A New Toy & A Family Vacation

We've been at Eagle Crest with Jonathan's family since Sunday. This week has been full of sunshine, swimming, relaxation, and laughter. This is the first time Caleb and his two cousins have spent an extended period of time together. Now that he's walking, he can run around and keep up with Emma and Kole. It's so much fun to watch them play and interact with one another.

Friday and Saturday were spent with my family. I spent Saturday morning at a friend's baby shower and that evening we went to my sister's house for a barbecue in celebration of my brother-in-law's birthday. I love the Seattle area and we are quite settled in with our life up there, but I forget how good it feels to be in the company of the entire family.

Saturday afternoon I had some errands to run. One of them was stopping by a camera shop to gather more information about different DSLR models. I'd been waffling between two of them, one a Nikon and one a Canon. Before we left home I had high hopes of making a decision so I could purchase it in Oregon and save a bundle on tax. With all the packing and preparations for our trip, that didn't happen. I surprised myself though and ended up making my decision right then and there in the store, once I actually held the cameras in my hand and played with the user interfaces. I returned to my parents' house with a Nikon D3100 feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve.

All this week I've been getting to know my new toy, experimenting with the settings I've been able to figure out thus far. (Let it be known that I have a looooong way to go before I learn it all. As soon as we get home I'm researching photography classes.) Below are some of my favorite snapshots: