As you can see from today’s photos, Koa and I did a bit of holiday shopping. Specifically, we went out for Christmas hats that he and his percussion-mates will wear during their holiday concert in Chicago. 🎅
It seems that each section of the band is supposed to have matching hats so I took Koa to the party supply store to pick up hats for his section. It’s interesting (to me, at least) that Koa was able to take photos of the different hat choices, then share via group chat with his section-mates, and they all decided on the antlers and Rudolf nose in a matter of minutes. Kids and their technology!
I think it looks pretty good, and the nose actually lights up too. 😜
When I was growing up, my parents had one of these Kodak cameras with the flashcube. I remember being fascinated by how the cube looked when it was all spent. It had a blurry, bluish discoloration.
But my main memory regarding flash was from my 6th grade year in 1980, when I competed in a trivia quiz-show at the high school. After the competition was over, all the parents were taking photos of us kids, but my mom had run out of flashcube, so she tried to time her shot with another parent’s camera flash. I don’t know if it worked or not, but I’d have to say that the chances were pretty slim that she could nail the timing. 📸
Today was our full day at Big Bend National Park. Our family style for this vacation is to take it easy and not “maximize” our time here. What that means is basically:
Wake up at a reasonable hour, about 7:30 AM
Enjoy nice meals(eat well with good company)
Choose a few activities, but don’t stress out about completing them all. It’s not a quest!
Rest when we are tired
I honestly don’t know if this is the norm, or if we are more relaxed about it than most people, but for some reason I am used to trying to squeeze the most out of my vacation time by waking early, sticking to a schedule, seeing every sight possible, etc.
That being said, I like the relaxed itinerary! Rushing sucks. I like being able to drive at or below the speed limit and not worry about being late. In fact, if we don’t have a set schedule, there is nothing to be late for.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/85 sec, ISO3200 “Breakfast with a View” Big Bend, 2016
Anyways, today we woke up at 7-ish and then got ready for the day, then enjoyed a nice breakfast at the Chisos Mountains Lodge Restaurant. I had the Huevos Rancheros (sunny side up), both kids had breakfast burritos, and Mariko had the “Wagon Wheels”, which were two massively fluffy pancakes. All in all, we are pretty happy with the Chisos Lodge Restaurant, which offers pretty good food at reasonable prices, considering the next nearest restaurant is an hour away.
Our first stop was the Balanced Rock. You get to the Grapevine Hills Trail trailhead by traveling about 6 miles down Grapevine Road, which is a gravel-covered dirt road, with a little bit of washboard to rattle your bones, but not too hairy. Our Prius handled the road fine, as long as we kept our speed to about 14 MPH. While driving on the gravel, I kept imagining how great it would be to ride that road on my GS, or even my old Toyota 4×4… Perhaps some day!
From the trailhead, it was about an hour round-trip to the Balanced Rock which is very cool, but a little smaller than we imagined. There were a few other families on the trail, so when we made it to the Balanced Rock, there were many people to trade family photographer duties with.
The hike is pretty easy, with a slight uphill most of the way in, and then some moderately easy climbing for the last part. Not difficult at all! Balanced Rock was a fun hike and should be on your list of Big Bend activities.
Next, we headed to the west end of the park, to hike the Santa Elena Canyon Trail. This trail is also fairly easy, winding next to majestic canyon walls and a gently flowing Rio Grande river. The views are spectacular (make sure to look up!) and there are plenty of nice photo opportunities, the best of which are near the end of the trail. Stand on the rock outcroppings just before the end of the trail for the best shots.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/140 sec, ISO400 “Santa Elena Canyon” Big Bend, 2016
It takes about an hour to drive from Santa Elena Canyon back to the Chisos Mountains Lodge, so we arrived around sunset, and headed straight for the restaurant. One good thing about the restaurant is that they serve Big Bend Brewery beers on tap, so we got to enjoy delicious ice-cold beer to finish our day.
Our hiking day was pretty dang fun, even though we hiked two of the easiest trails in the park. They may have been cakewalks, but the views were amazing. We are definitely happy!
