If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

kittens

4/5 kittens

This is a kitten with her "aunt Mia"

Monday, May 08, 2006

Here are some pictures from SAU's graduation weekend. I haven't gotten to print out any of the pictures yet, but I did resize some to make them small enough to upload on here. I'm sure MJ's blog will have other pics if you want to look there.

This first picture is from the Riverwalk. We went there to eat Sabbath lunch. Joy, Bobby, and Ella came up and ate with us. Ella and I had fun "hanging around" on the playground. We went down every single slide. Ella liked playing on the bigger part of the playground and said the slides in the 2-5 year-old section were "baby ones."

Sunday morning we had to be at Memorial Auditorium by 8:30a to get dressed and line up alphabetically. I helped fix a guy's hood that was totally upside down. We couldn't really hear any of the instructions being given before marching in, so I think we all just kind of winged it.

The stage was so hot. We had lights on us from all angles. If you click on the picture of the stage group, you can see where I was sitting. Ryan was on the same row, across the aisle from me.

Jaclyn sat in the balcony and got some good shots of the program. She took pictures with her camera, Stephanie took pictures with my camera, and Hollie was the spotter. Good thing my parents gave me a new telephoto lens, huh?

The rest of what I'll put on here is just some pictures we took after graduation was over. Thankfully, the rain held off until we were done with the program and had time to take some pictures. McCallie Ave. was closed after the program so we could all be outside, but it was still really crowded and hard to find everyone.

Asti got me this lei all the way from Hawaii.

Apparently I was the only one who thought we needed to "scrunch" more for this picture. (Thanks for documenting every moment, Stephanie.)

The girls - we miss you Tara!

All of the family

The graduates

Thursday, May 04, 2006

fisheye lens?

Welcome to the Georgia Aquarium.

We will be your tour guides.

In case you've never seen tropical saltwater fish, they have LOTS of them. This is a Pyramid Butterflyfish, Hemitaurichthys polyepis.

There are at least three types of jellyfish in different tanks. These are pretty fast and hard to photograph. I think the blurriness makes it look wispier.

In case your feet get tired (or if you aren't coordinated enough to look and walk at the same time), you can get on the "moving sidewalk" and go through the ocean tunnel. We actually weren't on the moving sidewalk (but this doesn't necessarily mean we're coordinated...).

This wasn't actually a fisheye lens. As soon as you get through the tunnel, look up. You too may see one of the two whale sharks above your head. Believe it or not, they're not full-grown yet. Ralph and Norton eat out of different colored buckets so they both get fed.

The viewing window at the end of the Ocean Voyager section of the aquarium has a L A R G E viewing window. Hundreds of cownose rays, a few big ugly groupers, wrasse, hammerheads, a guitarfish, and even sawfish are clearly visible. (I contemplated spelling out letters [GA] in silhouette for using in my scrapbook, but I couldn't figure out how to make a "G" out of my body.)

In much colder water, beluga whales swim and flip. They look like ghosts in the water. Their white color works as camouflage in icy water. Males are about 16 feet long and females are about 12 feet long. The GA Aquarium has 4 belugas.

And for the kids . . . the Georgia Explorer section has lots of hands-on stuff. This was actually the first time I ever touched a stingray. The sharks swimming around are hammerheads (small ones!). Other things to touch include horseshoe crabs, shrimp, and hermit crabs. I was glad there was a sink with soap and paper towels at the end of this one!

For more information about the GA Aquarium from people who know what they're talking about . . . go here.