Chicken Pox and Trick-or-Treat

Two things that do not mix is "Chicken Pox & Trick-Or-Treat" as our girls found out when Kristy had planned to take them to a local gathering of the Dayton Deaf Club to celebrate Halloween. Participation in one of the Deaf Club activities was required by Kristys sign language class and so she had planned to take the girls with her to this one. Unfortunately the chicken pox found them first. Both of our girls had been immunized against chicken pox when they were much younger and so their outbreak was mild....but still contagious. So to make it up to them, for missing this event that they had been looking forward to, we had our own little trick-or-treat at home.

My Last Wedding....as the Photographer

My photography studio has reached the point where I am finally able to focus on the aspect of photography that I am most interested in. From the beginning my hope was that I could simply take artistic photographs...through the last three years I have been able to earn enough to pay for all my equipment I have had to purchase and now I will turn my efforts toward my desired direction. This means that I will no longer offer senior, family, and wedding photos. My last wedding was appropriately at the same place that my first one was at.... the Columbus Temple. In fact the bride was the sister of the groom of my first wedding. It all seemed like it was meant to be.

Kristy has always been such a support for me during the last few years of wedding photography, this wedding was no different. My beautiful angel sweetheart was by my side for this last wedding.

The reception was directed by a friend of mine that was been at weddings as long as I have but only with DJ services. Check out his website www.inrealitydigitaldj.com . This particular reception was by far one of the most fun, the pictures of the kids show this well.

Kristy Celebrates her 24th Friendly's Style

So everyone gathered at the Friendly's in Troy to celebrate my sweethearts 24th birthday. We all enjoyed each others company and some of the best ice cream in town.

Everyone was very busy this night and so that is why we decided to hold the occasion in a central location.... hence Friendly's. Besides that Kristy has always been a big fan of the restaurant and so it only seemed appropriate that it be the place for her birthday gathering.



The staff sang Kristy their "Happy Birthday" song and then Kristy opened all of her wonderful gifts.


Kristy has been asking for an acoustic guitar for some time, I think ever since we visited Loretta Lynn's ranch last summer, so I sought out and found a guitar that best fit Kristy. . . . a pink guitar with a heart shaped cut-out.

Leonard played a short tune on the guitar for everyone's listening enjoyment.

Kristy's birthday gathering turned out great and everyone left full of ice cream and memories. How blessed I am to have been able to spend with my sweetheart her last 7 birthdays, I certainly am looking forward to the many more ahead.

Molly & Neleha enjoy the Apple Festival

My Dad and his wife Donna took our girls to the Sidney Apple Festival where the girls got to dress up like the olden days. From the picture we can assume they had a pretty good time.

Caught With Her Hand in the Jar

It is so hard to believe that our baby girl is not only able to conceive how to maneuver a chair to the cupboard in order to obtain her desired prize (candy), but for her to actually pull off the task. Our baby girl isn't such a baby anymore.

Quilt Shop Hop & Jammin in the Country

Kristy's love for quilting led us to the annual tri-state Quilt Shop Hop. This event involves one week when quilters from Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana visit many of the quilt shops within each state. The incentives included free quilt patterns, raffles, discounted products, and most importantly (at least to me) free food.

We enjoyed visiting shops in both Ohio and Indiana and ended up near Middletown, Ohio for the annual Jammin in the Country concert. We invited my Dad and his wife Donna to come along and enjoy the quilting and music fun.

The 2005 "Jammin in the Country" concert was a day long event hilighting three big name country artists. The crowd was big and the music was awesome but the seating was unexpectedly horrible. I had misunderstood about the offered seating and to our surprise it was a BYO-LC event (bring your own lawn chair). There was some seating in the back which served well enough.



The first performance was by Joe Diffie. His songs like "John Deere Green" and "Welcome to Earth" were some of our favorites from the show.

There was about an hour intermission between performances and there were a few vendor tents offering many different products or services. One particular vendor had some familiar characters assisting which agreed to pose for a photo. Our Star Wars friends were most friendly indeed.

There was also a tent of Army National Guard recruiters who were offering water bottles, key lances, and t-shirts if you would do a push up for each year of your age. Molly and I both walked away with the free stuff. Molly's push ups need a little work but her effort was worth the stuff she earned.

Neleha caught up on some z's during the intermission.



The second show was by Trisha Yearwood who sung her heart out for us crazy Ohians. She put on a good show and interacted with the crowd which is always nice.



The sun finally set and the headliner hit the stage. The "Sawyer Brown" show was by far the best country show I ever had the privledge of watching. Kristy and I have wanted to see one of their shows for many years and finally we were able to do so. This band put on a show that was energetic and full of fun. I would suggest to anyone to go see these guys if you ever have the chance.

Heritage Festival 2005

One of the last festivals that we attend each year is held in Piqua, Ohio and is known as the Heritage Festival. Here you are bound to find many crafts, food vendors, bluegrass bands, and the occasional authentically dressed pilgrim or Indian. The crafts are usually top notch. The music is wonderful. The appropriately dressed Indians need to put on some more clothes. The food is some of the best during the festival season.....the corn especially.

This year I had to work and so we were only able to catch just a glimpse of the festival but at least we got some corn and lemon & strawberry shake-ups. The cool thing was that we arrived just an hour before the festival came to a close and so many food vendors were giving away their leftovers. We ate good and for free....free food always tastes so much better.

Labor Day Weekend Campout 2005

Our last camping trip of the year brought us to Hueston Woods State Park near Oxford, Ohio. The park offered many activities and was a very beautiful place. We enjoyed as much of the park as we could during this holiday weekend.

The park lodge had a gift shop that sold mini harmonica necklaces. Molly played her harmonica all weekend long for our listening enjoyment.

One of the activities that Molly was most interested in was the naturalist programs, of course. Molly brought her badge along from our camping trip at Delaware State Park so she could get some more classes marked off. One of he classes she attended was this reptile and bird program where she was able to get up close and personal with this slithering friend.

This trip included just us, an entire weekend to enjoy our little family in the comfort of our little pop-up camper. What joy Kristy and I have with our beautiful angels.


Part of the parks holiday festivities included this jumping gym where our girls found some friends, times three, triplets who fell in love with our Molly and Neleha.

During the weekend we attended three naturalist programs including one at the Nature Center.




One project that I finally completed during our camping trip was restoring our canoe that was given to me by a kind member of freecycle in Dayton. For more info go to www.freecycle.org

As the photo below shows, Molly and I have been working on our canoe since May and with the many hours and elbow grease we finally got to enjoy it.

We finished it up just in time to take it out on a tour of the lake with the naturalist program guide.


After the tour we ventured out on our own and started up the electric trolling motor that my Dad gave me for the canoe. The ride was very nice, Kristy and the girls enjoyed the nice easy glide across the lake.


One of our nights was spent by the camp fire enjoying smores and later that night Molly insisted in sleeping in her tent so we set it up in the camper and allowed her to do so.

The hiking trails in the park were very beautiful and we were able to see many miles of them during our visit.



The beach was a unique feature of the park of which Molly and Neleha could not get enough of.

The weekend was most wonderful, an appropriate end of the camping season. On a side note it was this weekend that gas prices reached an all time high ranging from $3.07 to $3.29 per gallon.