Esther Judd Photography

Vacation in Italy - Part I

2011-08-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Rome

I have so many photos from our trip that instead of them taking up all the space in this blog I decided to show the book I created in Blurb. I hope this works. The description of the time spent in Rome follows below.

Italy 2011 by Esther Judd | Make Your Own Book

We went to Italy for two weeks at the end of August and beginning of September. I had a conference in Florence I had to go to. I'm part of the organizing committee for next year's conference which will be held in Portland. We decided to add on a vacation with Geoff and the kids and met my parents there. They only had a two hour flight from the Netherlands. Our flight over was mostly uneventful. They never told us we needed a paper ticket for Thomas so that was a bit of extra work. And we had to pay extra to get bulkhead seating so we could get a bassinet for him to sleep in, only to find out on board that the bassinet did not fit and wouldn't stay up. So I held him the whole time. Luckily he did sleep for several hours so it wasn't too difficult. Katie had a great time sitting next to Geoff. She didn't sleep much but wasn't bored either. We arrived in Rome on time and our taxi driver was already waiting for us. We booked ahead with Romecabs so we could have a minivan with two car seats. The driver called the apartment owner for us to let her know we were coming. I texted my mom when we were on our way. They were already waiting at the square for us. The owner of the restaurant next to the apartment was very nice and kept their suitcases there and tried to help them find the place but they never found it until we got there. Of course, I alone had the phone number of the contact person, so they didn't know where to go. I had just told them to meet us there at 5:30pm.

The apartment was on the top floor of a 5-story building with no elevator. It was right on the Campo de' Fiori, the flower market. During the day it is filled with stalls where they sell produce and wine and such and at night there are people hanging out and street artists. The apartment was very spacious though it only had two bedrooms. There was A/C though it was pretty noisy. But that helped drown out the street noise. The living room had a nice sitting area and a dining area. Our bedroom had a low ceiling on one side and no curtain in front of the window. But it had a crib. There was A/C but it was really loud. It kept the room cool though and drowned out the street noise.

After getting settled in, we went out to explore and find a place to eat. We headed to Piazza Navona, a big square known for it's beautiful fountains and its numerous street artists. Katie had a blast seeing the living statues and loved the guy that made giant bubbles. She was chasing the bubbles all over. We ended up at a restaurant in a little side street just off the square. By the time we sat down we were so hungry, we didn't really care where we sat. Our waiter was very uninterested in us. When he poured water in our glasses he spilled plenty on the table, the bread was practically flung onto the table and when it was time to order he was nowhere to be found. The food was pretty good though.

The next day we walked to the Roman Forum. It was about a 20-minute walk. On the way over, we saw these monks. My dad captured a wonderful picture as they all walked in a line. The Roman Forum is a part of old Rome where Julius Caesar and his contemporaries hung out. Caesar was actually killed there on the steps of the senate building, stabbed by a mob of people including his own son Brutus. It was really hot so we found some solace in the indoor gallery with old statues from that era. After wandering around for a while we walked out the other side which is near the entrance to the Coliseum. We then walked back towards our hotel and found a restaurant just off the main street for lunch. That afternoon the kids took an afternoon nap and we basically hid from the heat of the day. That night we had dinner at the restaurant next to our apartment. It was really tasty.

The third day we visited the Colosseum. Because we had bought a Roma Pass the day before we were able to skip the long lines and go in directly. That alone was worth it to us. I loved walking around and soaking up the history. It was really neat to see and imagine what it must have looked like thousands of years ago with the gladiators and the wild animals and such.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Pantheon. This has to be one of my favorite spots in Rome. It was originally a pagan temple. It is featured in one of my favorite books of all time, The Discovery of Heaven, by Harry Mulisch, a Dutch author. I love the oculus that is open to the sky and lets the sun in. It's such an awe inspiring building.

After the kid's afternoon nap we embarked on another long walkabout ;). We stopped at the Trevi Fountain which was awesome and from there hit up the Spanish Steps which I thought were disappointing.

The next day we went to the Vatican. Given that we had two small kids with us we decided to skip the Vatican museum and just see St. Peter's cathedral. There was a wait but it wasn't too bad. The worst part was the hot sun but we survived. There were quite a few people that got turned back for wearing tank tops or short skirts or shorts. The dress code is pretty well known so I was surprised that people would not dress more appropriately. We didn't have any problems. I was able to feed Thomas in the restroom before going in. Geoff carried Thomas in the Baby Bjorn and he did great. Katie behaved pretty good as well.

In the late afternoon we walked around the Trastevere neighborhood. I wish we had discovered that area sooner because it was so nice and laid-back, you'd almost forget you were in a big bustling city. If we ever go to Rome again, I'll make sure to plan lots of dinners in this neighborhood.

Then it was time to leave, so we took the bus to the train station and got tickets to the train to Florence. The machines didn't accept any of our credit cards, so we had to wait in line for a person and that took almost an hour. Luckily we had plenty of time and were able to get seats on a train not too late in the afternoon. The train went straight from Rome to Florence without any stops.

Thomas at 3 months

2011-08-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

Thomas is changing every day. And I notice that I don't take nearly as many pictures of him as I did of Katie. Life just kind of gets in the way. There's work and then at home two kids to take care of. But I try to take some shots at least once a month. He's three months old now and when you prop him up on the couch he can kind of sit up.

Katie is a very proud big sister. Now that she's three, she's getting really tall and skinny. She loves to take care of her little brother.

Thomas at two months

2011-07-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

Only a few more weeks and then I'm back at work. This summer has flown by. I enjoy watching this little boy grow so much. He's definitely getting enough to eat. His chunky thighs attest to it ;). He's getting more head control by the day, and I love it when he gives me a big smile and coos at me. He loves smiling to his daddy and his big sister too and that makes me smile again. And he can look very serious. He's quite a mellow little man. I haven't been as good at taking lots of pictures as I was with Katie when she was little but I try to take photos every now and then.

