Photography Challenge Day #20 - Bokeh

Another photo I took for the challenge and never got around to posting:

The last one was a pumpkin and this one is Christmas decorations, so obviously I'm really on the ball here...

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to force myself to practice taking photos a little more, so I'll be posting for this 30 Day Photography Challenge even though the "official" challenge is over.  However, posts are definitely not daily.

My rules for my self are:
1 - Take everything in manual mode
2 - No post-processing, only SOOC

Photography Challenge Day #19 - Something Orange

Remember back when I was working through that photo challenge? Well, technically I never stopped. I just took a really long hiatus.

In fact, as I was processing some old photos I found one I took for the challenge and never got around to posting.

So here you go:

And yes, that's a pumpkin from Halloween. So now you know how old the photo is. Oops.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to force myself to practice taking photos a little more, so I'll be posting for this 30 Day Photography Challenge even though the "official" challenge is over.  However, posts are definitely not daily.

My rules for my self are:
1 - Take everything in manual mode
2 - No post-processing, only SOOC

Optimistic

Yesterday we took Scott to a new doctor.

We found a doctor that finally made me feel like I'm not crazy for being worried about Scott. Or lazy for wanting help. Like someone actually understands what we're up against. And we found someone who actually seemed like they knew more than we already did. It's nice when your doctor is something more than just a walking prescription pad.

Despite a fabulous experience with the doctor, I still left the appointment wondering if we were doing the right thing.

But as we took the elevator back to the ground floor and started walking toward the car, I noticed that Scott had left his water bottle in the doctor's waiting room during the few minutes I had stopped to pay our co-pay. Back upstairs we went to retrieve it.

Then we got back to the parking lot again and started to get into the car. Somehow Scott managed to shut his own head into the sliding door of the minivan.

Don't ask how. I don't know.

As I sat and tried REALLY hard not to laugh while I hugged a crying Scott, I knew. How could I let my son keep slamming the door on his own head, both literally AND figuratively? I respect that this path may not be for everyone, but personally I cannot deny Scott this chance.

Today Scott started medication for ADHD and for the first time in a very long time, I feel optimistic.

Caribbean Cruise Day 6 and 7 (At sea)

If you missed any of the other installments, you can find them here:

Day 1 - Boarding in Galveston
The Diet Soda Debacle
Day 2 - At sea
Day 3 - Cozumel
Day 4 Part 1 - Grand Cayman
Day 4 Part 2 - Grand Cayman
Day 5 - Jamaica

---------------------------------------------------------

As our ship began the trip home, we had 2 full days at sea to relax and finish trying out all the activities on the boat.

We did more rock wall climbing, then we tried out the ice skating:

We played some table tennis and watched a movie in the on-board movie theater.  Then at night we used the shipboard credit we had gotten by booking our cruise via Costco to try out the special dining steakhouse on board.  I tried to order the New York strip because that is my favorite cut.  The waiter kept second guessing me telling me that the New York strip was the same cut that they would be serving in the main dining room the next night but that the filet mignon was their specialty.  I finally followed his advice and order the filet.  Turns out?  I still don't really like filet mignon.  It was flavorless and over-tenderized to the point of having a powdery texture.  I hate that.  So in my opinion?  The extra $30 to dine in the special restaurant was DEFINITELY not worth it.  Good thing we weren't actually paying for it out of pocket.

The first at sea night our stateroom attendant left us this monkey:

So the next morning we let the monkey take a shower:

We filled our time by doing a little shopping, playing in the arcade, doing more rock climbing, having Sudoku races (During which I slaughtered M.  Bad.  Every time.), watching some shows and a parade, watching a movie on the TV in our room, packing, and using the hot tubs.

  

The last night they gave us back our diet soda and we indulged heavily. Our stateroom attendant left these cute little critters.

We left them perched up on a high shelf in our room as we were leaving, but I didn't get a photo.

The last morning (Day 8), we woke up and ate some breakfast as we watched the dolphins jumping in the water.  As a last little treat before we got off the ship and drove home, we saw that we had a celebrity for an assistant waiter:

Overall, we had an absolutely wonderful time and I hope we get to do it again some day!!!

Caribbean Cruise - Day 5 (Jamaica)

If you missed any of the other installments, you can find them here:

Day 1 - Boarding in Galveston
The Diet Soda Debacle
Day 2 - At sea
Day 3 - Cozumel
Day 4 Part 1 - Grand Cayman
Day 4 Part 2 - Grand Cayman

---------------------------------------------------------

We woke up the next morning to Jamaica:

The weather that day was lovely.

Of course the one day that was finally gorgeous was the one day we didn't plan to spend at the beach!

We let ourselves have a leisurely start that morning.  As we headed ashore, we left the towel penguin with some reading material for the stateroom attendant to find:

Jamaica was... different than the other ports we had been to:

The port had a very pretty security fence:

Who knew spikes could be so pretty, right?

We had heard that Jamaica wasn't quite as safe to just wing it, so this was the one port where we just went ahead and booked an excursion through the cruise line.  Not cheap, but relaxing to have it all planned out for us.  We boarded a bus for the mountains:

We drove up a dirt road in the bus.

This was the smoother part of the mountain road!  We went part way up, then unloaded, got our equipment, used the bathrooms, put our stuff in lockers, etc.  Then we got on a more off-road-ish bus and climbed a much steeper rougher road up to the top, but I didn't have my camera.

The view from where we got our equipment was beautiful.

Our ultimate destination, you ask?

Zip-lining!

This is what the platforms looked like.  We zip-lined back and forth across a deep ravine on our way down the mountain, with a few rappels thrown in for good measure.  They don't let you bring your camera, so we bought a few of the photos they took of us.

Here was the view as you zip-lined across:

It was SO FUN!!!

We got back aboard the ship and did a little climbing on the rock wall:

The day finished with a beautiful sunset: