Disney Memories

  In February I bought a special 3-day ticket for Disney in order to take Jordan for his Birthday. We used the last of the 3 days yesterday, and had a great day! With kindergarten starting in August, it made me realize that these days of picking up on a weekday and heading out to spend time together are quickly coming to an end... I'm sure it will be well into 2013 or later until we hit Disney again, even with it in our own backyard, so we made sure to enjoy the day.

We started out in Animal Kingdom and had a blast checking out the animals on the safari and walking trails.

Then we headed to the Magic Kingdom to end out our day and did a few things I haven't done in awhile. We watched the stage show in front of the castle, staked out a claim to watch the Electrical Parade, and stayed to have a great view of the fireworks.

All in all, it was a great day with my boy, and I'm so glad we've had the opportunity to spend this kind of time together. As years go by, there will be family vacations (maybe even with some more family added in) but these days will never be around again and I'm so glad we've made the most of them.

May Flowers

Looking through my pictures, I noticed that I've taken quite a few of spring flowers recently, so I decided to post some of my favorites.

I guess this is a good way to get ready to visit the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot on Wednesday. We have one day left on our three day pass, so we a prepared to do a lot of park hopping, but Epcot will be our first stop for the day.

P52 Week 18 - Fiesta or Siesta

So, this week is totally themed with Cinco de Mayo in mind, and since that's my birthday, you'd think I'd have a great fiesta picture, but no, I've got Siesta. Since I won't be celebrating my birthday until Sunday since I work on the actual day, we didn't get to party this week.

So my P52 pic this week is of a Sea Lion taking a snooze while we visited Sea World on Wednesday. For more pictures of our day you can take a look at that post here.

Jordan loves this Sea Lion. He's the biggest of the bunch, and we look for him every time. He was on the move shortly after I took this picture, but when we got there, it looks like he was taking a moment for himself snoozing on a rock. I'm so jealous...

Sea World May 2

Jordan and I went to Sea World early on Wednesday morning for a special passholder event. We got to visit the new Turtle Trek exhibit an hour earlier than the park opened, and it was really neat.

I took a ton of pictures, but only a few turned out. I'm still working on getting my setting rights for pictures in darker places without a flash. I got a few good ones though. The turtles are so cool! Jordan loved them.

Another cool thing about the event, they had some special animals out for everyone to meet. We got to see a Woodpecker...

And pet a baby alligator. 

And a nice Alpaca that really wanted to smell Jordan's hair.

We saw some other neat things that day. A baby Harbor Seal born just two weeks earlier.

The "mustache bird", as Jordan called him.

We also got some cool pictures in the Shark exhibit.

These are baby shark eggs. Hard to see I know, but so cool to see the baby sharks moving around in there.

Outdoor Adventures

In light of the great Spring weather we had this week, I took advantage of it yesterday by taking Jordan to do a few things outside around town vs. spending the day cooped up in the house.

First, we went to one of the many lakes we have around to feed the ducks. Our lake downtown is also home to many Swans the city cares for, so it makes for a great place to see a lot of wildlife, and a great place to practice with my camera.

Spring also means babies!! Which we saw a few of today. We saw several swans resting in their nests but only one little ugly duckling... I did my best for a picture, but the grass was getting in the way of the focus...

 But there were plenty of opportunities for other swan shots. This was one of my favorites,

And I love this one too, but I'm totally into the whole, out of focus in the background on purpose, type of picture right now so I might not be a good judge.

Jordan got really close to a few of the ducks we fed. I've found in my duck feeding experience, that the big white ducks usually come much closer than the mallards.  These guys weren't afraid at all. One even touched Jordan's finger while he was feeding him. The reaction is the second shot.

We saw one turtle and one tortoise in our adventures today. The turtle was while we were at the lake, but we didn't get too close. He didn't seem particularly friendly.

These guys however, I would have loved to have gotten close to, but my zoom lens would have to do. They took off with Mama as soon as they realized we were trying to lure them in with the bread.

Later on in the evening, since I was already in an "outdoorsy" mood, I opted to take Jordan and the dogs to a nearby park with a hiking trail for our walk instead of just going around the block. Now, walking two dogs while trying to take pictures has proven difficult, but I got a few. 

I love this one of Jordan walking up ahead on the trail. He kept looking out for markers to make sure we were going in the right direction.

And here's my poser on a bridge we found out along the trail. He had me take about 10 different shots before he was happy to move on. He has this whole thing right now were every time I ask him for a nice face, he asks me to take one of a silly face in return. lol

And last, here's our tortoise. I'm surprised he stuck around for pictures, since the dogs were VERY interested in him. He did okay for awhile, but once Jordan went in for a touch, he took off. He was surprisingly fast for a tortoise...

All in all, it was a great day enjoyed with my boy reminding me that the outdoors can be pretty nice if I take the time to enjoy them....

P52 Week 17 - Green

I had two different shots for this week that I can't decide between, so I'm going to post them both below. I love them both for different reasons.

The first one is a shot of unripened blueberries from our trip to pick blueberries earlier this week. You can see more pictures from that day here.

The second picture is of one of my cats, Maggie, who has beautiful green eyes. I just happen to get this picture while playing around with the camera in the backyard and I love it, so I had to share it too.

You decide which you like best :)

Changing

These past few weeks have been full of changes. Changes at home, changes at work, changes, changes, changes... And the next few months don't show signs of that changing... lol

Hubby's shift at work changed a few weeks ago, leaving us with only one day off with everyone at home together. That was an adjustment, but it makes us sure to use that day to spend time together as a family and do something fun vs. wasting it just lying around, so it's been positive. Plus it sets us up for a great schedule once Jordan starts kindergarten in August.

I also just restarted a more rigid diet/exercise plan for myself. I worked really hard in December to meet a goal I wanted for Christmas, but have been totally slacking off since then. I'm heading on vacation in June to see a group of old friends so I'm using that as my new goal to get back on track. I won't be where I wish I was by then, but if I can be on my way I'll feel a whole lot better.

Then this week, I got an offer at work to change my schedule so I'm home earlier every day, which will be awesome, but sets up some challenges with getting to the gym since I'll now be working during the time I usually go, and it means I'll miss some of Jordan's soccer games the rest of this season. But again, the payoff in August to have less time we'll have to have a babysitter for Jordan after school is going to be worth it.

Ironically, another change this week is our weather. It is GORGEOUS outside. Are there really states where the weather is usually like this during April? Temperatures in the 60's and no rain or humidity... I wish I could make it stay. Being able to have my windows open in April does NOT happen in Florida. I will enjoy it while it lasts and then wish for November to roll in as fast as possible...

Nice weather does mean we can spend more time outside though, which gives me more opportunities to practice with my camera. This week I've been playing with ISO and aperture. I've found I'm learning more by having a basic knowledge of how everything works and then just taking pictures with different settings and comparing them. Thank goodness for digital... How did photographers get better when using film without going broke?
I got some shots I'm pretty happy with and posted them below. I'm making an effort to blog more often than just once a week for my photo challenge, so let's hope I keep it up. We'll add it to the list of changes.

 Here's a magnolia blossom from the tree in the backyard,

And a shot of my pretty kitty Maggie, 

Jordan playing baseball (one of the few where his eyes are actually open) ,

And one last picture of the magnolia tree as the sun starts to come down for the evening. This was my favorite shot of the day. I even decided to use it as the main pic on my blog title since it worked with the color scheme...