Here is Thomas' serious look:

I thought I could use this one for his passport but I needed a white background and there were no shadows allowed on the background, so we ended up just going to Costco where Geoff held him up in front of the white background.

He's starting to get fascinated by things that move and make music.

He's starting to get more head control. And below this photo is one of Katie in a similar position when she was just 10 weeks old. Besides the better photo skills and camera that I have now, you can see the resemblance. But Thomas is definitely a boy and has slightly different features. I think he looks a little bit more like his daddy.

Fourth of July camping trip

2011-07-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

This Fourth of July weekend we went camping with our good friends Tonya and Corey and their two kids. We went to Beverly Beach on the Oregon Coast. This camp site is so popular that I booked the sites back in October when reservations first opened. It is a nice wooded camp site with a path underneath the highway to the beach and it's close to Newport. We really lucked out with the weather. It was sunny and around 70 degrees, which is not very common for the Oregon coast. There was quite a bit of wind on the beach but the camp site was nice and secluded.

Tonya made several meals ahead of time, which made everything so easy. The girls really had fun. Katie and her best friend Lilly spent their time playing in the sand, flying a kite, or sitting in their camp chairs by the fire, or better yet, by the tree so they could watch it grow I guess ;).

Thomas slept most of the time. One night he even slept all through the night. He must have really loved the fresh air. We had such a fun time!

At the beach

At the camp site

At the Oregon coast aquarium

Thomas at six weeks

2011-06-28T13:11:00.001-07:00

Time just goes by so fast. I can't believe that Thomas is already six weeks old and I'm halfway through my maternity leave. We've been keeping busy though. First, when he was born, Geoff's mom was here for two weeks to take care of me and Thomas. Then we had a week to ourselves and then my parents came to visit for three weeks. During their stay they also spent several days traveling down to the California redwoods.

Katie turned three years old already. We gave her a wagon so we could pull her when we go on walks in the zoo or the park. Geoff took her for a test drive on her birthday.

Thomas is growing bigger every day.

He even smiles now.

My parents even got a family picture of us.

Some more photos of Thomas at two weeks

2011-06-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

Here is another photo I took the same day of Thomas lying on the brown blanket.

And here are a few of him lying on a different IKEA blanket. I took these a few days later. I decided to try to put him on his tummy. Luckily he didn't wake up. Thomas is wearing one of his adorable gDiapers. For some reason, some of these photos look a little pink.

Thomas at two weeks

2011-05-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

Thomas is already two weeks old today. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. He already looks so different from when he was first born. He is doing great, he's such a wonderful eater and sleeper.

I tried to do newborn photos today. I have a great respect for professional photographers who do newborn shoots. It's very challenging! I wish I had an extra pair of hands to help me. And of course Thomas didn't stay asleep for very long so I only got a few usable photos. But I'll keep trying over the next few days to get some more. In the meantime, here is the highlight of today. The brown blanket is from IKEA.

Baby Thomas is here

2011-05-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Baby Thomas decided to make his arrival on Monday May 16 2011. He was a week early. Things went incredibly fast. I called Geoff at work at 2pm to tell him to come home and take me to the hospital. We got to the hospital at 2:30. Thomas was born just before 6 pm. He is doing really well, and Katie is slowly getting used to having a little brother. She is a very typical toddler, one moment she is super proud of him and wants to talk to him and caress his hair and the next she wants to defy mommy and daddy and be as difficult as she can be.

This is Thomas! Per comparison, here is a picture of Katie from when she was born. They look so much alike:

Katie came to the hospital with her grandma who was looking after her while we were in the hospital:

And here am I, exhausted but so happy, with our latest addition to the family.

Maternity photos

2011-05-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

Christina Gilchrist came over to our house to take some pictures of me in my highly pregnant state. I've met Christina several times over the past few years. Last time I saw her was at the Flash Bus workshop and she offered to come to our house to take these maternity pictures. I never had them taken with Katie but figured it would be nice to have some pictures of me this time. I am 35 weeks pregnant here, so 5 more weeks to go.

Besides the pictures of us, you can also see our bamboo floors as the backdrop and the new carpet we just got on our stairs. I think she did a great job. I especially like the one of me and Katie hugging, even though you can't really tell I'm pregnant there.

Oregon Coast Spring 2011

2011-04-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend it was 8 years ago that Geoff and I met at the McMenamins Market pub in downtown Portland. It was a blind date through Yahoo Personals. Who would have known that we hit it off so well that we have now been married for almost 5 years, have a beautiful almost-three year old daughter and have a son on the way who will be here in about six weeks. I feel so blessed. We decided to get away for the weekend as it was one of the few weekends this month that Geoff didn't have to work on Sunday mornings. We booked a hotel in Seaside. It was a very fancy hotel room with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a nice seating area and kitchen. It was ideal as Katie had her own room with a queen bed and we had a room with a king. The only drawback was that we could hear people in the hall and above us quite well. But it included breakfast which was really nice, with bagels, waffles, and fresh fruit.

We arrived Friday night and had dinner at our favorite restaurant in Seaside called Li'l Bayou. The next day started out kind of cloudy but as we got to the beach in Cannon Beach the clouds cleared off and it started to warm up. Katie had fun just sitting in the sand and digging with her shovel.

After a while we tried to walk towards Haystack Rock but Katie ran out of steam. She said she had to go to the potty so we went back and she went and washed her hands as they were very sandy. But then she wanted to go back on the beach and we didn't want to repeat the whole process so we got in the car and drove down to Tillamook where we stopped at the Blue Heron wine and cheese tasting room.

