Christmas Recap

Recap pictures from our trip to Cleveland to visit CJ's family for Christmas...

1. The Angola rest stop on the I-90 Thruway. The rest stop is actually in the median of the eastbound and westbound lanes. There are parking lots on each side and bridges over the roads going to the building in the middle that has the bathrooms, McDonald's, coffee shop, and gift shop. I always like standing in the middle of the bridge and watching the cars go under. (There was a dad and his 2 little girls waving to the oncoming cars and seeing how many people waved back. It was cute!)
2. "Welcome To Ohio!"  We always stop at the Ohio Visitor Center on our way to Cleveland...usually because all of us could use a bathroom break (including the dog!)!
3. I was bored and decided to take pictures of the pretty, snow covered trees on the side of the road we we were driving, and I happened to capture this picture of an old barn.
4. My niece Rayne and the Barn Owl Nubbins I gave her.
5. My Christmas present from CJ...a necklace with a vintage key with a handmade glass bead from my friend Francesca DeCaire, who makes cool jewelry with lampwork glass. (check out her Etsy shop!)
6. My niece, Maria, with the flower hair clip that I made out of hot pink guitar picks
7. CJ watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special with the crochet blanket his sister made for him for Christmas.
8. My niece, Taylor, with a Ninja Nubbin I gave her.
9. Owl spoon necklace from Sunshyne Silverwear that I gave to Rayne (check out Sunshyne Silverwear on Etsy!).

Parkway Pulloff Tree

CJ and I take the Ontario Parkway at least once a week... on Sunday for church, then sometimes again later in the week for going out to work on our new house. There is a little spot on the Parkway where there is a dirt/gravel pulloff right by the lake. And at this pulloff, there is a tree. I've started a little tradition for myself of taking a picture of the tree every time we stop (some weeks we stop, some weeks we don't). I love seeing the changes and variations in the water and sky...and more recently in the tree itself. I'm reminded of Monet's series he would do of the same subject at different times of day or different times of the year.

March 22nd, 2009

April 5th, 2009

April 19th, 2009

May 14th, 2009

May 21st, 2009

Summer is coming!

Canada Trip (Part 1): Butterfly Conservatory

CJ and I used our last weekday of Spring Break yesterday to take a trip to the Canada side of Niagra Falls and then visit some friends in Buffalo. We had a blast. While we were waiting to cross the border, CJ pointed out that it's the first time we've been out of the country together. Awwwww. It was so much fun and we didn't even get to do everything. We're talkiing about possibly spending our anniversary there next year.

First, we went to the butterfly conservatory. Almost as soon as we were in Canada, we saw a sign for the conservatory and decided on a whim to go. It was gorgeous. They had a lot more butterflies than either of the two butterfly gardens I've been to before (Rochester's Strong Museum and Cleveland's Botanical Gardens).

I wanted to get a good picture of a Blue Morpho so bad (they're my favorites), but they close their wings when they land, and the outside of their wings are nothing like the inside. With their wings closed they're all brown and spotted and you can't see the blue.

There was one settled on the edge of the walk with its wings fully open. I actually thought it was dead at first...but as soon as I walked over to try to get a picture of it, it closed up its wings! It was taunting me! CJ tried gently touching its antennae with his foot, trying to coax it to open up again for me, but I was nervous he'd accidentally crush it, so he stopped. But not before I caught a picture of it flashing some fleeting blue.

The only other "good" picture I could get of them was once while they were flying. (It's difficult to get butterfly action shots!)

And while the Blue Morphos decided to be teasing and elusive, some of the other species were more obliging and allowed me to take some beautiful shots of them.