slow ride.....

Thursday we rested after we got the boat all set up.  After some resting we walked over to Summerfest, which was like a five minute walk from our dock.  After that we came back and rested some more.  Friday, our boating pals took us around the city.  Herb and Kathy were so nice to let us ride with them in their dinghy.  Ron and Pam carried the coolers, and Sarah and Harlin rode with Bob and Leann.  It was a little rough getting to the river but not bad. 




I was trying to take a picture of the bridge, but there really isn't much room to move around in a dinghy, and I asked him to take a picture for me but he "couldn't turn around"!  I took his picture and when he asked me what I was doing I told him nothing!

There is Kathy!!
The Milwaukee train bridge



Our first stop:




Oh my we had so much fun! Then we went on down the river after we had lunch, and stopped at Rock Bottom for more drinks and ice cream that was super Delicious--It tasted like coffee and I love coffee!!! More on the river later!

Thought I would share this link with everyone: Lyra M. 
She is scheduled to get her first portraits next week, and I wanted to let everyone know that there will be a benefit lunch on July 25th, and I will be donating a photo shoot for the auction as well as attending the lunch.  If you can not make it, there is a link where you can donate:Donation Link.  All the funds will help the young couple pay for doctor bills and anything else they may need help with. 

When in Milwaukee....

Catching you up----here we go!  Last week, my husband and I took our boat from Grand Haven, Michigan to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Holiday.  Oh my gosh, we had such a smooth ride over.  It took 3 1/2 hours to get across Lake Michigan! 


The view from the water, isn't this amazing!

The sunset on our first night there, and I took this from the back of our boat!
Here was my view after the sun went down:


We went for the Holiday and Summerfest, which was totally awesome! I seriously can't wait to go next year!

I will get you more ASAP!  There is MUCH to tell!  

Wow......

Well, last evening we had intended to heading to the boat.  Once we got the car loaded made our way toward town to get some food and then be on our merry way.   The rain was coming, and we knew, but we had no idea it would be so bad.


We made our way down Jonesvile Rd heading toward 69 in rain so hard we couldn't see in front of us, and we come upon a police cruiser blocking the road way.  We could not get through because of the giant tree laying across the road.  Let me rephrase that, it was laying just to block half  the road, we  (we being my husband and I) would have went through but the police wouldn't let us.  So we turned around and headed back the way we came from and turned north on the first cross road we came to.  I don't recall the name of it but as we came upon other vehicles, we soon learned that there was another tree across the road.  My husband got out in the pouring rain and tried move the tree only to dicover that it was bigger than he anticipated.  We turned around.  The oncoming car stopped us to tell us of what we already knew and said to Chuck: can both of us move it?  Yes--it actually ended up being 5 people, The man and woman in the other car, Chuck and I got out tojavascript:void(0)o, and then another man got out to help as well.  Sucess!  We moved the tree enough for everyone to get through!  On our way again.  For about two miles.  The next tree we encountered was almost as big around as my car.  Ugh!

Irritated, I said, next tree we encounter we are going HOME!  We made it quite a ways, all the way to Marshall Road before we seen another tree down.  This one had a van beneath it.  We pulled over and made a couple calls.  The weather at the boat: GREAT!  The weather back home (Hillsdale):  REALLY BAD!  The worst of the mess was around the Hospital area.  We had a hard time actually getting home because of down trees and power lines, we had to go out and around to Bear Lake Road just to find a clear path.  We found out that we didn't have power at our house.  So we hopped in Chucks SUV and went into town to assess the damage.   Quite a few of our lawn customers are in the area where the "tree top tornado" made a mess and we wanted to check on them.  Luckly they were all okay, but the neighbors were not:


This house actually had two trees on it. There was one in the back too.  The house next to this house had a tree actually uprooted:
 

It was pretty devastating and as far as we know there were no major injuries, thank goodness.  Our hearts go out to all of these people.

Righty tighty, lefty loosey..........

It is so funny that there is a group on facebook actually called I-still-say-Righty-Tighty-Lefty-Loosey-when-i-unscrew-things  Which is truly funny because now every time I loosen or tighten that's what I think of when I am saying righty-tighty lefty-loosey!  There you have it, another look into my head.

Last post I mentioned some new lenses. You may have guessed that they have arrived, you would be right except that my fish eye has not arrived thanks to the silly UPS driver who seemed to think he had the right house and they denied the package! COME ON, doesn't that seem odd? Dork anyway.
Well I do have my Sigma 24-70mm and my ultra wide extension. Though I haven't had much time to get out and play around a lot with these, I do have a few to share:

And I hope that you wouldn't think that I wouldn't add something:

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Another Original:

and.......




And finally:

No alterations because I LOVED the contrasting colors here!
With any luck I have a photo shoot on Wednesday and HOPEFULLY UPS will get my package to the right house (mine) and I will have a fish eye extension. Fingers crossed everyone!

