I LOVE PhotoShop Actions!

I just found some fabulous (and free) new PS Elements actions to play around with and I'm having way too much fun. I got them from the Pioneer Woman website (LOVE that blog, it's awesome) and here are just a few of the effects I've done so far:

Original, straight out of the camera:

Vintage:

Black & White Beauty (with the colour added back just slightly):

Black & White (again, with the colour put back in a little):

Seventies: (I really like this one but I don't know why it has that weird square in the corner)

Soft Faded:

I think the Black and White action is my favourite out of this group...

Who needs sleep? I think I'll find another photo to play with...

Here's one straight out of the camera:

Heartland:

Vintage:

Soft and Faded:

Straight out of the camera:

With a whole bunch of different actions to sharpen the focus and darken the background:

Straight out of the camera:

And, with a bunch of different actions to lighten his face and add a vintage coloring:

So fun!

Devonian Botanic Gardens

Last Saturday, we decided to take the kids to the Devonian Botanic Gardens near our house. There's a butterfly house there and the youngest three had never been so we thought they would enjoy seeing all the live butterflies flying around. We actually thought we'd just go see the butterflies and then go home but it was such a beautiful day that it seemed a shame not to explore the gardens a bit so that's what we did. The gardens were very beautiful and it was a wonderful way to spend the day.

Here are some of the butterflies we saw:

The kids were excited that Jess let them walk around taking pictures of butterflies with his cameras.

This is me looking at a butterfly. As you can tell, I had fun playing with my photo processing software on this one:

After the butterfly house, we explored the Japanese gardens. The kids were so excited to spot the koi fish in the pond.

They all liked sitting on the rocks by the waterfall and Connor said it was so beautiful and relaxing there that he wanted to do yoga. Hudson watched what Connor was doing and decided to give it a try:

After the Japanese gardens, we explored the herb gardens and the English garden.

We were celebrating our 15th anniversary this week:

Isn't this a sweet picture? Can you see the gleam in Hudson's eye? Right after this picture was taken, he hit Connor on the head with the stick in his hand.

There was more tree climbing that day:

And of course, more ice cream:

I sure wish summer was a little bit longer!

Family Reunion Summer 2011

We took a long trip in August to spend time with family. First, we headed to Raymond for a few days where we spent time with Grammy and Grandpa, Paul, Spencer, and John. We spent hours at the outdoor pool in Raymond, enjoyed raspberries in Grandpa's garden, and we got to watch John play the role of Ralph Malph in the Happy Days musical showing in Cardston.

There's a great tree climbing tree in the backyard in Raymond and Hudson spent a long time sitting in the tree, he was pretty proud of himself.

And Shae has always liked to climb trees since she was little.

Look, Hudson's as tall as Spencer!

One day, we went to Lethbridge and met up with my brother Jared and his daughter Lilia, as well as my mom, my brother David and his wife, Laura. We hung out at Henderson Lake where we climbed more trees, tried to catch crayfish in the lake, ate pizza, and rented some four-wheeler bikes.

After a few days in Raymond, we headed down to Hayden Lake in northern Idaho. We rented a house near the lake and just around the corner from my cousin Eleasha's home. We spent most evenings over at Brad & Eleasha's, hanging out around the fire or playing games. We also went to the lake, had a lunch and games at the church, and spent one day at Silverwood Amusement Park.

This is the front of the house we rented:

Maira and Connor are pretending they're swimming in a lake (I guess the shag carpet was pretty deep):

Hudson is helping chop up the bananas for our fruit salad:

This is David swinging one of my kids around (Hudson, I think?). Now we know what he would look like if he was a ghost...

Maira and Eleasha's daughter, Keely:

Connor and Keely:

Playing "Two Truths and a Lie":

David and Laura jetskiing off into the sunset:

This was Connor's first time being tall enough to go on a real roller coaster.

Here we are, waiting in line for the Timber Terror:

The ride is about to begin! (for the record, it was a terrible ride, they should name it Whiplash Wonder):

Here we are on a horizontal ferris wheel type ride. It was really fun.

The highlight of the day for Maira and Hudson may well have been the train ride:

Hudson loved the train, he just thought the whistle was a little loud:

There was much swinging and twirling when David and Laura were around:

At supper time, we decided to try Elephant Ears. We thought they were like Beaver Tails, a favourite treat from Ottawa, but it turns out they're about 10 times bigger than a Beaver Tail so when I ordered 4 of them before I knew how big they were, we were drowning in Elephant Ears!

Good-bye Silverwood! Your lineups were way too long and your roller coaster way too painful but we still had a good day!

On the drive home, we stopped at this giant truck parked on the side of the road in Sparwood BC, so Hudson could get out and stretch his legs.

We had a great time but it sure is nice to be home again!