Katie had fun seeing the animals. They had chickens and goats, sheep, an emu, and a llama and also some donkeys.

They also had some cool old trucks and buses that made for some wonderful photos.

Four hours of snow...

2011-02-24T20:04:00.000-08:00

We were going to get this huge snow storm! It was going to be disastrous! The weather men were already trying to come up with a name, Snowpocalypse. It turned out they were wrong. We did get some snow but in the morning there was only a dusting of snow. It got a little bit heavier until mid-day but then it stopped snowing and the sun came out. And later that day it had all but melted away. But before it disappeared I was able to snap a few photos.

The daffodils were already almost blooming. I bet they didn't like the snow much.

Maui Part III

2011-02-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

Katie had fun playing in the sand at the beach.

On Thursday we drove up to Kapalua to find the Dragon's teeth. We had to walk across the Kapalua Golf Club where they just had a large televised tournament a few days prior.

The hole is across the water ;).

After stopping there we drove further north and drove the northwest loop. It was even scarier than the road to Hana in some places. The road was very narrow with a lot of sections that only fit one vehicle. And due to the rain, some parts were pretty muddy and some places had fallen rocks in the road. Our first stop was at the Nakalele blow hole. It was a bit hard to get to esp. with my pregnant belly and with Katie, so we just watched it from the road and I took pictures with my telezoom lens.

On Friday we went to Iao State Valley Park. The Iao needle was impressive and pretty but I had expected there to be more and longer walking trails. Still it was nice to walk around and see the views. There weren't as many mosquitoes as I was afraid there would be.

After that stop we drove towards Kula and stopped at the Surfing Goad dairy farm. We already heard from them when we stopped at the Flatbread pizza company a few days ago and had their delicious goat cheese on our pizza. They offered 20-minute tours but charged quite a bit for it so we didn't take the tour. We just saw the goats that were out and bought some goat cheese.

On Saturday we went to Lahaina to see the banyan trees and check out the shops. Apparently they have a Saturday market there as there were a lot of artists out trying to sell their paintings, photos, jewelry and such.

We had lunch at the Aloha Mixed plate.

The next day we drove to the Kihei / Wailea area to find a nice beach with no waves to swim. That didn't quite turn out the way we wanted. Each beach had more waves than normal and as such there wasn't really any suitable place to go swimming with Katie. Eventually we went back to the west side of the island and stopped in Kapalua and swam a little bit there. But although it was supposed to be a quiet bay with hardly any waves, it was still pretty wavy. I blame it on the stormy weather we had.

And then it was time to go home. The staff at the Ka'anapali Beach hotel sang us goodbye and gave us each a lei.

Valentine's day

2011-02-14T20:11:00.000-08:00

I decided to make some quick photo cards for Katie to give to her friends at daycare. I wanted to get a nice balloon but at Fred Meyer they were $10 a piece. Luckily, the Dollar Tree had ones for guess what, a dollar! We also bought some candy to give out. Valentine's day is definitely a bigger deal here than in the Netherlands.

I put Katie in a chair by the window in the family room. The red wall was a nice backdrop for the occasion. Katie even cooperated and gave me a smile!

Reception photos for Cody and Arceli

2011-02-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

My daycare provider Debbie asked me to take some pictures at the wedding reception of her son Cody and his wife Arceli. It was an informal party at the club house of an apartment complex. For me it was a challenge to figure out the lighting. The place had vaulted ceilings with spot lights. I brought my 430 EX II flash and bought a Lumiquest Softbounce to make the light coming out of the flash spread out more and less harsh. I had read some tips about what settings to use to get the best results.

Most of the pictures I took were group shots of the bride and groom with family and friends. And I took a few close-ups of cupcakes made by Lisa from Oh my Ganache cupcakes in Sherwood.

And here are some of the portraits:

Maui Part II

2011-01-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

It was raining pretty bad on Wednesday morning. One of the hotel guests decided to use one of the swimming pool floats to float in a giant puddle on the hotel grounds. We decided to check out the Maui Ocean Center after breakfast. Because of the rain we were expecting a lot of people to go there so we decided to get there as early as we could and were there shortly after 9 am. We all bought ponchos since they were only $4 each and we figured they'd come in handy, though it turned out later that we had the worst of the rain behind us. Katie looked pretty funny though in her poncho, it was pretty long on her. Katie had a great time.

When we got outside at the Maui Ocean Center the rain was already almost gone. So after our visit we decided to drive north and stop for lunch at the Flatbread company in Pa'ia. This organic restaurant uses local ingredients. One of the pizzas we bought had goat cheese from the Surfing Goat farm. We saw the stone oven where they baked them, they were really good! Pai'a is supposed to be a very hippy town but we didn't really see anything that looked that hippy-esque. After lunch we drove on and started on the road to Hana. We knew we probably wouldn't make it all the way to the end but that was fine. We just wanted to drive around a bit and see some pretty sights.

The first stop was at Ho'okipa Beach. This is one of the most famous surf spots on the island. I didn't expect to see any though, as it was raining pretty hard and there was a fierce wind, so I figured it might be too dangerous. But there were several people there.

We then drove on and before long the windy road to Hana started for real. There were several sections with narrow bridges where only one car could pass at a time, so we had to look ahead to make sure no-one was coming. Katie fell asleep despite the fact that the road was so windy and we had to go left and right and back and forth. We stopped at a spot I had found in the Maui Revealed book where I could see the Lower Puohokamoa Falls. I had to get out of the car and onto a muddy path. It was a bit slippery so I didn't go too far, but I still was able to get a pretty good view.

Here is a good view of the Black Sand beach and the windy road.

And this is a good view of the shoreline on the road to Hana. We drove to about the 17 mile mark and then we turned around and drove back the same way we came. When we got back to Ho'okipa Beach the sun was shining there and we stopped for a bit to see the surfers again.

