random reflections

Ten on the Tenth: Caleb

This post was ready to go when I found out this morning that my dear blogging friend, Deb, has lost her mother to ovarian cancer. Marti was such a lovely, strong woman and she will be sorely missed by her family and friends. I feel blessed to have had a connection with her through the mail this past year. Deb and her family are being held close to my heart today.

It's Ten on the Tenth again. September flew by, and I thought I'd better share some photos of the darling Caleb taken in August before he arrives here in just a couple of weeks for a visit. He's already grown quite a bit from these photos, and is now crawling and pulling himself up. I'll try to be more timely for the next set of photos. So here are ten of Caleb:

Possibly my favorite, but when I asked Sarah to pick one for my photo-of-the-day, she chose this one:

I love this litte suit that protects Caleb from the sun. Less sunscreen to apply.

In general, this is one happy baby!

Even before he could crawl, he could scoot across the floor on his belly. One morning he got himself all tangled up in his carrier.

Caleb and his mom

At Zoo Atlanta with Grandpa

Playing with a bag from our shopping spree at the outlets.

Sarah and Caleb are coming for two weeks the end of this month. It's been a year since Sarah was here. I hosted her baby shower a year ago. The extended family hasn't had a chance to meet Caleb, and we'll be going to my brother's for a couple of days while they are here. I'm already counting the days.

Ten on the Tenth: Crystal Bridges

The tenth of the month surely does sneak up on me. I have lots of the photos (I took over 1,000) edited and many deleted but I'm not ready yet for a 10 favorites post from our road trip. One of the places we were really looking forward to visiting was the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art  in Bentonville, AR. We were not disappointed in the least. Here are 10 shots of this amazing museum. The architecture and many trails are worth the visit, but the collection of art is also wonderful. We spent four hours here, and could easily return and find much more to see.

A view of the museum as you come in from the parking lot.

The space between two galleries.

An outdoor patio (and another outside staircase for the scavenger hunt.)

The views of the grounds from the museum are lovely.

The restaurant, Eleven. We had one of the best dinners of the trip here.

The grounds are as beautiful as the museum. There are many trails, but we only had time to walk the Art Trail.

And another trail for the scavenger hunt. 

Tracy and I both agree that Crystal Bridges is worth a special trip if you are anywhere near Bentonville. We would definitely go back.

You can find links to more 10 Things on Shimelle's blog here.

Ten on the Tenth: Summer Road Trip

We're leaving today for a three week road trip, so I thought I'd share 10 things I'm looking forward to seeing in August. I'll be linking this up with Shimelle's 10 Things later today when I get some wi-fi.

So here are the 10 Things in the order that we'll be seeing them. (Not necessarily in the order in which I'm excited about them.)

#1. Our good friends, Carol and Gordy. I have no recent photo of them although we've seen them both in 2011 and 2010. I'll be sure to get good photos this time around. We'll be staying with them two nights, and if the weather is good, will be enjoying Gordy's boat on Lake Norman on Saturday.

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#2 Sarah, Adam and Caleb

We'll be meeting them in Atlanta on Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, we'll be babysitting while they participate in The Fund for Theological Education conference. We last saw them in early May, so we're due for a good visit.

#3 The Atlanta Aquarium. It's been a few years since we visited, but Caleb loves to look at new things, so we figured a trip to the aquarium might entertain him (and us) for a few hours on Monday.

#4 Hilton Head Island

Following the FTE Conference, the five of us will be heading to Hilton Head for five days. We haven't had a beach vacation in several years, so I'm looking forward to family time and some time on the beach. 

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#5 After we leave Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Atlanta to travel home to Oregon, we're headed to Birmingham, AL where we hope to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

#6 From there, we're headed through Memphis, TN (not sure if we'll have time to explore or not) to Little Rock, AR where I'm looking forward to visiting the National Historic Site at Central High School. Our neighbors highly recommended a stop at the visitor's center there. They also recommended a stop at the Bill Clinton Library, but I'm not sure we'll have time to do both.

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In preparation for the two civil rights stops, I'm reading Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. It's an excellent book, and since I was pretty young at the time these events took place, I don't have any strong memories of them. I know I'll get a lot more out of both stops because I've read the book.

#7 Next on the agenda is a stop in Bentonville, AR to visit  Crystal Bridges, an art museum and park built by the Walmart heiress. Everything we've read about this place sounds wonderful!

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#8 Then we're off to Denver, Co (via Wichita, KN) to spend some time with Matt. We last saw him in June, so it's time for a good visit.

#9 While we're in Denver, we're staying with our long-time friend, Dan, and his wife, Nikki. We haven't seen them in over a year so it will be good to catch up with them.

#10 One of the things we've always wanted to do in Colorado is visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Matt is taking the second part of a national landscape certification exam on Saturday. As soon as he's finished, we're headed to the national park for two days. Although he's been in Denver for over a year now, he hasn't had the time to visit the park either.

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Given that any month when I see both of my kids is a good month, and that I love road trips and new experiences, I'm really looking forward to this trip!

 

 

Ten Things: Newport, OR

I recently took an online photography class from Kat Sloma at Kat Eye Studio. I've known Kat for several years through a photography site, but had never taken one of her classes. When she offered "A Sense of Place" in April, I knew the time was right. I love to photograph when we're traveling, and we had upcoming trips to Washington, D.C. and Oregon. I hoped she'd provide some inspiration and information about capturing those places we visit more effectively. I was not disappointed. The eight week course was packed with thought-provoking information, and beautiful photographic examples. Ironically, because I was traveling, I wasn't able to participate in the class as fully as I hoped. I did read each lesson as it arrived, however, and was able to incorporate some of it. In the next few weeks, I hope to return to each of the lessons and complete all of the written and photographic assignments Kat included in the lessons. It's material I'll return to again and again.

One of the things that has always interested me in travel photography are the details that make a place different from the place where I live. Newport is a harbor town, so you'd expect to see photographs of boats and fishing gear. I did capture some of those, but what really captivated me in Newport was the community artwork painted on the walls of the buildings along the main street. So without further ado, here is a look at Newport.

 

 

Not surprisingly, Newport has many fish packing plants. I loved the way the pipes had been painted such bright colors.

And now for the community artwork:

 

 

 

This is one of my favorite shots. I love the contrast of the bright red truck with the blue boat, and the sense of scale that it lends to the mural.

 

I'm linking this to Shimelle's Ten Things. You'll find lots of interesting posts linked up here.