Its a… camera!

After months of debating and contemplating over timeline, price and model we finally decided to take the plunge and purchase a DSLR camera! We went with a Canon EOS 60D. Say hello to our new love.

 
We fell in love with the image stabilization options on the lenses, quality of the lenses, ease of use, the flip out LCD screen (!), sensor clean system, shutter speed, and the list goes on and on. It even came with a 18-135mm lens. Since we were making such an investment we decided to up the ante and also purchase the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM telephoto lens. I know, we’re crazy. The only problem was that the actual camera body was out of stock at our store so it will arrive on Thursday morning, or so they guaranteed me. Perfect timing for my trip to Yellowstone this weekend :-)

I have taken a real interest in photography and I am even looking into some professional classes. Who knows where this interest will take me, but I am so excited to work hard and find out! This is the perfect camera to let me play and learn with manual settings and fun features. I am so excited to take some awesome pictures!

So, who wants their picture taken?  ;-)

Campfire Calzones

Here is a yummy camping recipe for campfire calzones.

Ingredients:

• Pita Bread
• 1 jar pizza sauce
• Mozzarella or pizza cheese
• Pepperoni slices
• Additional pizza toppings (optional)

Equipment Needed:

• Campfire
• Aluminum foil
• Spoon
• Long tongs
• Hot pad or oven mitt

Build a campfire. Cut each pita bread in half to make pita pockets. Spoon pizza sauce into pita pockets and spread it around. Stuff the pocket with cheese, pepperoni and any other toppings you want. Wrap each pita pocket tightly in aluminum foil. Place the wrapped calzones directly in the coals of the campfire and cook for 3 minutes, turning once. Using the long tongs, remove packets from fire. Using a hot pad or oven mitt, slowly unwrap packets. Enjoy!

What I’m Loving Wednesday

I’m linking up with Jamie for another week of What I’m Loving Wednesday!

I’m loving how much fun I had being a wedding coordinator ay my cousin’s wedding this past weekend. Perhaps this could be a new side job for me?

I’m loving that I got to see so many members of my extended family at my cousins wedding. Since we’ve all grown up and moved all over we don’t get to see everyone very often. Hopefully we can get the photo of all of us from the wedding photographer… because I didn’t get a picture. Oops!

I’m loving that my sweet second cousin (my cousin’s daughter) asked Dave to dance at the wedding, and he agreed. It brought a tear to my eye to watch him dance with her. Aren’t they cute?



I’m loving that I have some really exciting news… that I have to keep quiet for a little while longer. Sorry to tease, but I promise I will spill the beans soon!

I’m loving that I was invited to go to Yellowstone National Park with my friend, Brianna, and her friend, Stacie. It will be a fun girls weekend full of photography and beautiful views!

I’m loving that I got to take newborn pictures of Miss Makenzie. Isn’t she a doll?



And, of course, I’m loving my wonderful, hard-working husband!


What are you loving today?

Sarah - newborn photographer?

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go and visit one of my BFFs and her super cute, super sweet newborn baby girl. I’ve been really into photography lately so I was excited when she agreed to let me attempt to take some newborn photos of her little girl. The lighting inside the house wasn’t optimal, so we headed outside to see what we could get before the rain started (since afternoon storms are so common in Colorado). So, without further adieu, here are my best pictures of Miss Makenzie Quinn and her beautiful mama!

 

Clearly this was my first attempt at newborn photos, but I hope to get more practice in the future. The good news is I have some fun ideas for future sessions and ideas on how to get some better pictures, sans rain. Ha! I hope I get the opportunity to try again soon. Thank you to Trisha and Makenzie for being such great sports, and thanks again to Susan for the continued use of her camera!

My Midsummer Night’s Swap Package!

I received my Midsummer Night’s Swap package from my partner Laurie over at Life In Motion. In case you missed it, the purpose of the swap was to swap items that you would use on a summer evening.

Laurie and I chatted over email about what we like to do on summer evenings and I shared with her that we love to grill (well, Dave grills, but I love to prepare the food and eat it!) and have a glass of wine on our patio. This is what Laurie sent me:

The are skewers, a book, corn tray and holders set, frozen popsicle molds, burger seasoning and a sandwich & chip basket set. How fun! I know Dave and I will definitely enjoy using these items throughout the summer. The seasoning smells so good and I can’t wait to use it on some hamburgers or steak this week! Yum!

Laurie, thank you so much for the wonderful treats! This was certainly a fun summer pick-me-up!

Be sure to go and check out Laurie’s blog over at Life In Motion! Thanks again, Laurie!

