unprompted...just drawn on a piece of recycled scratch paper. But I found it to capture the gratitude I feel during this season just perfectly.

Thank you, God, for your abundant love!

Fun Flashback

My aunt has "tagged" me. I was instructed to open my 6th picture file, post the 6th picture from that file on our blog, and share the details with you!

So here you are...it's January 2006. Liam is getting a haircut, and my photography skills aren't that great. Here's the photo:

What a handsome little fellow. But look at that somber expression. He seems like such a contemplative, serious guy. And yet, if I'd been asked to share picture number 5, you would have gotten this:

Let's just say that Liam has a complex personality.

Now I get to tag 5 others...On the Seen, Maren, Kristine, Tiffanie, Barlands...you're IT!

Halloween 2008

Have you ever been so far behind in something that you just don't know how to start catching up? That pretty much sums up how I feel about Cobapple right now.

Here are some Halloween pictures. That's just one tiny piece of life that hasn't yet been captured on our blog in the past few weeks, but it's something.

That Ol' Janx Spirit!

Can't get enough of that Ol' Janx Spirit! When you can't think of a post title, throw in random lit references that nobody will get.

So here are a few more of the vacation photos. These are from the first day of hiking, we hit the Falls I Can't Remember The Name Of, Issaqueena Falls, and then did some mini-golfing. Enjoy!

This is the Stumphouse Tunnel, an attempted rail tunnel that was started just before the Civil War. The mountain this tunnel is going through is solid granite. The company eventually ran out of money, then war broke out. The tunnel was never finished and ends in a blank wall. I actually thought this was one of the more fascinating things we saw all trip. We saw lots that was historical, but this had a weird sense of immediacy. I can't explain it, but being inside was really, really neat.


Inside it was wet and very dark. No grues, though. (Another obscure reference - HA!)


Liam got excioted when he sank a putt.

It's a bit of camera trickery, but this ball is actually moving at about 85 mph.

Procrastinators 'R' Us

Yeah, it turns out I'm not so timely with the introduction of new photos, even when I promise to be so. Better late than...well, you know.

These are all photos from the hiking we did at Oconee State Park in far western South Carolina. We're in the foothills of the Great Smoky mountains, part of the Appalaichan range. We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife, but we did make it to some great waterfalls and had fun giving the boys some outdoor time.

Their motto was "speak LOUDLY and carry a big stick". Liam sang "Livin' On A Prayer" and "Say It Ain't So" over, and over, and over, and over...

After awhile Logan like to get way out ahead

Eatin' lunch at Station Cove Falls

The tree with the built-in bench

Liam got pretty good with the whole Smores thing. Not so good at the "eating neatly", though.

...And, We're Back!!!

Well, we made it back home.  After a THIRTEEN HOUR trip back from the SC mountains, no less.  Oy vey.  

The camping/hiking bit was great.  We spent two days in and around Oconee State Park, in extreme far western South Carolina.  Most of the time was spent hiking to waterfalls, mini-golfing, and chilling at the cabin.  We have a lot of pictures that we'll try to get posted in the near term, but here are a few highlights:

- First hike was a long one, about 30-40 minutes to a great, 75-foot waterfall coming down a granite face.  

- Second waterfall we never found, but we did drive the van off-road down a rough gravel path for about 10-12 miles into the South Carolina wilderness.  I don't recommend this.

- In our first game of mini-golf, Jill opened with two consecutive holes-in-one.  

- Still no hot boiled peanuts

- It's actually not easy to go through a dozen eggs in two days.

- The trip back today took thirteen hours because after about an hour of windy, twisty North Carolina roads, Liam threw up all over himself and the car seat.  Jill and I spent about a half hour cleaning it all up on the side of the road.  We drove about twenty minutes to the next town and stopped to wash our hands.  Within literally 60 seconds, I am not making this up, Logan threw up.  So we stopped AGAIN to clean up vomit.  No further episodes, but it threw the whole thing out of whack.

So anyway, I'm not going into a whole lot of detail cause it's late.  More to follow in the next couple of days.

Surf and ... More Surf

Once again, the desire to get up and hit Charleston was thwarted by the complete lack of any real need to do so. Vay-cay-shun.

Our only real item on the agenda today was the South Carolina Aquarium. We saved it for the one day when rain was a possibility, since it was the only real indoor item we had planned, pretty much all week. It’s not a huge place, but it turned out to be just the right size. We actually got the boys to just sit and watch stuff for awhile, which was great. Everyone had a fun time, after some initial apprehension. The aquarium is arranged to take you from the mountain streams “down” into the lower rivers and lakes and then to the ocean. The first room we walked into was set up like a mountain rain forest, and it was really misty and foggy. Liam freaked out, saying “I can’t do this! I can’t do this!” until we showed him it was just fog. He has a tendency of freaking out like that, and then when you explain it to him, he just utters a matter-of-fact “oh, yeah” and then he’s fine.

The aquarium has what they claim is the tallest (not sure if it’s the largest) seawater tank in North America, holding all manner of really big fish, including the sharks that the boys were so excited about. We also saw an enormous leatherback sea turtle, an enormous puffer fish, a couple of bright green moray eels, and Logan got really excited by a couple of menacing-looking barracudas in the tank.

Down on the lower level they have a touch tank where folks can get up close and personal with some aquatic life. The gentleman running the booth was really good with the animals and gave us some great information on the horseshoe crabs, snails, urchins, and hermit crabs you could touch and pick up. Logan and Liam got a big kick out of playing with the urchins.

After heading out from the aquarium we stopped at Ben & Jerry’s for lunch (say it with me – “va-ca-tion”), which was perfect timing as the weather chose that moment to start dumping rain. Did you know that Ben & Jerry has a yellow cake batter flavor, with real chocolate frosting swirl? My guess is that you either find that completely revolting or heavenly delicious. As it turns out, it was the latter.

After lunch we decided we needed to take the boys back to the beach, so this time we decided to try Sullivan’s Beach on the east side of the bay. It’s a nicer beach, but more isolated. We practically had the place to ourselves. There was an enormous tidal pool from the low tide, and the boys had a blast running around in the 6 inches or so of water. The tide started coming in as the afternoon went on though, so it rapidly started filling up. They had a great time though.

After the beach we cleaned up and hit the town for dinner at the Mellow Mushroom, a local pizza joint. GREAT pizza, just what we needed to round out the day. They make a great flatbread there with grapes, rosemary, honey, salt, cheese – sounds weird, but it’s fantastic.

So tomorrow we’re heading west to Oconee State Park for a couple of days in the great outdoors before heading home. We’ll almost certainly be without internet, so this’ll be the last post until we get back home. Imagine us taking some short hikes to waterfalls, playing some board games, and enjoying the obligatory hot dogs and smores over an open fire.

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Up-to-date vacation note – here are the boys’ favorite parts of vacation so far:

Logan – “playing with toys in the van”
Liam – “riding the elevator”

So apparently we could have taken them on vacation to the mall.