OCD and the Labo Fam

I think I have a little touch of OCD.  I have a hard time with odd numbers.  When I turn up the radio, it has to be on an even number.  When I edit photos, any sliders have to be set on an even number. I also like things to be even, for example, if I plant a flower, I have to plant another to mirror it.  I prefer things to equal.   Silly right?  I know, I make fun of myself all the time and I try really hard to stop on odd numbers and I let my husband plant a LONE tree in the middle of the yard (I secretly want to rip it out, but he thinks we have compromised)  Now your wondering why do you care?  I just wanted to give you a peek into my brain.

As promised, some photos from my recent shoot.


You may remember Roland, I took his picture before he had a baby sister. They are totally leaving for New York at the end of this month and I am going to miss them!

Here you can see Roland is really not feeling a family photo.
and he wasn't feeling it here either.

Dad did get him to smile for me:


You should know that even though Roland is a mama's boy, he loves his daddy:



So to the Labo family, Thank you Roland for smiling for me, thank you Vayda for being so adorable, Thank you Matt for fighting for our country and be safe out there, and A HUGE thanks to Amber for continuing to come to me for her photos! Have a safe trip to New York and visit me when your in MI!!!

For the rest of you stay tuned, I am getting a new lens hopefully tomorrow--and I got a wide angle extension and fish eye extension--there will surely be some new photos just for the fun of it!

Sooo......

My my my......yes I know this happens all the time, I am going to keep up with my blog, blah blah blah, right?  Lately, I haven't even been checking my email regularly--in fact, I just deleted over 500 messages, very un-like me.    So real quickly, I wanted to share these adorable babies first photos--then with any luck and a break in work, I can show you her big brothers photos too.

Here she is, Miss Vayda Raelynn:



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She was such a tiny little angel. One day before she turned a month old! The whole family was here and Dad (Matt) was home on leave.
It was a very pleasant day and I really hope they fall in love with these photos as much as I have. There are many more photos to share, and it is my goal to have them done before the week is over! Keep your eyes open for new ones and If you don't see them, don't be afraid to give me a little shove!

The celebration of Life

Last Saturday morning, I posted two blogs before my husband even got out of bed. There were also promises of new abandonment photos, and I did go out and get new shots of an awesome abandoned house right near my home that I just happened to find when coming home one day.  Here is a quick preview:

and I will share more of that with you later, I promise.

This was the same Saturday that I got the call that my great grandmother passed away.  Friday my mom sent me a message telling me that she wasn't doing good, so my husband and I made the decision not to go to the boat to be home in case something happened.   When we visited the medical care on Friday night I never expected the call Saturday morning.

So, this is my great grandmother, and all I can think of is how this is affecting my grandmother, The two of them were best friends.  They did everything together and grandma took care of great grandma for almost two years up to this point.

 What I want to share with you is some of my memories to celebrate the wonderful life of this woman, my great grandmother, who had an impact on so many peoples lives.


These photos I took for her 96th birthday, which was in March. It was so funny because she was ready to have her photo taken, she got her hair combed and what not, and as soon as I put the camera away, she started laughing and putting out big ol smiles--and I missed them.

Though I have a lot of photos of her, I won't be able to share them here because they have been moved to storage, here is one that I found that we took for the birthday party the family threw for her:

This one is my favorite.

Many people don't get to have a this much of a life time with their great grandparents, I always brag that my son had the ability to spend quite a bit of time with his great great grandma, and she was just tickled by him all the time. Truly I hope that Jaden can have the sort of relationship with his grandmother's that I had with Granny Armstrong and that I have with my grandma Blake.

Last night I was trying really hard to get this blog out so that people could understand where I have been, because I haven't been very active anywhere, then I decided that I want to make this blog a "celebration of life". Many people were reminising yesteray at the dinner gathering after the funeral, and some of my favorite memories were brought back.

When I was like five or six, Granny and Gramp still had quite a few animals on the farm, and I was always so happy to stay the night there with them and get up early in the morning and go feed the animals with grandpa, one particular time, it was rainy and super muddy (much like our current weather)and I got stuck in the mud, and gramps had to pull me out of my boots and set me up on the hill to go back and get my boots out. Another time I fell and scraped my shin up (I still have a scar) on the back stairs and I remember Granny cleaning it up and getting band aids out. There was a cherry tree we used to pick cherries from. There was a strawberry patch behind the big barn. Every Saturday for many years, I would go down there and mow the lawn because Granny had asthma, when I got to old my cousin Jason took over that job.

There are so many great memories that I have and I could go on and on, and I am sure that my family has many great memories as well. Yesterday, I took my camera but I couldn't bring myself to get it out. Everything was wonderful and there was a great turn out. Thanks to everyone.  Oh and sorry if this is rambling and unorganized.