Off We Go To Papago

It was just another weekend day.  We could’ve followed the kids around the house, helping them create tornados of destruction and then picking up after them as they continue from room to room.  We do this a lot, and we love when we do it too… not so much the picking up part as the mess making part, but it’s all good.  Instead, we made a break for it.  We had no idea where we would go, except that it must be outdoors.  Weather this good beacons to you.  We ended up here, at Papago Park:

We called it “the WILD” a la ‘Madagascar’ (the movie, for those who aren’t up on their animations).  We found the one wheelchair accessible hike and we strolled towards the red holey rocks.  Gabe picked up sticks and threw rocks.  Bella did her best to imitate his every move.  Ari smiled and jabbered the whole way there.  All was well until we were followed a few too many paces by a persistent bee who apparently thought we were flowers (or just wanted to be a martyr?).  Anyway, there was some squealing (mine was among them *sigh*), and the kids were glued to our thighs and chests from then on. 

Gabe: “I don’t like the wild.  The bumble bees are going to sting us… but they are our friends!”  He didn’t really seem to fully grasp the concept of friendly bees. 

Even an adrenaline-filled memory of friendly bees who chase us in “the wild” with the family is better than no memory at all in my book. :)

 

My First RAW Shot

As an aspiring photographer, there’s just some things that you have to at least try before you can call yourself informed.  One of those things is shooting in RAW.  I’m not about to make a joke of myself by attempting to explain what this means, but I can say that shooting in RAW gives you much more freedom creatively, with the price to pay being way less storage space.  I value my storage space and my time, but I can see why people go through the trouble.  The original photo was taken in pretty horrible lighting conditions (dark, backlit, and then some), but a little tweak in Lightroom and voilá, you can see the difference.

S.O.O.C. (Straight out of Camera):

After:

That said, don’t expect the same thing in all future photos, as I’m just figuring it out… one naptime at a time.

Tempe Train Day

These days, it seems like we manage to be busy all the time.  I love having full days, but then again, sometimes it would be nice just to not have anything at all to do.  Even weekends in our house can be hectic.  It’s a different kind of hectic, like we need to really rush around just to make sure we’re done with breakfast by 11 or whatever, so that we can eventually have lunch and naps and fit the regular routine stuff into the day.  Somehow, even losing a couple extra hours to sleep in on Saturdays can make you feel behind the 8 ball for the rest of the day, even when you aren’t trying to accomplish anything.  So in the rare event that we can manage to steal a couple hours to burn as a family, one of our favorite ways to spend it is by taking the Lightrail train down to Mill Ave. and seeing what “city life” (Tempe, that is) has to offer our little brood.

We did this one of these January weekends, and we might have given up altogether on naps in the process, but it was worth it.  Breaks from the norm are most definitely an essential component to maintaining mental health… speaking for myself.

After disembarking the train, we went to Tempe Town Lake to pounce around, and then we ate lunch at Five Guys burger joint with Marci and Leah.  I am so grateful to have my sisters.  They are truly my best friends, and I don’t have a clue what I’d do without them. 

I used Lightroom on a couple of my photos this time, so the series doesn’t look uniform but I was just experimenting.  Which photos do you think look the best?