Maui part I

2011-01-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

We were on vacation in Maui from January 10 through January 17. Going through security at the airport in Portland was a breeze. There are two sides at which you can go through and we were directed to the empty side, there was hardly anyone there. There was no full body scan machine and we didn't get patted down. We just had a lot of stuff to get through the machines. My backpack with laptop, camera, lenses, Katie's diaper bag with toys and snacks, the car seat which was going in her chair on the plane, and her backpack carrier which we gate-checked. But we made it through. The flight left about 45 minutes late. Katie fell asleep only about an hour before we landed but other than that she did great. We took a shuttle bus to the car rental place and upgraded our car to an SUV and then drove to Ka'anapali to our hotel. Google maps was our friend. It rained pretty bad and as a result the traffic on the SW side of the island was really slow.

Our room at the Ka'anapali Beach hotel was nice and we had a beautiful view from the lanai (balcony) onto the grounds and the beach. We tried to walk to Whaler's village for dinner using the paved beach walk, but because of the rain the path was flooded so we turned around and got the car and drove there. We had dinner at Leilani's on the beach which was pretty nice. Our vacation started for real the next day.

We woke up to a nice sunny day so we decided to make the most of it and get the top item on our list out of the way before the rain would come back. We drove up to the volcano at Haleakala National Park. The drive was beautiful and the weather up top was great. A little cool but we took jackets.

On the way down we stopped at Grandma's organic coffee. Google maps had some trouble finding it, but after backtracking we did find it in Kula. Geoff had some iced coffee and Katie and I had juice. We each had a dessert which was amazingly good. Katie kept asking for more "chocate". Then we went back to the hotel and Katie slept some in the car. It was still dry so we went to the beach and let Katie play in the sand and then we saw the sunset ceremony at the Black Rock. Each night around sunset a man runs up the rocks with a torch and lights torches along the way, then drops the torch in the water, followed by a flower lei, and then he jumps in after it. It was kind of cool to see.

Family photo session with Rebecca Rodriguez

2010-12-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we had a family photo session scheduled with Rebecca Rodriguez. We decided to hire a professional to take our pictures. Even though I'm starting to be a pretty good photographer, I'm never in the picture myself. Plus, this way we'd have cool photos for Christmas cards this year. When we met her in downtown Sherwood, it was dry and overcast but very cold and breezy. Luckily we had warm coats we could put on between takes and I had brought an extra fleece sweater for Katie. The poor thing got really cold quickly and didn't want to have her picture taken anymore, but she did really well!

All in all we got some great shots and we had a great time meeting with Rebecca. I'm hoping I can meet up with her soon to help improve my own photography skills some more.

My favorite family shot. We found this cool shed that had a turquoise color combined with rust. I thought it was really neat!

A cute picture of Katie before she put on the fleece over her purple shirt.

Katie looks so cold in this picture, but it is cute nonetheless.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

It was time for Halloween at daycare again. We found Katie a costume at Old Navy. The nice thing about the costume was that it consisted of a skirt, a set of wings and a witch's hat, so she could easily take them off after they had had their fun being all dressed up. We also didn't have the problem of her busting out of her costume like last year because she was too tall.

I offered to take pictures again. This was the first Halloween in the renovated daycare space. It is so big now. The white ceilings were great for bouncing the flash, so I think I got some great pictures. I took a group picture, which was a feat in itself. Try to get a whole group of toddlers to all look the same way at the same time. We didn't quite succeed, but it was a fun picture anyway.

Here's Katie in her purple witch with flying bat wings outfit.

The other kids had some pretty cute costumes too. Here's a sample:

And later on it was time for cupcakes:

Sun Gold Farm

2010-09-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

After we got back from our camping trip on the coast, we stopped in Forest Grove to go to Sun Gold Farm for their open farm day. We have been using this farm since mid-June for our CSA (community-supported agriculture). Basically Geoff picks up a bag of fresh fruit and vegetables every week that are grown by this farm. We've been so happy to use them. It has really helped us eat more fresh produce. Plus it's great to know that our produce is grown locally without pesticides. We don't get to pick which vegetables and fruits we get, so it's been quite an adventure figuring out what to cook every week. But it's been great. We also still have a lot of cabbage and zucchini that we froze for winter.

The open day at the farm was fun. There were not a lot of people and it was drizzling a little bit. But Katie enjoyed playing on the bales of hay, sitting on the tractor, and petting the donkey. We bought some peppers that they roasted on the spot. And we took a little hay ride into the field as Charlie, one of the farm owners, told us all about the produce they'd been growing for us all season.

Peppers roasting. We bought a bag full of them and used them for making chile rellenos. It was really good.

Camping at Cape Lookout

2010-09-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

It was the last weekend in September and we decided to get one more camping trip in before the weather got too bad. We went to the Cape Lookout Campground on the coast. It was gorgeous! The campground is right near the ocean with only a line of small dunes separating the tent from the beach. We arrived on Friday evening after having a mediocre dinner at Whiskey Creek BBQ & Grill. We set up our tent and got a camp fire started. Katie went to bed pretty easily.

But when we went to bed she woke up and we had to move her mattress to our side of the tent (we have a 2-room tent). Luckily she fell asleep again though she woke up again very early and ended up feeling sick and throwing up. Not a good way to start the day. It was still pretty early so we decided to get up and walk along the beach to see if that would make her feel any better. The views were breathtaking.

Then we went to breakfast. Unfortunately the place we went to in Oceanside was closed so we drove to Tillamook and had breakfast at some horrible pancake place. On the way over to Tillamook Katie threw up again so in Tillamook we bought her some motrin and then she ate a normal breakfast and was fine again. I think it was the BBQ food from the previous night that upset her stomach. After breakfast we went back to Oceanside to walk on the beach. It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny. We found a cool tunnel that took you from one beach to the next. The first beach was sandy and Katie had fun with her bucket and spade and the second was pebbly.

