"Getting Campy" Part II - RMNP

Free weekends at Rocky Mountain National Park are the bestest. Aside from the hoards of people/tourists who also think free weekends are the bestest. (Is it that busy on normal weekends??)

I've decided to put more pics in this entry, as that was one of the main reasons for going up. I picked the best ones for you:

N giving me the wide-angle rundown. With a story in the background.

One of my favs!

That 'shroom was about a foot in diameter! I kid you not.

Night-time camera fun!

Longs Peak dressed in frothy clouds. From Trail Ridge Road.

Early each morning, K said woke up to this little guy, mad as heck that we were there:

Personally, I think he was just out to protect his nuts. :-)

"Getting Campy" Part I

About a month or so ago Blake & I bought a flashy new camera (pun was indeed intended) for our trip to New Mexico in October. It's a Canon Rebel T1i; a digital SLR. Since the day it came in I've become quite the nerd; learning about all the bells & whistles. While I consider myself a far cry from anything resembling an amateur , I've learned a lot already (thanks, N & K!!). This past weekend we went camping with N & K up between Lyons & Boulder, off Peak-to-Peak Highway. We had to four-wheel in to get to our campsite. Sorry, no pics of that. I am still getting used to having a blog and I haven't reached the point where I think of these things on the fly! Regardless, it was fun, although it made peachsauce (like applesauce) of my peaches that I packed. Our campsite was quiet, yet one could hear gunfire in the distance; the NRA apparently doesn't think it's a coincidence that we were in the Roosevelt National Forest. (Budah-bump, tsh)

Last weekend was also a free weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park, so after breakfast on Saturday we put a picnic lunch together, piled into N's suv and off we went, cameras in tow. After enduring the traffic of Estes Park (nightmarish on Saturdays, by the way) we made our way into RMNP. We took Fall River Road, stopping every few miles to get out and take pictures. It's been a while since I've traipsed over rocks and logs, but we got some great pictures. N taught me about shutter speed, what some of the settings meant, a little about white balance, and other cool things. He even let me borrow some of his lenses to try out: telephoto, macro & wide-angle. I have to tell you that if I wasn't married and you could do it, I'd marry that macro lens. I LOVED it. We went from this little moss patch on a log:
To this:







I had a fantastic time. And then N uttered the seven bestest words ever: "You can have it if you want". Twist my arm. Apparently the man never uses it. Although he has his own blog, and he needed to borrow it this week for his blog. Go figure.

Anyway, for now, I leave you with this piece of eye candy:

Memory Lapse

I'm a bad girl. When I created this blog I had the full intention of posting weekly, but let's be honest: I forget a lot of things. A lot. I forget what I had for dinner last night, I sometimes forget when appointments are, the dog dish goes empty (not to worry, animal lovers. She normally has a full dish of food and eats when she's hungry, like most *cats* I know)and blogs are forgotten. And we don't even have kids yet! I'm screwed!!

I also wanted to make introductions. Blake & Sarah, these are your readers, as few & far between as they are. ;-)

I am Sarah. I am a Colorado native, born in Denver and reared in Parker. My parents are still married. Dad is a maintenance inspector for an airline company and Mom is a part time patient at a medical university. Yes, she plays a patient for the students; not really heard of at most colleges! I have a younger brother, "J". **

Blake is from Omaha, and his family moved here when he was a teenager. He has two older sisters, J & L. His parents are married as well, and his father is a retired truck driver. His mother works part time at a major discount store. He has three nieces.

We met in July of '05, and officially started dating in January '06. Yes, there *is* a long time between those dates! However, that's saved for another post.

That is, if I don't forget.

** Names besides ours have been shortened to protect privacy, since they don't know this blog exists. Yet.