Antelope Valley Poppy Festival

We headed to the Antelope Valley Poppy Festival in Lancaster today.  They have it every year around this time and this was the first time that all of us were able to attend.  Last year after Devin's surgery he wasn't really up for it.  It was a really good event this year with what appeared to be a bunch of new venders.  There also seemed to be a lot more people this time around.  We pretty much went until just about everyone gave out but while we were there we got to see a bunch of neat stuff, walked a lot and even ran into Kris and Gale which unfortunately was right when we were in line getting food so didn't get a chance to really talk much.

After a few hours after wandering around the festival we headed out and Denise really wanted to head out toward the poppy persevere because even from within town it looked like there were a bunch of flowers in bloom.  The plan was to NOT get out of the car but the girls really wanted to run around in the field.  So we finally found a safe place to pull over and took a few moments to run around.  Well, at least Deanna and Desirae did.

Late visit...

My mom and Max came down to visit and celebrate the kids birthdays.  Schedules have really been a mess and the last time they were supposed to come down my mom had a problem with her hand and ended up in the emergency room.  So this weekend was the make-up trip.

So the plan for tomorrow is Max and I are going to head down to Los Angeles to "visit" Samy's Camera and maybe Film Tools.  Denise, my mom and the kids are going to spend a day in town (Lancaster/Palmdale) and do a bunch of different things like see a movie (not sure which one), go to Build-A-Bear and visit Best Buy to buy a couple of video games for the kids.

Max brought down her Alien Bee AB400 because I wanted to play with the lower power settings of the flash to see how low I could get the light output.  I tried to photograph Cali (our cat) but she only stuck around for one shot and then freaked out.  So I ended up photographing a stuffed animal.  Then I wanted to play with this really cool 20º grid-spot that max picked up for me so my mom volunteered to model so I could play with that.  It was all pretty darn cool!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and it should be a pretty good day all the way around!

I think...

The desert is trying to kill me...  I am having the worst allergies, at least I think that is what the problem is, I think I've ever had this year.  We have been fortunate enough to get some much needed rainfall which has resulted in EVERYTHING blooming out here.  It looks awesome and really makes the desert look beautiful.  The only problem is I feel like I am dying!  I am living on benadryl, among other allergy medications, and feel like total hell.

I guess one thing that is good is that I was able to get out and shoot some photographs.  The image above was back lit and it really made the weeds look like they were glowing.  It was really a pretty neat sight to see.

Anyway, hopefully everything will get under control and I can start feeling better!  Hope everyone else is done well!

Pre-Easter...

Today was the obligatory pre-easter egg decorating day! Denise found this interesting new gizmo for coloring eggs and it seemed to work pretty good. Somehow it kept the coloring in the container instead of all over the table, floor, rug, etc! The kids had fun and even Denise and I decorated eggs. I happened to grab the last one before someone else got it! It was pretty cool and they should great for tomorrow!

The one disappointing thing is that Nana and Max didn’t make it down for the weekend. They were all ready to leave on Thursday evening but my mom (Nana) had something go wrong with her had (she recently had thumb surgery) and she was pretty much out of commission. They ended up spending a few hours in the emergency room and she is laid up for the weekend until she can talk to a real doctor on Monday. So that was really a drag on multiple levels.

I had taken the day off so that we could all go down to Los Angeles to visit Studio Depot and Samy’s Camera. Since I had the day off I went ahead and drove down to see Studio Depot, they are only open during the week. The best part... About half way down there I get a call from my buddy Mike letting me know they were CLOSED for Friday... Seriously it was kind of a double drag. I did end up going back to Film Tools (which is a pretty cool place in it’s own right) and Mike hooked up with me to take me over to his friend’s chocolate shop. That was REALLY cool. I bought some brownies for the kids (and Denise) everyone except Denise really liked them. I ate hers because I wasn’t about to waste that! (I actually didn’t buy one for me because I shouldn’t be eating it in the first place).