What I’m Loving Wednesday

I’m linking up with Jamie again for another What I’m Loving Wednesday!

I’m loving that I get to meet my friend’s new little girl tomorrow! She is a week and a half old and it is high time I got to meet her!

I’m loving that I am going to attempt some newborn photos with that sweet little girl. I have never done newborn photos before but I am super excited to give it a try!

I’m loving that I get to be the wedding coordinator for my cousin’s wedding this weekend! I can’t wait to make sure her day goes the way she wants it.

I’m loving that some of my cousins from out of town will be visiting for the wedding this weekend! We haven’t seen them in a while and it will be so nice to catch up and meet some of my second cousins (their kids) who I haven’t met yet!

I’m loving that Gromit’s tummy is looking much better after being on antibiotics for 24 hours. He was bitten by ants and possibly a tick this weekend when we went camping. The vet decided it would be a good idea to start him on antibiotics to prevent Lyme disease.

I’m loving that I got my swap package from my Midsummer Night’s Swap partner last night! I’ll be posting about that tomorrow :-)

I’m always loving my super smart and super hard-working husband who I have been married to for four years!

What are you loving today? Be sure to link up with Jamie and share! Happy Wednesday!

Bugs and snow and bears… oh my!

This past weekend we finally had the chance to go camping! We love, love, love camping but we’ve been so busy this summer that we haven’t had a free weekend to do it. We went to one of our favorite spots a few hours away and we were surprised to find…

…snow! There wasn’t too much but is was all over the campground. Maybe that area didn’t get the memo that it is the middle of July! We had a great time setting up camp, cooking some fun new camp recipes (I’ll share those in a separate post), taking pictures, hiking and geocaching!

We found a nice trail to hike on Saturday and it even had a geocache at the end! On our way back to the car we heard a rustling and grumbling noise coming from just a little ways off the trail. Dave an I both stopped dead in our tracks and listened for more sounds. We heard more grumbling but it stopped so we carefully carried on down the trail and started talking so that we wouldn’t startle any wild animal around. We stopped again when the noise started up again, seemingly closer that it was last time. Gulp! It stopped and we continued walking and talking until we finally came to a clearing near the end of the trail where we saw this:

I don’t know what you think, but that looks like a bear print to me! I am so glad we got out of there before we saw the bear, and before the bear saw us!

The bugs were out in full force and I received no less than 20 mosquito bites even though I drenched myself in bug spray and had nearly every kind of mosquito repellent going around me (Off! candles, mosquito coils, etc.). Even poor Gromit has bite marks on his belly from ants and, possibly, ticks. We had to take him to the vet yesterday to be looked at because he had bite marks that looked like bullseyes. The vet put him on antibiotics to prevent Lyme disease in case he was bitten by ticks. Poor baby!

Despite the snow and bugs and scary moments, we had a wonderful time camping and I can’t wait until we get to do it again!

Happy 4th Anniversary!

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary! I am so happy to be married to such a wonderful man and I can't believe it has already been four years!

To the man I love:

I love that you make me smile when I'm feeling sad

I love that you are so spontaneous and fun

I love that you always seem to know just what I need

I love that you put up with my crazy antics

I love that you drag me out of bed to workout in the morning

I love that we have the same vision for our future

I love how adverturous we are together

I love how you can fix almost anything around the house

I love that you work so hard to provide for us

I love how silly we can be together

I love how great of a doggie daddy you are

I love that I can tell you are going to be an amazing dad some day

I love that you are willing to see movies with me at midnight when you have to work the next day

I love that you love me

I love who I am when I'm with you

Happy 4th Anniversary, Dave! Here's to a million more!

What I’m Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! I hope you all are having a fabulous week so far! Here’s what I’m loving this week:

I’m loving that my friend had her baby this past weekend! She welcomed a beautiful little girl into their family and I can’t wait to go meet her next week!

I’m loving that my cousin asked me to be her wedding coordinator for her wedding next weekend! I am so excited to help her in any way I can and make sure her day goes just the way she wants it to!

I’m loving that the last Harry Potter movie comes out this week! I am so excited to see how the story ends, and I know it is going to be a great movie!

I’m loving the new blog design I’m working on! It is not quite finished yet, but I can’t wait to be able to put it up soon.

I’m loving that we are going camping this weekend! This is probably the only time we’ll get to go all year because our weekends are so busy, so I’m really looking forward to this trip.

I’m loving this new Vera Bradley pattern! It is called Happy Snails and it is from the new fall collection of colors. I have an unhealthy obsession with Vera Bradley stuff so I think I’ll be needing something in this cute pattern soon!

And, I’m loving that tomorrow I will have been married to this wonderful man for four years!

