Hocking Hills

I finally created a book from the photos I took in Ohio and the end of October. (My girlfriend from childhood lives in Indiana and she wanted to see the Hocking Hills area of Ohio -- she convinced me to go there with her for a girls weekend. I wanted to take some photos of the waterfalls in the area and she wanted to hike -- it was a perfect weekend for both of us.) These are some of those photos. I thought they turned out alright considering I do not consider myself a landscape photographer. I thought the long exposures on the waterfalls were okay -- it was so misty and dark inside the canyons I used too high an ISO than I should have but for my first foray into waterfalls I am pleased overall. I had a great vacation and I hope to take another "girls weekend" again in the future.

I finally edited some photos from our vacation to Santa Barbara. I sent these off to be printed yesterday -- if they turn out (even if they do not) these are the pics I am going to put up in my house.

Dagney graduated from Kindergarten on Thurdsay. For the graduation the students put on the cutest program with singing and dancing. They were so cute. They even got to turn their tassels on their graduation caps -- so cute!!! Afterwards, we hosted a graduation party for all her track at the water park. I put on the party with Kim and we provided water and snowcones for the new 1st graders. Tons of FUN!!!

Ummm, sure some of you had BBQ's and pool parties for the 4th. You probably traveled, since you had a three-day weekend and you hung out with friends and family. I am sure many of you saw parades and let off fireworks and had hot dogs and hamburgers. You had a great weekend and so did we -- sort of. I ran the kids into BC to watch the parade but afterwards there was no fun pool party for us - no sir. I forced my family "Chad" into slave labor and we stained the concrete in our garage. Oh yea, it was a bit hot out but that only made the stain dry faster hehe. Staining concrete is not the most difficult project we have undertaken but the 100+ temps did not help any. It is a three step process - you need to etch the concrete with acid (did I mention you have to scrub in the acid), then you spray on the stain (it helps if your sprayer does not have a cracked hose inside of it) and finally you roll on the sealer. Sound easy -- and it was - but it was really hot outside and well I like to complain. Here are some pics -- hope we did it right, I am too scared to drive the car in yet!!!

On Friday, Chad decided that it was time for Dagney to learn to ride a "balance" bike. Dagney has mentioned from time to time that she wanted to learn how to properly ride a bike but since I have never had much interest in her learning I never did pursue her interests. However, Chad had been thinking about it for a while and got up early on Friday and gave Dagney her first lesson in the Mission Hills Chapel parking lot. Twenty minutes and lots of sweat later Dagney was up and running. Yikes, she now has her first set of wheels.