Holiday Ball

Last night was the Holiday Ball for my hospital, which meant Catherine and I needed to get all dressed up. It was a different way to celebrate our anniversary...22 years!

I sat next to another PT from a satellite clinic - we've met before, but it was nice to get to know her a bit more. Funny thing, though:  she brought her boyfriend and when I asked where he was from, he somewhat abashedly said Mt. Gilead in Ohio. So when I told him I was from the Bucyrus/Galion area, he knew right where that was. Small world.

Cheers,

Marc

Happy Thanksgiving!

We invited some family to come visit us for Thanksgiving this year - Mom and Chuck accepted the challenge! Catherine made a crazy amount of food that we will be working our way through for quite some time.

While they were here, we visited the Woodlawn Manor House, an old farmhouse that was apparently a part of the Underground Railroad.

They were kind enough to pay the admission fee to tour the grounds and for the guided tour of the house itself. I most enjoyed the barn, but it was COLD!

Best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend to everyone!

Marc

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day everyone.

As part of the festivities, I thought I'd get a photo of Leah, since it had been some time since she has sat in front of the camera with the lights on.

Nothing terribly new on our end - have a blessed day!

Marc

Pumpkin Chunkin

This weekend was Ian's first campout with his new Boy Scout Troop - which was their annual "Pumpkin Chunkin" campout. In the past, they've taken all the unused (not purchased) pumpkins from a farm after Halloween, and they launch them from a hillside on a local farm.

We camped at the bottom of the hill, on the other side of the little creek. We had some Cub Scouts and Webelos visit - which this had to be a great time for them. Several of the adults said that Ian was a great teacher, very patient with the younger kids, on the sling shot station.

They also had a trebuchet which launched some pumpkins probably a hundred feet or so into the air, and then because of the hill, another 20-30 feet, which made for some great exploded pumpkins.

We spent the night, which was cold - first frost of the season. Thankfully, the rain got itself out of its system the night before.

Have a great day!

Marc

Red River Gorge, part 3

The last morning in the Red River Gorge was pretty chilly...and I almost bailed to stay warm in the hammock, but eventually decided to head on out. So glad I did!

I again got there a bit before sunrise, and took some photos of the stars. This time, the fog was thicker and much closer to the overlook. When I stood at the edge and looked down, the tree tops were shrouded in fog, which was pretty eerie.

There were some clouds hanging around, that I hoped would catch the sunrise - and today did not disappoint!

These two photos are about 5 minutes apart.

The beautiful colors built over a 30-40 minute period - it was amazing to watch it unfold and a joy to photograph it.

Cheers,

Marc

Red River Gorge, part 2

Monday was a day of steady rain, and Tuesday was cloudy, but dry. We did a fair bit of hiking Tuesday, and settled on a campsite near the Chimney Top Rock overlook, in the hope for a good sunrise photo opportunity.

While sunrise fizzled, there were no clouds that caught the early morning light, we did take some photos of the stars and fog lifting. Later, we made our way to Rock Bridge Arch, which is the only "true" bridge in the area (with water flowing beneath it).

Just upstream from the Rock Bridge Arch is the beautiful Rock Bridge Falls. There were some stones to cross from the trail side of the river to the photo side of the falls and river. It was easy to find, and very worth it.

We decided to camp in the Chimney Top Rock area (again) so we could photograph the sunset - the overlook faces north-ish with great views to the north, west, and south, and good views to the east. We had a better light show, but still did not get the clouds to light up like we had hoped.

I won't complain, though. We had the place practically to ourselves, enjoyed cooking our dinner at the overlook, and then went back to our campsite and sat by a fire to chat while we stayed warm and whiled away the evening.

Cheers,

Marc

Red River Gorge

I got back yesterday from a camping trip with a good friend of mine - this year we hiked and camped in the Red River Gorge in southeastern Kentucky. Even though I lived just a couple hours away from there many years ago, I never made it there - which is too bad, because it is gorgeous.

