digital slr

do my pictures look different? crisper, prettier, better?  if so, it's due to my new camera (above)! i'm still in the beginning stages of exploring it's potential.  so far i love love love the macro lens that allows me to take nice, close up pictures of food, knitting, etc.  and i love messing around with ISO, shutter speed, and aperture and being able to see the results immediately. i can't wait to be done with my studying so i can have more fun playing with my new toy.  

aloha

We spent Christmas in Hawaii this year. Instead of snow and skiing there were...

Beaches, palm trees, and beautiful sunsets...

volcano craters and steaming sulfur...

lava flowing from an active volcano...

as seen from a helicopter...

and lots of great coffee (coffee bean plants in the background)

navy flying

last weekend i was home in colorado. spencer had to do his cross country flight from corpus christi to colorado. and it happened to be his birthday! these are some photos of us checking out the plane he flew in (and yes, it is as small as it looks).

go navy!

this looks unbelievably complicated.

some people say we look like twins. but i'm older and wiser.

me and sarah in the plane

mmmm...the beach is glorious

Seattle Pictures

I rode on a ferry! (I hear they're pretty safe...or so Grey's Anatomy tells me)

View of Seattle from the ferry.

The balcony I stood on...

Unil all of these birds came...

...and forced me to take pictures like this from inside the ferry.

This is the sign from the very first Starbucks. I didn't buy a coffee because the line was too long.

View of Lake Union

The view from my hotel room

Bus Pictures...

Me on the bus while at a rest stop somewhere in PA.

In the Pittsburgh bus station. Check out this guy's moustache.

This guy struck up a conversation with me while waiting to board our bus in Pittsburgh. He was headed to Memphis. His plans once arriving at 6 AM were to shower and then head directly to the pool hall to shoot pool and drink beer with his brother before work. He lives in West Virginia (meeting him didn't help any of my stereotypes about people from West Virginia). He also talked to me about all of his "trouble with the law" and how he moved to West Virginia because his girl friend lied and told him she was pregnant. He was spending Christmas with his parents in Memphis while his girl friend and son spent it with her parents. He said he wasn't willing to put up with his girl friend's parents and would rather spend Chrismas away from his son. Sad.

West Virginia Red Neck again. The man in front was a VERY large man that kept "barking" at people who tried to cut us in the line.

Some Greyhound bus riders in Pittsburgh.

One of my three buses.

There was lots of snow in Denver when I finally arrived.

The family celebrates after the Broncos' big win. We're cold. We're wet. And we went to the Christmas Eve service at church immediately after the game in the attire you see us in here. But this is Denver. No one thought we were strange at all...they were all just jealous that we had been at the game.

Merry Christmas, Dad!

Go Broncos!

Yes, it was very cold. Yes, it was snowing. Yes, my brother is wearing sun glasses. His reasoning? It was protecting his eyes from the blowing snow.