Afternoon Clouds

There were some great clouds awhile back when we were at the park with the kids.

Marci & Maddie at the Beach

I had to play a band gig in Astoria, then I met Maddie, Riley & Marci at Seaside for some fun at the beach. Here's Maddie having fun jumping over the waves as they come rolling in. It was a great day!

Light Behind the Tree

While we were out trick or treating one year, I looked up and saw this very cool view of the street light on the other side of this tree shining through and making the tree glow.

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

While looking for our Christmas tree one year, I saw this little one. It looked so cute and sad at the same time, reminded me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Beautiful Sunset

We get a lot of great sunsets, and fortunately, our house sits is a great spot for them. When you go upstairs you can see a long way. I just wish the power lines weren't there. I asked Trey Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs to look at a few of my photos. He liked this one, which means a LOT to me! :)

Trumpet Player

In the parades we have two gals march with us holding our banner. They are usually like Miss Oregon, or Mrs. Oregon, or Miss Teen Oregon, something like that. Very nice ladies who are great sports. Usually during the parade, two of our trumpet players in the front row run up and trade with these gals - they hold the banner while the gals hold their trumpets and march with us for a bit. I'd definitely rather have one for these gals marching next to me than some of the guys who do - it even doesn't matter if they can't play trumpet. LOL!

Louie, Louie!

This is Jay leading the One More Time Around Again Marching Band signaling the next song to play. We usually play 3-4 songs in the parade, which each having a different number. That makes it easy to signal everyone which song we are playing. Our signature song is, "Louie, Louie", which is #2 - we play it every year along with some other new ones. This band has been around for 25 years and now when we're between songs, people watching will hold up two fingers asking us to play, "Louie, Louie"! It's a great band and a ton of fun!

Waves Crashing

Another photo from Neskowin. I stood there with the shutter button half-pressed waiting for a good wave splash. It seemed like I was there forever! I finally got this one and am pretty happy with it.

Roxy & Zoey

Our two wonderful Corgi's. Roxy is the Pembroke and Zoey is the Cardigan. They are so much fun, so smart, so cool. I never wanted a small dog because most small dogs just "yip yip yip" all the time, drives me crazy. But Corgi's aren't like that at all. In fact, they are more like a big dog, just in a small dog body. Before Roxy and Zoey and we had three other Pembroke's, and I think we'll have more after these two. Just fantastic dogs!

Grave Digger Crashes

Last Monster Truck photo for awhile, promise. Grave Digger always goes last in the Freestyle program. He was having some troubles with his truck's motor stopping. This time he went up the big hill but didn't go up very fast, didn't have the momentum to go over the top, and flipped over to the right, rolling down the hill, flipping over, and landing on its top. No one was hurt, just the fiberglass body. Of course the crowd loved it! Sometimes I think Grave Digger does this stuff on purpose. It was a good way to end the show!

Maddie & Me at the Monster Trucks

One more Monster Truck photo. This time it's Maddie & Me! I held the camera out in front of us and took the photo. It really was a fun father/daughter time!

Monster Trucks - The Patriot

For most of the Monster Trucks I had my camera in sports and continuous mode and fired away when the trucks would do stuff. I didn't notice the smoke coming from The Patriot until I pulled the photos off the camera. I like how the smoke kinda gives that foggy, extra cool atmosphere feel to it, like he's been sitting there spinning his wheels building up the smoke then popped the clutch and took off fast. Looks like he's about to explode WAY over the cars. :)

Monster Truck Iron Man

Iron Man was new this year, at least to the Portland show. Very cool looking Monster Truck! Looks more like a Monster Sports Car. haha

Monster Truck In The Air

Here in Portland they do the Monster Trucks in our Rose Garden, where the Blazers play basketball. It's not as large as other places so they can't do a lot. But at least they were able to make a big hill for them to jump off. It was really cool to see them way up in the air! Here's Captain USA going off the jump.

Link to the rest of my Monster Truck photos.

Maddie at the Monster Truck Show

For the past four years Riley and I have gone to the Monster Truck show. It's been a really fun, we have a great time. This year a friend from school had a birthday on the same day and he decided he wanted to go to that instead. I was a little upset, but it's actually better for him to go to the party, building friendships that could last forever, and all that stuff. So Maddie decided to go along with me - our first big Father/Daughter day!

