Candra Tinis Photography

Steve

2012-02-08T20:21:00.001-07:00

We got the kids a Leopard Gecko for Christmas! They have been begging for something lizard for about 3 years, finally we caved.

Zander has a stuffed animal iguana that he has been carrying around for 2 years. He repeatedly says he wishes Stripe were real. When we were building out new house, he claimed the bottom of his closet would be the perfect place for a lizard or gecko. For the past school year, every book he brought home from the school library was about lizards, iguanas, geckos, etc. He really did his research and knew that the best type of pet would be either the Leopard Gecko or the African Fat Tailed Gecko.

When I picked Steve up from the store, the girl at the store said, "this one is an albino Leopard Gecko", but I thought she was talking about the other. Now I'm thinking it is Steve as we've had him for over a month, he was probably 2 months old when I got him and he has no dark markings at all, just the pink and orange. I googled that and yes, it seems that he is albino. Time will tell.

This video was taken Christmas day, when the boys first met Steve. Surprised doesn't even being to describe it. Notice as soon as Zander realizes what is in the aquarium and he runs to hug me (that part tears me up everything I watch it), he immediately sits down and puts Stripe the Iguana up to the glass and makes Stripe wave to Steve.

They love Steve!

Sweet little Steve under the heat lamp:

This is a mixture of multivitamin powder and additional Vitamin C powder that is essential for gecko health. Don't ask me why. It's not like someone is putting a dish out for them in the wild! I'm assuming the crickets and mealworms we feed them don't have enough nutritional value. But in the wild...?
Regardless, we dust the crickets with the powder before each feeding and he will also go and lick it right out of the dish when he wants to.

Little poser:

Look at his pretty colourings. He's pink and orangy.

This little house is filled with moss that must be kept moist at all times. The heat lamp is right over top of it, thus providing a humid hid for him. This is especially important when he is shedding.
Like I know what I'm talking about....

Here his is hunting down a meal worm. Click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see his funny angry eyes. He always gets that face when he hones in on his dinner. So cute!

Nom, Nom, Nom!

Yes! He is smiling!

Macro Steve:

Swainson’s Hawk

2011-08-18T20:24:00.007-06:00

Edit to update title! I emailed the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton with these pictures and asked if they could ID this hawk. Holly, the Animal Care and Project Manager, emailed me back to let me know he is a Swainson's Hawk and that they are quite common in our area. They migrate to South American and usually leave in September.

Thank you for the ID, Holly!

There have has been 2 hawks living in the forest behind our house this spring/summer. Haven't seen a nest or babies but we can see them and hear them every day. The other day our boys saw them sitting on a guard rail on the road near our house and were so excited to get within 20 feet of them, before they both flew off.
Today, I saw a commotion outside the front window so went to see what was going on. There were 3 hawks fighting in mid-air, one of them had something in its talons. We thought it was a mouse at first but could soon see it was much bigger than a mouse, a gopher, perhaps?
Anyway, he landed on our neighbours lawn and sat there for 40 minutes, eating away.
Neighbours came and went, he cause quite a scene in small town Devon! People were stopping their cars in the middle of the street to take a look or take pictures. This isn't something you see everyday!
Click on the picture to see a larger image, then click your back button to come back to this post.

One of his buddies landed on the roof of our house, obviously upset that HE didn't get the gopher and that his feathered friend wouldn't share.

The third guy circled overheard quite a bit, squawking like crazy.

Edited to add this shot. Our neighbour Mandy sat on her step the entire time watching him. She was no more than 10 feet away! He was not bothered by her in the least. She was giving me a play by play from her spot, where she said she could hear bones crunching!

Gopher? Looks like it! The hawk literally ate him from top to bottom! It was such a cool sight. Gross, but cool.
Seriously, is something wrong with me? I laugh every time I look at this picture. You HAVE to click on the picture for a closer view. You HAVE to!

Looks like a fuzzy pair of pants, doesn't it?

Here is an addition to the post, where the hawk has literally turned the gopher inside out. He's quite efficient!

We watched him eat until the neighbours cat came trotting down the sidewalk. Did he seriously think he could take that bird? Or was he just looking for gopher leftovers?
I was so excited when he took off that I nearly missed the shot. I have such a bad habit of doing that, not a good trait for a photographer! BTW, that red thing that is hanging behind him? That's gopher spine. Ick.

Turns out, the cat wanted the gopher leftovers. He licked the grass for a few minutes then walked away, satisfied with himself...

Fairmont Hot Springs vacay

2011-07-13T19:31:00.009-06:00

We just got back from a week in Fairmont Hot Springs, a family favourite vacation spot. I have been going there since I was a baby and have always loved it. Mark and I started taking the boys several years ago and they are loving it just the same. It feels exactly as it did when I was a child. It's like time stands still there. The ambiance is just amazing...

Fairmont Hot Springs Resort

Usually we camp in the RV park but this time we stayed in the lodge. We were upgraded to the Queen Loft with Kitchenette, which had 2 Queen size beds and a kitchenette, then upstairs in the loft there were 2 singles beds for the boys. It overlooked the grounds and the pool and was amazing!

The weather was amazing every single day. And surprising, NO MOSQUITOES!!

We checked in and went straight to the pool, of course. The boys, all 3, spend the majority of their time in the pool, doing cannon ball after cannon ball, dives, jumps, spins and a few belly flops. One of the things I love about Fairmont is how people will line the walls of the diving pool to watch the jumpers, and cheer for them, groan when you smack the water and encourage the scared ones. Exactly like when I was little.

View from my lounger:

Shmoopie!

Gorgeous mountain view from the pool. This pic also gives you a good idea of how the diving board pool is separated from the hot springs pool and the regular pool (reg pool on the right).
The hot tub has a temperature of 39C, the large swimming pool is 32C and the diving pool is 30C.
Reputed health benefits of natural, mineral hot spring water: Health Benefits

Mark is VERY excited!

Here goes Zanz!

Off goes Rayden!

Mark loves the cannon ball:

The valley is so swollen right now, I've never seen it flood like this:

Went for a walk to see the Indian Bathhouse and saw this little beauty:

Hello!

There was a cougar and cub spotted up by the Indian Bathhouse so I didn't go up too far this time. Here are some of my most favourite pictures of the bathhouse. I'm sure I can't get any better pictures than these anyway!

I have this picture enlarged and framed, hanging in our main floor powder room.

Interesting history:
History of the Hot Springs

Inside, the bathhouse is divided into three rooms, each with it's own bathtub carved out of the stone floor. Hot spring water flows in the front and out the back.

Each room has it's own sky light!

Outside and further up the hill is an outdoor tub. Water flows right in from the springs coming out of the ground.

Natural hot spring coming out of the ground:

On Tuesday night, we drove 45 minutes south to Kimberley, this cute, little Bavarian town to have supper at the ski hill with the Tings. Erika and I have been besties since we were...10? 11? And here we are, just a mere 20 years later ;-p with our babies.

Look at Averie, she is losing it by this point!

On Wednesday morning we took the kids golfing at Creekside, which is just a little Par 3, down at the bottom of the resort hill. This was the first time the kids have played 9 holes without help. We've done Texas scramble with them before, and gone to the driving range. Rayden has had a golf lesson in gym class but other than that, this was the first real game of golf.

Honestly, I don't intend to dress them as twins...

Marky:

This was my best hit of the day.

See the ball? Long and straight! Mark should have taken pictures of me every hole, if it produced shot like this!

Never played on a course with an Inukshuk before!

Very excited!

Last hole of the day:

Thursday afternoon we took the kids to the Hoodoos and let them hike up the side a bit. Those hoodoos are so amazing looking.

On our way home, we stopped in Radium Hot Springs for lunch (the Melting Pot, YUMMY! Best chicken burger ever!) and to visit the Radium Woodcarver's place. Radium Woodcarver We've been to his house/shop twice now and it is always a treat. This is the first piece we bought from him, 2 years ago:

Rolf is a totally eccentric hippy from Switzerland who is an amazing artist. He lives in a pieced together half shack, half treehouse, with his 2 goats. He is self sustaining, with a roof top garden and hot tub! He carves all of his incredible pieces with a chainsaw! His house/workshop is rigged with hoses that shoot water at you when you least expect it. Soon you DO expect it, but you never know where it is coming from!

Here is the east side of the house/workshop.

Look! It's Osama!

The outside has all of these funny signs and one proclaiming his house has been featured on HGTV's "Weird Homes". I believe it!

Hello Sweety, Have a Seaty. See the water spout right behind Zander's head?

Entrance:

Up top is the hot tub and you can also see the goat runs that run the whole perimeter of the property.

