Arizona Vacation - Day Three

Not far from where we stayed was an old west town called Goldfield Ghost Town. We decided to pack a picnic lunch and spend the day there. 

This Cactus was HUGE!

I love these clay ornaments hanging up on the porch of one of the shop.  I loved the rustic colors in this picture. 

This neat sign was posted on the church. 

This is one of my favorite shots of the day. I love how the cactus adds so much to this picture.

Had to take a picture of this Victorian style house. I love the winding staircase.

My sister dragged me into the reptile exhibit with her.  We saw over ten different species of Rattlesnakes, a Cobra, and many other creepy crawlies that gave me the shivers.  

The Gold field Jail.    

I thought these glass cactuses in in the gift shop were pretty.

Arizona Vacation - Day Two

Our second day in Arizona we headed off to spend the day in town. I'm getting pretty good at taking pictures while the car is driving. I snapped the picture above while in the car.

We visited a huge flea market.  It was called the Mesa Market. We each found some treasures, but we mostly just enjoyed browsing all the merchandise. This table of rocks caught my attention.

My sister found brownies!  She didn't buy them but she wanted to.

Later in the evening my Grandpa introduced us to his favorite sport - Pickle Ball.

My brother is being silly, as always.

Apparently in the picture above my sister is booing someone.

My sister is so photogenic.  I'm always taking pictures of her.

The sunset was so pretty at our campground. 

Snow Day!

We have been in a drought for so long but this winter we have finally had 'a winter'. Today I woke up to five inches of fresh snow. I bundled up in my warm winter jacket and took my camera outside to take some pictures of the winter wonderland.

These poor blossoms were starting to get droopy underneath the weight of all the snow. I love the pretty shade of pink agianst of these blossoms.

We aren't to far away from St. Patrick's day and my backyard is full of clovers.  I could not find a four leaf clover, but I have found a flour leaf clover before.

I found this lovely flower that had just recently bloomed. The snow is all melting now but I'm thanking God for the rain and snow He keeps sending.  

Let's Try This Again

So, I have all but forgotten about this blog. But I cannot not bring myself to delete this blog, even though I never post anything. I have been busy with my other blog Uniquely His, but I am going to try (I'm really going to try hard this time) to get this blog going again.  

I just recently changed the background for this blog hoping that it will help encourage me to post more.

Anyway, spring is here, my favorite time of year. I love spring so much because of all the flowers. My favorite will always be the pink cherry tree(or plum tree, I'm not sure exactly what kind of tree they are) blossoms.  

Since spring has finally sprung and flowers are finally starting to bloom you can look forward many upcoming post's filled with beautiful pictures of flowers.  

I have also started doing a monthly photography challenge. Each day I am given a word or phrase and I have to capture it's essence in my photography.  I plan on posting some of these challenges as well on this bog.

I'm determined this time to keep posting to this blog.  I can't wait to share with you all my adventures in photography!    

Facing Fears and Having Fun

For as long as I can remember I've had a fear of rollercaosters.  I enjoy small ones that don't go high and have no loops on them.  Yesterday me and my brother went to Six Flags with some friends and well, knowing that I'm going to be 20 (yeah, I'm old) soon and haven't faced my fear of rollercoasters didn't sit to well with me.  

My brother was so encouraging and he was probably the only reason I was able to usher enough courage to jump in line and go on two of the big roller coasters at Six Flags.  In the picture below the green rollercoaster, which is called Medusa, is one of the two I went on.  I'm just gonna come right out and say it,  I screamed my head off.  Not just screaming cause it was fun, my screams were screams of terror.  But Overall I think I liked it and I'm so proud of myself conquering one of my fears.

I also went on the high swings in this picture and that is also pushing my limits cause I don't like heights.    

My brother who like me has always had a fear of roller coasters conquered his fears too.  The first ride he went on was called the Daredevil and it went in one continuous loop.  It was one huge loop and it would linger at the top. I guess you can say my brother is a Daredevil to go on this ride.  My brother has the blue shirt on and I just love this shot I captured of his first big thrill ride so much.

I'm entering this shot in a contest and I had to crop it for a 8 x 10 print.  The theme for the contest is "In the Moment".  I think this shot captures the essence of that very well, what do you think?

Finally Another Post...

Well, it seems I've either been not taking pictures or neglecting this blog.  I've been taking pictures so, yeah, I guess that means I've been neglecting  this blog. Sorry.

The last few months have been crazy, busy and so much fun, but now I'm back to my slow and not busy life. Okay fine, that's just sounds depressing.  I have a great life, really.

Anyway, here's some pictures that I've taken in the past few weeks.  We've been getting some rain, flowers are starting to bloom (and die), and my family went on a camping trip. 

And I promise I'll try to post more to this blog in the future.

We have a rose bush that has so many roses's and they are all starting to bloom.  There's at least ten roses bloomed at the same time.  It's so pretty.

We've been getting lot's of rainy days which is so weird cause it's June.  But we need the rain so bad so it's very welcome.  And it gives me a chance to wear my rain boots.

We went to Tahoe and Fallen Leaf Lake for a camping trip.  It was so nice and relaxing.

My brother's dog Shasta loved the beach

The mountains around lake Tahoe.  Tahoe is so low :o we need water.

You can't go camping without roasting marshmallow's as family.  Yum!  They tasted so good!!!

I love Spring

Today was another beautiful spring day.  It was breezy but the sun was shining.  As soon as I stepped outside I realized that even through the sun was out it was not warm out.  Okay, it was in the 60's but I live in California, that's cold to me.  And the wind wasn't helping.

I found a few flowers in my backyard to take pictures of.  Here's a few of the many pictures I took.

 I know, this flower is not perfect but It was the most perfect one I could find.

 I was trying take a picture that could almost have a story to it

 I know this one is over exposed in the background, but I like it that way ;)

I've heard that these flowers are poisonous, but I also know that kids like to suck the nectar of these flowers.  I'm hoping I'm wrong about these flowers being poisonous.

I was soooooo happy to find one single tulip in our front yard.  I LOVE tulips. I check on this flower daily cause I love it so much. But the other day I checked on 'my' tulip and it had aphids all over it!!!!  My mom sprayed it but I don't think it will be around much longer :(

Spring Already

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. Grabbing my camera and my favorite lenses I went outside to take some pictures.  I wanted to take some pictures of the flowers in my backyard but it turned out most of the flowers in my backyard were already dying.  Spring here in California came fast and it looks like we are going to be having an early summer. Ugh, we really need rain, not warm clear blue sky days.

So as I was taking pictures of the few flowers I managed to find that were still alive I saw a lizard sunning himself on the ground.  He didn't mind becoming my next photography subject.  He stayed perfectly still and I was able to get some nice close ups of him.  He only ran away after I touched him with a stick while trying to get him to move so I could try to capture him in a different angle.  

Below are a few of my favorite captures from yesterday:

  This was the only flower I found that wasn't dying.  

This little guy was just waiting for his picture to be taken.   His poor tail though :(

An edited close up of my little lizard friend