Random

I have a friend who loves to take pictures of the sunsets here in Colorado.  She has taken some gorgeous shots.  She sent me over two, and when I saw this one I knew exactly which night she took it because it looks just like the colors in the one that I took with Nathan.  AND yes the colors WERE that bright and beautiful!  I think those grays in the rest of the sky really highlight the orange.

A few of you emailed and commented on my settings for my sunset silhouette.  You absolutely can not use a flash because it blows the entire picture.  Which means that you can't use your auto setting unless you have it set to not fire your flash.
I had my 50mm lens on, so that meant I would be able to have a lot of light coming into my camera with that.  I then toned down the amount of light coming in by turning down my ISO to 200, aperture at 4, and shutter speed at 1/125 to keep the exposure somewhat close.  Of course there are many combinations of settings that could result in a similar shot.  Hope that answers your questions.  Oh, and I did focus on Nathan!

Next is a fun package that the Ferris Family sent to us.  Of course she is creative!  She sent us three books that have outdoor games and crafts.  In her letter she told us to pick something out of them.  Then to head to Walmart with her gift card to get treats, pop, and chips.  Then ANOTHER gift card to Subway to pick up sandwiches.  The last step in her letter is to go to a great location and do our outdoor activity with our lunch. 
Isn't that going to be sooo fun!  What a creative package Tanya!  THANK YOU!!!

Also I wanted to highlight art that was floating around here this week.  Ashley is very into adding elbows and fingernails to pictures.  She said this is a picture of a mom getting a baby for a present on Christmas.
Then Jacob was doodling and created a little hint for his dad to take him snowboarding again...

We had the Wright Family over for dinner and games last night.  I was tired from all the kids basketball games from the day and was wishing that I could just snuggle with a good book.  BUT I am soooo glad we did it.  We cleaned the entire house top to bottom before the Wright's came, and the kids didn't complain a bit.  They have seven kids that match up fairly close to my kids ages and genders.  After dinner I divided everyone into groups according to their ages, and had the grown ups in a group too.  We had five groups and four stations with really quick games.  The fifth group on the rotation would go in and help the youngest group with their little games.  It was a lot of fun.  We finished off the night with dessert.

And that concludes yet another very Random Post!