This is Rolf and our kids. Yes, he really does wear dresses and crazy hats. Don't be scared of him, he's really nice.

Zander was taking a look at this cool sculpture:

And got blasted!

This guy is about 7 feet tall.

Nice hat:

This is the piece we bought this time:

Right across the street is a beautiful old church. Just wanted a few pictures of it.

The roof is a cobalt blue with green/yellow/brown moss growing all over it.

On our way through Banff we decided to take a little side jaunt over to Banff Springs Hotel and go for a walk inside. So beautiful. The kids thought we were at Hogwarts.

Field of Dreams

2011-06-14T16:05:00.003-06:00

Cool pano I took with my iPhone and stitched together. 6 images. Click to see a bigger image of it.

Little visitor

2011-06-02T13:17:00.004-06:00

This beautiful little guy let me get my lens within a few inches of him. So patient!
Click the pictures to see him really close up!

Gutter Garden Tutorial

2011-05-30T16:12:00.011-06:00

I've been asked by so many people about my Gutter Garden that I thought posting a tutorial would be very helpful to those that want to do it.
Up front, this was not my genius idea, I wish I could take credit for such a clever idea. I read it on a blog last year, by a woman in Alaska who was tired of fighting the cold, rocky ground, slugs, cats and deer, all who wanted a piece of her garden. She thought that if she could get the plants off the ground, that would solve most of her problems. She posted pictures of her gutter garden and all I did was copy it!

These are just regular gutters that you can by from any hardware store. They typically come in 10 foot lengths which is perfect for this application. Our fence posts are 10 feet apart, and you want something strong like that to screw into. This saved us having to cut any length off.

Decide how much gutter you will need and if needed, the store can even cut them to length for you.

Also purchase the gutter caps, U clips, equal length boards and screws.

I bought 4 - 10 foot lengths of gutters, 2 gutter caps for each length (so 8 gutter caps in all) and 3 U clips for each gutter. I also purchased 4 - 10 foot lengths of board for support.

My husband screwed the 10' long boards to the fence, using the posts as studs. The boards are used for stability. Attach the gutters to the board.

Next, attach the end caps to the gutters. You could do this before screwing them to the boards, if you wish.

Attach the U clips to the gutters. These will help support the gutters and not allow them to bow outward once filled with all that heavy soil. We used 3 clips per section and can see bowing. Could have used 4, evenly spaced U clips. Regardless, 3 works just fine.

Drill drainage holes about every 8-10" in the bottom of each gutter, to allow for drainage. This is very important. If you don't do this, you risk root rot if excess water has no were to drain.

Fill the gutters with a good vegetable potting soil. One that has moisture lock is very helpful for the gutters, as they need watering often, given the shallowness of the container. Add soil and fill up to within 2 cm from the very top. Make sure the soil is nice and compact as it will settle with time and watering. You need as much soil in there to allow for the roots and to protect the veggies. I made the mistake last year of not adding enough soil and after it settled down, I ended up with onions and radishes sticking a bit out of the soil.

Run a trowel, or even a chop stick, down the length of the gutter, about 1/2 - 1" deep. Drop seeds in according to the directions on the package. Almost all say to leave 2.5cm spacing between seeds. I am way to impatient for that and I end up just lightly sprinkling them in there. Once they start coming up, you will see where you have to thin them out by literally plucking the excess out with your fingers. This allows for space to grow properly. They don't like being crowded in there!

I planted the Gutter Gardens for the first time last year and had 2 gutters on the west fence and 2 gutters on the east fence. I planted the west fence gutters first, waited 2 weeks and then planted the east fence gutters. Since the east fence gutters got the most sun, they took off growing and did WAY better than the west fence. In fact, some of the radishes on the west fence never grew enough to actually make radishes. So this year, I had my husband move the 2 west fence gutters over onto the east fence. It gets the best sun for the most hours, it all makes a difference.

Here are the gutters, planted on May 21st.
Top row - onions
Second row left side - mixed lettuce (radiation, endive, spinach, etc)
Second row right side - spinach
Third row - lettuce
Bottom row - strawberries

Week 1, the lettuce is popping up already! When the lettuce is ready, all you do it cut it off at the base, and it will grow back again and again.

I planted the strawberries out of purchased baskets. I don't know if I've ever seen strawberry seeds. Even so, I do not have the space in this house to start things indoors so sometimes, I have to resort to buying already grown.

Strawberries are the perfect candidate for gutter gardens as you can obviously control the trailers. Trail away, strawberries! Run and be free.

Here is a list of some produce that are shallow-rooted and would do well in a gutter garden:

Onions
Radish
All varieties of lettuce
Spinach
Strawberries
Herbs (peppermint, spearmint, thyme, sage, etc)

There is more, I am sure. Google "shallow root vegetable" to read more ideas.

Remember, anything grown in the gutter garden will not be very drought resistant. They will need watering more often, but of course, they won't require a lot of water. I like to start at the top gutter and work my way down to the bottom, then start all over again. They get a good watering and that will last several days (depending on how hot it is, of course. Water more often when it is really hot out.)

I hope others try this idea out. It has worked so well for us. I love to grow things, even if I don't eat them all. I'm what my father-in-law calls "an urban farmer".

Devon Days 2011

2011-05-28T00:09:00.004-06:00

It's that time of year again!
Devon Days is here and for us, one of the highlights is the piddly little fireworks display, which is pretty descent for a little town. They spent a budget-busting $8000 on this years display and it did not disappoint!
I forgot to bring my tripod up on the roof of the garage and by time I remembered, the show was starting. I only got a couple descent pictures but was happy with getting this good of quality, hand held.

I heart Devon Days!

Waiting for the parade to start:

Such mischief in those eyes...

Army trucks:

Mayor Fisher promoting Bike Town:

Here come the crazy Shiners:

Our neighbour is a red belt in TaeKwon Do. He is demoing his mad board breaking skillz:

The midway:

Wack-a-mole winner!

Balloon darts:

Mark spent about $10 trying to stand up the bottle:

Another successful Devon Days has come and gone. The weather was great, there were new rides, and our spirit is alive and well in our wonderful little town. I love living here!

Finally time to garden

2011-05-21T21:14:00.009-06:00

It's May long weekend and it is gorgeous outside! Time to plant my tiny gardens.
The Gutter Garden is making it's 2nd annual appearance, much to my neighbours delight. They thought I was coo-coo bananas last year, when I put these up. But once they saw how well everything grew, they thought I was a genius! I admitted, it was not my idea. I saw it posted online last spring and thought it was the perfect solution to my tiny yard. Last year, I had 2 gutters on the west facing fence and two on the east facing fence. Even though I planted the west facing fence first, the east facing fence grew faster and better. More sun.
So at the end of the season, I had Mark move the 2 gutters on the west fence over to the east. I expect much better result, all around, this year.

I made sure to write down what I planted in each gutter this year, so it isn't a guessing game like last!

Top row - onions.
Second from top - left side is a mix salad, right side is spinach.
Third row - all lettuce.
Bottom row - strawberries. These were the only ones I didn't plant from seed.

Strawberries:

I use my strawberry pot to plant herbs:

Parsley on the top:

Lemon Thyme:

Here is a virginia creeper and above it in the boxes is peppermint. Plenty of peppermint for summertime mojitos on the back deck!

Just a few other plants and flowers:

Peter enjoying is favourite treat as I garden:

Spring in Alberta

2011-04-25T13:21:00.006-06:00

I'm sure other places in Alberta have a bigger jump on spring, but we still have snow in the yard. And it's April 25th!
Just a few shots around my yard, to see what spring looks like in central/norther Alberta in April :(

This is snow mould. Yes. Mould. From the snow. Growing up in southern Alberta, you never, ever see such a thing, because the snow doesn't sit on the ground that long to actually mould. In southern Alberta, it snows, and melts, snows and melts. Here, it snows and stays for 8 months. Once it finally starts to melt, this is what you see underneath. For those with allergies, watch out.

About 8 years ago I planted tulip and hyacinth bulbs. The first spring, half of them came up and bloomed. Every year since then, I will get one tulip and one hyacinth come up. Both grow green leaves but never produce flowers anymore. Oh well, at least it's green!

This is my mock orange. Dormant and brittle. Please wake up!

It's gorgeous and green in BC right now, and just about everywhere else in Canada is at least starting to resemble spring...

30 Subject Photo Challenge

2011-02-10T22:06:00.013-07:00

I am gearing up for a fresh, new photo challenge this spring and to get myself motivated, I am going to post a previous challenge I participated in.

