First Sunset at Our New Home

We arrived here in Oceanside, California at the end of August.  It marked the final piece of our road trip across country.  We had to stay in a hotel for the weekend to wait for our rental house to be ready for us.  We spent evenings taking strolls along the waterfront and admiring the West Coast sunsets.

Our daughter just loved walking around, seeing all the new things, and the sound of the ocean.  She is such a water rat.  I need to get her into swimming lessons next year.  She would spend hours in the water if we let her.  Least she doesn't seem to be afraid of the ocean, unlike me at her age.  Well, my fear started before that - I was just a few months old and already didn't like it.  My mother had to bring a blow up pool to the beach just for me, because I would scream bloody murder if she took me remotely close to the water.  Not sure how many seasons she had to do that, but it always stuck with her.  Looks like it stuck with me as well since to the day I prefer a swimming pool over the ocean.  

I downloaded some new plug ins for my photo editing software and used it on most of these photos.  Not sure I am fully liking them but I'll keep playing on some other type of photos.

The Finale of the Road Trip Series

Well, finally I have finished the Road Trip series.  This part showcases the beauty of Utah.  We stayed in St. George and I wish we could have stayed longer so I really could have ventured out to get some shots of the area.  There was so many things I could have looked at for hours.

St. George is a nice little town nestled in the middle of no where, though it really doesn't feel that way at all.  The locals were very nice, I'm sure in part due to the big golf courses that I am sure bring in loads of travelers.

I was really excited to see Utah, and I was not disappointed.  Maybe I will make it there again and actually stop at some of there many National Parks.  

Which I am sure are just breathtaking.

Colorado As Promised

I'm not sure if I am even remotely doing Colorado justice with these photos, but here is my take on the amazing beauty of Colorado.  I really think I'm not even closely doing justice with these, it was so much more breathtaking in person.  The above picture is so freaky! I was just checking out some different editing effects, once I saw the photo like this I had to keep it!  

The beauty of the mountains gave us such a wonderfully peaceful drive for that part of the trip. We stopped  a few times so I could take pictures.  It was hard trying to pick ones to showcase.  I still have a lot to go through and play around with.

I have never been a mountain type person, especially not a camping outdoorsy person, but after driving through this state I am almost tempted to give it a go.  Almost! There would be certain amenities that would be required before I even remotely thought about it let alone agreed to it!

We finally were able to do something fun with our daughter while in Denver.  We went to the aquarium in downtown Denver.  It was a nice aquarium, and she had a lot of fun there. I was just playing around with taking photos and trying some new things.  Learned quickly that putting your hand over the flash to reduce the glare does not work.  However, it does produce an eerie and pretty neat photo!! 

First attempt at jellyfish and eels.  I think the eel photo kind of came out neat.  Only got the backside of the turtle, I still like it though.

My Daughter in Colorado

Like promised, here is a blog all about Colorado.  Though not the one I was really referring to.  I had so many amazing photos of my daughter while in Colorado, that I just had to do a single blog about them.  

We stopped at this overlook on the side of the highway, and boy was it beautiful.  It overlooked a small town that surrounded a little lake - though I think its called a basin.  It was a great place for a little photo shoot.  

After seeing all this beautiful scenery, I really hope we can one day do a real vacation there.  Maybe several, one at each of the seasons to really capture and see its true beauty.

Since we arrived in Grand Junction in the late afternoon, we didn't have the chance to really go sightseeing.  Good thing the hotel had a great outdoor pool.  And she really loves pools!

There was this other little boy there that she was totally flirting with.  Flirting at not even 2 years old!  We are so in for it come the teenage years!