Gracie found a little quiet time during the pre-Christmas craziness, to curl up with a good book. There’s some thing about the ambient light that the Christmas tree adds to a room that I really enjoy his time of year.

Last year my oldest daughter created “old fashioned ribbon candy” Christmas tree ornaments to sell to our neighbors, friends, and family. She donated 100% of the proceeds to the Children’s Miracle Network to help with children’s cancer research. She sold them for $2.00 each. Her goal was to raise $100. She raised just over $430. Now, both my girls are getting involved, and are continuing the effort again this year with a new charitable organization in mind: Feeding South Dakota. These are prototypes of this year’s ornament. These are a little more involved, so they’ve decided to raise the price of each ornament to $3.00 this year.

Today, my philanthropic daughter delivered a cashier’s check for the total of all the donations she received for her Christmas ornament project. Her original goal was to raise $100, by selling 50 ornaments. She smashed that goal and raised $431.38. Her younger sister donated what she could from her piggy bank, pushing the total over the $431 mark.

I love the holiday season. Today, I got to spend a little time in my youngest daughter’s 3rd grade classroom helping her make a “Gingerbread House.” Although it was actually graham crackers over a milk carton base, it was a ton of fun to work on with her!

My oldest daughter is creating “old fashioned ribbon candy” Christmas tree ornaments. She has a wonderful caring heart. Her goal is to make a whole bunch of these ornaments and sell them for $2.00 each. She will be donating 100% of the proceeds to the Children’s Miracle Network. She would like to help with children’s cancer research. I’m helping her effort by making an informational flier for her philanthropic endeavor. I am continually flabbergasted by the thoughtfulness of my kids.

Our youngest attended a birthday party sleepover this past weekend, and created this little guy at the party. The clay is sort of a foamy type modeling material. The plastic feet base came with the kit. Totally cool. I have never seen anything like it. Great work kiddo!

Ah Memorial Day. The unofficial Beginning of Summer. Many families around the U.S. spend the holiday enjoying the outdoors. Our family is no exception. It was a gorgeous day; a gorgeous weekend.

We started into the weekend with a list of chores to do around the house that have been nagging at us for months. We indeed did get a few things done over the course of the weekend such as: remodel a bathroom, till and plant the garden, dig and cement a post for a basketball hoop, mow our jungle of a yard, fit in a Monday afternoon softball practice, and a few other small chores. But the most memorable part of our weekend was the time we spent together exploring and hiking at the Palisades State Park. The girls have been wanting to go see it for a while now, and there really was no better time like the present.

I just learned this morning that my 10 year old daughter won first place in a photo contest! For her winning entry, she’ll receive a $200 U.S. Savings Bond. The contest was hosted by the South Dakota National Guard Youth and Family Program. The theme of the contest was “Family and Patriotism.” My daughter came up with the concept and took the photo. The only help I gave her was getting the camera settings set up (my professional digital is a little unwieldy), and helping her convert the digital image to black and white (the black and white was her idea). It was all her own creativity that made this photo. She came up with the name of the photo: “Grandfather Salute.” The photo is of me in my dress blues, saluting the grave of my father. My dad was in the Air Force in the late 50′s and 60′s. I was born on an Air Force Base in northern Michigan. My dad is the main reason I joined the Air Force, and have served in the Air National Guard since. This is truly a proud moment!

My wife is a wonderful pianist. Every so often she treats me to a little music. Tonight she played some Billy Joel while I enjoyed a glass of wine.

This is a photo of my youngest daughter quietly, contentedly reading to herself. I was sitting next to her on the couch as she read, enjoying the sight of her in such a relaxed state of mind. It inspired me to pick up my camera, and get back into the mindset that even the small things are worth stopping for and taking notice.

Our oldest turned 10 this morning at 6:32am. Tonight we had birthday cake and pizza with our family. The big party with her friends is this weekend. One of her brithday gifts tonight was an “M” ear ring holder. As you can see in these photos, she has quite the collection of ear rings.

The meteorologists were right! The big storm of the 2009 holiday season is upon us. It’s been snowing and blowing for the past 36 hours. It finally let up a little so the girls’ could get out and play. There’s a 6 foot high drift right in front of our door.

Thanksgiving 2009: Uncle Al carves the bird, Gracie eagerly awaits at the kids’ table, and the marshmallows are toasted to perfection on the sweet potatoes.

My youngest daughter drew this about 2 years ago, inside one of my note pads. I just ran across it again. I know that as a dad with two girls, I am in for a heaping helping of teenage girl emotions ahead of me. I hope that as they get into those awkward years, they remember how they saw themselves when they were 5.

Gracie found this little guy, and like kids will do, decided she wanted to keep him as a pet. After a night cooped up in an old milk jug, we convinced her that he would be better off back in the wild with his family.

The idea that a plant can grow from a tiny seed, into a large fruit-bearing plant in a matter of months has always amazed me. This is our 4th year of working the soil in our garden, which was initially a large patch of rock-solid clay. For the past 4 seasons, we’ve tilled-in compost, peat, and mulch. We now have rich, dark soil. Our garden has really been growing strong this year. The plentiful rain this year has certainly played a part as well. All of our plants are producing large volumes for harvest.

This morning, there was a thick coat of dew across the entire region. These photos are details from some of the plants in our garden.

