Willow River State Park {Water Falls}

Yesterday I met with my photography group at Willow River State Park in Wisconsin. The meet up was focused on shooting waterfalls.  The forecast was actually calling for rain, but we lucked out and remained dry. AND as far as I know, no one fell in :-)

We started with a little discussion about shooting waterfalls and our leader (Don) talked about the history of the park. We then went over to the damn to get a little bit of practice before hiking out to the falls.

And of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some photos of benches, I'm just so drawn to them
:-P  heehee




After some time at the damn area, we hopped in our cars and drove a little ways to the entrance of the falls trail. We had to hike a ways down to get to the waterfalls. Going down was a breeze, coming back up - well that's another story.  They were beautiful! I don't really have much narrating to do for the pictures so I'll just let them speak for themselves.












Another girl and myself climbed a TON of stairs, to check out the over look spot. Nothing too spectacular, but it gave us a nice birds eye view of everything.




One thing I love about these Meet Ups is that I am surrounded by people doing what I love. Kyle would have loved to have gone, but I know after about 10 or 15 minutes he would have been bored out of his mind. Only photographers can spend 2-3 hours in the same location and not get bored, LOL.




After the trip down from the overview spot, my legs were shaking. I am SOOO out of shape. I got a few more pictures and then we headed BACK up toward the parking lot. I love being able to get an afternoon of photographing in AND get a work out :-)




Happy Spring!

Monday Walk

Wow I am a little behind on updating my blog. I guess I've just been busy lately. Doing what, I'm not really sure. Last weekend we went to an 'office' party and now I am finally watching the episodes! We are starting from the beginning and so far are mid-second-season. It's hilarious!!

So Monday I took Harpo on a little stroll. I probably should have went for a run, but I didn't. I wanted to get some pictures for my 365 364 project so the walk won.

There were a lot of planes out and I got a LOT of pictures of them. Too bad they all look the same and instead of boring you with a ton, I'll just show you this one.


We walked over to this little park a few blocks from us, called Bronx Park. All the neighborhoods in our area have little 'neighborhood names' ours is Bronx Neighborhood. Funny how we saw this shoe hanging in the tree in the park.


We (as in Harpo and I) also saw a bald eagle! It was flying pretty far from us, so I didn't really get a close up, sorry for the blur.


On our way back home I got a few more pictures, this little windmill gave this yard a little 'country' feel.


And then we made a complete circle.


Happy Spring!

Week 31

#211: photo session: I had a family photo session this day. This family was so cute to photograph!

#212: burritos: Monday night dinner is pretty boring around my house lately, I haven't picked up sushi in a while and cooking for one isn't all that easy. I made left over burritos this night.

#213: netflix: Gotta love Netflix!!!  Although this DVD has a story with it... we have had the movie 'Inglorious Bastards' in our netflix queue for quite sometime, way before it was even available on DVD. Well it's been at the top of our queue for months (since it came out) with the side note of 'very long wait' beside it. Week after week, we wouldn't get Inglorious Bastards, but the number 2 DVD in our queue would get mailed to us instead. My co-worker, Jolene, had Inglorious Bastards on the top of her queue and the side note said 'available now' I jokingly said "if you get that before we do, you've gotta let us borrow it, we've been waiting FOREVER!" well I was only joking, hoping that eventually we'd get it off our own queue... I showed up at work Monday with this movie sitting on my desk, she was such a sweet heart. So we watched it Tuesday night and got it back in the mail for her. It is officially OUT of our queue now!

#214: harpo's shadow: It was such a beautiful day to take Harpo for a walk. It's nice to see the sun again and our shadows :-)

#215: sprouting bulbs: My bulbs are popping up much earlier than last year!!!  I just hope the bunnies and squirrels don't eat them before I get to enjoy their pretty blooms.

#216: new washer: The state of Minnesota recently had an appliance rebate program, so we participated and got a new WASHER!! WOO HOO!  It is so much fun doing laundry in this, and I can even watch it go round and round.

#217: new plant: We picked up a new plant while out grocery shopping. This plant is in Kyle's study corner, adding a little green.


Happy Spring!

Sunday Walk to the Park

Yesterday we took Harpo for a walk to the dog park!


He was SOOO excited to be outside, he just kept running and running.




