Our yearly hike

I've mentioned here before that we take a yearly hike to the top of this hill to get some pictures of the foliage and of course my beautiful children, this year despite all it's obstacles was not exception. The bonus was that Ron felt well enough to come along too! First up was Andrew, looking back at the other photos on here makes me want to cry, he's growing up so quickly but he's turning into a fine young man.

Next up was Faith, no longer a child, a  beautiful young lady on the inside and out. She's come a long way from an itty bitty preemie... Poor girl, 4th bout of poison ivy this year!

 Then came Ron's turn. I'm so thankful to have this picture of him
                                                    

 I wanted a couple shots of each of us with the kids and love how these came out.

But this is my favorite shot!

 Well, this might be a second favorite, if I'm being honest.


We all had a nice time and enjoyed the view of Mt. Washington, the delightful fall foliage and the time spent together in the company of loved ones. I have no idea why God has chosen to bless me with such a wonderful family, but I am eternally thankful.

test pictures from the new camera

Alright, I admit, I like to take pictures! The poor little camera was just about worn out from all the pictures I've taken in the nearly 6 years I've used it, having used it nearly every day. This I blame on Ron, as he said to me in conversation a long time ago that "you can never have too many pictures of your kids." I think I took it to an extreme. Oh well, when I am old I can look back and see what a wonderful life we had and I'll get to see my children grow up all over again and it will be wonderful! All that being said it was time for a new camera, this new one has a longer life battery (I assume they mean under normal conditions) and nearly 4 times the mega pixels and a heck of a zoom! It arrived this afternoon and I promptly got the battery charged so tonight I could just goof off with it and took like 79 pictures checking out the different settings, options and lighting, and only slightly blinded the family. Here are just a few I popped off... It's AWESOME!!! And we paid cash for it which makes it even better!

the rest of the pictures

Yesterday we took the goats on a walk into the woods, well the purpose was to go to the top of the hill and take the annual fall pictures. Having the goats along made for some interesting pictures and much needed cropping. While I was setting the self timer on the camera, Katie (the goat) was certain we wanted her to be in the picture and would wait just off camera until just before the picture was taken and walked in. Ugh! Oh well, memories!
Just last year this was Andrew, I don't think he's changed that much, but he certainly doesn't look like my baby anymore...

And beautiful Faith, oddly enough looks older last year, I think it's the hair. Too quickly they grow up!

Good friends, I'm so proud of how well they get along!

Andrew and Buckley

My budding artiste!

And all of us together in the one picture I could crop the goats out of!

a walk in the woods with the goats

So what did we do this afternoon? Went to the top of a hill to take some pictures of the fall foliage, with the goats. We had a great time, so did the goats!

Kids...Keys...Camera...

In my family I'm known as the picture taking fool, alright, just the fool. One sister takes pictures and doesn't develop them, and my other sister rarely takes pictures so for her I started a chant for her to start saying before she leaves the house; kid, keys, camera, so that when she goes somewhere she'll have the camera and when an opportunity arises she'll be prepared. Since coming up with that for her I need to add click to the chant as even though she has the camera she needs to be gently reminded to use it. Well, this is part of the reason I'm known as the picture taking fool. Almost every morning this week we've seen some sort of wildlife on our way to or from the dairy barn.

First it was this family of Canadian geese, there were 3 other families of geese in this field, but only captured this one.

Second was this huge snapping turtle laying eggs on the side of the road. Literally the side, as you can see the road that is fairly busy there in the picture. So she doesn't get points for being smart, but she got the job done. On our way back home I stopped so the kids could see the nest. We didn't disturb it, they just wanted to see what it looked like after she left.


Faith and Andrew near the nest.

Third, since March of 2005, (when we got this digital camera) I've taken well over 17,700 pictures. When I told my mother that she jokingly asked me if I missed one second of them blinking or something. Then I told her that that did not include any of the pictures that had been deleted, the pictures from the other digital camera that we had before this one or any of the pictures that were taken with film! Yes, I am rightly called the picture taking fool, but if my memory fails me when I'm old, at least my children can look back at their lives and see what they did even if I cannot recall it. God forbid that should happen...