Happy birthday, Penny Lane!

Since today is Penny's first birthday, she gets today's post. I can't believe my little girl is ONE! I took these black and whites last month and framed them in two 3-picture collage frames and hung them on our living room wall. I painted the mats red so it makes them pop out a little. They look really cool together and I love how they came out (but not as much as I love her!). Happy birthday, Penny Lane!

Deep in the heart of Texas!

As I was going through some of my pictures, I realized that even though I had uploaded all of my pics of San Antonio, I never posted them anywhere - not even on Facebook. How dare I! So, I decided to use them as today's post. It was a short trip that I took back in August for work. I was only there for a couple of days and was indoors most of the time (which was fine by me since Texas is H-O-T in the summer! And this is coming from a Floridian...). I did have a little bit of downtime to explore. I went to the Alamo which was nothing too exciting - it's pretty small and there's not much to it. They had a pretty courtyard, though. My hotel was also directly across the street from Hemisfair Park, which hosted the 1968 World's Fair. It's a cute town and I'd be up for going back one day...during a time when it doesn't feel like a giant sauna outside.

All smiles :)

One of my favorite things about this new camera is the ability to catch multiple shots at a time - especially when it comes to fast moving objects such as Penny. I love snapping her picture after she's been running around outside for awhile since she's smiling in them. Ok, so the facial expressions are really just due to her running around and panting, but to me, she's smiling. So there.

A random throw-in here. My neighbor has a tree full of these beautiful, yellow flowers. With this bizzaro weather we've been having, this was the last little flower to survive, hanging all by itself over the fence into our yard. 

Nature! Goulet!

If you've ever seen Will Ferrell's impression of Robert Goulet on SNL, you'll understand my title selection. If you haven't, go Google it ASAP. You'll be glad you did.

Anyway...I managed the impossible. Holding a steady camera while also hanging on to a leash while the dog on the other end doesn't know which of the 32 squirrels around her to chase first and I'm pretty sure has doggie ADD (does that even exist?) takes true talent. Actually, I figured out the perfect little trick - I stepped on the leash to hold it down to free my hands. That worked for a little while until she figured out what I was doing and decided to run circles around my left ankle. Since I'm pretty sure I was about 10 seconds away from having my circulation cut off, I stopped shooting real quick. A prosthetic foot is not in my budget right now.

Surprisingly, I managed to get a lot more shots than I thought. It was sunset so I caught some great ones across the lake and some of the trees were still brown and orange so they looked real pretty.

Atlanta continued

Here are the rest of my pictures from Atlanta - the MLK memorial and the Fox Theatre.

Ignore the random orb that made it's way into the picture. The ghost of an old fireman perhaps? This No.6 fire station was built in 1894.

The house that MLK was born and raised in. Still owned by the King family with all the original furnishings.

The church where MLK and his father both preached at. Also the church where his funeral was held.

The original pulpit and altar items restored. 

The Olympic torch.

The bright blue and purple lighting in this theater were stunning.

The south & the sea

This past weekend, I joined my husband up in Atlanta. It was chilly, but the clear, blue skies, friendly people and plethora of things to do overshadowed the temps. We spent time at the historic MLK site, the old Fox Theater and the Georgia Aquarium, which is one of the best ones that I've been to. I took way more pictures than I should have, but it's a good thing since I had to delete a bunch. Unfortunately, the cloudiness of the tanks didn't make for the greatest picture clarity (*shaking fist* damn you, sea algae!) but I did get some good ones! The first sea turtle picture is my personal favorite.
Since there were so many pics, I'll start with the aquarium photos since those are the majority. Tomorrow, I'll post the rest.

Those colorful beads attached to him are to identify him. They're not a result of a recent trip to Jamaica.

I love this little guy. He looks like he's waving "hello!"

This large manta ray is pretty badass. Look at him pushing all those other fish out of the way like he owns the place.

Now he's just showing off, doing flips.

These jellyfish were really glowing - they really did look like neon in person! Beautiful.

The otters were quite possibly the cutest things ever. 

The one in the upper left had a lot to say. The other two were clearly not amused.

I feel like he should be called a "Bubba fish" because of his buck teeth, ha ha!

For the record, I do not like frogs. At all. They're slimy and creepy and unless his name is Kermit and he's made out of fabric, I'm not a fan. However...in the interest of photography, the pretty colors won over my lack of enthusiasm of amphibians. Plus, we were all separated by a nice, thick window of plexi-glass.

This frog looks like she has on lipstick.