You can see him in this next one, he's at the back of the line:


And making new friends.


He is so funny when he's excited. He kept doing his 'stance' I dunno if he was showing off or just posing, but it was too cute!


On the way home we got to enjoy the trees budding and I even caught sight of my bulbs popping up in my front flower bed!




Happy Spring!

Child Life Month

March is Child Life month, and well I am a Child Life Specialist by day. This week I have been 'celebrating' child life month by posting blogs on our work network system (iconnect) to educate staff. I do this every year, well that past two years. Last year it was an education email each week of the month covering a different topic each week. This is a great time to education staff, especially since the clinic I work in - child life is pretty much new to EVERYONE here. Last year I covered:

-Overview of Child Life
-Distraction & Pain Management
-Play
-Preparation

Each of those things are important in the child life field. This year, I just did one post each day of the week and covered:

-Comfort Positioning
-History of Child Life
-Basic Child Development
-What about Siblings?
-"What is Child Life?" Poem and the process to become a CCLS

I wanted to share the poem I posted today with YOU all! Because well it is what I do, and even though my job is on a smaller scale since I am at a small clinic. This poem ignited my passion that I remembered throughout my internship, oh how I miss the hospital setting.

Without further a-do:

What is Child Life?
A poem by Steve Slowinski, former Child Life Intern at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center

What I’m not:
A nurse.
A doctor.
A social worker.

A “Keeper of the Toys.”
A magical “make-this-kid-not-cry” person.
Only someone to play with the kids.

I’m not superfluous.

What I am:
I am a teacher,
A helping hand,
A support,
An advocate,
An active listener,
A therapeutic touch,
And a child development specialist
   Every.
   Single.
   Day.

I am an OR prep-er,
An IV teacher,
A de-coder of PICC, VCUG, MRI and NG,
A distraction provider,
An inpatient support,
And a guide and voice for siblings
All in the same day.

I am calm despite cancer, CAT scans, and catheters.
I am strong in the face of syncope, sickle cell, and surgery.
Kids can’t always do these things for themselves.
That’s why I’m here.

I am deliberate in all of my actions and words
Because I use the language of children
And it has power.
I am flexible and go where I’m needed
Because children can’t always be flexible
About when they’re going to freak.

I am not here to merely play with children,
give them toys, and distract them
With “SpongeBob”.

I’m a Child Life Specialist.
When kids say they can’t, I tell them they can.

Warmth from the sun

One of the reasons I love living in Minneapolis is because spring is much more appreciated here than any other place I've lived in. It was 48° today and it felt WONDERFUL!


This time of year as soon as it gets above freezing it feels like we live on a tropical island. Okay maybe not a beach island, but it feels pretty damn good compared to single digit numbers :-)

I've been processing this past weekends photo session every free minute I get, but I managed to pull myself away today long enough to take Harpo on a short, much deserved walk. He loved being outside!


And of course peeing on everything we walked by. I guess it's that the land has thawed and now everything has smell again, this was VERY exciting for Harpo!

It was so beautiful today, I hope it stays that way for a while!!

It's not everyday you see your shadow in Minnesota!


Happy Spring!

Week 30 minus 1

Well, I hang my head in shame as I present this week... with a missing hole. As I mentioned in a post before, I did, in fact, MISS a day!!! I was so disappointed, I made it this long capturing a picture EVERYDAY and not cheating. So here is week 30:


#204: Harpo Haircut: Harpo just got a hair cut, he was long over due for one. he is always the cutest right after a hair cut!

#205: Phone: We FINALLY got a house phone and we can finally say we have a local number. People are always asking "where is that from" after hearing our cell phone numbers. It had been so long since we've had a land line that we had to get new phones because my old cordless wouldn't even work. On a side note I am REALLY tired of all the service calls... really that's all we've gotten besides a few business calls for photography. I did put our number on the DO NOT CALL LIST but that might take a bit to cycle through.

#206:

#207: Contact: This morning I woke up with a startle when I realized I had FORGOTTEN to take a picture the day before. The first day I have missed this whole project :-( So I made sure and got a picture, first thing that morning... which was of me putting in my contact. Very tricky to do when the finger you see here is the finger I usually use to press the shutter button!

#208: Newborn Session: I had another newborn session this morning. Babies are so precious, I'm really starting to enjoy newborn photography!

