Last Sunday we celebrated the 3rd annual Hardy Fall Family Fun Festival, with the notable exception that this year's celebration came a bit earlier than fall. My sister, brother-in-law, and exactly half of our nieces and nephews will be moving to Texas in less than a month, so we were thankful to soak up one of the last opportunities to get together as one big family (at least for the next 14 months or so). Plus, last weekend's heat got us ready to go visit these crazy kids down in Texas soon!
Getting everyone together also gave me a chance to bust out my new [to me] camera. Several months ago -- long before a new job, graduation, home renovations, and moving twice in 6 weeks overwhelmed our time and energy -- Brian surprised me with the camera I had wanted since high school. We have completely different tastes in movies, music, and how we'd prefer to spend our free time, so we are hoping to add photography to our list of shared hobbies (which currently includes Netflix and long walks outside). It's a ten-year-old Nikon D40x, so it's not exactly new or top-of-the-line, but it's the perfect size and it's all mine! Brian's camera is his baby, and I wanted something I could experiment with, change whatever settings I wanted, and carry around wherever I wanted to take it. I also wanted a pretty camera strap to make it officially mine! #priorities
Honestly, most of the pictures from last weekend ended up in the recycle bin. For one, I had adjusted maybe one setting on the whole camera and had practiced approximately 10 minutes before last weekend. And two, I was learning on a DSLR for the first time in a bouncy house, with six kids under the age of 10, while also competing in jump contests and tag. Nevertheless, I had fun this afternoon reliving the fun of last weekend and learning Lightroom with Brian! These kids make me so happy. It's been a joy to finally live close to them again...at least for the next month!
