Today the two families went to Cathedral Grove to see the majestic Douglas Firs… What an amazing place…
The walk was not too long but just long enough and the views were amazing…
Here you can see just how big some of the trees are….
playing in one of the trees…
It was a bit of a tourist trap even on a rainy Tuesday morning but I am so happy that we went… 
I would have liked to have a few pics of Xavier up but he has been steering clear of the camera… lol
In two days Xavier is going to be 6…
I remember thinking about him turning 6 when he was small… Thinking 5 years ahead when he was still a small little one… when we were still living in Montreal… when he was our only child….
6 years is not that long but it is hard at times to remember life before him…
We had his party yesterday and though it rained… and poured… it turned out to be a great day… with great friends and lots of laughter and sharing…
The kids all had a great time and the food was good…’
The boys made decorations the day before…
the kids playing in the playroom…. the were spies….
eating outside… just before the rain came… and boy did it come!!
bbq in the rain… we brought the picnic table into the living room…
Birthday Cake…
double layer homemade chocolate cake with chocolate cheesecake frosting topped with fresh local strawberries and carob chips (as requested by the birthday boy)…
and gifts…
and Nintendo DS for the trip!!!
I kind of forgot how different shooting with an SLR is… So I have been reading and trying to remember what I had learned in College… and that wasn’t working… so I am just trying to learn it all over again… lol…
I think that my camera manual is going to be my best friend for a while along with some ebooks that I found…
and though I don’t regret my purchase because I know the potential….I am also realizing that my P&S G9 is a pretty good camera…
Here are a few pics…
nursing
not the clearest… but I love this one…
and a sunset… it has a bit of a dark feel…
wow… I am just on a spending binge here aren’t I?
I love my current Camera (Canon G9)…
but well… I have long desired more “Umph”… I just love photography and I want to do more and as great as the G9 is… it is a P&S and has its limits…
So I decided to take the plunge and sacrifice any gifts for my birthday, Xmas, Valentine’s day,Mother’s Day, Anniversary etc for as long as it takes to get my hands on a nice DSLR…
I love Canon… so for a long time I had eyed the XT… then the XTi… and then of course the Xsi… and the higher level ones of course but always knew they were not in my range (especially price wise!)…
I started looking for prices on the XTi and XSi but I kept my mind open because I wasn’t 100% sure yet…. and then I saw the Nikon d80… another great looking camera…
So I was torn for quite a while between the XTi or XSi and the d80…. and I was about to choose the d80 but kept looking and went through every online review that I could find which is when I started to see the Pentax mentioned…
not much… but just enough to get my attention..
So I started looking more into it and realized that it was the choice for me…
So the new Camera? The Pentax K20D
What made me choose… it has tons of features, it is weatherproof, has the anti-dust and has the image stabalization in the camera so that you don’t have to buy more expensive IS or AV lenses and most importantly the images look amazing…
This is not classed as an entry-level DSLR… it is a semi-pro but priced in the entry-level range….so I will have the chance to not only grow into it but stay with it for quite a while…
Of course then I needed to choose a lens… I decided to get the camera with a kit lens on special at cameracanada.com which gives me the Pentax 18-55mm lens…but for the upcoming trip to BC I wanted to have a bit more than 55mm and while searching for lenses for all the cameras I was looking at the 18-250mm Tamron kept popping up… and not only does it have amazing reviews as a great walkaround “most purpose” lens and especially good for travelling…. it also has macro which is something that I really want also…
So both the camera and the lense were ordered just a few hours ago and because it is coming from Ontario it should be here within the week…and in time for Xavier’s Birthday party on Sunday…
I am SO excited!!