Summer is definitely here, the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes are here to stay for a while. The kids and I have been going so many places, the zoo, Olbrich Gardens, and the Wednesday farmer's market.
I've been taking a lot of pictures lately and so has Alexis who is 10 years old. I have to take turns with her just to use my own camera. I gave her my old fuji finepix but she likes using the new one better. I can't blame her, the old one has maybe 3 different settings. She has a good eye for what makes a good picture. Alexis will pick a beautiful subject and will focus in on it but she doesn't take note of what is in the background. Like if a person is walking by or if there is something you just don't want in the picture.
This past Tuesday we went to Olbrich Gardens with Molly, Lucy, and Meg. We had a great time, that is until the mosquitoes hit us full force. We eventually ended up leaving because they were so bad, even with bug spray on. OG had their sprinklers on so I told the kids to go ahead and go run through them. This is very unlike me to do and the kids couldn't believe I was letting them do it without them even asking. The pictures aren't all that spectacular but I think the water looks really cool.
The two plant pictures were taken by Alexis. She is having so much fun taking pictures. She now says that she has the same goal as me, to become a professional photographer.

Door County

I have been having a lot of fun taking so many pictures. We just got back from spending a few days in Door County. I took some beautiful black and white shots at Cana Island Lighthouse. The kids love going there to play in the water and collecting sea shells. It had just finished raining and I found some pine branches with raind droplets hanging off the ends. I was able to try out the beach setting on my camera and I could really tell a difference. The only setting I used to use on my camera was auto and now I rarely use that.

While at the camp ground we went down by the lake and watched the sunset. Guess what, there is a setting for that too. :) It was amazingly beautiful. The kids had a blast throwing rocks in the water and looking for sea shells.

On our way out of town we stopped at the beach to play in the sand for a bit. It ended up being to cold and windy that we only stayed for a few minutes. Alex and Ry didn't care how cold the water was, they went in anyway. It was great to see them laughing and playing in the water.