DAY 1 - Long Exposure

DAY 2 - Bokeh

Day 3 - Simple Head Shot

DAY 4 - Architecture

DAY 5 - Fast Exposure

DAY 6 - Sunflare

DAY 7 - Eyes

DAY 8 - Self-Portrait

DAY 9 - Clouds

DAY 10 - Still Life

DAY 11 - Street Lights

DAY 12 - Seasons

DAY 13 - Technology

DAY 14 - Silhouette

DAY 15 - Landscape

DAY 16 - Fruit

DAY 17 - Nature

DAY 18 - Animals

DAY 19 - Close up / Macro

DAY 20 - Trees

DAY 21 - (almost) Monochromatic

DAY 22 - Black and White

DAY 23 - Night

DAY 24 - The back of things

Day 25 - Low-angle shot

Day 26 - high angle shot

Day 27 - Insects

Day 28 - Panning

Day 29 - Flowers

DAY 30 - Water

Big fun in a little leaf pile

2010-10-17T12:15:00.004-06:00

Our neighbours were raking their leaves yesterday and my kids got in on the action.
I think this is a major downfall of living in a new development, we seriously lack an abundance of leaves in the fall!

Here goes Zanz:

Ray's go at it:

Miranda part 2

2010-08-21T16:38:00.009-06:00

After a lot of re-scheduling due to bad weather, a crashed computer needing to be replaced, and a crazy, busy summer, I have finally finished the last of Miranda's pictures. Too tired to write captions so I'll just say that obviously some were taken at a farmer's field with his out buildings and some were taken in a canola field. Enjoy!

These are just some of my favourites.

Miranda

2010-07-01T19:56:00.004-06:00

This wonderful, beautiful girl, our neighbour, our babysitter for the last 6 years, just graduated from high school last month and we couldn't be more happy for her. As a gift I told her I would take some graduation pictures of her to surprise her parents with. This is very common in the USA, they call them senior portraits down there, but it's not very common here.
Anyway, today we did our first session with her boyfriend out at the Clifford E. Lee Nature Sanctuary. According to there map, we walked about 5.6 Kms around the sanctuary to different locations. I took 226 shots, whittled them down to 25 to edit and here are just a few of my favourites.

Gutter Garden and what's popping up

2010-06-10T10:35:00.008-06:00

Gutter Garden!
Someone posted a link to this idea on Facebook a couple weeks back and I thought it was the perfect solution to our tiny yard. Buy 10 foot lengths of gutter, caps and clips. Attach a 10 foot length of board to your fence, attach gutter to the boards. Drill drainage holds in the bottom of the gutters, fill with dirt and plant shallow-rooted vegetables.

2 gutters on the right side of the yard:

And two on the left. I planted the right side ones almost 2 weeks ago. On Sunday I will plant the left side so that we have veggies growing at different times and to prolong the harvest. EDIT! I decided to plant this side today!

Week 1! Here comes the... ummmm... now what did I plant there??? I think those are onions! NOPE! They are radishes!

Onions!

Week 2! There is lettuce, radishes and onions in the top one:

Spinach, lettuce and beets in the bottom one.
I think.
I can't remember where I planted everything but those are the veggies I planted!

When they say to plant the seeds 2.5 cm apart, they weren't kidding. I have zero patience for something like that and just sprinkled seeds in there and covered them up. Now they are coming up in bunches. I'm going to have to get some tweezers and start thinning them out!

I can't believe how everything is coming! I planted everything less than 2 weeks ago. I'll post more pictures as the weeks go by so you can see how big they will get in the gutters. The key is to use shallow-rooted vegetables (google "shallow root vegetables" to find out what to plant), they need very little room to grow.

Just some other things growing around the yard:

Peas in the flower garden. I've been trying to grown a cedar in this spot for the last 5 years and every year it dies. I gave up this year and planted peas there instead. So far, so good!

Just some purple I-don't-know-what!
I know what now! It's Lobelia erinus! Thanks you!!

Gorgeous rose:

Lavender:

"Fibre Optic" ornamental grass:

Daisies:

Devon Minor Baseball - Rookie #1 team

2010-05-29T13:45:00.006-06:00

Just a few pictures from my little guy's baseball game earlier this week. I was playing around with special effects in photoshop to give them a lot of contrast and saturation. I kinda like the effect in sports shots.

Here is is catching for the very first time. He did great!

Can you see the ball? He hit it out of the park!

okay, not out of the part but....

He got a triple!

Oasis

2010-05-19T15:49:00.005-06:00

We finally, FINALLY broke down and bought ourselves a cushy patio furniture set and splurged on a 12 X 11 foot gazebo with a huge ceiling for the deck. Together, this makes the deck feel like our own little slice of heaven. It's literally adding a whole additional room on to our house and we spend every second we can out there. It has mosquito netting curtains so we can have supper out there an not be bothered by the wasps. The furniture is so comfortable, I even fell asleep on the couch out there the other day. It is the perfect place to sit and read a book or just relax with the fam.
Last night we sat under it and listened to the rain and thunder. Total heaven.

Impostor Frankie

2010-04-23T16:09:00.004-06:00

My sweet old lady would have turned 18 yesterday. My little guy was so sad, he carried around Impostor Frankie all morning and then put her on my pillow when he had to go to school.

It's been 8 months since she had to go. I miss that cat.

Olympic Torch Relay Day in Devon!

2010-01-15T11:12:00.008-07:00

What an exciting day it's been so far. The Olympic Torch made it's way through our town this am. The kids went with their schools to line the streets so Mark and I headed downtown to see the action. It was hard to get any real good shots as there were so many people, someone always getting in the way and everything happened so fast!
Anyway, this was the excitement of the morning. It started at 8:35am and was still kinda dark out at that time.

Here comes the delegation:

Hello, Vancouver people!

This was the bus that carried all the Olympic Torchbearers. They were pretty excited in there!

Coke truck! Everyone likes to see the Coke Truck.

The guy announcing from the RBC truck was VERY happy to see us this morning. He shouted out, "GOOD MORNING DEVON, ONTARIO!!!"
uhh... we're in Alberta, buddy.

Can you see the flame waaaay down there? The bus dropped the first guy off at the start of the route and we could see them light his torch.

Here he comes!

Buddy to the right kept getting in my shot. This was the best I got:

After they went by us the first time, we walked 2 blocks over to see them coming back around the loop. Second pass:

Devon, ALBERTA. He got it right this time!

Superfan:

Last torchbearer:

Fun stuff! That was pretty exciting. I got to see the torch go through Lethbridge when the Olympics was in Calgary in '88. That was 22 years ago! Wonder when the next time Canada will get to host the Olympics? In another 22 years? I'm glad my kids got to see it today, it could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Coldest place in North America

2009-12-14T13:09:00.005-07:00

Edmonton was the coldest place in North America yesterday and the second coldest place on earth! That honour went to Dzalinda, Siberia! It was -46.1C with a windchill of -58.6C. Siberia was -48C. We must be some hardy folks! Here is the article from the Edmonton Sun:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmonton/2009/12/13/12141366.html

And a couple pictures of my frozen windows from the inside. I wasn't going out there to take pictures!

'Tis the Season

2009-12-09T12:35:00.004-07:00

for taking lots of pictures!

Peter!

2009-12-01T15:16:00.003-07:00

I was taking a couple pictures of Peter at the request of a friend and it dawned on me, this is the first time I've really taken any pictures of him since sweet old Frankie died. When I was taking these, I automatically turned to see where she was so I could take a bunch of her too, as that was habit.
Anyway, they turned out so cute, I had to share:

After taking a few pictures, he got all crazy and started running around barking at me like a nut! I had to bribe him with treats to get him to sit pretty!

YUMMY treats!
Look at that tongue! If you click on the picture it will enlarge (then just click the back button to come back here). You gotta see what that tongue is doing close up, it's crazy!!

This was when he was acting all coo-coo and barking his fool head off at me, then his jowl got stuck up under his tooth.

Just some tootsies for you:

The Old Man's 75th!

2009-11-29T15:33:00.010-07:00

My father-in-law celebrated the three quarter century mark last weekend with a party we threw for him at the Rosebrier Community School outside of Wetaskiwin. This is the school Mark and his sisters all went to from grades K-9. When we told him we were arranging the party for him, he got all shy and giggly and acted as if it were no big deal, but once he was at the party he had such a great time. He was so surprised to see how many people showed up to give the old man a slap on the back!
Here are just a few of the event.

This was taken at the farm just before we left for the party. The fam:

This was Dale's reaction to his prezzie we got for him, the skybox for the Oilers vs. Maple Leafs (his favourite team) game on Dec.30th. He was so excited, he sneezed.
Thanks, Pops!

Dale and Dorothy:

Checking out all the photos:

Greeting the guests. I think about 120+ people showed up.

