My husband and I helped our friends move today. Well, we helped them move all their boxes from their new garage into their new home. It appears that my friends aren’t the only ones on the move. This little family was right around the corner from their house.
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I’ve been MIA for the past few days. I haven’t gone far; more posts to come soon. I’m now trying to play catch up. This photos is from Monday. We went to Weedon Island with my brother, Jacob, and his family. I love that little family so much. Here’s Jacob showing Molly (his daughter) how to jump for the camera.
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This week’s Sunday Outing took us to the Kapok Tree (aka Sam Ash). Sixteen years ago Ken & I had our wedding reception there. It was the fairytale ending to my fairytale wedding. The Kapok Tree is a special event venue in Clearwater, complete with beautiful gardens off the banquet rooms. It was Ken’s idea to take the boys and show them where we par-tayed after we got married.
It’s no longer exclusively an event venue. The location also serves as Sam Ash, a music store. A huge music store. It appears that they do still rent out the rooms for special events though. To our disappointment, they haven’t kept up the gardens as I would have guessed. I can understandd why; it can’t be cheap to keep up all the flowers and fountains. It’s still a nice place to visit but just not as grand as it used to be. I’m including this post in my “Touristing” category and encourage you to visit it for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
These are the first gardens you enter:
For our reception, our guests entered here and were escorted into a smaller ballroom for drinks and appetizers while we had our pictures taken. It was so pretty lit up that night.
This is a close up of the wall above. The fountains were not running when we were there with the boys but when Ken visited a few days ago, they were running.
This wall runs along the perimeter of the gardens. Beautiful, isn’t it?
There was a photographer taking pictures of a model in the gardens next to the Grand Ballroom so I didn’t get a wide shot of those gardens. And the Grand Ballroom wasn’t open but I put my camera right up to the glass & got these shots of the inside. Our bridal party walked right down that staircase to the head table.
This huge chandelier is right in the middle of the room.
During dinner, our guests were seated on the lower level as well as in the balcony. It was a dream reception. I sure wish I could have gotten inside the ballroom to take my pictures.
The wall opposite the staircase is one big, giant window so you have a view into the gardens from the inside. These columns are all along that window:
While there, the family decided to have fun with my new camera remote.
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After a zillion pictures (with everyone getting a chance to try the remote), I went back to the camera to adjust the settings so that my mom & dad could join in the fun. We got a few shots with all of us. A nice one, one with “jazz hands” and this sophisticated one. Jackson thought this was hilarious (he’s on the left, cracking up):
We had a great time sharing a special part of our lives with the boys. I highly suggest you visit. Even though it’s not as pretty as it was in 1995 and now it’s also a music store, it’s worth a visit. And while you’re there, you can pickup a set of guitar strings!
You can check out the Kapok’s website here. The pictures are beautiful and you can get an idea of what it looks like to have an event here. Thanks, mom & dad for THE best wedding (and reception) ever!
Since this is the longest blog post known to mankind, I’ll continue. We left Kapok Tree and drove across the street to Kapok park. I had no idea this existed. I could tell you the story of how it used to be a mobile home park and now is a beautiful park but I’ll let you visit & read the story for yourself. This is another place I suggest you visit. It offers paved pathways, picnic areas and a boardwalk over wetland areas complete with ducks, mice alligators and many, many birds. And trees. Lots of trees. I’ll let my pictures do the talking since I’m nearing 1,000 words already.
And since I hate to leave my boys out…
Went down south of Sarasota with my parents to look for some rocks. They’re installing a waterfall and small stream/pond in their back yard and need some rocks. Since they’re pretty expensive to buy, we thought we could find some along the road near the Myakka River. No such luck. But I did find a neat picture (after I doctored it up a little). It was so hot and humid. I was reminded, once again, why I don’t love Florida. I know this looks all peaceful but all I can remember was sweating. It was still a fun day, though. The boys loved being outside & didn’t seem to mind the heat. Although, I did hear Jackson say once, “It’s frickin hot outside!” From the mouthes of babes.
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This is something that I like about my town: you don’t have to drive too far to find a brick road.
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I don’t know how this keeps happening to me. This is the 2nd time my not-so-nifty-fifty lens has broken. It’s not an expensive lens but it’s the only one I have other than my kit lens. They only run about $125 and mine hasn’t lasted a year. It broke in February and I had it repaired for $60 and now this. And this happened IN my camera bag. What irks me most is the fact that I normally don’t even use my bag; I just carry my camera around with me ready to shoot at any given time. But I put it in my bag yesterday and when I pulled it out at home, this is what I saw.