We also saw a hangglider over our heads. We went back to the campsite and made lunch. Hot dogs and chili, yummm! After lunch Katie took a little nap in the tent while we read books. When she woke up we went out to Cape Lookout State Park for a hike. By this time the weather had changed and it was very cloudy. Katie was pretty happy in the carrier on Geoff's back.

Caracal at the zoo

2010-09-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

This Sunday morning, Geoff had to work. It was kind of cool and foggy but Katie and I decided to go to the zoo anyway to walk around for a bit. We were pretty early and a lot of the animals were not out yet. We walked down to the new African savannah area. We were the only people there. The lions were out and Katie stood face-to-face with one, luckily separated by a thick glass wall ;). It was kind of cool to see. Across from the lions is a new exhibit with the caracal. The caracal is a big cat with pointy ears. So far we hadn't seen it yet so we were wondering if it was really there. The exhibit has a lot of tall grass and there is a ledge high up where she could be hiding. So we were super excited when we spotted it! And not only did we spot it, we saw her walking back and forth and even look directly at us through the window.

Huckleberry Hills 2010

2010-09-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Whenever we can we spend the Labor day weekend camping with our friends Tonya and Corey and Corey's family in what we call the Huckleberry Hills. It's a place in the WA hills north of Mt. St. Helens and as the name implies there are lots of huckleberries growing there. Huckleberries are kind of like blueberries only better ;). This was the first time we took our new tent out. We bought a 2-room tent so that there is enough room for a queen mattress for us and a toddler one for Katie. We also wanted to have a divider between us so that Katie wouldn't want to play with us in the middle of the night. That didn't turn out too well. The first night she woke up when we went to bed and would only go back to sleep after we dragged her mattress to our side of the tent. Poor kid was cold! We brought a sleeping bag but it wasn't really enough for the cold weather on the top of that hill. The next night we borrowed some extra blankets from Corey's mom to keep us warm.

We did pick some berries but due to the cold and some rain, we spent a lot of time around the fire. Katie loved to eat the berries right off the bush. I tried to make sure she wouldn't eat too many green ones ;).

We were very thankful for the RV that Corey and Tonya brought up. The girls (Katie and Lilly) were able to sit inside to eat their meals which Tonya and Corey were so kind to provide for us. Even though we brought a ton of food, none of it got used.

Oregon State Fair 2010

2010-08-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

We took Katie to the Oregon State Fair today and met up with Geoff's parents and sister there. Katie had such a great time at the petting zoo and the area where the farm animals are. She would have bought this miniature horse if she had had any money, lol. I love how she was crouching down to pet them, just like her daddy, even though these cute little horses where already at eye level.

We walked around and had funnel cake and checked out the photography competition. I always forget to enter ;). Maybe next year.

Beautiful flower

2010-08-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Last week we got a beautiful bouquet of flowers in our CSA share. It included one that looks like a small sunflower so I'll just call it that. I took it outside and took a few shots with my macro lens. This is my favorite. I think it is canvasworthy.

Sunset in the Cascade Range

2010-07-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

We were driving over the Santiam Pass in Oregon last week to go to DH's parents for the weekend. As the sun was setting I urged Geoff to stop so I could take a picture. When we finally found a good viewpoint it had set further than I had originally wanted but luckily the camera does pretty good at 1600ISO and I still ended up with a pretty cool shot.

This is Mt. Washington:

Vegetables in our garden

2010-07-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

This year we started a square foot garden in our yard. We designed a 4"x4" box and Geoff bought planks and put it together. Then we bought soil together with our daycare provider. It was a special mix for growing vegetables. We bought seeds and planted those in small peet pellets. But we left them in our bedroom too long with too little light so they never really took off. Plus the weather was so terrible this spring that we couldn't plant them outside because it just kept raining and raining. When my parents were here in June I finally decided to plant them but nothing really took off except the pole bean that we planted at the Easter event in St. Helens. So then I decided to go to the store with my parents and buy plants. We bought bell peppers, basil, a few tomato plants, broccoli and zucchini and squash.

Luckily the weather started to improve and they finally took off. It is now mid-July and there are finally vegetables starting to grow. It will probably be a few more weeks until anything is ripe. It is so fun to watch it grow. But in the meantime we're also getting lots of fresh vegetables from our CSA. I'm just glad we didn't plant any red leaf lettuce or cabbage because we're getting plenty of those every week.

Summer

2010-07-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

After a very rainy June we finally have warm and sunny weather (most of the time). Katie is now 25 months old and she is quite the character. She often does not want me to take her pictures. She is more interested in seeing her picture on the LCD screen of my camera but she doesn't realize that there is no picture if I haven't taken one of her yet ;). The other day her hair was particularly curly and it was nice out so before heading off to daycare in the morning I took her outside to take some shots. She actually smiled!

On my birthday our friend Tonya came with her daughter Lilly. Katie and Lilly had fun playing in our backyard and they were so cute together I decided to take their pictures. They actually let me! I took some of Lilly that are canvas-worthy. And Tonya let me take a picture of her too ;).

Katie's second birthday

2010-06-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Katie's second birthday on Sunday June 6, the day before her actual birthday. My parents were still here. Geoff's parents came up from Bend. And we had a bunch of friends over, a lot of them with little kids as well. Katie had such a blast! She got a nice tricycle from grandma and grandpa and a sand box from oma and opa. And a new baby doll and stroller, some books, wooden stacking blocks, and a Mr. potato head.

I am so proud of my little girl. It is unbelievable how much she has grown and how much she has changed in the last year, even the last few weeks. These pictures are not the greatest but they do capture the day.

