Committed to memory

[“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.”  Job 19:25.  I trust you have experienced and will continue to experience the joy of Easter.]

The sounds of laughter have receded into the family annals and all is quiet around here again. Our last visitors returned home this past week to face the beginnings of spring (which seem more like the final gasps of a winter that won't let go easily). We're left to wonder where the time went.

Many memories were captured and embedded in silicon, but I think they were surpassed by those embedded in our own memories. The 5D performed remarkably well despite the operator's lack of mastery of its many features.

And amidst the busyness of vacation hosting and capturing memories, there was even time to grab a frame or two of other subjects:

But you'll have to agree with me that my primary focus over the past couple of weeks would have been directed towards Hailey and Lilly (oh, and assorted other family members, of course):

I plan to visit many of you this week, and look forward to 'meeting' my new followers.

Snake birds and pirates

You might well wonder how these could possibly be connected. Well ...

It continues to be unseasonably cold down here in Florida, so the pool is not in high demand by our guests, although our grandson did briefly consider it today. Instead we made our way down to a local park this afternoon so he could release a little pent-up energy. Graydon had a lot of fun on the swings and slides, while I had fun capturing some of his antics. He continued clambering over the playground equipment when I left him with his parents for a few minutes, while I stole over to a nearby lagoon for a look around. That's where I discovered this snake bird (or anhinga), presumably after a successful afternoon of fishing since he was now drying his wings.

I'm still gaining experience trying to photograph a very active 3-year old (aren't all 3-year olds very active ?). It's a bit like trying to nail jello to the wall. My best success came when I caught him in those rare instances when he stood still. So here he is with a pirate's headdress (fashioned by his father), followed by a shot of him with a handful of playground mulch that he was scheming to stuff down his father's shirt. [my shutter's had a great workout during their stay with us so far. I'm trying to squeeze in a few visits to blogland when I'm not on call as grandpa or family chronicler].