I can imagine hiking some longer and more strenuous trails in the future once the boys are a little bigger. We’ll see if they have interest in it, because if they do, I’m all for more hiking.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/10 sec, ISO6400 “From the Stage” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！How’s it going?
Tonight Koa’s band had another concert where they previewed their songs that they will perform in Chicago over the holidays. The played 7 songs and they all sounded fantastic! It’s amazing and wonderful how awesome their musical abilities have become.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/8 sec, ISO3200 “Piano” Cedar Park, 2016
In other news, at work I organized a photoshoot with 9 people and it went well! I was a little nervous because I wasn’t sure about the locations around the office, but I am pleased with how the photos turned out. And the models are all co-workers so we had fun taking the photos. Tomorrow and Thursday I will take more photos, but instead of a large group, we’ll be splitting into groups of three, and doing solo shots.
FYI, these photos will be used on our website. Instead of just using stock images like we have done quite a bit the past couple of years, we decided to create our own photos so they are absolutely unique. It’s not the first time we’ve done something like this, but I haven’t done a “stock” photoshoot in a while, so it’s a lot of fun, with plenty of nervous energy. I enjoy it a lot, surprisingly. I guess it has a lot to do with self-confidence which is something that I’ve gained quite a bit over the years. It’s a good thing!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/20 sec, ISO3200 “Glowing Glasses” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！How’s it going?
Tonight was Halloween 🎃 and we celebrated by dressing up, having a couple of friends over, eating good food, drinking lots of wine, and handing out candy 🍬 to the neighborhood kids.
I was wondering how many trick-or-treaters would knock on the door, and was pleasantly surprised that we had so many! I’d guess that about 50-60 kids stopped by for candy, maybe more. There was one group that came by at around 6:30 which maybe had 20 or so! They were lined up all along our walkway. It was amazing!
Our friends who joined us this evening live in an older neighborhood that doesn’t have many trick-or-treaters. All the kids have grown up. So they enjoyed handing out candy tonight at our house. Lots of fun!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/25 sec, ISO3200 “Cowgirl” Cedar Park, 2016
As you can see, we even dressed Lani up in her cowgirl costume. It was a bit tight on her, and when she was wearing it she was pretty much paralyzed so we were able to get some good photos of her before we took the costume off.
By the way, I was dressed up like a prisoner, while our friends were dressed similarly as thieves. It was a coincidence that we were all alike. 😊
Tonight Koa performed with his middle school band as a warm-up for their big performance in December. Their school band was chosen to participate in the Midwest Clinic, which takes place in Chicago. They’ll be performing several pieces, so tonight was a good chance for a dress rehearsal. 🎶
Koa is in the percussion section, and plays several different instruments. Tonight he even played the gong! In the photo above, he’s in the top left corner next to it. He said the gong tonight was “horrible”… they used the high school auditorium’s gong which Koa thought was much worse than his middle school’s gong.
But besides that, he said the percussion section did pretty good! I’m proud of him because he shows a lot of dedication to playing percussion and says he enjoys performing. It’s nice to have the opportunity to take part in such an awesome band program. His school’s band is one of the best (if not the best) in the state of Texas. We’re really fortunate that both our kids participated in band! 😄
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/40 sec, ISO3200 “Unicorn” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Hello, how’s it going?
It’s already nearing the end of October, can you believe it? This month has flown past. Seems like just yesterday the month started, but now Halloween is almost here. 👻 As you can see from the photo, Koa is already prepared with his unicorn costume. Not sure what made him want this particular outfit this year, but I think it’s pretty cool and unique.
As for myself, I wasn’t planning on dressing up, but a couple of friends will be coming over for Halloween 🎃 to hang out, and they are planning on wearing costumes, so I need to figure something out. But my mind is a blank, once again. Hmmm… I need to brainstorm a bit, don’t I?
Tonight we watched game 1 of the World Series ⚾️ between the Cubs and Indians. I am rooting for Cleveland this year, mainly because a good friend of mine is a big fan. And they had a big win this evening! I’m sure the Cubs will battle back, though. It’s got the makings of a great series.
I hope you had a nice Tuesday!
おやすみなさい！
– B
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