#209: March House: This is our yard, mid-March. It's slowly melting away. It probably would have melted faster if the sun would have been up in the past week.

#210: Bubble: I opened up my new bubble gun I bought for child photography sessions. Some friends came over for brunch and I pulled it out for their 2 year old daughter to play with. Bubbles are so magical.


Happy Spring!

Spring Time!! [updated]

We hit the 60's today!!! I saw the sun for the first time in a week AND so much of the snow melted today!!!
What a wonderful day.

I took this picture this past week (on Friday) to show how much snow we have left mid-March.


Today I can say all of that is gone! There is still some snow in shady spots and of course the big piles are still left, but we are seeing grass again and I felt like a snake baking on a rock today while I was walking to our garage. I had to just stop and close my eyes and let the sun warm my skin. AHHH I love spring! I can't wait for my plants to start growing again :-)

[updated below after watching the 10 o'clock news]

Today was a RECORD high of 64°!
The warmest day before today was 47°
The last time it was 64° was November 8th.


Happy Spring!

Oh NO!!

I woke up this morning with a strike of panic as I realized I had FORGOTTEN to take a picture yesterday :-( Yesterday was the FIRST day I missed in my project 365 - now 364. I was doing so good too. So now I have set a new goal: to not miss any other days :-)

On another oh no note:

Rest In Peace Corey Haim

He was my childhood heart throb. So sad that drugs have ruined another precious life.
My two favorites:

   

I just realized...

that I've had a thing for benches lately. Hmm that's interesting....
















Happy Spring!

Week 29 of 52

I hit photo 200 this week!!!!

#197: Grocery shopping day: I love when we have a full refrigerator!

#198: Thin Mints: These didn't last long. I forgot how fast one box of girl scout cookies can disappear.

#199: Pot Roast: I made PW's Pot Roast in my new dutch oven. It was so scrumdiddlyumptious!!! Again this item was one I searched all over for. I was wanting it in blue, but didn't want to have to order online and pay shipping... so I settled for a red cast iron dutch oven.

#200: Flowers: Getting rejected from grad school isn't always the BEST feeling in the world... but my wonderful husband made my day so much better when he brought home these flowers for me.

#201: Green Grass: The grass is starting to show, this HAS to be a sign of spring... right? Harpo and I went for a walk and I actually shot this from the hip and it ended up being my favorite shot from the walk.

#202: Icicle Drop: March is the month of the MELTDOWN, it's like someone left the freezer door open and everything is slowly melting away.

#203: Harriet Sunrise: I got up early to catch the sunrise, hoping to see some clouds in the sky. No luck with the clouds, but I did get to practice using a small aperture to get the sun beams to stand out!

Sunrise Photo Walk

As you know my husband is in grad school, which means long weekends of studying for him... and me trying to find things to do to keep me busy. I knew if I went out on a photo walk this morning I'd have a blog to post today, thus biding a little time that I won't be pestering my husband :-P

I got out of bed this morning!!!! Well that's not a surprise I was going to eventually. But I got out of bed in time to watch the sunrise. It's amazing how photography can get me out of bed like ::that:: where as during the week I do good to get out of bed before 7:25. As I stumbled down the stairs to let Harpo out at 6:10am I noticed out the window that the sun was already making it's appearance. So it was a mad dash out the door to drive down the road a few miles to my infamous lakes (I gotta scout out some other sunrise locations. You all are going to get so bored of these soon, hee hee) to catch the amazing colors before they vanished. My goal was to get there 30 minute before the 'official' sunrise time. I think next time I need to make it an hour. Problem is as summer approaches that time gets earlier and earlier.

Beside the fact that I was really hoping for some clouds, it was otherwise a beautiful morning.

The fun thing about Minnesota this time of year is everywhere you walk is a land mine. You never know when you're going to sink through. It's so fun to watch Harpo, poor guy, cuz when he falls through the snow is up to his neck. You can see here I was being very careful not to fall through :-)

After a few minutes at Lake Calhoun, I headed on over to Lake Harriet which has a better angle to the sun. I had fun playing with my aperture setting to get the sun beam effect!

The lake was so pretty glistening in the sun.

Then my butt was frozen from sitting on the frosty bench :-P

Warm Wishes!