wannabe....

I'm a "wannabe" at most things I do in life. I dress for the part, I have the gear for the part, but those who truly live the part can tell I'm a poser in a second. In the past I've been a wannabe kayaker, a wannabe runner, a wannabe hippie with wannabe dreadlocks, a wannabe vegetarian, wannabe potter (as in someone who uses a wheel to make clay pots, not to be tied in with my hippie phase), a wannabe crafter, scrapbooker, etc. These phases come and go, filling up my attic with all the things I "needed". But one thing that I've been a wannabe at for a good 10 years is photography. And I'm sick of being a wannabe! I have no aspirations to ever make any money at it, but I just want to not be a poser anymore, I want to be the real deal and take photographs instead of pictures. But it's just been a lot of frustrating trial and error. So I'm making a goal for myself. For one year from today, I will really focus on improving in this area and if after a year I don't see a huge improvement, then I'm out, I'm done! I'm going to post pictures on my blog and label the posts so that hopefully in a year's time I can review and hopefully cringe at what once were the best pictures I could take. So here goes....

I attempted to take pictures of my friends newborn - talk about frustrating! Aubrey was trying to bite my friend's older son most of the time, I didn't know what settings to use on my camera, and the poor little baby was not happy with the torture I was putting her through. It was just embarrassing! I took 90 pictures and these were the only ones I liked (and that's only after photoshopping the heck out of the bottom 2).

I also tried to take pictures of Aubrey the other day in her cute tutu (one of the things I knew I had to have once I found out I was having a girl). The first shot I just got lucky to get, b/c Aubrey fell and was still for a split second. I really need to focus on inanimate objects before attempting children. The second one I blurred up in photoshop but I like the look of it.

And these I'm just throwing in for fun because she looked cute in her tutu.

Winner!

Libby Miracle is the big winner of the hair clips. I used a high tech random selection method of writing everyone's name down on a little pieces of paper and having Zach draw one. He actually drew his own name (since he commented, he said I had to enter him) but he oh so graciously drew again and gave his prize to Libby.

Pageant and such

This trip was a while ago but I never posted it, I think b/c I was getting bored of just posting trip after trip on my blog, but honestly, I'm not a clever writer, so that's what my blog is, just pictures of things we've done. On this trip we went to Palmyra, New York to watch the Hill Cumorah pageant.

These girls are in our ward and were stars in the show. Luckily we ran into them right before for this photo op - Aubrey is actually hitting me really hard here, hence my ugly face.

The set was huge, this is just a fraction - and I think they have 700 castmembers and crew to put it on.
Aubrey was basically awful. We took turns chasing her all throughout the show. Of course, she waited to fall asleep in the last 10 minutes. Zach fell asleep too right before the end. Before the show started, one of the cast members said that if you weren't moved during the last scene, then you must be dead inside, or something like that. Anyways, Zach and Aubrey fell asleep right as that scene started...hmm....We stopped randomly to stretch our legs on the drive home and stumbled across this cute little town and spent a couple hours here. I love Aubrey's face here - she does not look thrilled to be part of our cheesiness.

Aubrey at our motel after a bath - my little punk rocker.