How happy is she!

Mark slam dunkin'.

Zans slam dunkin'!

Dale with his presents the jokester farmers made him:

Checking out the pictures:

Finally! He noticed the jersey we had made for him! It's a Maple Leaf jersey with his number from back in the day (which is swears he was number 8!)

Dale and Dorothy with Dorothy's kids:

All the grands:

All the grandkids made Grandpa birdhouses to hang up around the farm. They have so many birds out there and the kids (and Grandma and Grandpa) all love to watch them.

The Goalie:

Look at the old guy stacking the pads! He still has it!

Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T13:20:00.008-06:00

A few pictures of the yard so far this Halloween, it's still not complete! I will update with more and the day goes on...
Updated with the last few pictures. Enjoy!

Scary guy crawling out of the ground:

Entrance to the cemetery. We had one of these arbors at each sidewalk leading to our house. Mark made the Cemetery sign out of Styrofoam and paint.

Run down picket fence:

Coming out of the ground:

What does that say?? I died???

Arbor and fence:

Gravestones. Also made out of Styrofoam and paint:

The rack of skulls, hanging ghost and pumpkins we didn't even get around to carving! Left my dead plants out as part of the decor as well!

The Gallows. Our teenage neighbour hung himself in noose and then jumped out at kids to scare the crap out of them.

Full view of the house:

Entrance from the other side:

Mamma spider. We also had an egg sack hanging up there but I didn't get a picture of it. The webs are made of marine rope.

Headstone:

Pumpkins:

Heeelllpppp meeeeee!

Motorized ghost. She hangs from a frame and moves around slowly while a black light shines on her. Very spooky!

New toe-pincher coffin and resident. There is a string of red lights in there and Mark recorded himself as the skeleton telling funny bone jokes to the kids, they loved it!

Brain Cupcakes

2009-10-30T13:19:00.003-06:00

Hope the kiddies like them!

Foggy Bridge

2009-10-19T11:40:00.004-06:00

What a strange morning! Woke up to just a bit of fog but within 2 hours it rolled in nice and think! I went out looking for something great to photograph in the fog but the locations are limited around here, without bah-haing through the muck and I don't think my van can handle that. Went down to the river valley and got a few snaps of the bridge.

Flower Macros

2009-09-22T13:08:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to post some pictures of those gorgeous flowers that my hubby gave me (see post below).

The Oriental Lilies. I think they have to be my favourite flower.

I have no idea what these flowers are called. I thought they might be a mini chrysanthemum or something but I can't find a good google image to confirm it.

Pink Gerbers.

White Gerber.

New do

2009-09-18T15:36:00.004-06:00

I've been craving this hair cut for quite some time, finally had the guts to do it. I just had 6 inches cut off the back in July and now another 5 or 6 yesterday. The back is much shorter than the front, it's a nice angular bob.

and the flowers are from my lovely hubby. He got them for me as congrats for getting a raise at work, and living through a stressful couple months there without exploding!

Frankie April 22, 1992 - August 13, 2009

2009-08-15T19:52:00.017-06:00

I've dreaded this day for so long, finally it has happened. My beloved Frankie, my sweet old lady, Froo Froo La La, has left me.

17 glorious years I had with Frankie and yet, I wanted more. 17 fur filled years and yet it passed in the snap of my fingers.

She was the image of perfect health until a few months ago. Rapidly she got weaker and skinnier, she would follow me around the house meowing really loud. She fell down the stairs one day and I knew then something was wrong.

The vet said she had dementia and the weight loss and weakness was just something that happens, just like in humans as they age. She was the equivalent to a 95 year old lady and we all know what happens to Grandma's body when she ages. She had been about 14 pounds her entire life and suddenly, she was only 7lbs. The vet thought she might have had a heart attack or stroke but didn't think bloodwork or scans were necessary because what are you going to do at this point and that it would just upset her. She really didn't like going to the vet, and that is the understatement of her life!

Two weeks ago she started to really deteriorate. I could not just sit and do nothing. I couldn't stand to think that there might be some underlying health issue with her and that I was doing nothing to treat it. I took her back to the vet on Monday and insisted on bloodwork. I weighed her again and she was now down to 5lbs. 1/3 of her normal weight.

Results came back on Wednesday. She was in total renal failure and was so far advanced, there was nothing that could be done for her.

By this point I had to carry her around the house, to the litter box, to bed, outside, wherever she wanted to go. I had to bring water and food to her every hour or so or else she just wouldn't bother eating or drinking, it was too much effort for her to walk to her dishes. She was so dehydrated, even though I would have her drink often. Her kidneys were just shot.

We made the painful, heart-wrenching decision to not let her suffer and Thursday we had her put to sleep. We were with her through the end and I am so happy that I could be the last face she saw as she left this earth.
I gave that girly everything, she gave me more than I can ever thank her for.

Here are some pictures of our last days with her.

My boys and Frankie:

Frankie rarely ever sat on anyone but me. Mark, sometimes, but rarely the boys. In her last few days, she came and sat on Rayden twice and he was in heaven when she did it. I think she's only sat on Zander once in his life, pictures are somewhere...

Look how proud he is...

Sweet Frankie:

The boys and Frankie:

Rayden drew this pictures for her as she sat in the sunshine the other day.
Is it just me? Or does it look like Frankie is pooping flowers?

What do you think of it, Frankie?

Mark did this one:

The fur-kids:

They would each try to get that patch of sun first. Sometimes one would push the other out, other times they would lay together in harmony.

We wanted some family pictures before she had to go. The first attempt was inside. Peter wanted to pose, for us. Not for the camera.

This is the only picture we have of the whole family. The only other family picture we have is pre-Peter.

This is what Frankie looked like for the last week of her life. Not happy. Just staring. I see it in her eyes now. She was saying "help me".

Peter is very sad to have lost his girlfriend. He is an only fur--child now.

Okay, that's enough for now. I had told a friend that I just can't imagine life without her. Our family is Team Tinis and Frankie is a team member. We have our own family language around our animals. She's been with me my entire adult life! She slept in the crook of my arm nearly every single night. She moved with me from Vancouver back to Alberta and throughout the province. Every decision I (or we) have made involves her somehow. The kids have never know life without her. I accidentally call my kids Frankie sometimes!

Even though it's only been one day, we all see her everywhere. Out of the corner of our eye's, certain sounds... My oldest said he came in the room and thought he saw her, it was his black bike helmet, sitting in the sunshine by the back door, one of her favourite spots. It was just the right shape and color and in just the right place, he thought he was seeing Frankie at first. We've all had instances like that today, and I'm sure we will have them for years to come. The shock and sinking feeling in my stomach when I realize it's not her has been overwhelming today.
My poor baby girl...
I love you forever. Thank you for all you've given me and our family.

Summer camping vacation

2009-08-04T21:11:00.027-06:00

We just got back from a 2 week camping trip down through Crowsnest Pass, over to Kimberly and then to Fairmont Hot Springs before heading home. It was a fantastic trip, everything was perfect, relaxing, exciting and fun.
The night before we left we had a bad storm roll through. It did some major damage in the city but nothing too bad here.
This picture was of the first wave that went though:

Hail!

Later that night we had an amazing lightening show. I'd never tried to take images of lightening before and this was my chance.

how cool! Looks like a lower case "b"!

We left the next morning and just north of Airdrie we went through another wicked storm. There were cars pulled over all over the highway, the rain was crazy and the clouds were so scary looking. I took this picture just outside of Okotoks which was about 1 1/2 hours south of when we first went through the storm. It's enormous!

Our first stop was in the Crowsnest Pass. As soon as you enter the Pass, the first thing you see to the east (right hand side of the road) is the famous Burmis Tree. This tree is approximately 300 years old and one of the most photographed trees in the world. It died in 1978 and in 1998, winds blew it over. Members of the Crowsnest Pass community came together to stand the tree back up, using brackets and straps. In 2005 vandals broke off the lower branch that sticks straight out. The community once again fixed the tree, propping the broken limb back up with a rod.

My boys at the Burmis Tree:

I photoshopped the rod out of this one:

A black and white of the old boy:

With the sun behind him:

We stayed at this cool little campground called Crowsnest Mountain Resort in Coleman the first night. Right behind us was a little forest where the kids found a pile to play fort in. Notice how all the trees are leaning to the left? That is because this region is so windy, the trees just lean that way. Thankfully there was no wind while we were there.

Gorgeous meadow in our campground.

Pretty bluebells.

This weird tree in our campground had grown up about 3 feet then took a complete 90 degree angle turn and kept growing. It was still alive and thriving!

