Roll Out the Red Carpet...

The wait for High School Musical 2 finally ended last Friday night, when it premiered on Disney Channel. We went all out with a red carpet premier party. Megan had her friends dress in the red carpet fashions and Tristin put on his suit and tie.

(Megan and Tristin together) (Snack Bar ready for guests!)

Guests arrived to a red carpet leading to the house and a personal escort, Tristin.

We set up a snack bar in the kitchen, where the guests could turn in tickets for

candy, soda, popcorn and hotdogs.

We also had a cake and several drawings for prizes.

The 1st and 2nd place Winners for best dressed

Tristin worked hard to keep all these girls happy and fed!

Spoiled Rotten...

Our middle doggie, Whisper, is spoiled rotten! She thinks she is "THE" princess of the house and my Mom thinks we should rename her! LOL

I caught her lounging on the swing with my parents and daughter...again...acting like the princess she is! She sits on her butt, just like people do and put her legs out in front of her body!

More wedding layouts...

Here are three more layouts for my cousins wedding album. They are cutting the cake.

They are all done digitally on Adobe Photoshop.

Click on them to see them larger...

Valley Fair...

A favorite summertime tradition for us is Valley Fair.

Yummy Food, Fast Rides and Lots of Fun!

All the things we look forward to each visit.

Dippin' Dots are the kids favorite treat!

Tristin is finally getting big enough to go on the "Big" rollercoasters,

but he still enjoys the "Small" ones too!

Meg wondering what she is doing on Steel Venom...YUP! It's REALLY FAST!

Reflections of the rollercoaster tracks in the water and the sunsetting on the rides.

Life in Motion...

Camera Details....

Here is my baby!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX15

My husband bought this for me a couple years ago for Christmas. Our other camera had fallen off the counter and hadn't been the same since. I think the final straw was when my daughters birthday pictures hadn't turned out because we were using a disposable camera. I was devistated!

I have pretty much taught myself the settings and I know there is still lots to know. I play around with the settings depending on what I am shooting.

The lightning pictures I had the dial set to manual and I was leaving the shutter open for 8 seconds and had the apeture setting on 8.0. I put it on the manual focus, but on this camera if you press it all the way down it first auto focuses to get the closests sharp focus. Then I would leave it for a few shots and repeat this again so it would refocus automatically.

It has been a great camera for me and I have completely switched to digital now, since I know I can rely on this camera to take great pictures!

Stormy Sunset...

Another night of storms, left us with some amazing sunset clouds...


The back edge of the storm as the sun sets.

Huge Lightning Storm...

We had an amazing storm come over tonight...

I had a chance to play around my my settings on my camera. I think the outcome was nothing less than spectacular! I can not believe I got these photos! The sky was like a strob light and many photos turned out completely white from the flashes lighting up the entire sky. One strike hit so close all the power went out. There was a hush that made my skin crawl.

Game Fair Fun...

We headed out to the Game Fair in Ramsey, MN
with our 11 month old black lab, Maddie. It was
really hot out there, 94 degrees, but we found a great way to
keep Maddie cool...and me too!

Maddie fetched a dummie out in the lake several times. She did great, since she had never done that before and has not been to training classes yet even! She was better behaved than many of the older dogs there!

She also went off the dock after a dummie, and seemed to love that as well! We hosed her off, but that didn't keep her clean since she just wanted to roll in the dirt or go lay down in the lake!

I ended up with a shower too, after Maddie shook off right next to me. We all had a great time!

The kids got to practice their shooting skills too!

A Beginning...

I just started my cousins wedding album. I decided to go digital and then add some embellishments once they are printed out. Here is the first page....

What do you think?

Fresh....YUMMMMY....

Our finds at the Farmers Market

were so yummy and refreshing!

Sweet Corn
Spinach
Tomato
Red Potatos
Clemintines
Carrots
Watermelon

and....Glads!

Beach Bound...

We visited a new "manmade beach" this week.

The weather was HOT HOT HOT! and we were looking for relief!

The kids played in the sand, digging a huge hole and filling it with water.


Me...I sat under the big umbrella keeping cool!

National Night Out...

Here in Brooklyn Park, MN, National Night Out is a big deal! We are ranked #10 in our population group and Minnesota is tied with Texas for 1st place for overall states.

We went to the main celebration this year and enjoyed free cotton candy, ice cream cones, popcorn, sodas, petting zoo, pony rides and a penny carnival. Plus, we got to visit with fire fighters and police and tour through their trucks.

They the whole area was lite up with fire truck lights and sirens and fireworks began. It was great fun!

Spin Art

Celebrating National Night Out!

Us with Spud (Brooklyn Park Tatter Days Mascot)

Shocked...

As many... I am shocked at the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Especially since this is a bridge I travel frequently.

It is always somewhere else in the world, not in your own home town that this happens.

As soon as I heard, I ran a list of people I know that may be in that area for some reason or another. For me, it was a lucky day, but for so many others, today is a terrible personal tragedy. I can only offer my prayers for the families of the missing and dead and send thanks to God for the ones who survived this unbelieveable accident. (photo by unknown, posted on WCCO.com)

Please send prayers to Minnesota...there are lots of people that need them!