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So what’s a girl to do? Until yesterday, I was trying to figure out what lens to get next year. What lens should I buy for our Europe trip? And now I’m trying to decide what lens to get now? I certainly don’t have any disposable income. I’m a stay at home mom and we’re not rich by ANY stretch of the imagination. We struggle like anyone else but one thing we don’t do is use credit cards. And I’m not using one for this, that’s for sure. So, I’m asking you, my fellow photographers, what is your lens of choice? What do you shoot with 90% of the time? Is it a zoom lens? A prime? What’s the aperture?
I really hate to move to a zoom lens (and stay under $500) and lose my wider aperture. What say ye? Any thoughts as I save up for another lens? I surely won’t have this one repaired again.
I had to keep this under wraps yesterday in case my friend, Steffie, read my blog. It’s her birthday today and I made these amaretto cupcakes especially for her. I found these cupcake decorations way back in January and I have waited all this time to use them. Here’s something you should know about me: buying in advance is something I never do. Sometimes I buy the gift a day or two in advance but I’m usually buying the card and gift bag on the WAY to parties. So purchasing something 5 months in advance is a huge step for me.
Since Steffie loves cats, this is perfect for her. It’s a good thing she’s married and has a child or else she’d be in danger of becoming that lady/old maid. That’s how much she loves her cats.
Happy birthday, Steffie! I’m so blessed to know you & call you friend/freund. You make coffee and breakfast so much more enjoyable each and every week. Your sense of humor is unbelievably amazing and I’m only happier for knowing you. Enjoy your birthday and don’t count calories today.
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A few months ago I signed up for a pen pal list and my first letter came yesterday! I’m so thrilled to be starting this. I’ve sent out 4 letters so far and can’t wait to hear from the other girls. I’ve always wanted a pen pal and actually had one for a short time when I was in 5th grade. That didn’t last long & I lost contact with Stacie Boutelier (I think that’s how you spell it). If you know her, have her drop me a line. She moved to California when we were in 5th grade. She was a cool chick.
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Interested? Click here for more info…
And someone was curious about my dessert from last night. It’s called Cocoa-Almond Pudding Treat. It’s really easy so maybe I’ll post the recipe if anyone is interested. You mix a bunch of stuff together, put stuff on top of that mixed up stuff, bake & end up with pudding on the bottom and a fluffy cake on top. It’s super yummy and SUPER easy.
I think I hear it calling my name. I should probably go answer.
This is Ken’s favorite dinner. Chicken breaded with BBQ potatoe chips. I have to admit, it is pretty yummy but I didn’t invent it. Katie Brown did. Back when Ethan was first born and VHS tapes were commonly used, I recorded all her shows and discovered this recipe.
I know this photo breaks a bunch of food photography “rules” and since I’m tired and it’s too dark to go looking for other things to photograph, I’m using it anyway. So there. I’m not in school anymore and there’s no chance of getting an F.
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I also made his favorite dessert, too. Yeah, he’s a lucky guy.
Due to a pretty packed schedule, we only had a small amount of time for our Sunday Outing this week. Remember when I talked about Abercrombie Park? Well, that’s where we went. We packed the five of us (Ken, myself, the boys and the dog) into the car and headed for the park.
Here they are in the water. It usually takes Rex a while to warm up to the idea of swimming. Maybe someone needs to tell him he’s a labrador.
This park is FULL of trees that have low hanging branches like this.
Ethan snapped this picture of Jackson. When we’re outside, Jackson is usually playing in the dirt, shoeless and/or shirtless. Two out of three isn’t bad.
Two of my handsome boys:
I’m not sure what exactly this is. It’s just randomly placed in the park near some shrubs. No marker or anything to let you know why it’s there. I liked it, though. Just a reminder.
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Next week’s Sunday Outing should be fun. We’re taking the boys to where Ken & I had our wedding reception. It’s a beautiful garden in Clearwater. Then we’ll head to a nearby park. I’m finding that I really look forward to these days. I think we spend a lot of time together as a family. We have dinner together every night and right now, the boys aren’t old enough to be gone with friends during the weekend so we really do spend a lot of time together. I think I enjoy these because we’re outside without TV or video games, iPhones (we bring them but don’t spend time goofing off on them). We’re just with each other. I love this new tradition of ours. What are some of your favorite traditions?
Freckles and Fences 