my family

Big boy in San Juan

I was finally able to photograph my nephew a few days after his 3rd birthday. Can you believe I have never photographed him? It pains me greatly. It pains me more to see the photos my sister will send of him from Sears or with Santa. Kill me now 😉 So finally, finally I was able to get a few shots of him.
We headed to the San Juan Mission, not realizing there was a pretty steep entrance fee. So rather than split our group up or fork out the $60 to get us all in we just tooled around town and spent a lot of time watching the train.
The boy truly felt the freedom of a day with his cousins. Much of the time was spent running from the adults, and my camera. This is a work in progress with this little man. You cannot escape Aunt Stacie. Even with an elusive subject I feel I got several really nice portraits of this kid.
I also got a few of my sister. It has been a long time since I had photographed her. In high school she was my favorite model. Once in college I missed being able to photograph her at a whim. It’s good to stretch those creative muscles, but it’s also difficult when you don’t know anyone. I began asking random people if I could photograph them… not a good idea in a dark club. The guy who looked like Matt Damon really didn’t once in the studio. Oh well. Those were the days.

Ghosts

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The kids were pretending to be ghosts. Ez thinks it’s really funny to be scary. I wonder how long that will last.

These blankets were made by Aunt Teri. Gotta do something at those meetings… ha! We love them and you, my cool sis in Bong Leech… soon to be back in HB… home again!

Last Day of Clown Camp

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No performance to see that week, but she came home looking so lovely. Again a week of fun at Camp ArtReach. This last week of camp was clowning. She learned gags, how to make balloon animals, paint her face (although she got really frustrated and the teacher ended up having to appease the beast and do it for her).
I have seen other kids, on their mom’s blog living in some other state who-knows-where, learning to be circus performers as part of their home school learning. I think they were even in a real circus performance playing with rings or dogs or something. Very cool.
After India’s enthusiasm about this week of camp, two years in a row now, makes me want her to get more exposure into the mysterious world of the circus. Whatever, I have lots of hopes and dreams for my kids; what and how they should be learning.
Speaking of, after her first week back in school I have learned that India has only 20 minutes of recess a day. But I thought, “she’s got PE, that’s fun… right?” Well, PE is only twice a week. Can you believe that? It is a travesty. She really misses the fun of kindergarten. She complained there wasn’t any tub time or discovery learning in 1st grade.
How did I have no idea there was so little playtime in school? I cannot believe that kids need that much desk time to learn. I must have been in denial. Ahhh, I hope it isn’t as bad as I am imagining. If only we could have our network of Boston home-schoolers living here in Denver.
Enough of my rant and no offense to our teachers who may be reading this. I really have only a small idea of what happens in the classroom. On paper, it looks way too academic for my blood.

I’s gettin harder to pose… Not that I want to pose her. Rather, I should say she is getting more self conscious and a little gangly with her limbs lengthening.

She is always trying to get hugs and kisses from Ezra. He is typically telling her (and anyone else, except me) “Don’t touch me.” See his elbow? That’s him getting her to stay away. Classic.

First Day of School

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Finally, the 1st day of school photo you’ve all been waiting for. It only took me a week to get this up.

Firefighters for a Day

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We had a blast hangin in the street with kids, parents and firefighters. The Denver Firefighters Museum had its’ free day and had so many things for the kids to do. My kids ran an obstacle course to save a bear from a ‘burning’ building, put band-aids on injured bears they could take home, escaped a smoke filled room (ok, imaginary smoke with a smoke alarm letting them know they needed to leave). It was such an unbearably hot day. Thankfully one of the fire trucks had a hose shooting water high into the sky, hitting the street (and any hot persons) below. The kids could also douse a burning house (the fire would tip back on their hinges back once the hose hit them) with a real fire hose. So cool.
Here are a few images from the day:

Lots of cool dress-up. We need something like this for Ez at home since he loves India’s pink dress-up dress way too much.

Ready to save the day… and the bear

Ezra was so cute as he tried to grab that bear and drag him out of the tunnel. Is it terrible that India’s run wasn’t pictured? I feel bad, but Ez is just too cute to resist… she’s done all this before, is that it? Ok, guilty conscious talk will now end.

All smiles through the struggle.  It seemed to take about 3 minutes for him to get out of this thing:

Looking a little smug here. He did it and everyone was cheering him on:

Ah, I almost forgot to mention the crane ride. Yes, you heard me. We got to take a ride in a fire engine’s crane. I think we were up 80 feet here:

At the top of the world: