Babies abound...

Well it's been a month of showers - baby showers that is. Unfortunately I only took the camera to one of them - my cousin Jesse's fiancee, Jessica's shower. They have a baby boy due in late March.

Jessica has a very large and supportive family which made gift opening one of epic proportions! She and Jesse are very blessed to have a great group of friends and family.

This event also gave me the opportunity to try out Adobe Lightroom 2 which was a Christmas gift from mom and dad. I have to say, once you get used to it, it's great to quick processing pics! Combined with Adobe Photoshop you've got a very powerful set of tools for photo editing. Things that would take me hours in PS alone are now super easy in LR!

Anyways, it's always good to have more babies in the family. I'm biased but I think our family makes the cutest ones!

Ice Climbing...

Okay, so it's not climbable but Mark thought this looked cool coming down the hill side. These were taken in January around Shenandoah somewhere (we were hiking into some canyon).

I just thought it was cool as it cascaded down the hill side. Normally there's a small ephemeral flow here.

On a more random note, did anyone know that Skyline drive closes after dark during the winter?? That was news to us which made for a really fast hike since we started late not knowing about this restriction. They close the gates on the road and you're stuck!:) I'm sure the rangers are none to pleased when they have to come free ill informed hikers!

Meet Tucker...

I'm proud to introduce Tom Tucker Ginger Ale (aka Tuck or Tucker)! Tuck is my parents new miniature schnauzer puppy who came home to live with them a few weeks ago.

Tuck is (was) 8 weeks old and just the cutest and cuddliest little critter. He was overwhelmed with Macie at first but begin to assert his dominance by the time we were leaving that weekend.

Mom said he'd doing well and exactly what she was looking for in RC's absence. Her favorite time of day is after she brings him back in after his morning break and he dives into bed with my dad and nuzzles into his neck (often times wet and covered in snow!)

The tradition in my family is to name dogs after soda pop. We've had Pepsi, Faygo, Shasta, Ginger and RC. Mark and I broke that tradition with Macie but my parents carried on.

Tom Tucker Ginger Ale is a staple of my childhood. Any time we were sick my mom would stir a glass of that stuff until it was flat and feed it to us to calm our stomachs. That was perhaps my most favorite part of being sick.

Ye Olde Church...

A thank you in the mail recently made me think of this picture. We took it right before Courtney and Ryan's wedding in September. We're to the point where many of our friends are tying the knot and thankfully they do it at fun, out of town places. This one was at the beach in New Jersey. Such a beautiful little church that the just few weeks previous had weathered the remnants of one of the late season hurricanes.