This was the view from our camping spot:

The next day we took the kids to Frank Slide. On April 29, 1903, Turtle Mountain gave way and partially buried the town of Frank below. The rocks sped down the mountain and traveled 3 kilometers over the valley floor, killing 76 people. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide

Here are my guys at Frank Slide. The boys just couldn't believe the amount of rock that came off that mountain. It really does make you feel quite small when you are in the middle of it.

In front of an RCMP memorial:

Here's Mark and Peter in the rocks.

The kids climbing through the rocks. When you get down in there, it's not hard to see why this mountain came crashing down. It's made of limestone and it just shreds when you smash it on the ground, it seems so fragile.

Hello up there!

Later that afternoon we went driving around the back roads looking for a good angle of the Crowsnest Mountain to take pictures of when we stumbled upon Chinook Lake. It is pretty secluded, not too many people were there and you had to go down a very steep road to the lake and campground that had a sign recommending no trailers attempt the road! But what a sight, the lake was a spectacular color.

While we were there we watched this Bald Eagle glide right over the lake!

He flew right up to an tree that an osprey was in and they began to fight. I ran up to the truck to get my longer lens to catch the action but by time I got back it was over!! Oh well, at least I got the eagle!

That afternoon we left for Kimberley! We stayed there for 5 days camping with some wonderful friends that I didn't take any pictures of! Too busy yapping! This is the campground we stayed at, I totally recommend it: http://www.kimberleycampground.com/index.html It is a great campground, clean and had a free pool.

Boys relaxing and reading in the gorgeous weather.

To the right of Rayden about 15 feet is the edge of a cliff that drops down about 100 feet to the river below!

So down we went to play.

Mark heaving rocks into the river.

How handsome is he??

Okay, we got one group shot of us, but that is all!

Sweet Katie:

She just loved Peter:

Peter and Paul are having a very in depth discussion about how to properly BBQ hamburgers. Paul says slow roasting is the way to go. Peter says "just gimme"!

5 days with these people and that's all the pictures I took?? WTH! Guess we are going to have to plan another camping trip next year then!

After leaving the campground in Kimberley, drove into town to walk around. Spotted this street and had to stop for pictures!

He's quite proud of himself for having the street named after him. He doesn't know what he did to deserve such honour. And he probably won't tell you it was really more like an alley than a street.

Anyway! We walked down the Platzl to the kid's favourite shop where they bought crystals last time we came through. Too bad the owner wasn't out playing his accordion that day like last time, that was really cool to watch. Kimberley is a cool little mountain town with a Bavarian flavour to it. The Platzl is closed to traffic and has the neatest little shops down there. They do plays and hold events in the town square all the time. Worth the visit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_British_Columbia

The gorgeous Platzl:

Look! A shop just for Peter!

Notice the woman laughing at us in the background??

Why oh why would someone name their shop The Back Door? Don't you know some JA like Mark is going to come along and want his picture taken with it??? Oh Mark, you are so immature! And hilarious.

And you get a view of Peter's back door while your at it.

Off to Fairmont Hot Springs!
This is one of my favourite places on earth. I spent a lot of summers here with my family, mostly my grandparents, while growing up and it hold a lot of fond memories for me. Our kids love it just the same.

http://www.fairmonthotsprings.com/

Here are several of the Historical Indian Bathhouse:

Brick and doorway:

The ceiling inside one of the rooms.

Looking out the window:

On to the hot pools. Those kids spent hours every day in that pool. They took swimming lessons there every morning, Monday through Friday (PS, if you are heading to Fairmont, sign your kids up for swim lessons there! It's the same program as anywhere else, is only 1 week and they both passed with flying colors. They learned more there in 1 week than at our local pool in 2 weeks) and on top of that, went back 2-3 times each day. Mark, who never dove off a diving board, did so for the first time in his life but for the most part, he was cannonballing his fool arse off.
On Sunday we were sitting on the grass having lunch when they announced the weekly cannonball competition was about to begin. He had only done a few prior to this but suddenly, something came over him and he HAD to enter the competition. In fact he signed himself and the boys up as well! Zander took 2nd place in the 5-8 year olds, Rayden took 3rd place in the 9-14 year olds and Mark tied for 1st place in the 18 and over category. He won an ice cream cone!

Some shots of the what they did every day for the next week:

Look at that board bend.

Airtime!

Ker-fricken-splash! That is how Mark won the cannonball contest, he directed his tsunami right at the judges and they loved it!

Proud!

Some beautiful sights to see in Fairmont:

The beautiful new tipi they put in the lower area of the RV park.

Gorgeous waterfall that you have to hike down to. I was never allowed down there as a kid because that's were all the partying went on.

Zander in the waterfall:

Above the falls.

Even Peter posed for a picture!

Fallen bird's nest in our campsite.

While we were in Fairmont for the week, we took a couple day trips to Invermere, once to the Saturday morning market (amazing stuff) and once to the beach. I would love to move to Invermere, it's such a cool little town.

We saw this shop as soon as we hit town and had to get a picture. We often call Peter a donkey, because, well, we are sure he really is half Black and Tan Coonhound and half Donkey. And because he's just so sweet, this sign is perfect for him.

We couldn't believe it when we came across Ray Ray's Beach Pub! What is this? The trip of signs for this family??

On the way home we saw a bear! This was just before Banff. Blew right past him even though both Mark and I saw him coming. It was the shock of it all I guess! Then Mark tried to back up the truck and 28 foot trailer along the highway so I could get this picture! Thanks shmoopie!

Okay, that's enough. It's 1am and I'm cross eyed from processing pictures and it's taken forever to load them up here. G'night!

Trip to the city

2009-07-16T13:43:00.006-06:00

Yesterday we had the most fabulous day in the city. We took the kids downtown, then to the Royal Alberta Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit. While we were there we ran into a friend of my husbands, who just so happened to be the curator of the Bug Room at the Museum, so he took us on a private tour. He let the kids touch the bugs and everything! Hissing Cockroaches, Leaf Bugs, Stick Bugs, Millipedes... all sorts of nasty things! After that we drove around town, had supper on Whyte Ave and then headed home. Great day all around. Here are a couple pictures from the day.

Edmonton City Hall and pool:

This is Government House on the Royal Alberta Museum grounds.

This is a beautiful Korean Pavilion on the Royal Alberta Museum grounds:

Ceiling of the Pavilion:

This is the Ksan Totem Pole, also on the Royal Alberta Museum grounds, it's 37 feet tall.
From bottom: Strongman, beaver, raven with frog, bear with salmon, owl.
Artists: Earl Muldoo, Chester MacLean, Victor Mowat

This is at the caboose at the End of the Rail park in Edmonton:

Cool graffiti down on Whyte Ave.

Couple new macros

2009-07-06T12:59:00.005-06:00

Just wanted to show a few new macros I've taken with my new lens (love that lens!):

This might be my present favourite macro, it's an Oriental lily that just bloomed in my garden yesterday:

Hosta:

Lilac flower:

Hosta:

Water drops on grass:

Bronco grass:

Architectural Alphabet

2009-07-06T12:43:00.005-06:00

I have been slowly getting together images for a photography project I've been thinking about. This idea is not original to me, but I thought it was a great idea and I've done similar things in the past for children.
The idea is Architectural Alphabet Photography. Taking pictures of "thing" that look like letters and place them to spell out words, names, etc.
Here are a few ( in B&W, I will offer them in color as well) that I have added to the collection. I expect it to take forever to get the entire alphabet but once I have the collection complete, I will be offering them on my website.

V:

E:

G:

O:

S:

I don't have an "A" yet, so made do to spell out VEGOS! haha!

Valley Zoo

2009-07-06T12:33:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago my little guy went to a birthday party at the Valley Zoo. Here are a couple pictures from the trip:

The first thing the kids did was decorate envelopes and drop a few meal worms in them, tape them up and put string through the envelopes. Then they were taken to the monkey enclosure where a staff member hung the envelopes from the trees and the monkeys would come along and tear open the envelopes and dig out the worms to eat. It was quite the show! This is my kid's envelope, you can actually see the silhouette of the meal worm inside the envelope!

Porcupines eating broccoli (the porcupines smell REALLY bad!)

Cute little armadillo:

Petting a (de-skunked) skunk:

Shark!

DMBA Mosquito Tournament

2009-06-09T09:21:00.003-06:00

We hosted the Mosquito tournament this past weekend and our team went 4-0! It was such an exciting weekend full of good times, wonderful volunteers and great sport. Just a few pictures from the weekend.

Rayden on first:

Rayden coming home:

Woah!

Our team!

