Photo Blogging Challenge (November 2016): Thanks

November is the month that we set aside, over here at least, for giving thanks. We should make sure we give thanks year round but at least we know we've got a month. :) I was quite thankful in November, let's take a look, won't you.

I had a quick business trip to Bermuda. The weather was horrible two of the three days there. On Remembrance Day, the weather cleared up and I got to see a parade! And then attended my first rugby matches. You can see those pictures in my flickr stream.

My oldest, John, finally completed all of the requirements and passed his Board of Review for Eagle Scout. He has worked very hard and I'm super proud of him!

Speaking of scouts, I'm thankful that my scouts have a good sense of serving as they helped sort food at our local food drive.

I'm thankful that these turkeys still like each other, still make each other laugh, still make me laugh, and will still occasionally pose for pictures.

 

Finally, I'm thankful that this big guy didn't appear to notice me sitting on the ground not 10 yards from where he came out of the woods. I haven't had a lot of experience with coyotes but I certainly waited until a brush pile was between he and I before I picked up my camera for some shots.

I'm also thankful that I found a few minutes to get this thing together and posted. I hate when I took the photos and then just forget to post. Take a look at the others over at a lil hoohaa. See you next month!

Photo Blogging Challenge (October 2016): Water

Crap! I've been so busy I haven't put this together. I missed last month and don't want to skip out again. I was excited to see the theme as we had a camp out the first weekend of the month that was water based.

The lake at Ft. Parker State Park makes for some of the best sunset/sunrise photos. I don't know why.

We had about 20 scouts with us for the weekend. We had canoe races and a cajun style supper for Saturday night.

Mornings are pretty great too. Especially in calm winds.

We had a little fisherman hanging out with us most of the month. He finally made a catch.

We finished up the month back at Ft. Parker SP. The gentleman in the green shirt built this bridge over a creek in the park as his Eagle scout project. We had a couple of guys leave early but this is most of his helpers. It turned out super nice and strong/wide enough that the ranger was able to drive his Gator over it saving time and money getting to other areas of the park.

There's water. I can't believe how fast this month and year have gone by. I'm looking forward to Novembers theme.

Photo Blogging Challenge (August 2016): Black and White

I just noticed that all of these were taken with my iPhone. I took a bunch of photos this month using several different cameras but here we are with all iPhone shots. This month's challenge was Black and White. I don't have much to add, let's get to the pics.

This was taken at 11:45-ish PM as I remembered I had not taken my photo of the day. I was running through the house trying to find something to shoot and turned on the wrong light and found it.

My wife collects cats. We now have two black and white ones. Penney, the baby, was found in the JC Penney parking lot. I call her lil' bit because we were just going to keep her for a little bit.

This, I originally posted to Instagram but got to playing around with it and liked the textures in B&W.

We waited all summer trying to find someone to fix our pool. We started putting water in it the day before the boys went back to school. This was prior to that. I just like the textures.

William collects goofy shirts. This is an example.

There's my five. August was busy and hot. Hopefully September will get me excited again. I'm ready to see what next month's challenge will be. Take a look at the other participants at A 'lil Hoohaa.

Photo Blogging Challenge (July 2016): Photographer's Choice

I just got too busy and had to bow out of the June challenge. We were travelling a bunch at the end of June and on through July. We had a couple of super adventures. We finished up a week of SCUBA at BSA Florida National High Adventure Sea Base. After a short stay at home we headed to the Atchafalaya swamp of Louisiana for BSA Swamp Base. I could fill my quota with photos just from that event. But, thinking on Photographer's Choice and scanning through my photo-stream, I ended up with a common thread, we'll call it The Skies of July!

This was pretty much my first and last view every day down at Florida Sea Base. Hard to beat a scout trip where we stay in air-conditioned dorms and log eleven SCUBA dives.

I had decided I wasn't going to take pictures at our 4th of July celebration this year, but honestly, it was so boring I ended up doing it. They hired a new company that had electrical problems and there was so much time between the shots that no one knew when it was over. I'm glad I had a camera.