Rolling down the river

Last week Dave told me he had a surprise for me… he scheduled a rafting trip to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary! We both love to go rafting but we don’t do it often. This was a fantastic surprise! So today was the day of our rafting trip and we had a blast!

We rafted through class III and IV rapids which were more challenging and technical than anything we have done before. The ride was great and we hit rapid after rapid - certainly no boring float sections! We were in a raft with some inexperienced rafters and so there was a few rough spots on the trip, but we made it through and nobody fell out of the raft. The trip photographer caught this awesome photo if us going through some rapids:

Yep, that’s us in that raft. Pretty cool, huh? Thank you, Dave, for such a wonderful anniversary surprise! Happy (early) Anniversary! I love you!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Its Wednesday and I am so excited to share some of the things I am loving this week! Be sure to link up with Jamie and share what YOU are loving today.

I'm loving that tonight is date night (it is every Wednesday for us) and we have a fun picnic planned at one of our favorite spots in the canyon. I just hope we don't get rained out!

I'm loving that one of my best friends should be welcoming her first child into the world this week! I can't wait to meet this new little girl!

I'm loving that Dave and I are re-watching all of the Harry Potter movies in anticipation of Deathly Hollows, Part 2 coming out next Friday. We've already got our tickets to the 12:03 a.m. showing... in 3D!

I'm loving that Dave surprised me and scheduled a rafting trip for us on Sunday! Rafting is one of my favorite but rarely done activities. We are going to have so much fun going through class III and IV rapids!

I'm loving that our 4th wedding anniversary is next week! I can't believe it has already been four years!

I'm loving that I decided to extend the sign up for our super fun summer swap through today since there may be some new visitors to my blog who may not have heard about it yet. Sign up before midnight to participate! Click below to find out more and to sign up.

<center><a href="http://dandelion-chronicles.blogspot.com/2011/06/midsummer-nights-swap.html " title="A Midsummer Night’s Swap"><img src="http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/ac293/munchkin_land_designs/Buttons/SummerSwap2.png" alt="A Midsummer Night’s Swap"></a>

As always, I'm loving my super fun and spontaneous husband!

Happy Wednesday!

Let freedom ring!

Happy 4th of July! (a day late)

We had so much fun yesterday planning and being at a picnic with some of our family and great friends! Independence Day is my favorite holiday because it is a day to relax and just hang out with people.

Dave and I planned a fun picnic at our City Park for friends and family. We spent all morning getting some food ready, and in the process of slicing onions on our mandolin, I somehow sliced right through the tip of my finger along with the onion. Ouch! It seems that I always have some sort of kitchen mishap when trying to do something fun; like the cake that overflowed on Valentine's Day 2010 or last year's 4th of July cake which fell apart for no good reason or when I somehow cut my breast cleaning a microwave prepping for a Pampered Chef fundraiser. Some days I feel like an accident waiting to happen. We tried to stop the bleeding and bandage up my finger but I went through at least five Band-Aids before it stopped. Needless to say, I was not allowed near any other sharp objects for the rest of the day. Thank goodness I have a sweet husband who steps in to help me out when I somehow injure myself for no good reason.

We had a wonderful time at the park with family and friends. We had a yummy spread of food and we had a great time chatting and catching up with everyone. Matt and Janeal were visiting from out of town and stopped by the picnic so we could see their daughter, Lily, and meet their latest additions, twins Alexander and Xavier. Gromit did a great job around the kids! He was patient when Lily was trying to walk pull him on a leash and he was very sweet and patient as the 11-month-old babies tried to pet him (which was more like hitting) and pull his hair. I think he's going to be great when we finally have a baby.

The only big downer of the day was when we found out from some grumpy police officers that the city changed the park rules this year and didn't allow dogs in the park for fireworks. They said that signs were posted "everywhere" letting people know, but we didn't see any signs. Reluctantly we took G home and tried to make him comfortable so he wouldn't be scared of fireworks when we weren't there. He seemed to do OK :-)

The fireworks were great and I was glad to still be borrowing Susan's camera so I could get some great fireworks pictures! Thanks again, Susan!



Don't forget, today is your last day to sign up for this fun swap! Just click the button below for more info. We can't wait to swap with everyone!

<center><a href="http://dandelion-chronicles.blogspot.com/2011/06/midsummer-nights-swap.html " title="A Midsummer Night’s Swap"><img src="http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/ac293/munchkin_land_designs/Buttons/SummerSwap2.png" alt="A Midsummer Night’s Swap"></a>

I hope you had a great 4th of July! And thank you to all of our military members who continue to fight to keep our country free!