Katie was almost happier with the horn than she was with the bike.

After eating cake and being high on sugar Katie took her new baby for a walk around the staircase. She kept running around and around yelling "Goooo", as she was followed by Lilly.

Memorial Day Weekend in Newport

2010-05-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

We rented a great vacation home in Newport, Oregon for Memorial Day weekend. We were only staying two nights (Friday and Saturday) but we should have stayed longer it was so nice. The house was a few blocks from the beach although you had to find a secret passage to a set of stairs to get down to the beach. It had three bedrooms and three bathrooms and the living room and kitchen were upstairs so you could see the ocean. After a nice walk on the beach we had dinner at the Chowder Bowl in Nye Beach.

The next day we went to the Newport Aquarium. Katie had a great time seeing the sea lions and the otters and all the fish. She even touched an anemone and a star fish and a small crocodile. I enjoyed the displays with the jelly fish.

Afterwards we stopped at the Rogue Brewery to pick up some beer. They just had a huge sale going. Then we drove south to Yachats where we had lunch at the Drift Inn. I remembered the food being a lot better than it was. On the way back we stopped at Seal Rock. We walked down to the beach and let Katie play with her shovel and bucket. My dad found a little Buzz Lightyear.

In the evening we went to downtown Newport to see the sea lions and the sunset. The dinner we had was kind of disappointing but the view was good.

The next day we checked out and visited the Yaquina Head light house before making our way up the coast to Tillamook. We stopped for a late lunch at the Pelican Brewery and then we bought some cheese at the Tillamook cheese factory. Finally we drove to the Nehalem bay winery and picked up some bottles of wine before driving home.

Rose Garden with my parents

2010-05-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit from May 25 to June 17. The first few weeks we got a lot of rain. Katie and I took them to the Portland Rose Test garden. It had just rained in the morning so there were some nice rain drops on the flowers. There were not that many roses in bloom yet.

Katie enjoyed walking around the park with her fancy sunglasses.

I got a squirrel to pose for me too.

Silver Falls

2010-05-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

On Mother's day we went hiking at Silver Falls. The weather was gorgeous and there were a lot of people out walking. Katie was pretty happy in the backpack carrier on Geoff's back. We took out the sun shade. We hiked for about 3 miles total before we were back at the car. The complete loop in Silver Falls is much longer but with a toddler we were not that certain yet that we wanted to walk the whole loop. On our way back Katie fell asleep.

I didn't take many pictures on our hike. But I took a few of the falls.

South Falls

Lower South Falls

Tomatoes

2010-05-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

We bought a topsy turvy tomato plant holder last month and a tomato plant. The plant hangs upside down. We water it every day and last week all of a sudden there were two small tomatoes hanging. Here is one of them. They still have a ways to go, but it's exciting nonetheless.

Hike at Multnomah Falls

2010-05-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

We decided to head out to Multnomah Falls to hike up to the top. When we got there it was raining pretty hard so we hung out at the gift shop for a bit and the rain seemed to slow down a bit. We walked up to the falls view point and took some pictures. Then we decided the weather was good enough to go for a hike so we went to the car and got the backpack carrier for Katie. We are so happy we bought that thing! Katie loves it. She can see all that is going on and doesn't have to walk and we have our hands free.

The hike was not easy, it's been way too long since I worked out so I'm totally out of shape. But we made it to the top and back so I was proud of us. Katie even fell asleep on the way down. That was so cute! On the bridge over Multnomah Falls we encountered a bag piper followed by a procession of people dressed in old-fashioned black clothes. They said they were attending a mock funeral for Sherlock Holmes.

Azaleas in bloom

2010-05-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

There are so many flowers in bloom on our campus, I just had to take my camera to work one day. As soon as I got in on Friday morning I realized the weather was perfect for some shots. It was still overcast with a faint sunshine peeking through and the flowers were still covered with drops of rain. There were tons of bees out pollinating the flowers.

Mt. Tabor family session

2010-04-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

While I have been taking digital photos for years, I have always dabbled more in landscapes and flowers. One of the goals of setting up my blog was to challenge myself and learn new skills, in particular portrait photography. So I've taken it upon myself to start practicing on friends and their family. I had the good fortune of meeting my friend Elizabeth, her husband Tim and their beautiful kids Jonah and Leah for a family session at Mt. Tabor Park. We were there on a Sunday afternoon around 5pm. The cloudy skies were perfect, but it also meant that we were losing light fast. Add to that toddlers who would rather be playing or biking than having their pictures taken, and you can see this is not as easy as it sounds.

I seriously respect professional portrait photographers a whole lot more now (even though I already had a lot of respect for them before). You have to think about so many things, interesting locations and vantage points, posing, making sure everybody looks at the camera, getting your settings right so everybody is in focus, and then editing the photos to make them look even better. After about an hour of taking photos we were done and I went home with plenty of shots to choose from. From there I chose the best shots. You can see them below.

It definitely was a learning experience for me and I had a great time! And I'm pretty proud of these pictures.

Woodburn Tulip Festival 2010

2010-04-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, during the last week before Geoff started his new job, we went down to Woodburn to the annual tulip festival. This year they started charding $5 for parking during the week and $10 on the weekend, plus weekends are crazy busy, so we were lucky to be able to go during the week. We were pretty early too, around 9 am, so there weren't too many people out. The weather was perfect. There was a faint sun that kept disappearing behind some faint clouds. Most of the tulips were in bloom already, which made for a gorgeous view. Here are some of the photos I took.

Easter egg hunt

2010-04-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to the St Helens' fairground for an Easter egg hunt with our friends Tonya and Corey and their daughter Lilly. The girls had a lot of fun finding eggs despite the large crowd, the cold wind and the rain. Some cars even got stuck in the mud in the parking lot.