Next up was Swamp Base. I don't know what I expected to see, marshy, muggy, and hot is what I expected to feel. I was pleasantly surprised. We were blessed with overcast during the canoeing times and an occasional shower. And beautiful sunsets.

Our last day, we woke up at 4AM and were on the water as soon as we could see it, abut 5AM. We paddled to this spot the guides knew and enjoyed breakfast and this sunrise!

Those of you who follow me, know my oldest just turned 16 and he and my dad have been rebuilding this 1983 Jeep CJ7. He still only has a learners permit so we have to ride together. Nights like this, I don't mind at all. We had a nice summer storm blow in and when it cleared it left the temps in the mid 80s F. A welcome relief to our week of 100s+ F.

And, as you know by now, I bend the rules occasionally. The photographer chooses to add a sixth photo because I finally got to ride on a fan boat. I had to share the sheer awesomeness of it! I made it smaller so it's not like it's really a sixth picture, right? Right!

It was quite a fun-filled month, I've got the whole thing on line over at flickr. Please, Verizon, don't screw that up! You can find more photos over at a 'lil hoohaa. Keep a lookout for August's theme and join us, won't you!.

Photo Blogging Challenge (May 2016): Outside the box

I decided early on that my take on the Photo Challenge theme of 'Outside the Box' was going to be very much in a box. You'll see what I mean. It also meant that I had to come up with more pictures in order to make it work. I'm pleased with the outcome. So, here we go:

May saw quite a bit of travel. The craziest trip was a one day 13 hour marathon that took me to Ft. Lauderdale and back for a short but necessary meeting.

My youngest celebrated his last year with a great group of kids. Their school only goes through 8th grade and the team is going different directions. Some of them have been together since Pre-K. I chaperoned their field trip down to Galveston. I'll miss seeing them all together. They really are a special group.

We visited Moody Gardens, it consists of three pyramids, one is and Aquarium, we visited the Rainforest and saw a few animals. The seagull is just a Galveston tradition.

Will also celebrated his 14th birthday with a trip to the bowling alley.

Finally, I said goodbye to the old Suburban. We rolled all 'ones' on our trip to Galveston. She had been having computer issues and electrical problems. As I was pulling into the dealership to pick up the new car, Ol' Black Betty said goodbye. It might have freaked me out just a bit.

It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks so we stuck with black for the new ride. My oldest starts driving this summer and I don't need the extra seats anymore.

There you have it. May's submission for the a 'lil hoohaa Photo Blogging challenge. You can check out the other participants there. Or go to my flickr stream to see what else I've been up to.

Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2016): Vibrant

Oh goodness, I'm late again, I don't know why I can't get this together earlier. VIBRANT! That was our theme in this month's photo blogging challenge. Here we go!

April kicked off our monthly free concert series. We had a couple of vibrant performers. First up, the legendary Lee Fields, nicknamed Little JB due to his similarities to James Brown.

The headliner was a group out of Austin called Brown Sabbath. They perform Black Sabbath songs with a Latin Fusion twist. They were fantastic! The lead singer really captured Ozzy and the horn sections added a dimension you wouldn't expect. 

Jackie has worked for my family's business for 40 years this month. She is always vibrant!

We've had weird weather this spring. It's been wetter than normal. But we've gotten some nice, cool days for walks.

More weather, we've also had a lot of storms. They have caused a lot of damage and flooding. But have made for some beautiful sunsets.

Whew! Is that five? I better get this sucker posted and start taking photos for next month. Go check out a lil hoohaa for the others.  As always, all my stuff is on flickr...

Photo Blogging Challenge (March 2016): Three

The photo blogging challenge turned three years old this month. I can't believe three years have gone by. The theme for this month was: THREE! It seemed easy enough. I was surprised again. SO bear with me as I present to you my five of THREE.

THREE marquee's on the movie theater facade. I used to love going out to the movies and then cell phones were invented. I can spend less money staying at home in a more comfortable chair and watch a movie without distractions just a few weeks sometimes after others. Zootopia was pretty entertaining though.