Our first day there, it rained from sun up to sun down, but thankfully stopped shortly before it got completely dark, so we could get our hammocks set up. We did touristy-drive around the park-stuff that Monday, so while we definitely got wet, it would have been soaked had we backpacked that first day.

The next morning we got up, let the gear dry, and then hit the trail for some hiking.

We stumbled across a beautiful place to camp, so we hung our hammocks and enjoyed the no rain.

The next morning, we watched the sun rise over the gorge, which was spectacular. So much so, that we went back the following morning (we just day hiked for the day and camped in the same spot). We got up early enough to see the stars - we had clear skies, but that meant cold temps.

Jason took a bunch of time-lapse photos with his iPhone that inspired the above photo - mine is only 8 or 12 photos strung together. I love how dynamic the fog is.

I am sure more photos will follow. Have a great day,

Marc

Ian's turn

I had a bit of free time today, so I set up the "studio" and sat Ian in front of the camera.

So glad I did - because with Nancy's help, I got an elusive (authentic) smile from Ian. That is what he looks like when he is genuinely happy, not forcing a grin for the camera.

And of course, a more pensive look. Unfortunately, I missed the focus on this. We were playing around with the camera tethered to the computer, and either Ian moved, or I just got the wrong focus for this particular series of photos. Oh well.

Have a great day!

Marc

Happy birthday Catherine!

Happy birthday Catherine!

Under the pretense of celebrating Catherine's birthday, we loaded up the van and took a mini road trip yesterday - it was really just a good excuse to get out and explore our little corner of Maryland, but we had a good time celebrating, too.

We had to pick up Leah from a girl scout camping event, and we hit the road right after that. Catherine found a nice place to have lunch, and then we made our way to Mt. Airy to start the Old Main Street scenic byway drive.

Because we had a bit of a late start - and to give the kids plenty of time to do a bit of homework and unwind - we only hit the Mt. Airy to Winchester leg of the journey.

At Winchester, we stopped for an ice cream cone (delicious) at Hoffman's, and then drove up the road to the Carroll County Farm Museum, where we got the last tour before the place closed...and almost crashed a wedding held on the grounds.

The photo of Leah, below, is from right outside the former Almshouse (think working farm as a precursor to modern day welfare system).

We got home in time to catch some football, and I used the setting sun to get a couple of photos of Catherine. The one below is from our front porch.

This one is from the back deck - going for the strong back lighting like I did with Ian the other day.

Have a great day - and happiest birthday wishes to Catherine!

Marc

Playing with my flash

I have been wanting to get some photos of Ian and Leah around the property, but we have been rained out lately. One night the rain was apocalyptic - and once that storm passed, it felt like it just continued to rain somewhere between steady and hard for the rest of the week.

So when the sun came out this morning, it was a great relief.

We have had only a few clouds every now and then - it has been a pretty glorious day, all in all.

Have a great day!

Marc

Family visit

Nancy has been here for a couple of weeks, helping out with Catherine as she recovers from her knee surgery. Christina came up last weekend to visit for the week.

Before church this morning, I thought I'd grab an extended family photo. Everyone wanted a photo of just the three generations of Berenguer/Barnes/Skinner ladies...so here you go.

Have a great week!

Marc

Back to School!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

The kids are headed back to school this week, so I figured I'd dress them up in their Hogwarts best, with each kid wearing their house colors (from vacation bible school).

I think the kids had fun with this photoshoot - though this could be Ian's last half-kiddy-fun photo, he's looking like quite the young man.

Have a great Labor Day everyone!

Marc

SCUBA part 3

I thought it'd be fun for Ian's birthday if we drove down to Key West to get in a dive there. I had originally planned on Dry Tortugas National Park, but waited too long to schedule to the ferry trip. So SCUBA dive it was. Nancy was kind enough to tag along on the ride with us, which made for a nice dinner once we were done.

Here is a nice photo of a bunch of fish - I thin they were blue tangs.

For whatever reason, Ian loved to hang out upside down in the water!