Team cheer:

New Macro lens

2009-06-05T11:31:00.005-06:00

My new macro lens was just delivered this morning, these are my first shots with it. I'm so excited to finally have a macro lens!
(it's the Sigma 70mm f/2.8 macro if you are interested)

Tulip

Strawberry

Snapdragon

Snapdragon

Heuchera, Lime Ricky

Violet

Baseball

Baseball, look at that depth of field!

Last baseball

Taekwon Do ninja!

2009-06-05T08:07:00.003-06:00

After a year of hard work, my youngest son received his grey belt in Taekwon Do last night! He was so proud!
Shadow Warriors start with a white belt and move up in this order:
Green Stripe
Green Stripe
Green Badge
Blue Stripe
Blue Stripe
Blue Badge
Red Stripe
Red Stripe
Grey Belt

He's been in Taekwon Do since September and that is how long it takes to move up the ranks as they test each month.
Congrats to my little man!

It's Devon Days

2009-05-23T16:39:00.006-06:00

It's the most exciting weekend of the year in our little town, Devon Days! The fire works are set of at the end of our block so we have a great view of them from our own backyard.

This morning was the parade. For the first time ever, Devon Minor Baseball had a float in the parade and all of my boys were in it.

Here comes the DMB float!

There's my little guy right in the middle looking my direction and waving:

There is my big guy, giving out candy to all the kids. We bought over $90 in candy and ran out half way down the street.

Here is the president (my husband) and vice president (his buddy) on the back of the float. When the vice prez spotting me, he yelled out "PICTURES!!" and was smiling and waving to me just like a little kid spotting his mommy at the parade. Too funny!

This is our neighbour and the boys Taekwon Do instructor breaking a board. I think he was showing off for the camera. Ha!

Today was Sunday in the Park down at the Lion's Campground. Just a few shots from there:

The clown was there making balloons for the kids. This is a monkey in a palm tree with a bunch of bananas!

Pirate sword.

This is May in Alberta

2009-05-19T13:54:00.003-06:00

It was coming down in big, fat flakes today. Alberta... grrrrr!

Zander's little gapper

2009-05-19T13:48:00.003-06:00

Our 6 year old lost his two bottom teeth within two days of each other this past weekend. He's got the cutest little lisp now, but he tries so hard not too! It's just so darn cute! Couple pictures of the sweet face:

He will hold out for about 2 pictures and then the goofball faces begin. That or the pouting.

Nut job!

Day at the Nursery

2009-05-15T15:45:00.006-06:00

Both kids were in school today and I had the day off work. We've had a typical Alberta May with regards to weather... 1 good day and then cold, snowy, rainy, more cold and generally, crap. I'm sick of this weather and want it to just be warm already! Today was not too bad. After a brisk morning (-2C), it started to warm up and I wanted to go flower shop. I'm in the planning stages of what is going in the garden this year so was just going to be window shopping today. Besides, it's too cold to plant anything yet.
Anyway, here a re a couple pictures I took at the nursery. At least these pictures can tied me over until I can plant the real deal.

These guys all have their backs to me. Camera shy?

These geraniums did a strange number to my camera. The majority of the pictures with a sea of red came out looked way over saturated and fuzzy looking. Strange! Too much overload for the sensor perhaps?

More camera-shy guys.

Just for fun, I desaturated one of the yellow ones. My kid thinks they look dead. Then he said, "cool".

The second nursery I went to today has this little pond in the back. I saw the Canada Geese as soon as I pulled up and wanted to get a picture of them. Here is the male posing.

This is the mom and dad. The dad is squawking at some ducks for getting too close to the mama's nest.

This is the troublemaker mallard that got the geese all upset.

Don't see that everyday...

2009-05-10T15:48:00.006-06:00

I was outside enjoying the glorious weather today when I look up and see this:

What the heck?? That is such a strange sight to see. At first the kids thought they were meteors! They were coming from the south west and heading north east. So strange!

Here is an extreme close crop of the first shot. You can see there is a plane in front of the trail, but what kind of plane is it??

Diamondbacks first game of the season (mosquito, that is)

2009-05-06T11:04:00.003-06:00

Rayden had his first game of the season on Monday against Beaumont (they used to stomp us bad every game last year). It was soooo exciting! The kids were so great. Last year was the first year they started pitching to each other and what a gong show that was! Of course that is to be expected. And with our very short season (8 weeks), they just seem to get the hang of it when all of a sudden, it's over.
This year our mosquito team is mostly all second year mosquitos. The pitching is fantastic!! I couldn't believe how well both teams were pitching.
At 8:14 our team was up 9-8. The umpire cannot allow another inning to start after 8:15 and because they were behind, the other team wanted to continue. We ended up tied 12-12! Which is amazing because last year we got slaughtered by this town every game. Our kids were ecstatic! Mark was ecstatic! What a great start to the season!
Here are a few of Rayden. I have posted all the pictures on my Smugmug site under a password protected gallery for the parents of the players to see. I have emailed the parents the link but if you are one of the Mosquito parents and did not get it, email me and I will send it to you.

On deck:

First at bat:

Second baseman:

DMB signs, underage driving and a porcupine!

2009-05-04T08:37:00.006-06:00

It's been a great weekend! We got the signs for Devon Minor Baseball and tested them out on the fence at the Field of Dreams. The look so nice!

After we spent the afternoon playing baseball with some friend, we let my 10 year old drive the truck around the field, something his father lets him do on occasion. He had so much fun and wants his drivers license NOW!

This big guy has been living in a tree on the walking trail behind out house for the last week or so. I came home last night early enough to finally see him, he's so cute! How can he possibly be comfortable living and sleeping in that tree?? So strange.

Minor Baseball News

2009-04-30T12:18:00.005-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the Minor Baseball News. They'd heard about all the excitement that is going on with baseball out here in Devon and asked me to write an article for their magazine as well as submit pictures.
This is what is being published in next month's edition:

Baseball sees major up-swing in Devon

Great things are happening in Devon this season, and baseball fans have taken notice. The Devon Minor Baseball Association has experienced a dramatic increase in its registration numbers this year, to numbers beyond their expectations.

“We have more than doubled our registrations over last year,” says Devon Minor Baseball President, Mark Tinis. “There is a renewed interest in baseball here and everyone is very excited for this upcoming season. Devon’s baseball program is currently playing at a community house league level. We hope to enter both a Mosquito and a Pee Wee team into provincial play in July this season. Our long range goal is to provide both community and competitive team options to our players in all divisions.”

Tinis, a second term president and sixth year coach, attributes the rise in players to having a full and dedicated executive committee, one that has worked very hard to build up the image of Devon Minor Baseball Association since the group formed in February at the AGM.

In an effort to increase their previously dwindling registration numbers, the Devon Minor Baseball Executive has been continuously working on a communications blitz that included advertising, press releases and articles printed in the in the Devon Dispatch, placing monthly notices in each of the Devon and surrounding areas school newsletters and using the community message boards at the entrances to town along the highway to promote the AGM and early bird registration. They even formed their own Facebook group (Devon Minor Baseball) and update it constantly with recent news, registration event dates and information on the indoor clinics. They have been spreading the good word of baseball and it has definitely paid off with a huge increase of players and parental involvement.

Devon Minor Baseball was also busy during the pre-season bringing in much needed sponsorship dollars, an initiative also played out by the executive committee. Thanks to the generous donations of many local businesses, most of Devon Minor Baseball’s teams will be sporting brand new uniforms this year.

“Finally, we can now retire our old, worn and torn uniforms. They had to be at least 10-15 years old and had definitely played their last game. By this time next year, we hope to have the remaining teams in new uniforms as well so we can have a cohesive look for Devon Minor Baseball.” notes Tinis.

For the first year ever, Devon Minor Baseball T-ball players will also get to play in corporate sponsored team t-shirts. As an added bonus, they will get to keep the t-shirts as a memento of their season.

Thanks to additional donations from local businesses, Devon Minor Baseball has been able to start purchasing much needed equipment for the teams. Some of the old equipment was broken or missing parts or just simply worn out. Also, with the rise in player numbers, they needed more equipment like helmets, pitching machines and tees to accommodate the additional players.

Because of the short, nine week baseball season, Devon Minor Baseball decided to expand their community program by hosting three indoor pitching camps and three indoor fielding and hitting camps. By utilizing indoor facilities like the hockey arena and the school gymnasiums, the coaches were able to hold practices indoors, even while there is still snow on the ground.

“The turn out and response we got to these indoor clinics was outstanding,” said Tinis. “A huge number of players came to each event that we held. The coaches, many of the parents and even a couple of my former college baseball teammates helped run the stations so that every player could get a significant amount of practice in. Both the players and coaches now feel confident and prepared for when we can finally get out on the field.”

