Smile!

This is my cute sister-in-law's family. I had the opportunity to photograph them in their beautifully gardened back yard this last Saturday. I really love how this one turned out!
She has been so sweet and supportive of my photography, she'll never know how much that means to me! Thanks Beth!

My poor kids

I was thinking the other day about how my kids don't have a whole lot of pictures printed of them. Since I have gotten into digital photography and editing images, I've become too much of a perfectionist when it comes to all of my pictures. I take pictures of them and think to myself,
"It's not technically correct. The color is off. The crop is all wrong..." etc. I've become spoiled to the effects of editing as well. I look at a picture, and yeah it looks good.... like this one for example...

But then I know it could be so much better.... with just some darkening here, some lightening there.... some vignetting..... some better color... and voila!

So I get into trouble when it comes to my kids pictures. I need to learn to just let them be sometimes and just print them up! I'm sure they won't care how they look. I still love my fuzzy 70's pictures of me when I was little.

Another Extreme Bridal Peek!

I feel so bad that my computer crashing has set my work so far back. This Extreme Bridal was done in June and I'm just now able to work on it. I love how striking her eyes are!

click on image to see larger version.

Today, a Special Treat is in Store for You!

Today you get to be treated to a 4th of July picture heaven...
Let the show begin!
On the 4th of July we took our children to Murphy's Landing, which is the site of one of Minnesota's earliest settlements. It's a great place to take the kids, and teach them about early settlement days, activities, chores and way of living. When we first got there we took a wagon ride down a dusty road to the town. We were first met in a huge red barn by a couple that were setting up some twine to be made into rope.

They gave each of our children and Joel a cross made of wood to stick into the middle of the twines.
The man at the end turned a crank which twisted the twines and turned them into a thick rope.
The kids all got a piece of that rope.

When we were in the barn we could hear some sheep in the back, so we went around the back to visit them.

After visiting the sheep we wandered down the road to the town.

We came to an old farmhouse

where an older couple were looking over the garden.

They also had some yummy berries growing!

There were lots of different buildings and homes with people (actors) going about their business. Some were baking. Some were doing chores, and let the kids help. Some were going about their professions such as the farmers or teacher or blacksmith. These are images I took along our tour.

Here are our children fenced up, Joyanna is mooing.

We visited a school where a teacher told the kids about how the classroom was organized.

And how the children were disciplined... not a bad idea, huh?

There was a building next door that had some old fashioned toys so we played for a couple of minutes. Joy saw someone she recognized.
Jacob made us pose like this. I swear.

This was the first time our kids got to play in a row of corn. When I was a kid, my dad's corn rows were the best hiding spot when playing hide and seek.

The kids got to try out some old-time toys.
When I was young we had some of these- way fun!





We also got to do some chores, the old fashioned way!

If you know me, you know I can't leave without a shot of chickens! :)

We also got to see how things were made. This first shot is a shot of an old-fashioned sewing kit for an old pedal sewing machine.

This lady taught us about spinning wool, and the different ways. This is Josh combing the wool.

This is a drop spindle.

And an old spinning wheel.

Some more toys.

We also came to a house where this guy was playing some fun banjo music and let the kids join in with his song.

Jake thought he was pretty cool that day...

Until we saw a parade... complete with the statue of liberty, flag children....

the town's baseball team...

And all the town's folk.

We really got into the spirit of Independence Day...

There was also a lady there with a rescued hawk.


Jaeden got tired of walking.

These are some neat things I saw at the blacksmith's shop.



Wouldn't this be awesome for a Valentine's Day card?

There was lots of beautiful nature around us as well.

It got to be a really hot afternoon...
But we couldn't leave before watching the baseball team play a couple of innings...

Boy the rules sure were different back then!

I think our children had a good time and learned a little bit about what there is to love about our country and our heritage.

And then we took the wagon back to our car.