172/365...Dirt

This is the second year that both of our boys have had the chance to participate in Pioneer Camp here in St. Pete. Pioneer Camp is basically just an all day outdoor playing in the muck, mire and dirt with no restrictions or limitations kind of thing. Both of our boys LOVE this. What boy wouldn't. These are two of the feet that came home today. Nothing had been washed off when I took this picture. Jackson had just removed his socks and shoes and I snapped the picture. Now, that's one dirty kid, folks.

112/365...Boys at play

My youngest son, Jackson, turned 8 on Monday. Tonight, we had his official party. With four of his buddies. As a sleepover. Such.noisy.boys. And full of incredible and unending energy. Here's just a brief "capture of the excitement.

I'm linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday with this post as well.

Creative stretching

My lovely wife has taken on some pretty creative challenges over the last few years. She started hand-making greeting cards, joined/formed a band with her brother, and taken up photography as a hobby. At the same time, she has continued to be a stellar mom and wife as well as clean, cook, laugh at my jokes and basically been the the glue keeping our life little slice of heaven together.

This year, however, she has really begun stretching herself creatively. She started blogging as well as organizing a Flickr group/challenge. For the first month of the year, I sat idly by, letting her and her circle of friends snap away and was content to be a spectator as everyone snapped and processed and uploaded. But, in February, I just couldn't stand it any longer. So, I gave in and joined the group/photo-a-day challenge.

Not to be completely overwhelmed and overtaken by my wife's creative streak, I added my own wrinkle—I would only use my iPhone for picture taking to post-processing to uploading (take that, girly-girl).

What to say? Well...so far, so good. I'm not a photographer. I'm more musical in my creativity. But, I'm learning a lot about myself and my eye and...well, that I might be able to actually pull this off without looking like a monkey.

So, with that in mind, I submit to you a few couple of my faves (so far). Just...be gentle. I'm still new and quite fragile. Who knows? Maybe, one day, I'll be almost as creative as this chick.