End of the year trip to Colorado (from Rafael)

On our First day trip, we traveled from North Liberty to Lincoln, NE. It is the capital of Nebraska. On our Second day, we bought breakfast at a store and the cookies were good. We traveled to Lexington, NE where me and my dad and brother went to a military Museum. We saw lots of old stuff: Jeeps, helicopters… Then we drove to Denver, CO. and stayed at a nice hotel. We went to eat at a Mexican restaurant. When we were ready to leave it was raining hard. we stayed for lunch at a water park and had fun playing in the water. Then we drove to the mountain. We had some hails coming down on us when we were on the road. it was very loud. We travelled to the rental house we are staying in, I saw a huge lake, lots of mountains that still have snow on the top. (This is the view in front of the house) My brother and sister and I went to the Hot Springs that we have at the house. On our Fourth day, I saw some deers outside of our house, very close to me. I told my mom and she took some pictures of them.  Almost everyone is sick because of the lack of oxygen in the mountain. so we stayed home and relaxed.  On our Fifth day, I was feeling sick so I drank a lot, watched TV, read a book, went to sleep, played go fish and other cards game with my grandmother, and went to swim in the hot spring.

One for 30 Information

I was nicely asked to put a little something about a friend of mine. So here it is:
Go to her Blog and you will find a LOT of cool stuff, she is a very creative Photographer (should I even say that she take after me, even though we are not related?) Not being over confident here!! (Hey, one can always dream that one will inspire someone else in the beauty of photography)!
Anyway, she is also a writer and can't seem to put her keyboard out of reach. Seem like she tell the world that she will stop blogging/writing/Facebooking for a while, and after 5mn, she start all over again with a Better Blog!! So... If you need Inspiration, A smile on your face, or just out of pure Boredom, just head to her blog and check it out. I am sure you won't regret it!!

Mist and Lilies

Find your prop and get ready to stretch your photography-mind!

One for 30 Challenge. Starting in February over at MistandLilies.com.

Click Mist and Lilies: One for 30 for more information!

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Just because

For all my fellow photographer out there, Thought you would enjoy this one!! I know I did!! OH and the video.. Priceless!!!

7 Obnoxious Things People Believe About Photographers

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I heart Faces, Water Photo Challenge

I have seen this button in many other photographer blog, and I decided to try to get my brain working into some challenge. So my first entry will be the "Water" challenge and I can only think of ONE pictures that I love so much of Miss Morgane.

We were visiting my mother and the kids were playing outside in the garden with the "Water Clown" (you know the one that has a hat that goes up and down with the pressure of the water jet) well anyway, she was getting cold and I thought it would be a cute picture, so I asked her to look at me, and VOILA!!! Doesn't she look like a little fairy that she is??

I heart Faces

Oh and just for the fun of it, I am putting up this little video of the "sea" that was sang LONG time ago by Charles Trenet (Singer Poet) I love that song!! Oh and I thought the pictures were kinda cool too!!

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Hohenschwangau Bavaria

Neuschwanstein Germany!! Or should I say the Sleeping Beauty Castle aka place that was built by Crazy Ludwig (Second of the name but First of the crazy, or maybe not)! No offend intended we all have some of those members in our family, and if you think you don’t they are probably buried in a long lost closet somewhere in a deep forest!!
Anyway, since it is one of the most visited castle in Germany we thought that

it was something we needed to do. So since we were in Bavaria, we decided to go there. Well what I didn’t know is that his parents had a little “vacation castle” next door!! LOL

So when we arrived and saw how long the line was to get to the Neuschwanstein Castle we decided to go ahead and go visit the “Parents” residence “Hohenschwangau” and then after eating lunch go to the White castle up the hill!! Well this decision was made BEFORE the cloud came and ruined everything for us!!

As you can see in the pictures it was a pretty sunny day to begin with… unfortunately

it change to rain storm pouring down on us as we were exiting the guided tour of the castle.
However we had some fun (as fun as a 30mn tour in a rush with a Guide who

spoke with a very thick German accent, and doesn’t let you take ANY pictures inside!!)
So we decided that we will come back another day when the tourist season isn’t at its peak

and hopefully we will be able to go to the Sleeping Beauty Castle to find out if

Ludwig was that crazy or only a Genius to want to live in such a paradise of a place!!

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Garmish vs Fussen

Garmish is a place where many of our neighbors speak about. Anytime there is a vacation destination in the Alps, Garmish comes up!! So when in Bavaria we thought we will see what the BIG DEAL it was about Garmish!! Well call me a total weirdo (which I KNOW I am) but other than the beautiful GORGEOUS view of the mountain I didn’t find the hotel amazing.

OK I didn’t go and see the room, we only saw the lobby, gift shop, bar, and restaurant

(which wasn’t THAT good either, the restaurant that is) So I do understand that the place the hotel is located, is incredibly beautiful! And that I bet that you can do a lot of activities in the Garmish area!! But I still believed that we didn’t have to be staying in the hotel that most of our neighbors stayed in!!

So I went online a few weeks earlier and found a “what looked like” a perfect family place!
When we pulled in the hotel we thought... Oh oh!! As of Oh man maybe we found the perfect WRONG place to stay!! Matt was very much not really happy at the sight of the hotel!

Got the key, entered our room, and as I took in the room and the view I HAD to run in the windowless hallway to prepare Matt. I got him to believe that it was going to be AWFULL and then he enter the room and saw that:

The room that we got was a small apartment, 2 bedrooms, and small kitchen/ living/dining area with a sofa bed. We fell in love with the hotel. Pretty cheap for a 5 persons hotel room in Europe! About the same price as the cheapest room at the “other” hotel! AND look at the view!! We stayed up watching those mountain until it was completely dark! AND I had to set my alarm to the first light so that I could come up and take pictures of our gorgeous view with the sun rise!!
So here it is: I am wrong or what? Don’t you think it is beautiful!!
We are going back for sure... Maybe when snow is on the ground so that we can see how beautiful it would be!!!

Sneaky daughter in Brittany

The 3rd Weekend of May is the Mother’s day weekend! I was going to go visit my mama on the Monday after Mother’s day, but decided instead to surprise her. I called my brother and told him that I was wanted to surprise my “Mutti” on Sunday morning instead of showing up on the Monday evening. So I drove all day on Saturday, arrived in Auray on the evening and went to hide for the night at my brother’s house. We went to my mother’s house on Sunday for lunch, and as my brother and his family got in, I stayed behind and called her from my cell. She answer and I started a conversation with her like, I was just calling her to say Happy Mother’s day! Then I opened the house and asked her on the phone what she was doing? And telling her that I’d rather have a hug in person. She saw me and started crying!! :-(Both my brother and I were shocked that she would react like that, but she was thrilled, and I was happy to have been a sneaky daughter!! ;-)

I then stayed all week to help her start with some project of sorting the family paper and archives. And those were just taken during our little break time!

Recreation Plaza in a French Junior High!

(The building is where the class are held) Catholic School (Vannes France)

One of the best delicacy in Brittany France. The Kouign-amann is a super buttery fluffy cake that you will die for! (Best to eat in Brittany warm with a nice view of the ocean!! )

Have some kids that don’t want to share their breakfast bowl with their sibling, a nice litte souvenir from Brittany is a Named one!! Love those!!

Celtic Harpist in Vannes France!

Paper Boat in front of a real one!! Just love the idea!

"Celebration" or "Code" flags??

Toothbrush?? Anyone??

And of course who could leave without eating the best of Artichoke in all of France?

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