By now, everyone should be back to work after the long holiday weekend, dreading going back to the daily grind. It’s hard heading back after being home for a few days relaxing, and getting back into the swing of things at the office, but believe me, once you walk through those doors….WHAM, it’s back to normal & the race is on!
But over the weekend, we relaxed, had family & friends over, enjoyed a good fire pit amongst a few rain drops, watched more fireworks & smoke bombs and consumed many many hot dogs. But what I had noticed is that I was in a constant state of sleepiness to which I contend the hot dogs had tryptophan in them. I know that hot dogs have lots and lots of stuff in them that I don’t even want to about, but I figured out that my sleepiness was due to the massive consumption of hot dogs. Hmmm, interesting. Who knew?
Nikita and Bella had a great time with everyone outside and enjoyed chewing on all the ice cubes. (did you notice that Bella is still wearing her birthday tutu?) They love their Grandma and always ended up sitting next to her. But the funny thing that happened is when Nikita saw something and went to run, and she pulled Auntie on her chair with wheels, right out of the garage. WHIZZZZZZZ, there goes Auntie! The only bad thing that came out of this was that Daddy got hurt, as the chair wheel smashed into his ankle. He’s ok now, once Mommy really got Neosporin on it to heal. (someone always gets hurt in a holiday related accident, don’t they?)
But there was one thing that I had always wanted to try to photograph, and I got the chance to do so this weekend. Take photographs of sparklers! Yeah for sparklers! Every time someone picked up and lit a sparkler, I went into action! I tried to hold the camera really still (as I did not have a tripod with me by the fire pit) and just kept snapping away until the sparkler fizzled out. One by one, everyone kept lighting them, ooooh I was in heaven snapping away! I could not wait to get back inside to upload all of my photographs to my Dell Mini to see what I had taken.
The outcome of the photographs was not bad at all, for my first time ever taking sparkler pics! It is just amazing that the camera can capture each and every little sparkle that shoots off the stick as it slowly <POOFS> itself out. I will have to do some more research on how to capture a better sparkler photo and have my subject in better focus too, but all in all, I love how they turned out. (but, if any of you seasoned photographers and have any hot tips on how to photograph sparklers, let me know)
A good time was had by all, no sparkler injuries, fire pit was safely put out, ankle healed, and I am finally out of my hot dog coma.
Nikitaland 
OMG I am laughing so hard at the visual of the chair on wheels being pulled right out of the garage with a human attached. Anything can happen when dogs are involved! I am glad you were all okay in the end! 🙂
Yeppers, it was hilarious that Auntie came flying out of the garage, but Daddy got hit with the chair. Ouchie! His boo boo is all better now. Phew! Yep, adding dogs to the mix is always exciting fun!
Well done on getting such great shots of the bonfire and sparklers. Never easy and you did fabulously.
Thank You! I just kept clicking away taking photographs, just to make sure I had lots to choose from. It was really fun to do.
What gorgeous sparkler photos!
I’ve noticed that eating processed and fast food meats puts me right out. Nap time. Zzzzzzzz
Man, those hot dogs sure did me in! LOL Nap time surely followed shortly! LOL
your photos are amazing!
Hey Misaki, thank you!
LOVE the pics!!!! So cool!!!!
THANK YOU so much!
Mom saw a pin on pinterest today about photographing sparklers!! Maybe you can do a search on it. We think you photos are grrrreat!
Aw, thank you Wally & Sammy! I will check out Pinterest to see what they recommend! Thanks for the tip! 🙂
Awesome pictures – the dogs, the family, the fire, AND the sparklers. Wow! Bella in the tutu kills me!
Yeah, that silly Bella…she just loves wearing her tutu! We had such a great weekend – a good time was had by all! How was your Fourth? What did you do for fun?
Great photos Val! Glad your family time was fun and that that ankle is healing too. Must have been funny seeing Nikita pulling her along. Glad the rain held off too. 🙂
These days have been tough to plan anything outside as the weather is so unpredictable. It was hilarious to see Auntie flying out of the garage, just glad she held onto Nikita’s leash tight! What did you and your wife do?
We went house hunting around Vegas! Kind of like work but nice to be out and about. Neither of us have family in Nevada but Rebekah has mother and brother in California which we didn’t see. The rest of our families are back east in Michigan, Virginia and Florida. We have the left and right coasts covered!
Yes you sure do have all the coasts covered. Just remember with all that is going on with you two, to step back & take some together time. By the way, how is your back doing lately? Any better?
Awesome sparklers photos! Just awesome!
Hey Finn, thanks! It was so fun to photograph and I am glad I remembered to do so. Definitely will do this again next year!
LOVE the sparkler pics!
Thank you! Hey, guess what? I was searching this morning for cookie cutters and thought of Chloe when I saw a cow cookie cutter! That would be so awesome if you got one and made some of those melted pony bead cow ornaments for the tree or for gift tags!
If you find a cowie-one, let me know! I have been thinking of doing a sun-catcher for my car window…
Just did a Google search and found tons! http://www.google.com/webhp?source=search_app#output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=cow+cookie+cutter&oq=cow+cookie+cutter&gs_l=hp.1.0.0l2j0i22i30l8.64.3727.1.6287.17.16.0.0.0.0.938.7865.0j5j1j1j1j2j6.16.0…0.0.0..1c.1.17.hp.GKBN7q37ayA&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48705608,d.b2U&fp=8987383faabdf91&biw=1024&bih=494
Sparkler photography is not the easiest!! But I am glad to hear you are out of your hot dog coma, you silly girl.
Man, a hot dog coma is something not to fool around with ya know! 🙂
Sounds like a great weekend. Love the sparkler pictures. 🙂
Aw, thanks! I almost forgot to take them, and then whammmmo, it hit me and I went nutso taking pics. I had to have a good one in there somewhere! LOL
Those hot dogs are killers, its true.
Very cool sparkler shots, by the way. All in all, a great post!
Aw, thanks….but nothing compared to your blog posts! You have a lot of catching up to do to see what I’ve been up to! Did you subscribe today? 🙂
Great sparkler photos – they are very hard to capture but you’ve done a great job! Sounds like you all had a lovely weekend with family – a few laughs, a few ouches, some pretty dogs!
Ooooh yes we did! The ouchie healed and I am finally out of my hot dog coma! Until next year…
It sounds to me like a nearly perfect independence day party. I can sympathizewith the pain in your dad’s ankle – I’m glad he feels better. Bella and Nikita are beautiful with the bandana and the tutu!
Yeppers, Daddy is ok now, but it hurt like crazy when the chair went whizzing past him! It was funny, until he got hurt. Nikita and Bella love dressing up in the bandanna’s, and Bella just loves that tutu that I made her. Everyone went “awwwwww” when they saw her in it. Yes it was a perfect party and if you noticed the fire pit photo, the flames have neat colors in it too. Our neighbor always finds cool stuff and he was throwing (I forgot the name of it) this cool dust into the flames and it would make the fire green and blue!
It looks magic and like charmed :o) we used this stuff for the chimney at christmas the name was magicolor flame crystals – it’s totally great!
I have never seen anything like that before, so I thoroughly enjoyed watching the flames in the fire pit! Very magical!