Birthday Day!

Yesterday was officially Nick’s birthday. Although we  celebrated it on Sunday I still want to give a shout out to my Sunshine. Your kids aren’t really supposed to be your friends, but I can tell you for the last 19 years Nick has been my best friend. I can’t even begin to describe it, but let’s just say that he envelopes my heart.

I think pretty much all of us are seeing the same giant moon lighting up the sky, and it is painfully obviously to me that I am not a moon photographer. (In fact, I’m not a photographer at all!).

On our way to basketball I stopped right in the middle of Chena Ridge to take photos. We were completely safe….I had my 5 & 7 year olds watching for cars! LOL

I took a lot a lot of photos. Yuck! The sky was not purple, but it is still kind of pretty.

That is more of what the moon actually looked like… reddish-orange.

Tried again and got a little more close to what the sky actually looked like.

Then we moved further down the hill to get away from the brush. A nice view of Fairbanks.

I wish I knew how to take photos that showed the lights and darks…not just light bulbs!

 

I also took a lot like this. Ug!

Too dark….

Too grey…

What I’d really like is to be able to take photographs of the moon like this one that I stole off of Google that originally came from www.newsminer.com . As a matter-of-fact I could steal a zillion photos to show you good photographers in my Great State…. frost and Northern Lights and moons and Ice Sculptures and animals… I know, I could take a class at UAF (for the tune of about $700)… maybe I can find a free-lance guy to give me some tips a little cheaper. (And no, I’m not reading my manual…seriously, when would I have time?). 

Migraine Day for the boy, but he pulled out of it later in the day to go to his could-have-been-an-hour-but-was-35-minutes meeting. We ran back home, dinner and then off to Lucas’ basketball game.

That smile right there tells you how much fun he has.

Except when it is his turn to sit out.

This ref used to ref Elijah. He was also a head Umpire for baseball that Elijah worked under one summer. He’s also reffed his football games for years. And now he gets Lucas.

“Hey, I’m going to just reach up here and take that ball”.

“And fast break down the court”.

“So I can take a shot”.

“Are you really going to dangle the ball out there again?”

“Here I go!”.

Dad and Grandma Debbi were up on the balcony with Olivia (who is running around behind them).

Stop….

Shoot…Score!!

How about that tenacious defense? He’s all up in their business.

Again…this is the quality of photos I’d like to be taking. I stole this one from the newspaper as well. In fact, it was taken by my neighbor down the road….his son was in cross-country with Lucas (and he was killer fast; number one every time). I suppose Eric would not appreciate me stealing his photo, but I wanted you to get the idea. I have to get a lens for this and some instruction because that is an awesome shot!

After the game Dad took us all out to Food Factory for Nick’s birthday. Ha ha! Nick was busy with his friends, but did spend the whole day with me. I worked on his hair a little. I can’t believe that so many months have gone by and they’ve been neglected. I mean, after all the work it was for me to put them in I wanted to keep them looking nice. Now I’m in repair mode. This will take the better part of two weeks as my hands (arthritis) ache after a little bit of rolling.

I used salt, baking soda and lemon juice for the first wash. The second wash was with apple cider vinegar. He was in a bit of a hurry to get ready to hang with friends so I cut the process short. We’ll do a better cleaning another time.

See all the new growth the hasn’t been rolled? I’ve got to get the dread to be closer to the scalp. Also, he has a lot of new hair that creates a fuzzy look. I have to take those hairs, roll them into balls and then tuck them into the dread. Then roll and roll and roll the dread. He’s looking forward to them being long enough to pull back into a pony tail.

I know dreads aren’t for everyone and I do think he’s more attractive with a hair cut, but they make him happy….and really, who do you style your hair for? Yourself or everyone else? Besides any kid that knows Bob Marley’s birthday is the day before his own is most likely going to wear dreads at some point in his life!