Not the sharpest photo, but I love this photo anyway.

Lilly reaching for an egg

The girls playing at home

After the girls took a nap, we decorated sugar cookies that Tonya baked. Katie and Lilly weren't too much into the decorating but they loved to eat the cookies and frosting.

Katie at the park

2010-03-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

We took Katie to the park a few days ago. The weather was perfect and she had a great time. Photographing her was challenging as there was a low sun and Katie was either on a swing, slide, or climbing on some plastic animals. Also, at one point this boy got in between me and Katie and tried to convince me to take his picture. And when Katie was on the swing this little 2-year old kept walking in front of her and then his mom would come over and gently nudge him out of the way. And then there was the girl who must have been about 4 years old who was going up and down the play structure with a small stroller with what I thought was a doll but it turned out to be her baby brother or sister. The poor baby almost fell out a couple of times and no parent was in sight.

Anyway, I think a few of these could have had better focus and sharpness but I still like them anyway.

My portrait

2010-03-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

As a photographer, even if I am a hobbyist, I don't get my picture taken that often. When I met Christina Gilchrist a few weeks ago at Tanner Springs Park, she managed to get some cute shots of me. Here is my favorite:

Spring flowers 2010

2010-03-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

It was a gorgeous day today, though a bit windy, but I had remembered to bring my camera to work and went out around lunch time to shoot some pictures. I feel like I made huge progress since I shot last year. I shot all of these in RAW using manual settings and I made sure to point the focus point at the most interesting part. This was the hardest part because of the wind but I got a few great shots. I even found a bee on the cherry blossoms that I managed to get perfectly focused. It's not often that the weather is this sunny and warm here in Oregon at this time of the year so I'm really cherishing it. All of these were shot with my 100mm macro lens.

PRO annual conference

2010-03-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

Debbie, our daycare provider, asked me if I wanted to take some photos at the PRO (Providers Resource Organization) annual conference. There were booths with different products, there was a speaker, a silent auction and an event where Debbie and others sold balloons that had prizes in them. The lighting situation was difficult and even though I brought my flash I didn't use it. Probably should have in some situations. White balance was another thing as each room had different light. But I managed to come out with a few good shots. I used my Tamron 28-75mm for most shots but used the Canon 75-300mm for the last shot. In low light that was tough as it doesn't open us as much as the Tamron, so I had to use a high ISO. Luckily my Canon 50D camera can handle noise pretty well.

The flameless candle thingies

The Tupperware lady showed off these cool new Tupperware boxes with little vents. I almost bought some.

Merissa sitting at her booth

Cute toddler rain gear

The speaker, Jeff Johnson, in action in the auditorium

Magic

2010-03-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we were visiting Geoff's parents in Bend. Their standard poodle Magic is growing so fast. They got him just before Thanksgiving and now he weighs almost 50 lbs. He's such a sweet dog. He loves to cuddle. Katie loves to play with him. She calls him "Acky" and will hold out one of his toys to pick up. Then she winces when he actually takes the toy from her.

Tanner Springs Park

2010-02-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

On Sunday afternoon I was fortunate enough to meet up with Christina Gilchrist to shoot some photos. She brought her daughter Emma along as a model. Unfortunately Emma, who is 9, was not too enthused by this. We still had a great time though and I was able to practice my portrait photography skills.

I love Tanner Springs Park. It has a really cool art piece that is perfect for a backdrop. The weather was great and even though it was very sunny, part of the park was still in the shade. Christina taught me how to use my flash to fill in in the shade. The first picture of her, shows how I used the flash to light up her face. She was located in the shade while the sun shone on the background.

While Emma was not the most cooperative, I love this picture of her. Such vibrant colors!

Here is a cool shot of the backdrop by itself.

This is just a few blocks away from Tanner Springs park. I love the view of the old factories and the bridge in the background.

Cannon Beach in February

2010-02-20T19:57:00.000-08:00

Typical Oregon winters are grey and dreary and rainy and cold. It was a big surprise when this February was so sunny and warm. We decided to really enjoy it and head to the beach. We picked a perfect day as it was 60 degrees (15 degrees Celsius) and there was hardly any wind. We bought Katie a little bucket and shovel and let her dig to her heart's content at the beach. Of course I had to take my camera with me. Here are some of my favorite shots.

My brother and nephew

2010-02-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

I recently had the pleasure of visiting my family back in the Netherlands. During a visit to the zoo I was able to take this photo of my brother and his son. I ran a seventies action on it to give it a groovy feel. I think my brother, who is a musician, will love it!

Craig Mitchelldyer's open house

2010-01-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

No pictures taken by me today, but pictures taken of me (and Geoff and Katie). We went to an open house for our wedding photographer Craig Mitchelldyer. He's sharing his studio space with a new tenant who renovated her half to open Pacific Dance Academy. The last few years Craig has really taken off (not that he wasn't great before, that's why we hired him for our wedding). Since last year he also works part of his time in SoCal. And he's organized some workshops. He is the king of OCF (Off-Camera Flash) and I hope one of these days I can take a workshop with him to learn more about it.

During the open house Craig had set up a photo booth. Basically a camera with a ring flash and a foot pedal that you could control to take the picture. It was a lot of fun! Craig was kind enough to let us download our pictures for free. And he created this awesome video with 1000 pictures in 3 minutes. You can find us around the 2:45 mark. I didn't edit these photos but I have to admit I did clone out Katie's scar on her head ;).

Here is one that Katie took. She was not tall enough just yet ;).

Open house PhotoBooth from Craig Mitchelldyer on Vimeo.