Devon Minor Baseball is looking forward to an exciting season ahead. All home games for every division are played at the Field of Dreams at the corner of Highway 60 and Highway 19. The two Mosquito division teams will even be hosting their league’s tournament this year out at the diamonds on the weekend of June 6^th and 7^th.

“We invite the whole community to come out, not just to the tournament but to regular evening games as well,” encourages Tinis. “We have a lot of ideas and plans for the Field of Dreams and our ultimate goal is to make game night in Devon a family and community event.”

Did you like all the baseball cliches in there?? haha! I feel I went a little overboard but they like that so I had to provide it.

Here are a few of the pictures I submitted with the article:

The issue will be published May 15 and I am told we will have 100 copies sent to Devon Minor Baseball by early to mid July?? July or June? Wonder if that was a typo on the editor's behalf? We will see!

Our house

2009-04-22T14:18:00.006-06:00

Just a few pictures of our little house. This is looking into the main entrance. It has an open foyer up to the second level:

Looking up!

Office:

Looking down the hallway from the entrance into the kitchen (left side), nook (at the back and left) and living room (at the back and right):

Kitchen:

Kitchen from other direction:

Into the kitchen/nook area from the living room:

Living room:

Master bedroom:

Oldest son's room:

This is our youngest son's bedroom. We just put up the bunkbed and bin/toybox last weekend (as pictured 2 posts below):

Basement in one direction:

Basement other direction:

The Birthday Girl

2009-04-22T08:12:00.004-06:00

It's Frankie's 17th Birthday today! On Earth Day no less. Yes, I celebrate it.

Zander's new bunk bed

2009-04-19T11:12:00.003-06:00

We had been promising our youngest a bunk bed for years but told him he had to be 6 years old before he could have one. He turned 6 at the end of January so we were just waiting for the snow to melt for easier transport. Yesterday was the day. Off we all went to Ikea first thing in the morning and we let him pick out his bunk bed. It's really a loft bed, no bed on the bottom, which was what we insisted on really. His room is so small, we wanted the space underneath for storage. After we got home we had to tear down his old bed, clean out all the toys from under it, clear out the bookshelf and move that out, take all the pictures and wall torch lights down off the wall, the start building the new bed and new toy bin thingy. It took all afternoon but it was so worth it! What an amazing kid's room he has.
The walls were all painted 2 years (I think?) ago to look like a knight's castle walls, there are dragons swooping down from the ceiling, the wall lights are shaped like torches, there is a dragon hanger storage thingy on the walls, knight pictures everywhere and cute castle wall shelves. It's so cool. Anyway, here is the new bed and toy bin.

The animals are having a rough week!

2009-04-01T14:42:00.003-06:00

Poor animals! It's been a rough (ruff?) week in our household for them.
On Saturday night Peter and Frankie were playing (I guess? I didn't see it but have been assured this was accidental) and Peter accidentally yanked out a patch of hair from the back of Frankie's neck! We didn't see it happened, just heard a commotion and came running to see what was up. Peter was standing there with a beard and mustache made out of cat hair, looking all surprised. Frankie was in the kitchen by this point but she wasn't upset or scared or anything. We figure the dog was sniffing around at the cat as usual and she probably gave him the Frank-a-whapper which in turn gets Peter all riled up to play. He probably reached out with open mouth to gum her like usual and somehow nipped a chunk of fur out.
She has since scratched it with her back paw (it's itchy now that the fur is growing back in), that's where the red scratch came from.

Then yesterday happened. I was at work and the babysitter took the kids and Peter to the park. Within 10 minutes of them being there, the babysitter looks down and sees all this blood under Peter. It took her a bit to figure out that it was coming from his foot. He didn't yelp or cry or anything to indicate what had happened. So they walk back home from the park, it's a good 3 blocks away, the whole time Peter is leaking blood. You can see paw prints all the way from the park to our house! They get him to the backyard and get some towels and clean him up and that's when they see one of his back nails is missing.
I had called home to check in on them just after this happened and the babysitter tells me to be assured that while it looks like an axe murder happened in my backyard, that blood all came from his nail. And it certainly did, there was blood spots everywhere!
He somehow snapped that nail completely off. I cannot see any trace of nail left at all. He doesn't want me to touch it and it seems sore today. How does that happen? His nail is as thick as my pinky finger. We just had them trimmed 3 weeks ago, they are not overly long or anything. He must have just stepped on a rock at the park (the park has little river rocks instead of sand) and off it went. Yikes!

He's on antibiotics for a week now, just to be safe. Poor guy!

Photo Life magazine!

2009-03-20T09:34:00.002-06:00

I am so excited! I got word the other day that this picture is being published in Photo Life magazine's May 2009 edition! It will be in the Showcase section.

This is my youngest, being a goofy kid, which is so naturally him!
I am just thrilled about this and can't wait to see it in print.

Tilt Shift Minatures

2009-03-16T18:08:00.007-06:00

This is a technique I learned that mimics the tilt shift lens result that can make an image look like a miniature or model. It's best used on an image that was taken from a high vantage point and of a vast area. Using subjects that are often used as models (like trains, boats, cars, etc) also makes it look very believable. It's hard to get the perspective in my blog, for a better look, go to my smugmug page: http://candratinis.smugmug.com/gallery/7621928_Raf8r#492936804_ymBug

A few of Vegas from our hotel room:

More Vegas, this was the front of the Wynn hotel:

The Santa Maria in West Edmonton Mall.

Lindsey haz mad skillz.

2009-03-01T20:33:00.002-07:00

Lindsey, who is one of Mark's coworkers, knitted these for the boys. How amazing is she??

I bought the knight helmet on Etsy and Lindsey made the beard and mustache to go with it.

Rayden's Eyeball eye patch.

See this kid right here?

2009-02-21T22:47:00.002-07:00

He rocks. Two silver metals in his Taekwon Do tournament today.

Wishing Spring was here.

2009-02-20T10:54:00.001-07:00

I cannot wait! 1 month and 1 day until the official first day of spring, though we all know that means nothing when you live in Alberta.

Longing for Spring

2009-02-18T14:27:00.001-07:00

Winter will still be here 2 months from now. I'm getting antsy for spring!

Frosty February Morning

2009-02-13T13:38:00.004-07:00

We woke up to the most incredible frosty morning today. The little one and I bundled up and headed out to shoot some pictures. Here are just a few:

Saw some rabbit tracks through the snow.

Frosty tree:

This was taken with a Lensbaby 3G:

Evergreen with the Lensbaby.

6th Birthday today!

2009-01-31T20:24:00.003-07:00

It was our little man's 6th birthday today and we had a party for him at our house. Here he is with a bunch of his friends.

Crazy kids.

He's six years old today. I cannot believe it.

Check out the cake my husband made for him. How cool is that?!?

This was our version of "pin the tail on the donkey". I blew up a picture of him and laminated it, then had all the kids taking turns shooting a Nerf gun with suction cup darts at his face.

The kid who hit him closest to his eyeball won!

Good vs. Evil Lightsaber

2009-01-09T08:53:00.003-07:00

The kids got this cool lightsaber with one of their video games at Christmas. It lights up and with the push of a button you can turn it from good (blue) to evil (red). We had some fun taking pictures in complete darkness with it. Pretty cool looking!

In these two pictures, he stood in the middle and swung the red on one side, then swung the blue on the other side.

Pure eeevil!

For this picture, he stood on the right side and had a battled for the Evil team. Then he turned it off, ran to the left side and turned it to blue and fought for the Good team.

This is my older son, doing a General Grevious move.

Christmas

2009-01-07T21:34:00.005-07:00

Christmas morning. The first thing we did was look out the back door to see if Santa's reindeer found the carrot we left them. That's the first sign Santa's been here.

They found it! The reindeer ate the carrot! Santa's been to our house!

This is the face of pure joy and surprise when he realizes what's inside.

He cannot believe that Santa brought him exactly what he asked for.

A clone trooper voice changer mask! Just what he wanted!

The little one was thrilled to get an Indian Jones outfit, complete with whip. Check out that whipping action!

Even our animals got right into the Christmas spirit. Santa brought the dog two squeaky toys and after an hour of him tossing them around in the air, he had to have a nap. With his new ducky.

Apparently our oldest didn't cooperate with pictures that day! His back is to me in nearly every one, that or he's a blur from the excitement.

Anyway, it was a great day, so much fun was had and we were with the most important people ever.

Nerf gun

2008-12-23T14:16:00.003-07:00

My in law's family Christmas was this weekend and our kids both got Nerf guns from their aunt. My oldest and I had fun trying to catch the nerf dart in flight. Well, it was fun at first because the very first shot I got it, but then it took another 10 shots to get the next, and 15 to get the next, and so on. DS was getting anxious after a while!
Here are a couple to show off:

This was the very first shot. I got lucky apparently!