This was the 3rd Annual HOT Comicon, William enjoys video gaming and nerding out occasionally. He really likes his Fallout 4 Vault 111 hoodie. THREE Ones!

John, on the other hand, likes cars, trucks, and all the other things with motors. It's a little hard to tell, but that ATV only has THREE wheels. You can see the fourth in the background against the fence. He was getting a demo ride and the driver made an aggressive turn shearing the lug studs off the rear driver side of the vehicle. Not a very good testimonial to the ruggedness of the ATV.

Easter Sunday, these THREE knuckle heads went swimming, The water temperature was 47F. There was a fourth one but he held out until later.

Last, but never least. These THREE. They are my life. Without them I'd be incomplete.
This also is the first year in the fifteen year tradition of Bluebonnet photos that no one complained. We went out, they sat down, I took the pictures, and we left. Just like that. They have given up. :)

So, there's my five. I am pretty happy with them even if I did kind of backdoor this one. I had great plans once again but I think I enjoy sharing these more than a bunch of photos of threes. Visit a 'lil hoohaa blog to see the other entries. As always, check out my whole March and all of my other photos for that matter over on Flickr. Hurry up before it goes away. And join in with us in April. It's fun.

Photo Blogging Challenge (February 2016): Leap

The challenge for this month's post was LEAP. I went completely literal this month. My youngest finished up his basketball season, only two losses and they both came at the end. One to a team that much larger than our guys. We had a little post-season get together over at one of the coach's. They had a shorter goal setup and had fun dunking. Here are the results.

I can't wait to take a look at the other participants. I bet you can't either. They can be found at a lil hoohaa blog. Take a look and check back to see what next month's theme will be. Join us! If you want more of me, you can follow along with my adventures for February at my flickr page. Thanks for looking.

Photo Blogging Challenge (January 2016): Inside

January's come and gone. Way too fast already. Our theme for January was INSIDE, but the weather in Texas was just too nice to spend a lot of time indoors. It was sunny and mid-70s F this weekend. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday on my bike. But, I was able to grab a few photo's while inside. I had an idea early on that didn't work out so I dropped it and have what I have. Let's get started.

There were a few chilly nights early on. Rainy and cold don't make a good mix but we made the best of it. My wife thought the boys needed to see Nine to Five. It's still funny! 

Basketball season is winding down but the boys are having a great season. They just suffered their first loss and it was a nail-biter making it even more difficult. This is from when they were on the other end of snatching victory from defeat.

Spent a little time out at the airport. My oldest got him a project Jeep and we had it stored in this hangar while waiting to get it over for paint.

The troop took a trip down to the Texas coast this month for our "camp out" and visited the USS Lexington aircraft carrier on their Live Aboard program. Here's a group of Life scouts planning their Eagle projects. The Live Aboard program is a great program giving the boys the opportunity to sleep on the ship and explore after the crowd had gotten off.

One of these night I realized I had taken a photo for my Project 366 so I decided a study in nicknacks was needed. Plus, it's always fun to pull out the "nifty fifty"!

There you have my selection for the month. Take a look at all of my photo's for the month, even the outside ones, over on flickr. Visit a lil hoohaa and take a look at the others. I'm about to do that myself. Until next month...

Photo Blogging Challenge (December 2015): Holidays

Where does the time go? Another month in the books and another year finished. I've been moving so I wasn't sure what I was going to get this month but found I had some choices. So here we go.

I was able to make our annual trip to NYC this year. I enjoy NY in December. It was unseasonably warm.

All the lights and windows make for a fun visit.

 

I got home in time for a little bit of winter in Texas. we've ha a Winter Wonderland festival the last few years complete with an "ice skating rink" made of plastic. But they say it works.

We celebrated our first Christmas in our new house. We had 19 friends and family share the day with us.

It's always good spending time with my niece and nephew as well. They are good kids.

That's a wrap. Bring on 2016 and bring on new challenges. Take a look at the other participants over at a 'lil hoohaa. And join us in January!