Elleda's Science Fair
February 9, 2009 — Daryl
I don’t know how I managed to find the time to keep sorting through photos, uploading my favorites to Flickr, and updating this site every month for several months running. But I seem to have forgotten whatever trick I was using.
So now I’ve got five months to catch up on.
But before I get to that (and in case it takes me more months to do so), I’ll describe the five photos I just uploaded.
I’m proud of how hard Elleda worked on her science fair experiment and display. And I’m happy for her for winning second prize in the K-to-3 group.
I didn’t get a photo of her and her display that I’m happy with, but I’ll get another chance at the Santa Cruz County Science Fair in March.
I’m also proud that Elleda’s biggest smiles were when her friend won first place.
August Photos
September 27, 2008 — Daryl
I took 58 photos in August worth uploading to Flickr.
Gabe and Elleda were in a soccer camp in early August again this year, with Coach Ivan (who they love). I took three photos worth uploading to Flickr—this one is my favorite.
Elleda's birthday party was at Adventure Sports, where Elleda and Gabe take swimming lessons. We maxed-out on the number of kids allowed at the pool, and they all appeared to have plenty of fun playing in the water. (There are several other swimming photos on Flickr in addition to the ones below.)
Elleda decided she wanted donuts at her party instead of cake. It proved to be a very popular choice.
I got some good shots of Henry at Elleda's party.
We met friends at the Boardwalk later in August. The kids had fun on the rides...
...but they ended up having a lot more fun on the beach, even though we didn’t think to bring bathing suits.
Afterwards we all enjoyed a soft ice-cream cone.
And a friend took a decent shot of the family.
On the last day of the month I got some good shots of Henry and Elleda around the breakfast table.
A Few More July Photos
September 26, 2008 — Daryl
I just realized (as I was about to write up the August photos I’ve uploaded to Flickr) that I never wrote up the few photos I took in July after we returned from Legoland (and uploaded to Flickr some time ago).
I took three decent close-ups of Elleda and her missing two front teeth. My favorite is actually the one with her mouth closed though. Of the other two, I think I like the first one best.
Elleda and Gabe were in a theater day camp which they enjoyed. I just have the one photo.
And they were also in a sports day camp. I got a few more good shots of that.
There are a few more (on Flickr) that I didn't put here.
Legoland Photos
July 18, 2008 — Daryl
I uploaded 57 photos taken at Legoland to Flickr. I sorted through many more than that, but I feel like the ratio of worth-uploading to total-taken is much better with my new camera. I still have a lot to learn, and there's plenty of room for improvement, but I'm happy with these early results.
These three taken at the entrance make a nice introduction to the set:
The kids had a lot of fun playing with these fountains that turn on when one jumps in the circles.
There were plenty of rides fun for all the kids, even Henry.
Elleda lost one of her front teeth the night before our first day at Legoland.
Here are a few more of Henry that I like:
Toward the end of the last day Elleda and Gabe each got in a silly mood that fed of the other’s. I had fun chasing them around and trying to capture it.
June Photos
July 8, 2008 — Daryl
40 photos taken in June were worth uploading to Flickr. It was a busy month, with the kids’ school years ending—at three different schools.
The day after building a tower of blocks with his Uncle Ryan, Henry started building “towers” out of anything he could find:
We went to a performance after Elleda and Gabe attended a one-week circus theater program:
We went camping (to Sunset State Beach) with friends we hadn’t seen for too long:
And I bought a new camera: a Nikon D300.
I had plenty of opportunities to try the new camera on our trip to Legoland. These photos are from our drive down on June 30, and our stay at a hotel in Santa Clarita (which was a nice way to break up the long drive).
I probably won’t wait until August to post the photos taken at Legoland. Stay tuned.
More May Photos
July 8, 2008 — Daryl
Claire suggested I look on her computer for more May photos—I found many more there. After sorting through them I found 19 worth uploading to Flickr. There are now 22 there from May.
These two are worth singling out here:
Elleda took several while we were camping (at Costanoa) that have unusual but interesting composition.
Her self-portraits are quite good:
May Photos
June 25, 2008 — Daryl
It took me a while to make time to sort through our May photos, and ironically we only took a total of 5 photos all month. (Three of them were worth uploading to Flickr.) We took photos on just one occasion: several classes at Elleda’s school put on a performance of the dances they've been studying. Elleda’s class learned the polka.
We’ve taken several more photos in June. Hopefully more than 3 will be worth uploading. Stay tuned.
April Photos
May 1, 2008 — Daryl
I uploaded 17 photos from April to Flickr.
We went camping twice in April (to kick off the year). The first time was at New Brighton State Beach. Just our family went, and we just stayed Saturday night. (We decided to start slowly.) The weather was great, and we spent quite a bit of time at the beach, both Saturday and Sunday.
The second time was with friends at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, just 5 minutes from home. But the kids don’t seem to mind that it’s such a short drive.
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I really like this one of Henry. |
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And this one’s fun. |
March Photos
April 30, 2008 — Daryl
I uploaded 9 photos from March to Flickr. Here are my favorites...
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Henry’s wearing his favorite “baseball-basketball hat” and baseball sweatshirt. |
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Watering the kids after watering the vegetable garden. |
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I really like this one Claire took of Gabe & Hannah. |
February Photos
April 29, 2008 — Daryl
Just 3 photos from February were worth uploading to Flickr.
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Everyone in Elleda’s kindergarten class had to bring in 100 of something for their hundredth day of school. Elleda chose sea shells. She and Claire gathered them all at the beach, and I drilled holes and they strung them into a (rather heavy) necklace. |
The kids like to climb in the neighbor’s tree...