Looks pretty cool!

Look closely. You can see the nerf dart just starting to come out!

Frost

2008-12-14T13:32:00.003-07:00

We woke up to -35C temperatures this morning, holy freaking cold!! We've been very spoiled so far this winter, even though it isn't technically winter year, we all know that Alberta's winters can start in October. Up until last week we had no snow on the ground and very mild temperatures. I accidentally thought to myself, "hmmm. Seems weird without any snow on the ground." and BAM! There was the snow. Snow I can handle, it's the cold temperatures that get to me. Two days ago it was -6 in the morning. Today? MINUS 35 DEGREES CELSIUS!!
Our windows were covered in frost. It made for some beautiful pictures.

Our Christmas tree

2008-12-09T21:10:00.004-07:00

Just a few pictures of our tree that we finally put up yesterday!

Look who has to be the centre of attention!

This was just a little creative re-arrangement of the CHRISTMAS block letters.
I thought it was funny. Mark did not.

edited to add a few more:

edited to add two more pictures. These were ornaments I won last year in Dishaversary!

Christmas in the Park event

2008-12-05T08:49:00.009-07:00

I was hired to shoot an annual event in our town this past weekend, Christmas in the Park. It started at 5:15pm with the lighting of the Christmas lights on the trees down the main street boulevard. Immediately after that, there a parade down main street. There were more entrants than expected, probably because the weather was so mild this year. Last year it was -30C and this year it was 0! After the parade there were activities for the rest of the night down in the Lion's Park Campground down in the river valley. People in the town volunteered to come down to the park during the weekends preceding the event to decorate trees with lights and decorations, there were lights up the hiking trail which overlooked the 2000 candle luminary in the design of a sleigh with "2008" underneath. It was quite the site!
I was a little nervous to shoot this event because I had never done an outdoor, NIGHTTIME event before. It is pitch black by 5:20 these days so we are talking NO light outside. I spent the weeks prior to the event studying how best to go about a nighttime outdoor event and it really paid off. I am very happy with the outcome of these pictures, much better than I had hoped. The Town is thrilled with them also.
Here are a few of my favourites:

The Mayor turns on the Christmas lights in the boulevard trees:

Last bits of light in the sky before total darkness sets in:

The people start to gather:

Here comes the parade!

Travel agency float:

Hospital float:

Ski club float:

Here comes Santa(s)

Santa #1

Santa #2 - yes, they had 2 Santa's. Try explaining that to my 5 year old...

Entrance to the campground:

Beautiful display of Christmas trees in the park:

More Christmas trees:

There where sleigh rides:

And rides on "Old Red"

2000 candle luminary of a sleigh:

The candles in the open field where just beautiful:

My model is so moody.

2008-11-16T16:28:00.004-07:00

I had to go out today and do some test shots for an industrial and patterned backdrop request and had to drag along my 10 year old to be the "model". It's like pulling teeth and he is not very happy about it! Here are just a couple:

One more time with Photoshop

2008-11-12T15:51:00.005-07:00

My oldest earned his green belt in Taekwon Do this week and wanted to do one more "scene" (like the ones in my post below) with all of his belts together. White vs. Grey, Yellow vs. Green. Here it is:

Fun with photoshop

2008-11-09T14:34:00.004-07:00

I just learned this fun new technique in photoshop and I've been having a little fun with it this weekend. Check it out!

This was the first scene I did with my 10 year old. The first method I used didn't work so well but after I learned the new method, it looked much better.

This is our cat Frankie. I had to throw treats all around the room to get her to go where I wanted. Then the dog came barging in the room and she ran away.

This is my 5 year old sitting around the table playing cards, having an argument and just being cute.

After we saw how cool the first rock band came out, we decided to take it up a level to include another guitarist and a wardrobe change for each member of the band:

The little one is really into army men and he wanted to reenact a battle scene. Is this is his way of honouring our fallen soldiers this Remembrance Day? He's such a nut. Anyway, I reduced the color saturation in all but the green channel. Gives it more of an old time feel while enhancing the green of the army guy.

It was a fun little project, hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T16:03:00.010-06:00

Tonight was the night! I finally got around to taking some pictures of the house all dressed up for Halloween. There are a few more I need to take at night with the spotlights on so will post those later.

Here is a wide angle to get the whole house in. My favourites are the picket fence and the spider up on the second story.

Close up of the spider and to the right is her egg sack:

Spider family on the front porch.

The big headstones are made out of Styrofoam. They are so real looking!

Skull getting picked clean by a rat:

Scary zombie guy:

Skeleton guy coming out of the ground:

Posted this one below but here you have it again:

My oldest as a zombie:

Youngest is a skeleton:

This was the big show piece this year, moving ghost in the window:

Here is the wooden frame and whole contraption to make the ghost move. It was powered by a BBQ rotisserie motor.

Just a shot of the yard at night:

Edited to add a picture of us at a Halloween party from Saturday night. I was an 80's aerobic instructor and my husband was Nacho Libre!

And there is me in the background, these are our friends the porno director and the hippie girl.

Lensbaby

2008-10-29T19:42:00.009-06:00

What a beautiful fall day it was today. Most of the leaves are gone now, but the weather was beautiful. Winter is imminent. Better enjoy it while we can.

These are some shots I took today with my Lensbaby 3G. In case you are not familiar with this lens, it is a selective focus lens that gives a "sweet spot" of focus in the center that is surrounded by lens blur. You push, pull and tilt the bellows lens until you get the sweet spot where you want, then manually adjust the focus. You can fine tune the sweet spot to a precise point and shoot away. The aperture is selected by drop-in magnetic discs that vary in size from f/2.8 - f/22. It's a fun lens to play with but it takes some time and patience to get the hang of it.

www.lensbaby.com

Here are a couple from today:

There was a weird cloud system moving in this afternoon that left a distinct straight line in the sky where the system ended. It was pretty strange looking as it stretched completely across the sky as far as the eye could see in either direction. You can see it here in this picture of a group of poplars:

Just a bunch of dead leaves on horizontal branches:

Fallen, dead, decaying tree:

Some little bug's house:

More dead stuff:

A black and white of the poplars:

Enjoy!

Halloween House

2008-10-27T09:11:00.004-06:00

Halloween is a big deal at our house, my husband goes crazy with the decorations. Just have time to post one scary skeleton coming out of the ground.

I'll post more later.

Weekend at the Farm

2008-10-15T10:20:00.009-06:00

We went to my in laws farm this weekend for Thanksgiving. The boys always have such a fun time out there, they are true farm kids. Even the dog loves it.
The kids spent the afternoon shooting the pellet and BB guns, here are some pictures of that:

Grandpa and Uncle setting up the target:

Taking shots:

This is my nephew shooting a coke can off the fence post. It ripped a big hole in the side of the can and coke exploded everywhere. He was so shocked!

Don't shoot Grandpa in the butt!

Showing off his mad target shooting skillz:

Here are some images from around the farm:

Old abandoned tractor steering wheel:

Swather:

Rust:

1964 Chevy:

Rusty hook:

I don't know what the heck this thing is! Is Grandpa building WMD on the farm??

This is an old, cratered honeywagon:

Pretty wood grain:

Weeds. Why do I like taking pictures of weeds??

That's all I have processed for now. If you want to see more of the farm, see my smugmug site:

http://candratinis.smugmug.com/gallery/3570410_BRrwk#394277774_Lae49

Carousel Ride

2008-10-04T16:18:00.001-06:00

These were taken during the same tourist walk-about at West Edmonton Mall as the post below. These are of the Carousel inside Fantasyland. I love panning shots like these:

I was born on a pirate ship

2008-10-04T16:03:00.003-06:00

My kid had a birthday party at WEM today so after I dropped him off, I wandered around taking pictures like a total tourist.
These are of the Santa Maria pirate ship that is located at Deep Sea Adventures.

My sweet old lady

2008-10-01T11:58:00.003-06:00

I adore this cat. She is 16.5 years old and I wub her. She is so hard to get a good picture of because she's so black AND she's a camera whore. The second she sees the camera come out, she comes running to rub up against it. She rarely sits still for shots but today, she did. Isn't she beautiful?

Glowing butterfly antennea

2008-09-29T15:28:00.003-06:00

Just had to share this little oddity. I was taking some pictures of this butterfly out on my butterfly bush today and in every shot you can see his antennae glowing on the tips! The look like little fiber optics!

This one is blurry but I thought it was pretty cool that I caught him flying away!