This is My Forties

As if you couldn't tell from my blog, I love taking pictures. This month I've been experimenting with over/underexposure and trying to rid myself of my hatred of direct sunlight. I love natural light, but washed-out skin tones with underexposed foreground and overexposed background (thanks to direct sunlight) really annoys me. However, I think I've finally been able to have some fun with contrast and shadow thanks to my spherical nemesis. My subject for this little adventure was "danger"... wait I can come up with something better, something with alliteration and intrigue. OK, maybe not ;) Most days I will find my boys huddled around something, still and silent, noses to the pavement, whispering to each other. This is when I know a bug is most likely involved... or something larger, but dead. Oh, happy days! Today it was a prehistoric "antpion" (my name for the ginormous ant with a scorpion-like abdomen) which I feel could have easily severed...

Recently the opportunity arose for us to move back to the good ol' U.S. of A. The more we think about it, the more we miss our homeland. While I am sure this is prompted by our lack of funds and use of a second vehicle (it's been 5 months now)... it's still merited. When we came to Europe I was thrilled. I was going to see Rome, Egypt, Argentina, Brazil, France, Scotland... EVERYWHERE. However, the exchange rate + military pay = travel?! yeah right, and good luck feeding yourselves! In a couple months our financial issues will hopefully be caught up and ironed out, but as of right now we're so annoyed with reality. I love it here. I love the weather, our home, the country itself. But, it's hard to enjoy it when we can't even get one damn coffee "out" without having to give up groceries or diapers. Too personal? Probably. I know plenty people struggle with the same problems and I figure you all can relate, whether it's taboo to openly ad...

The other day the boys were running amok outside, fighting over every single little thing available. Then we discovered that the buckeyes were ripe. This was all well and good for awhile... shaking down buckeyes, opening them up, putting them into a bucket. Of course it eventually became just one more thing for them to fight over. Sigh. A little quick thinking sent me to the garage on a mission. I was planning on building a "buckeye slide" out of cardboard on the steps. Then I found this great plastic tube! Perfect tunnel slide!! We set it up on the stairs at a high angle and then moved it down to a wider angle and compared the speed of the buckeyes, and discussed our results: the higher the tube, the faster they fall. We got some matchbox cars out to send down the slide as well. Josh and I were able to chat and enjoy an entire glass of cold coffee without any bickering from the boys. Hooray! They've been playing with them for 3 days now, still enthrall...

...because I just couldn't let there be 666 posts for long!!  Sometimes I can be superstitious.  Here's a cute picture from last week.  Brennan was "catching" the sun and he found it to be hilarious.

Since the weather will be changing soon we decided to take one last trip up to the mountains before it got too cold to hike. What a great idea! Josh and I cooked lunch the night before: pepperoni rolls & chicken strips... a lot of exercise calls for some serious lunch and sandwiches don't cut it for growing boys (or hungry parents). We hiked a good 4+ miles through the woods, along the face of the Guadarramas. Mostly we followed a fresh spring water fed creek, which was clear as clear could be and freezing cold. Luckily none of us fell in :) The forest was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was perfect. Most of our hike was through the woods without any trail to speak of, but we happened upon a large dirt road along the creek and found a nice picnic spot. We also discovered some huge rocks which the boys were eager to climb. Daddy took them one at a time to check out the view. We thought it best to keep Brennan on the ground below since he is a lot like a tasman...

Here's some of my favorite "moments" of this week, caught on film... well... digitally. Brennan giving his famous "evil eye". No idea where he learned how to do this, but I think it's hilarious so he continues to do it on a daily basis. Always the hugger! Brennan grabs your neck and crushes you with his love and then plants a drooly, toothy kiss on your face. Big brothers racing down the trail at the park. "Mommy, Brennan pull my hair!" look at those eyes of his! Noah's my scientist. His ducky magnifying glass is assisting by pecking at the dead gecko we discovered. Fun times in the wagon. I don't remember why he was crying, but it probably had something to do with Tristan. ;)