Moving....

To another blog address... sorry guys... apparently my influx of photos is too much for Blogger to handle and I've used up all of my alotted photo space on their server...so the Adventures will continue over at:

http://adventuresofthelopezs.wordpress.com

It's going to take some time for me to figure out the little quirks like the email automatically going the our parents, so bear with me ...  But the good news is, I have tons of pictures from this past weekend to post :)

See you over there!

Cassie

Wild Flowers & Cityscapes

Usually wild flowers around here bloom in May & June...since we've had such a wet spring, they held off blooming until July this year.  The best field I've seen around Auburn just happens to be on the side of a freeway entrance.  My loving husband was kind enough to stop and let me climb out and get a few shots, even though I'm sure we both looked incredibly silly trekking around Auburn Way with camera in hand near the entrance to Hwy 18.

"Red roadside wild flower if I'd only picked you, took you home set you on the counter..." 
Blake Shelton "She Wouldn't Be Gone"


This song gets stuck in my head every time I drive by this patch!

Tonight, while Rico was off playing Disc Golf  (think golf, with weighted frisbees and free courses!), I drove up to Beacon Hill to practice some night photography.  I found Dr. Jose Rizel Park on North Beacon Hill.  It wasn't crowded at all, though it was kind of in a shady neighborhood (I accidentally stumbled onto a homeless camp while looking for a good spot to set up my camera - no one was home, luckily).

 My prime location :)

 Qwest Field with the green arches

The above photo is my official entry in the Landscape photo challenge over at:

If you look closely, you can see the light trails of 2 airplanes in the sky.   I also really like the starburst on the lights (no editing to create those!).

 ISO 100, 25sec, f/16

ISO 100, 25sec, f/16

Happy Birthday, Jade Lauren Cochran!

Jade Lauren Cochran was born about 7:30 pm on Monday July 12, 2010.  Welcome to the world, baby girl!

 New grandparents!

Rafting trip via disposable camera...

Oh how I wish we had waterproof housing for my camera (which costs more than my camera, lenses, accessories all together!)...the graininess of the following photos kind of makes me shudder but what can you do?  What did we do before being able to preview the photos and discarding the ones we didn't like?? Only about 14 of the 27 photos came out useable.

{You can still right click the photos to make them larger, but I wouldn't recommend it...just enhances the graininess, lol}

 Woulda been good photo if did have the paddle in front of my face!

 Rico & John after playing Trust...

Horses & Waterfalls 7.10.2010

On Wednesday (my day off) I took the opportunity to become a spectator at the track.  I went during morning workouts/warmups in an attempt to get some good horse shots.  Unfortunately the sun was up too high by the time I made it there... I probably should have started sometime around 6am instead of 9...

{Right click on photos to enlarge}

As you can tell, the weather has finally, finally cleared up.  We've had temps in the 90's for the past few days and it's going to stay sunny and cool in the mid 70's for the rest of the week, if you can believe it!

Since I wasn't having much luck with the track horses, I headed down Green River to see if I could catch any action there.

And my most favorite so far...

We're definitely taking advantage of the weather... this morning, I dragged Rico out of bed to take me hiking at some waterfalls (I know - I'm such a mean wife not to let him sleep in!).  I recently found this cool website that lists all the waterfalls in the Northwest and ranks them, based on flow, accessibility, beauty, etc.  Rico used to explore these falls with his parents when he was younger.

Top of Tomtom Falls (we couldn't figure out how to get to the base of Tomtom so this is the top only): We had to cross an old train tressel to reach it...

Then Rico started having waaay too much fun with the new wireless remote!

We trekked back up and circled around away from the falls to find Little Mashell Falls (which really aren't little at all!):

We started at the top ... Which by the way is really cool to stand at the top and look all the way down!  We discovered a tiny little lagoon where we took our shoes off and relaxed.

And worked our way down to the base:

Excuse my chicken wings, but I can now cross another item off my list: Walking behind a waterfall :)

Where in the world is Rico? Oh you mean the tiny little white dot beneath the falls? Yeah that's him!

After this hike, we definitely didn't need to go to the gym!
On the way back, we stopped at a scenic pull out to get a good view of Mt. Rainier, from an angle I've never seen.  You can see where the top collapsed during the last eruption and the flat glacier that grew on top.