Shanghai Shuffle- Home School Teen Dinner

Last night Kristi attended the "Shanghai Shuffle" a Home School Teen Formal Dinner.  She met some new people and had fun eating Chinese food.  I of course had to go and take a few pictures, cause MY DAUGHTER WORE A DRESS!!! Ok, she had to borrow it, but man she looked good in it! (course she looks good in anything, even her mismatched colored outfits she often wears).

Andrea Hanson wanted to do her hair, and I think it turned out really cute.

 Kristi and Andrea before the "hair do" time.  Kristi's dress she's wearing is one borrowed from Andrea.

 Andrea comes up with very cool long hair hair do's.  Very creative Andrea!

 Andrea, Mariah, and Kristi. Sorry Mariah, I have a way of catching people in awkward

expressions. LOL

 They had the gym/sanctuary decorated really cute. Looked better in the dark, with all the twinkly lights that don't show up when the flash went off.

 The photographer need someone to hold her reflector and Kristi stepped in. Guess she knows how to do it quite well.  I took over for her so she could visit with the other kids. Had fun helping this mom take pictures.  I mean a chance to help someone else take pictures, what a blast!!

This is Patrick Hanson (Andrea's brother) that Kristi is helping with here.

 Andrea Hanson, what a pretty sweet girl.

 Mariah, Kristi (seated) and Andrea. Three of the Home schooled kids from Word of Faith Church.

  I really like this dress. The boots were my wedding present from Todd 30 years ago. They were a little snug for Kristi, but she can at least get them on. They no longer fit me.

 I asked Kristi if she like the dress, and she said yes. And then I asked her if she had one like it would she wear it?  She said, "No, why would I want to do that?" sigh...

I still say this girl could model. Must be all the practice she's had posing for me through the years, while I practice my photography. 

As we were driving home, Kristi mentioned she wants to cut her hair off now, and donate again to Locks of Love.  I love her long hair, but I also know she purposely was growing it out to cut it off to donate. Stay tune soon to a new look for Kristi.

A Disney Smile

I was flippin' through pictures today, and came across this picture I took some time ago, of my niece's bed. this is her line up of Disney Characters she loves. I don't know, it just kind of made me smile. When life seems overwhelming to me, it's kind of nice to look at life through the eyes of a child. 

Don't they just make you smile? But looks like we were missing her "Poohs" which she has several of. I'm kind of partial to Pooh too. He must have been out looking for honey. :-)

Walkin' with my cousin Sheila and daughter Beth

Today my cousin Sheila and her daughter Beth came to visit for lunch. They currently live in Washington State.  After our lunch we went climbing up the old Jay's Hill. Was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

Here's a few pictures I captured on our walk.

 Beth was a little grossed out by the bones we found. Looks like a cow had died some time ago.

 Our faithful dog Quito stopping for a breather. 

 The view of the farm from the top of the hill. Looks a little different from last years climb on Easter Sunday. (shot with a 24-70 wide angle lens)

The above picture is LAST year's April climb up the hill. Notice the water was already starting to rise, as the sandbars have quite a bit of water on them. (shot with a 70-200 lens)

(ok, the lens stuff is just for my camera friends who always want to know what you're shooting with, everyone else can ignore that ok?)

This years 2012 picture.

On top of Jay's hill looking to the west. The other puppy is Beth's dog "Echo." They said they must have named him wrong (or was it right?), cause he never comes on the 1st call, it's always 2nd or 3rd time. LOL

The crocuses are almost gone, but we did see a few. Funny, last year's walk they were just coming out. 

A Kadence Easter

It was so fun to have my kids and my grand baby here for Easter. What could be better? Somehow most every picture had Kadence in it, I wonder why?

 Great Grampa Don was so trilled to get to hold Kadence

She really liked that baby in the mirror and was giving her all kinds of kisses.

Or was she trying to eat the baby in the mirror?

My chicky eggs I made for Easter. 

 Our little sunshine!!

Uncle Phil and Kadence

My what big eyes you have!!!

Escaping her mommy while getting her diaper changed

Bath time in the sink. What fun! She had water everywhere with her splashing. 

Great Grampa Don and Grandma Honey 

Love Kadence's expression when she gets her picture taken with me! It says it all! She's wearing her shirt we got her in Albuquerque, NM

April 5th Track Meet

Today we again headed over to the Bowl in Bismarck for a track meet. Kristi saw some improvement and she had a great time.

 Kristi's first time to run the 300 hurdles.  She took 8th. 

Coach Kuhn checking some times. He's the head coach for the girls at Mandan High. He's been coaching for 33 years. He was Kristi's Uncle LaRue's PE teacher in High School! 

 Waiting for the hand off

The hand off!

Kristi then handed off to Destiny. They took 1st place.

Destiny's mother and I were best friends in 3rd grade. Small world. Sheryl was there at the track meet, so we had a great time visiting.

Kristi improved with every jump today. Last meet was a total scratch. So things are looking up.

Love the sand flying!

Destiny also long jumps so I snapped a few pictures of her.

Kristi had a little mishap on the 200. Coming around the corner, she lost her head band, and her bangs fell in her face and she had a difficult time seeing. (the wind was to her back at about 30 mph so that wasn't helping either). Next time, we do some french braiding. Never had this problem when Phil ran track. LOL

Destiny (lane 6) is to Kristi's (lane 9) left.  Kristi did finish even through it was hard to see the line. Poor girl.

I'll post a few more on my face book page.