We had pit passes so got to see the cars close up, had some lunch, then enjoyed the show. She really liked the Monster Trucks, but not the other stuff and got a little bored, so I let her watch Scooby Doo on my Droid. LOL! OH, and we borrowed my Dad's Bose noise canceling headphones for her, I have my own (thanks to Dad). THEY ROCK!!!

So here's Maddie all ready for the show to start. I'll have some more later. And here's a link to the rest of my Monster Truck photos (I took 650 but only posted 146).

Riley & Me at Camp Ireland

We really had a blast last year at Camp Ireland. Here we were sitting in the stands waiting for something to start and I decided to take a pic of Riley and me. I just held the camera in front of us and clicked. I was very happy with how it came out, especially since right after they started and I didn't have time for another.

Old Fire Engine

One year at our Rose Parade they had this really old Fire Engine that was going to be in the parade, pulled by horses. It was very polished and looked awesome!

Pinewood Derby Cars

It's always fun to see what cars the kids (and parents) create. Some are very traditional, some are wild and crazy. All are awesome!

Zoolights Tree

Another fun photo from the Oregon Zoolights event. These were a very nice and bright green. I'm really happy I was able to hold the camera still enough to capture this!

Oregon BrewFest Panorama

Have I said that I love making panorama's? Every late July here in Portland is the Oregon Brewers Festival. It's four days long, features about 70 beers from around the country, usually really nice weather, and lots of very friendly people. All ages are welcome and you see many people there with their whole families. I've gone to every one over the last 21 years and rarely I have seen anyone drunk or rude. Just a bunch of very friendly people enjoying some excellent beers. For the kids and designated drivers, they have free root beer. It's one of the most fun things to do in Portland in the summer. This shot is three photos stitched together in Photoshop. Please click the photo so you can see it bigger, small doesn't do it justice.

Zoolights Butterfly

Here are Maddie & Riley on either side of this cool butterfly. I put the camera's flash in SL mode, which triggered the flash but then kept the shutter open just a hair longer. This meant nothing was too dark thanks to the flash and the lights on the butterfly glow, thanks to leaving the shutter open longer. Riley has a really weird pose here. Kids, you just can't get them to take serious pictures. ...or maybe I should say I can't get MY kids to do that, probably because I would have done the same thing at his age. haha

Pinewood Derby 3rd Place!

Riley had a lot of fun yesterday at the Pinewood Derby. The Cubmaster made a fuss over his skateboard car, which made Riley smile big time! They did 6 rounds, which made it really long, 3 would have been enough. When they were done, they setup the movie, "Down and Derby" which was pretty funny - it's about how some dad's go WAY over the top with Pinewood Derby, not letting their kids build them, looking for the best aerodynamics, etc. Half way through we stopped to do awards. We did our derby with a Pack that just started at the new school that opened, many of the kids were from our Pack last year. First they called off the overall winners for the other Pack. Then they got to our Pack and started with 3rd place. I just stood there. He called Riley's name but it didn't register. I saw the kid walk up and said, "Hmmm... that looks like Riley..." Then the Cubmaster said, "Dad, are you gonna take a photo?" WOW! I was in total shock! I'd post that photo, but I was so shocked, I had to turn on my camera and didn't give it time to focus, so it's seriously blurry. D'OH! But I'm keeping it because in 20 years we'll be glad we did, and by then Photoshop will probably be able to fix those. hehe So here's a photo of him after we got home, holding his car and his 3rd place medal! SO PROUD!!!!

Maddie at the Beach

There was this huge piece of driftwood - more like a drift-tree - that the kids were climbing on. Anytime you take a picture of Maddie and she knows it, she has to strike a pose. haha

Reflection

Another Neskowin photo. This river empties into the ocean and on this day it was very calm. I thought the reflection looked pretty cool. :)

Tree on Proposal Rock

Another Neskowin photo. This tree was growing out of the side off the rock. I found it interesting how it must have started at a much greater angle, then started growing up towards the sky. Nature is cool.

Our Christmas Tree

Took this Christmas morning before the kids got up.

Moon Over the Trees

I was outside practicing with the One More Time Around Again Marching Band, looked over and saw this. Glad I was able to get it before the moon moved too much!