Death by Platypus

Back to some old shots. Here were some memories from a fun Fourth of July. In the morning, Tyler and Quinn got on their vehicles to participate in the neighborhood parade.

And in the evening, we biked down to Town Lake Park to watch the fireworks display over downtown.

The trip to Arkansas was amazing in many ways. A long overdue vacation, kids on relatively good behavior, crisp weather… Best of all, Arkansas state parks are way better than Texas parks, largely due to a sales tax that goes straight into park improvement. We camped five nights out at Lake Ouachita State Park. The tent camping area is “walk in”, which really meant about a 30 yard jaunt from the parking lot. There were 12 sites situated on a peninsula. We got to watch the sun rise over the mountain every morning, and the sun set over the water every evening. Absolutely incredible.

First photo won’t do the site justice, but not that the washed out area around the edges is all water. Our site was next to the end on the right.

And here’s Alyssa having a zen moment as we begin to watch the sun set at the end of the peninsula.

A final treat (depending on your point of view) was being able to watch the bats fly around and catch bugs over the water after the sun had set.

Forgot to mention a while back, but I published my photos from the Arkansas trip. While overall, the foliage shots didn’t turn out terribly well, there are some fantastic sunrise and sunset shots in there. Check out the shots over on Alpha Dog!

And within just a few days of submitting my Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Artisan’s Festival application, I was one of twenty artists selected to participate in the show!!

Now I have three months to figure out which photos to bring, how many of each, pricing, booth logistics… Exciting, but a little scary at the same time!

I put my application for the LBJ Wildflower Center Artisan’s Festival in the mail this evening! While I’m realistic about my chances for being selected to participate, it still felt good to put together a selection of work for consideration. And I feel pretty good about the quality of the 12 images I submitted.

For the application, I created a stripped down page on my website, and included a lightbox effect for displaying larger images. Take a look!

OK, doesn’t look like I’m quite going to get through even close to 31 posts by Christmas Eve. We’ll just keep the pictures coming and see how it goes. Maybe by New Years?

In May, we (ok, mostly Alyssa) built the kids a gigantic (like 8 feet by 10 feet) in ground sandbox. Now we can go to the beach anytime we want – the kids love it!

I told Tyler he looked very much the college student in this outfit, with his backpack on. I think that observation probably made his week

Random Quinn shot.

And some Quinn shots from a Town Lake Park evening. Here she comes, and there she goes, off into the sunset! In the spring, we made a weekly habit of heading to the park every Friday evening for picnic and playtime with friends. What a great way to enjoy the wonderful weather!

Playing at Town Lake Park.