Life in Motion

Often times when photographing little ones you will get a lot of blur.  Especially when inside because sometimes in order to expose the image you have to set your aperture wide open and your shutter speed low.  The lower the shutter speed the greater the chances are for blur.  On this particular evening Ava decided to put on a show for us in my old dance recital outfits.  The living room has no lamps and being the evening the natural light was almost all gone.  As annoying as I tend to find blur I actually liked the look it gave these photos.  Since it is motion blur and Ava was "in motion" it seemed to work well.

Ava loves to dance for us and typically she will grab my phone and pull up the angry birds game and dance to the theme song.  However this time she asked Aunt Katie to put music on her phone so she could dance.  Here she is dancing to a little Katy Perry and Shakira.

 My favorite photo...you can see just how into her dancing she was.

 Can you tell she watches Angelina Ballerina :)

 She slipped on the marble during an overzealous dance move

 but she was fine and the show must go on

 She changed into my rockin robin costume but thought it was more appropriate for Aunt Katie to help her fly like a bird than dance.

 Checking out her wings...which use to be straight and not so crinkled.  I'm still amazed the feather is still on the tush.  It's only held on by a small piece of velcro.

I need to dig out pictures of me in these costumes but our pictures are buried away under the steps behind the Christmas decorations.  I'll have to see if I can locate one that isn't back there.  So if anyone has one in their office or wallet (Mom or Dad) I would like to borrow it and scan it please and thank you :)


On another note our vacation is approaching fast and I am stuck between excitement and giddiness of the fun that awaits (not to mention that our vacation cabin has a hot tub, sauna, and mountain views) but also the anxiety that comes with being the one that has to pack and load the car.  Typically I wouldn't worry about possibly forgetting anything but we are going far into the mountains where only small country stores exist.  The kind that are only open till seven and closed on Sundays.  They also happen to be the only gas stations (where you pay first...can you imagine our confusion last year), butcher shop, bait shop, and hardware stores all crammed into small buildings.  It's the kind of place where everyone knows your name and when they don't they stare at you as if you forgot to put clothes on when you left your house that morning.  So this means that I have to carefully pack using lists so that I can cross things off as they are loaded into suitcases.  I must also meal plan and purchase as much as I can before we go.  We will be arriving on a Sunday so nothing will be open but I plan to go out Monday morning for eggs, milk, etc.  All other food items will be packed and loaded into the car before we leave Maryland.  Last year about a half hour from home I was suddenly struck with panic because I forgot my memory card for my camera.  Luckily Aaron stopped before we got off the highway so I could run into a Target and get a new card.  Little did I know at that time that the Target was the last of civilization (at least modern civilization) that I would be seeing for the next four days.

Last year we were culture shocked by the total lack of cell phone signals and internet.  Two days into our trip we drove to the resort at the top of the mountain and were able to get signals.  This year we are staying right below the resort so we will have access to cable, internet, and phone signals.  Don't get me wrong it was nice to get a break from being so "wired" but I would like to be able to look up places to go and phone numbers we need.  We are also going for a whole week this year so I'm hoping to sneak in a blog post at some point :)

For months I have been compiling a bag of travel toys/activities for Ava.  I have been working on my lists this week and beginning next week I will start to pack up everything that can be packed early.  Mostly Ava's toys and clothes since she has enough to spare.  I will pack mine and Aaron's clothes the day before and will load up the car with everything the night before minus the perishable food items, computer, and my makeup.

I will be posting a special post next week with the contents of Ava's travel bag which will hopefully provide enough entertainment to keep her content during the five hours there and five hours back.  Being mostly on mountain roads we really won't have many options for stopping so we will probably stop to eat before we hit the mountain roads and allow Ava some time out of the car.

Now I'm off to work on my lists...wish me luck.