Frosty Trees

In my opinion this winter has been kinda weird (although officially winter hasn't started yet and its still fall... yeah right).  

Maybe it's just because it got cold sooner then usual and we had our first snow a couple weeks earlier then normal that makes it feel weird.  

But, ever since that first snow it hasn't snowed more then once or twice and it's never stayed.  

It seems strange to not have snow.

Although, Dad reminded me of the time we went moose hunting a couple years ago in December and there wasn't any snow then either so maybe it's not so weird after all. 

But, it has still been really cold which makes for some really pretty frosty trees (and some really fun iceboat sailing).

I love it when there's frost everywhere.  It's a winter wonderland.

Steel Wool Burning

The other night we lit some steel wool on fire.  This was the result. =)

Awesome right!!!

All you have to do is stick one of the balls of steel wool into a whisk, tie a rope or something of the sort onto the end, light the wool on fire(it helps if your Dad has a blow torch to really get it going☺), and start spinning.  Sparks will fly everywhere.

When Dad and I were in Anchorage we bought a pack of steel wool with eight balls in it.  It wasn't enough.  Everyone wanted a turn spinning it.

If you want to take pictures of it like these, all you have to do is slow your shutter speed way down.  All these were taken with a 30sec shutter.

Turing a flashlight on in the middle of the exposure and getting yelled at by your sister (me) for ruining the picture, actually looks pretty cool.

If there's a bright moon make sure you keep your aperture pretty small and ISO low or else you'll let too much light in and the pictures will look like this.  Kinda cool but not really what your looking for.
=)

Week 2 - What Makes You Smile

This week I didn't actually get around to finding "what makes you smile" and taking a picture of it but I took a bunch of pictures that make me smile. =)  All these pictures are from my quick trip to Anchorage.

Things that make me smile.

Flying over clouds...

Beautiful mountains...

Foggy sunsets...

Anchorage at night...

Flying with Glen in the 99...

Here are the pictures that make Anna smile. =)

Aren't they pretty.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We did.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  You get to cook a ton of wonderful food then have a bunch of people over to help eat it, watch football and of course be thankful for it all.

(speaking of football, here's how I wish the Patriots vs. Jets game would have gone)

We had a ton of food this year.  Mom made the turkey and stuffing, Deborah made pumpkin pull bread, mashed potatoes, fried rice and rolls, all new recipes she found on Pinterest, I made a ton of pies, Anna made dozens of cookies and Quentin made snicker doodle apple pie (he is famous in Nondalton for his snicker doodles☺). Sound like much sugar?
We tried to get most of our baking done the day before since the turkey would be in the oven all morning.  I'm pretty sure every single mixing bowl, pot and pan in the house was dirty.  Poor Joshua, he was washing dishes.  And after all that we were still using three ovens the next morning.
Josh A was laughing at me while we were cooking.  I was getting frustrated helping Caleb make pies.  He said "you sound so nice and calm on your blog".  It's the truth.  Sadly I have no patience when it comes to working with Caleb, especially in the kitchen.  That night we read the first chapter of James.

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be 

perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  James 1:4

Yeah, I'm not sure if Dad read that chapter on purpose or not.

But, despite all the craziness it was still a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We are going to be eating leftovers for a week.
Now I have to work off all those pies with 40 minutes of Pure Cardio.  Yeah, I'm going to die.  #itsinsanity

Week 1 - Self Portrait

Well I'm glad the self portrait is first.  It gets the one I like the least out of the way.  Haha.

Yeah, I know, you're probably not supposed to be able to see the remote but, oh well.

Anna decided to join me on the challenge so here's her self portrait.

Anna was smart and took her's inside, I almost froze my fingers off taking mine outside, because, let me tell you...

Zero, to be exact.