Spring Break Adventures

Raise your hand if you had fun this spring break!

During Taylor's spring break, we had the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful lake house that belongs to Mark's army buddy, Mike. For two and a half days we relaxed here:

Mike served three tours in Iraq and during his time off in between, he worked on this lake house as his personal therapy.

He did a great job creating a place that's homey, relaxing and a fun place to prop up your feet!

We had such a wonderful time here fishing, playing games, taking boat rides, making fires, cuddling, and exploring. Of course, I also took many, many photos. I decided to create some collages to better showcase our adventures.

The kids really enjoyed riding Mr. Mike's pontoon boat. Of course, no one wanted to sit still on it, but I did manage to relax a bit as my children explored every nook and cranny of it. Taylor's favorite was sneaking up while Daddy was driving and pushing the horn button. Charlie enjoyed climbing on everybody that was sitting down, and in addition to drinking Daddy's beer (that picture's coming), Morgan liked jumping off the seat into Mommy's arms. Of course, the big kids had to try that, too. Good thing I have tiny children!

Fishing was also a big hit. Taylor was so excited to catch the first fish. After that, Charlie was eager to catch one, too. He dropped his line in and within ten seconds caught his own bluegill. It flopped on the line which prompted Charlie to drop his pole and run to me. After that he was finished fishing. He and Morgan preferred playing on the boat as it was docked while the big people fished. Charlie and I even played a game of checkers there.

We also spent a lot of time exploring around the house. On our first morning, we discovered two geese with seven baby goslings. We learned later that they had just hatched that day!

Our children are at a wonderful stage in their lives where it takes very little to entertain them. Give them a fire in the fireplace and some glow sticks and they are happy. Downright giddy.

Notice how Morgan is the only one still standing in this picture. I told the children when we first arrived that time did not matter at the lake house which meant they could stay up as late as they wanted. On the second night, everyone was worn out by 9:30. Only Morgan was still running around.

If I had to pick one word to describe our time at the lake house, it would be relaxing. In fact, my favorite times were spent cuddling with my little ones.

Mr. Mike was such a gracious host. He immediately made us feel welcomed. His love of children was apparent and the kids took to him right away.

Thank you for such a wonderful time, Mr. Mike! We hope to come back very soon :)

On our ride home, we stopped in Louisville to see Grandpa and Grandma. We had a nice visit with them and told them all about our adventures at the lake house.

My goal

Monday was a fun day. Exhausting, but oh so fun. Circumstances led me to a house full of children with an extra adult (my mom) willing to supervise them. What better time for me to practice my photography skills?? And practice I did. Starting with this little one.

Now, this was extremely difficult because I was left alone with her in the basement. This meant I had to keep her happy (i.e. hold her) while setting up backdrops, lighting etc. Then I had to position her and rush to my camera to try to capture some smiles. Thankfully, she's still somewhat stationary.

Next it was time for this little one. In general, my children are much harder to work with than my sister's children. Still, the stool was novel enough for her to want to sit on it will I snapped away. This time the older girls stood to my right and tried to elicit smiles (hence the off camera gaze). My favorite is the top middle. Mark's favorite is the top left.

Addison was getting very tired so we snapped a few of these quickly before sending her off to nap. Jacob does not like to keep his eyes open during pictures, apparently.

I had approximately seven minutes of the boys' attention. These were the results.

Taylor's turn was next. She's usually such an easy subject, but she got very distracted and upset by the idea of a missing highlighter. So I got exactly four shots of her.

Then on to my beautiful niece, Grace.

After photographing five challenging subjects, Grace was so refreshing. She sat still. She smiled. She even held my reflector on occasion.

She was the only one I took outside and I got my favorite shots of the day with the sun lighting her from behind and the breeze in her hair.

There you have it. The results from hours of shooting and editing. You may be wondering what my big announcement is (as referred to in my last blog post), or most likely, you're not wondering at all. I've set a goal for myself to pursue photography as a profession. I know that doesn't seem surprising, but it actually came as quite a shock to me. It wasn't until about a month ago (the day I shot these park photos with Taylor) that I actually admitted to myself that I wanted to be a photographer. Even then, I was very timid to say it out loud. Well, now the idea has set in and taken roots. I've now started taking steps towards achieving this goal. Right now I am in the practice phase of my plan. Practice, practice, practice. So in addition to my posts chronicling the adventures of the Williams' family (and we've got some big adventures planned this spring break!), I'll also document my progress as an aspiring photographer. I hope you come along for the ride.

Happy Easter

As promised, today's post includes Easter photos I've taken over the past week. We start with Charlie's Easter party at preschool. As usual, his favorite part was the snack. During games and crafts, he repeatedly told me he was hungry. He's been around the block enough to know that themed parties come with themed desserts. This time it was bunny cupcakes. Mmmmm...

Morgan made some friends with some of the other younger siblings who accompanied their mommas to the party. One of them even shared her Easter candy with her.

A few days later we went to an Easter celebration at a local church. We started the fun with an Easter egg hunt. As you can see, they cleaned up!

This was Morgan's first egg hunt and she caught on very quickly, although she saw no need to move quickly as she delicately and deliberately placed eggs in her basket.

This particular church went all out with face painting, crafts, free lunch, games, bouncy house, puppet shows, and of course, the Easter bunny.

Morgan was not a fan.

Last week was Charlie's spring break so he and Morgan got to attend the MOMS club Easter party and practice their egg hunting skills once again.

After school one day, we decided it was time to color some eggs. The kids did such a good job this year! They took their time and really worked on each egg. Taylor enjoyed helping out her younger brother. Anytime I'd try to help him she'd gently tell me "Mom, i've got it. I'll help him. You just take your pictures."

I got a kick out of the color schemes that emerged from each individual.

Again, their music therapy momma, came through with an Easter playlist to add to the festivities.

**WE INTERRUPT THESE EASTER PHOTOS TO BRING YOU MORE IMAGES CAPTURED THIS WEEK THAT WERE JUST TO PRECIOUS NOT TO SHARE.

**WE NOW RETURN TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED EASTER PHOTOS

The children were very excited for Easter morning to arrive. Ah, how sweet it is to experience so much joy from one basket of goodies. Amongst the favorites were their magnifying glasses, candy and Morgan's color wonder markers.

Before heading off to church, I corralled the family into the one place near the house that wouldn't elicit harsh shadows from the sun. Unfortunately, I got flustered by everyone's impatience and messed up a setting on my camera resulting in a less-than-sharp image.

Luckily, they indulged me after church by letting me try out some of my new equipment in the basement. Still a far cry from perfect, but hey, perfect is dull, right?

After church, the big kids went with Mark to hang out at Grandpa's house for a bit while Morgan napped and I cooked. Then it was time to head to the Well's house for an Easter feast and yet another egg hunt.

There was no shortage of eggs in this hunt either!

There you have it. Our Easter in a nutshell. Or should I say eggshell? Hee, hee.

My next post is going to be packed full of fun images. At least I hope. Tomorrow, I've got quite the photo shoot scheduled. I'll deliver the results along with some exciting announcements so stay tuned!