New Camera so even more pictures.

Once again this Valentines day Chris and I made our wives a dinner.  The food was fabulous as always and we had a great time.   We made the normal scallops and the shrimp, but also a gluten free gourmet pizza dough from scratch and the this chocolate mousse desert.  The candy shapes are hand made and it was quite the production to make them so we were glad they turned out.

This tasted quite good.

So a couple weeks ago I changed out our kitchen sink for a dark composite granite one and had this old white thing staring at me in the garage for a while now so I thought there had to be something I could do with it.  This is what I came up with.  I figure this would be a great summer party beer/soda tub where you can fill it with ice and it would look pretty cool.

Hopefully we can have a chance to use this during the summer BBQ season while entertaining friends.  It is amazing what you can do with a bunch of old scrap wood and closet doors.  I knew I was keeping them around for some reason.

Last week there were epic conditions up on Mt. Spokane and I had a chance to go out with my buddies for some night snowboarding.  The conditions were amazing and really made my day/week.  After being up there I am starting to think I need to start snowboarding more often. 

Here is Matthew playing some "hoop ball" as James calls it.

 

I got my new camera the other day and am excited to learn how to take better pictures with it.  I got a Lumix LX7 and there are so many bells and whistles on this thing it is going to take a long time to figure out all of its settings and how to take great pictures.

James posing for the camera.

Matthew right before he tried to grab the camera.

Mesmerized by James trying to ride his bike...and do you think that this kid is teething by the looks of that drool?

Cutie.  sometimes he is so cute I know that if I am left alone with him I would actually squeeze him to death.

Here is James on the very old laptop we have not turned on in over three years pounding away trying to type a letter to his cousins.

Close up of Matthew

Another one

And here is another one with the teeth in it.  He has three in on the top and another one on the way.  We know it is coming since he is usually up crying for about 2hrs during the night.

Here is a 30 second exposure shot I took last night while I was out messing around with my new toy. 

It was such a clear night that I was able to get a bunch of star pictures, but it was quite cold so I had to limit my fun.  I also had a wife to spend QT with inside and she was quite proud of my photography skills...if only through the first 100 pictures I made her sit through.

 

Let it snow...and snow...and snow some more.

Winter is here and the lack of snow does not seem to be an issue any longer.  Like a lot of the western states we have not had a lot of water this winter and it was looking like it was going to be a long dry winter, we that has changed and we are now seeing white all over the place.  With all the snow we have had a chance to get out there and go sledding a couple of times.

Against his mothers wishes he did go down the steep part of the hill in a sled.  I was right behind him holding on of course.

Mom also got to go with James, but unfortunately for him, she is not that good at steering.  They had a great time and Brenda eventually got the hang of steering the new sled.

It was about 15 degrees the other day and we headed out for a walk.  Since it was so cold we did not go out very long.  Matthew is wearing and hand made touke from a co-worker.  Ridiculously cute square face opening that makes you laugh every time you look at him. 

The sink box provided some extended fun.

 

This weekend we went to Jim and Sandi's house.  They got dumped on and both the basketball games on Friday and Saturday were cancelled.  The snow was so bad that they even cancelled church on Sunday morning.  By Sunday afternoon the roads cleared and we headed home.

James loved clearing the snow

We even got a chance to get the speedster out.  It was a riot taking that thing out and doing a bunch of doughnuts.  When Brenda went out I could hear screams of laughter all down the driveway.

All smiles from Jim.

Getting stuck is all part of the fun.  The engine was also running a bit hot, but there was plenty of snow all around to put on the radiator to cool the engine off.  This summer Jim and I are going to compete in a speedster run (I will be the navigator although I can drive a T) and it should be pretty fun.