Boo-boo

2010-01-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

Katie experienced her first ER trip this week. She was running around the house and fell and hit her head on the babygate. Luckily Geoff was there and he took her to the ER where they glued the wound. They were very nice up at OHSU. They gave her a sippy cup of water and one with cheerios and she got a stuffed dog to take home with her. Luckily it doesn't seem to be bothering her.

When I took this picture Debbie from daycare had just put in these cute pig tails. I still haven't figured out how to do that. I guess Katie just won't sit still for me.

Christmas

2009-12-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

We started Christmas early this week with a celebration at our friends' Tonya and Corey's house. Their daughter Lilly and our Katie get along really well. So we had a nice evening with them and did a small gift exchange. Katie got a wonderful tutu that Tonya made. She loves dancing in it!

One of the things I'm trying to learn with my photography right now is to make better use of my external flash. It is dark so early that there is hardly any natural light inside, and the on-board flash from a digital camera usually doesn't look very good. While at their house I found that pointing my Speedlite up at the ceiling and slightly behind me I got the right pictures. Now if only I could set the correct white balance before shooting, that would save me some editing. But other than that I'm pretty happy with the results. Here are some pictures of their cats and of Lilly and Katie.

Katie with a hat I made

2009-12-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

I took this photo of Katie recently in our family room. I crocheted the hat for her friend Lilly. I like how it turned out. But this photo showed me how hard it is to not overexpose reds and underexpose the rest. I had to brighten it up quite a bit in Photoshop. Plus in these winter days there is not a lot of available light, so I had to increase the ISO to 1600. Luckily my Canon 50D can handle it pretty well.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

Over Thanksgiving we were at the inlaw's house. Katie got to play with their new standard poodle pup, Magic. He was only 9 weeks old. I took the opportunity to go outside in the backyard with him and try and shoot some portraits. It's definitely a lot harder than people! Dogs move around a lot. Still, I was able to get a few cute shots.

Katie was wearing a new adorable sweater dress from Gap. I caught her running in her sassy outfit when her grandma had pumpkin pie. She didn't want to miss that! Technically not the best picture, but I love how determined she looks and how grown up. I should have used a flash instead of relying on the limited available light.

San Antonio, TX

2009-11-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

I had an invited talk at the Acoustical Society of America meeting last week, in San Antonio, Texas. The talk went well. Luckily I had a little bit of time to check out the city, the day after the talk I walked around with my colleague Alex. Our hotel was only a few blocks from the Alamo and was right on the Riverwalk.

The Alamo

A water feature under one of the bridges on the Riverwalk

The only boats on the Riverwalk are tourist barges. The Riverwalk kind of reminds me of Amsterdam or a fake Venice.

The grounds at the Alamo had some beautiful flowers

My handsome husband

2009-11-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

While hanging out in downtown Portland with my lovely husband I decided to bust out the camera and get a nice portrait of him.

A preview into professional photography

2009-11-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to tag along with Christina Gilchrist of Captured Moments Photography recently to shoot Jodie, Nate, and their daughter Tessa. Christina shot their wedding a few years ago. We met at Laurelhurst Park in SE Portland, a beautiful location for family shoots. The weather cooperated and the fall colors were amazing. The only downside was that we were losing light fast. This was definitely a great experience for me. It taught me that I still have a lot to learn about camera settings and use of the external flash. And I loved the interaction with the family. Tessa was just adorable!

In the end I hope I was able to capture a few shots of this wonderful family that will complement the ones that Christina got of them.

Sneak peek of Merissa's birthday party

2009-11-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

I was invited to shoot Merissa's 21st birthday party on Halloween. Merissa's mom, Debbie, is Katie's daycare provider and Katie loves going there. Merissa used to work with Debbie at Bee Bop's little house, but now she takes care of their second location. They are both extraordinary people and they're a lot of fun to hang out with.

It's my pleasure to give a sneak peek of the lovely birthday girl:

Trick or Treat

2009-10-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

For Halloween, we got Katie an outfit at Costco. We called it a "pegacorn", as it was a unicorn outfit with wings, i.e., a pegasus. Unfortunately, the costume was too small but we didn't figure that out until the day she wore it to daycare. So in daycare she wore it with the unicorn's head on her shoulder.

And here is a picture of Katie before we put on her Halloween costume:

Then on Saturday we took her to downtown Tigard to go trick or treating. There were way more people than we thought there would be. Many stores were open and gave out candy. Not that Katie would eat any of it, but it was still fun to do. Geoff popped the seam of her costume, so it would fit over her head. In the end, she looked really cute.

I love the clouds in this picture.

Japanese Garden in the fall

2009-10-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

We visited the Japanese Garden this morning. The weather was perfect. It was overcast and it held off raining until we were ready to leave at 11am. There were already lots of photographers out there. This is the perfect time of year to see the beautiful fall colors.

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

We visited the ever-so-popular pumpkin patch yesterday on Sauvie's Island. We were not the only ones to enjoy the dry weather as there were thousands of others thinking the same thing. It was fun though. We took some pictures of Katie and our friends Tonya and Corey and their daughter Lilly who is only three months younger than Katie. We picked out some pumpkins and bought some produce at the store. Afterwards we carved some pumpkins and had spaghetti. It was a lot of fun!

At the zoo

2009-10-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

We go to the Oregon Zoo quite often as we get in for free with a yearly membership. Katie loves it and the walking is good exercise for us. Today we went in the morning when the weather was still nice. The fall leaves were so spectacular. I got a great sun flare through the red leaves. By the time we got to the elephants the wind started blowing and the yellow leaves started falling off the trees like it was rain. It really started raining a little bit later so we left in a hurry. But not before I got a nice portrait of Katie.

Fall colors

2009-10-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

Last week I ventured out at lunch time to the park near my office. The ducks were not very cooperative, but I found some pretty fall colors. I decided to set my camera to Manual to learn more about exposure.