We got in two dives, maybe ten minutes apart from each other, but the second dive was much nicer - mostly because the terrain was much larger and easier to navigate on this dive.

We saw a big barracuda who came out of hiding to check us out, and a fairly large grouper, though the dive master said there is a giant grouper on that part of the reef (which we didn't see).

As a last parting random photo, I thought this brain coral was pretty cool.

Cheers,

Marc

SCUBA part 2

One of the dives we did was a night dive. Here we are in the water right as the sun was setting. I think that made things much easier, since our eyes had plenty of time to adjust to the darkness. We saw a couple of baby squids who shot ink at us as they tried to disappear.

We did about 2 dives every day, each dive on a different reef. We would follow that up with a snorkel at another site before heading back in to base camp. We dove on the Benwood wreck, which ended up being our deepest dive at 45-47 feet.

We got to see some really cool reefs and a ton of fish.

We even did a fish count for Project AWARE - after seeing a bunch of a certain species of fish on other reefs, Ian and I only saw a couple on this other dive.

All in all, we had a great week. The diving around Key Largo was amazing!

Cheers,

Marc

Catching up

So I didn't get the other SCUBA photos up yet, I might get around to that in the next couple of weeks. Catherine had her surgery, so I've been a bit busier around the house, especially considering the recent move, than I had planned. C'est la vie.

I've been wanting to get my camera out and get some photos of Ian and Leah, and I finally did that today.

Leah bough a masquerade mask when she was in Miami, so I took a photo of her with her mask.

Ian was kind enough to break away from a phone chat with his buddies to let me get his picture taken.

Hope all is well,

Marc

SCUBA part 1

Ian and I just got back from our Boy Scout Sea Base SCUBA adventure. I think it is fair to say that we had a blast!

I will post more photos and maybe a video or two in the next couple of days, but I thought I'd get these out pretty quick.

This first photo is from after our first dive, we did a bit of snorkeling. It is tough to see, but Ian is diving down to get a closer look at a couple of big barracudas - probably 3 feet long or so. We saw some bigger ones on other dives, but there were probably 8 bruisers cruising around at this site.

This one is from our second or third dive. Ian is right behind out dive master.

And here is Ian checking up on me.

Hope all is well,

Marc

Kayaking in Miami

We are all enjoying a trip to Miami. We had a big family gathering this past Sunday after going to church. One of Catherine's cousins offered to take me and the kids kayaking - which we took him up on his offer (thanks Alex!)

He met us at Oleta River State Park in North Miami. Ian took one of his kayaks, and Leah and I shared a rented double.

We took a quick spin through the mangroves before making our way out towards the Intracoastal Waterway.

We hit up one of the islands, where Leah and Ian decided they wanted to get into the water. The water was nice and warm, lots of little fishes. We saw some (very) small barracudas, needlenose, and amber jack fishes.

We spent probably close to an hour just chilling in the water, having a fun time.

Next up - Ian and I have a SCUBA trip with the Boy Scouts at Sea Base, and Leah has her Royal School of Church Music camp. It will be a bit before I get to post any of our photos/videos from Sea Base, but look for those in the next couple of weeks. Hope all is well,

Marc

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Ian had a whitewater rafting trip planned to the New River Gorge, so I took Leah with us.

They both had a blast!

The above photo is a screen shot from a video our tour group took of us. Ian is front left, Leah is back left, I am back right.  It was the very last rapids of the trip.  It was a great way to spend Father's Day - aside from the 4-5 hour drive home, even then, totally worth it!

Cheers,

Marc

It has been awhile!

It feels like forever since I've posted anything!

Ian and I recently completed our open water SCUBA certification for a trip we have planned this summer - definitely looking forward to that.

Leah agreed to come on a whitewater rafting trip here in a couple of weeks - and again, I am really looking forward to that!

We are getting ready to move to Maryland in a couple of weeks, which got me to thinking about how long it has been since I've taken any photographs of the kids.

Both Ian and Leah wanted to get a photo with Luna. We had to fish her out from under the bed...she really didn't want her photo taken.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Marc