We took a little family road trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant in De Smet Friday night. If you haven’t been, it’s a good old-fashioned, low-tech family fun event. Volunteer actors audition for the roles of Pa, Ma, Laura, Mary, and the whole cast of Little House on the Prairie characters. Right after we rode the horse-drawn wagon, the girls got to pet the horses.

On the river, we hooked up with friends Jack and Joelle who have a house boat. It took a little coaxing, and seeing dad do it, but finally the girls put on their Brave Faces and jumped off the top deck of the house boat. It’s about a 15 foot drop, and was even a little intimidating for dad at first. These 3 shots are a sequence of one of Gracie’s many jumps. View Post

The day started out a little gray and gloomy, but at least we didn’t encounter any rain. As the afternoon progressed, we finally saw the sun! We had a great few hours on the boat with our friends Dave and Stacy. This photo is of Maddie and Gracie on the tube behind the boat. View Post

We stayed at Cedar Shore Resort in Chamberlain, SD for the Independence Day holiday weekend. We drove there Friday morning, hoping for a day of fun and sun on the boat. Instead we had a gloomy, rainy day. This photo of Gracie looking out the window of our room at the wet, dreary day says it all. View Post

This is a shot looking down the 3rd base line as a girl makes a hit, at my oldest daughter’s softball game. View Post

Gracie reading in the living room. Practicing my HDR skills.

We tried 3 times to catch the fireworks show at Magic Kindgom, over Cinderella’s castle. Our girls were too tired to stay the first time, and we were rained out the second time. Finally, on our last night at Dinsey World, we were able to catch the show. It was well-worth the wait. We have memories we’ll never forget.

Disney doesn’t waste a single opportunity to immerse visitors in an experience. this metallic statue of Goofy sits right out side of Tony’s Italian Ristorante, where Lady and the Tramp have their famous spaghetti encounter.

The City Hall building at Magic Kingdom just before the park closed for the night.

To get anywhere at Disney World, we rode our Resort’s bus. Sometimes we’d have some down time while we waited for the bus to leave.

The iconic sphere at Epcot. Inside is the ride Spaceship Earth.

Part of the show at Festival of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom Disney World. Everyone else at the show was using their point-and-shoot cameras with the flash. This one turned out nice because of the slower shutter speed that captured the motion of the twirling flame. I love how the glow of the flames lights up the crowd.

Acrobatics at the Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom Disney World

On our trip to Disney World, we also saw Japan. At Epcot’s World Showcase Pavilion.

We took a family vacation to Disney World. This is our flight to Orlando. We’re somewhere over Georgia.

Meet Robo-Elvis. He’s a 22 inch high, Hound Dog singin’ machine. Literally. Robo-Elvis was conceived by my 9 year-old daughter for a school project. The assignment was “Junk Robots.” the kids had to build robots out of things found around the house. (Yes. The Elvis Sunglasses were lying around the house…)

Robo-Elvis has a mini-cassette recorder that plays “Hound Dog.”

When asked what Robo-Elvis’ occupation? Lounge Singer. Teacher’s Lounge Singer.

Great work, Maddie!

These shots were taking at my youngest daughter’s birthday party at Suburban Lanes. Each of these shots on their own aren’t extraordinary. But the sequence is fun!

We’ve been living on Gilligan’s Island since Easter, when our girls received the entire 3 season series collection on DVD. Every chance they get, the girls sneak in an episode or two. Today our youngest, Gracie sculpted these little guys. C’mon, you recognize them. It’s The Skipper, his Little Buddy Gilligan, and The Professor! I couldn’t resist taking a couple snapshots of these guys on their “set”. I think they’re adorable.

Nothing like cute creativity to interrupt the flow of “Lines” and “Angles”. I couldn’t be happier to have the series interrupted.

After family dinner, I took a stroll with my camera and found this little guy having his own Easter feast.

Last night was the annual school carnival fund raising event. Lots of fun! Of course, we partook in the tradition of the circular musical walk for baked goods. My oldest daughter, Maddie won a strawberry cake. The other tradition of school carnivals is the guarantee that before you leave the event, your pockets will be filled with Tootsie Rolls, cheap little toys, erasers, and pencils: All the spoils of winning the ring toss, duck pond, fishing wall, “Plinko,” and other wonderful games the quality of which can only be found at local school carnivals. It’s nice to see that some traditions haven’t changed. I remember these same games and little plastic prizes when I was a kid. My youngest, Gracie was on a mission to collect all the colors of gel frogs available; she ended up with four. These little guys look pretty neat with the sun shining in behind them on the kitchen counter. Thanks to Gracie for the inspiring frogs!

I’m working at home this afternoon, trying to get some photo work done for a few clients. It’s nice and quiet, and I am getting a lot done. But my work buddy, Scout seems to want to go out and come in every 5 minutes. (I think he’s trying to tell me that it’s too nice to be sitting inside behind the computer. Perhaps he’s right…) This got me thinking… I set up my camera and shot this using a long timer. After a long pause without seeing me through the window, I wondered what he’d do. It’s kind of funny to see Scout’s expression when he doesn’t think he’s being watched.

Motion, light, beauty and grace.

Thanks to my buddy Craig for inspiring this one. There are a few ideas yet to explore here. I’ll probably be posting more of these sparkler shots in the near future.

Macro flower photography is good stuff. This detail of a lily is especially interesting. These flowers were for my oldest daughter’s birthday.