August Photos
February 27, 2008 — Daryl
I just uploaded 17 photos from last August to Flickr.
Most of them are from Elleda’s birthday at a local park. We put together a treasure hunt with a series of clues leading to the next, culminating in buried treasure (with X marking the spot) in the sand of the playground. (I have fond memories of my dad setting up treasure hunts for us as a kids when we went camping near Penticton.) It was a big hit, but unfortunately none of the photos of all the kids running around and finding clues came out. You will see that many of the shots show them wearing keys to the little treasures chests they all got to put their loot in.
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Claire made cupcakes, each one with a fancy, unique design in icing. The kids had fun choosing. |
Having been banished from our backyard, the gophers tunneled under our house and starting attacking the front. By August, our lawn was a disaster area.
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But the kids made the most of it. |
Our lawn is looking much better now, thanks. (The gophers are in hiding. I doubt we’ve seen the last of them though.)
My iPhone is capable of taking decent photos (outside, when the light is right). These were taken at a birthday party at a friend's house. They had a face painter. (I blogged about the last two photos back in November.)
I like these two...
January Photos
February 3, 2008 — Daryl
11 photos from January were worth uploading to Flickr. (I included photos from Gabe’s birthday party on February 3rd.
Here are my favorites:
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We helped Elleda do a science fair project on “Why don’t spiders get stuck to their own webs?” |
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Gabe celebrated his birthday (on the 29th) at preschool... |
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...at Daddy’s work... |
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...and (on February 3rd) at Santa Cruz Gymnastics. |
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Claire and I got a kick out of this illustration of Gabe’s and Elleda’s distinct (and quite masculine and feminine respectively) dancing styles. |
September Photos
February 3, 2008 — Daryl
There weren’t too many from last September worth uploading to Flickr: just 9.
Here are my favorites:
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Watching TV |
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This was taken from our last visit to “the cabin” at Tahoe. Unfortunately we don’t seem to have any photos of Nana and Pa, who met us there. |
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This one shows the brothers’ different eye colors. Too bad Elleda isn’t in this shot. |
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Here’s a sweet one of Elleda. |
October Photos
January 3, 2008 — Daryl
If you’ve come here after getting our xmas card, see my apology below.
As I planned, I’ve begun uploading last year’s photos to Flickr, working backwards, starting with October. It turns out there are quite a few from October worth uploading: 43!
Here are my favorites:
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Henry had two (small) birthday parties, one at Skypark and one at school. |
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We didn’t make it to the pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay this year, but we did make it to one in Santa Cruz. You may recognize this photo from our xmas card. |
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This one should go in my 5 stars - 2007 set (when I create it). (The link is to my 5 stars - 2006 set for now.) |
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Gabe was very proud of the car he helped me build (out of cardboard, wrapped around Henry’s coupe-car). |
December Photos
January 2, 2008 — Daryl
If you’ve come here after getting our xmas card, see my apology below.
I just uploaded all our half-decent photos from December to Flickr. We didn’t get any of my dad, and there are none on xmas morning or of all the family together on xmas day. But we were understandably busy.
Here are my favorites:
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Elleda was quite proud to be chosen to receive a “Bear Hug” award. |
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Elleda and Gabe had fun caroling with kids from her school. |
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I was surprised at how good the Santa photo is this year. I didn't think Henry would actually sit on his lap (even as awkwardly as this). (This is one I took with our video camera—ignoring the sign requesting customers not to take their own photos.) |
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Gabe loved the skateboard he got from Nana and Pa. (Though this photo is somewhat staged. He needs to work on his balance before he can truly ride it standing up.) |
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Henry looks remarkably cool for a kid wearing a dinosaur costume and granny shades. |
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Elleda is proud of her (first) missing tooth (and the pendant she got from Santa). |
Happy Holidays
December 19, 2007 — Daryl
If you’ve come here after getting our xmas card, let me apologize for a couple things:
- I'm sorry I didn't write anything (other than my and this URL) on the card. But that’s better than apologizing for not sending cards at all—last year I had good intentions, but because I wanted to write a personal note on each card I never found the time to even get started.
- I'm sorry that (until now) this website hasn’t been updated in almost a year. But I'm working on that—see below.
I just uploaded my favorite photos from November to Flickr. There's only seven of them. I'll have to see if there are any others I missed on Claire’s computer or still on one of our cameras.
Speaking of cameras, two of the photos were taken with our (relatively new) Canon HV20:
They're somewhat grainy in low-light, but you can’t beat the convenience of being able to take photos while taking video.
Plans
December 18, 2007 — Daryl
I’ve let almost an entire year go buy without updating this site. It’s time to catch up. But I'm going to make some changes.
Back when I first setup this site (about five years ago when Elleda was born), if Flickr existed, I wasn't aware of it. I discovered it in the summer of 2006, and began uploading photos. I can upload an unlimited number of photos there, and there are no limits on their size. (So that's the best place to go for a full-size photos that you find on this site. All the photos on this site have been scaled down.)
For the rest of 2006, I continued to update this site and upload photos to Flickr. I started (somewhat haphazardly) inserting links on this site to sets of photos and slideshows on Flickr. And then I stopped making time to do either—sorry.
My plan is to (of course) resume updating this site. But I’m not going to upload any new photos here. This site will become more of a photoblog, with short descriptions of and links to the photos which will all be on Flickr.
I’m going to start uploading the most recent photos first, and then work my way back to the last photos on this site (December 2006). I'll continue to focus on uploading recent photos, but (probably slowly) also start uploading to Flickr the older photos not already there. My work will be done when all the photos on this site are on Flickr, and they all have links from here.
In the meantime, the old photos are still here.