How EMH saved our trip-Doing the World on West Coast Time! Completed. Stop by my PTR!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by Angies1274

Oh my...your kitties are sooooo cute!!!!

Thanks for posting the Sweet Lemon Fritter recipe--yum!! I will definitely be making these very soon!!

Wow!! Your kids did awesome taking pictures!! (the lion and rhinos are definitely my favorites!!) Those pictures have given me hope!! Now if my boys ask to take pictures on our next trip, I just may let them.....well...maybe. I still really like my camera.

Aww, thanks! I like the kitties, even if they are a bit crazy at times!
I hope you like the fritters.

They did a really good job, I may have to let them use it more, or get another camera!

Originally Posted by KathyRN137

So funny! Safari photography is hard. Fantastic lion pic!!

I'm getting the girls those throwaway cameras so they can take "their own" pictures!

Kathy

It's really hard! they did well. I wish mine would use the throwaways. I think they are spoiled, with the digital they can see right away how it turned out and try again, with the disposables, no such immediate reward. What did we do before digital....

[Happydog]

Hi there! Hey your animal photos are great! Love the Hippo and the Rhino photos! Maybe the temp and time of day on our safari, but they were hanging low (in the water, on the ground) etc.. still fun to see, but definitely not as active as these!

Nice family photo!!! I can't imagine how many times it took to get that one right I take mine every year and have to offer the bribe of the century or they just end up beating up on eachother! Yours are a little older so that probably helps!

Thanks for that fritter recipie!! I will have to store that for a brunch idea!

[TarzansKat]

Oh my gosh! I was just grousing on another TR about how I never, ever have seen a photo of the lion standing and walking around!

THANK YOU!!! What time of day was this photo, do you know? I can't believe it! I stand corrected.

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by Happydog

Hi there! Hey your animal photos are great! Love the Hippo and the Rhino photos! Maybe the temp and time of day on our safari, but they were hanging low (in the water, on the ground) etc.. still fun to see, but definitely not as active as these!

Thanks! We really saw a lot, and a lot at the beginning before they figured out the camera lol, so no shots of those lol.

Originally Posted by Happydog

Nice family photo!!! I can't imagine how many times it took to get that one right I take mine every year and have to offer the bribe of the century or they just end up beating up on eachother! Yours are a little older so that probably helps!

You know, it's funny. For years we went to Sears, or the Picture People trying to get groups shots And by in large, they are pretty darn bad. I gave up a couple of years ago and have just used candids that if they happened to work out great, and if not, oh well. While I like to have an annul photo and use it in the Christmas card, it wasn't worth the stress and wait for very marginal pictures.

This was the first time since DS10 was 1 that I'd used a professional, on location shoot, kind of situation. As I mentioned, it was a gift for my MIL and her DH as we didn't have a decent group shot with them since our wedding (and that wasn't very good either!). This guy was amazing, I'd use him again in a heartbeat. We have some outside shots that are just lovely. One that some day I play to blow up and do the whole gallery frame on canvas thing. And with them turning out so nice I don't feel the need to do it annually. I'll do it when DS16 is a senior I think, maybe at the end of the year at the lake to contrast with these very wintery ones. Doing it at home made a big difference with getting the kids "naturally". In my intro you can see some individual shots that he took with groupings of the kids.

This was only about 4 takes. BUT with 9 people and one cat we did do some "swapping" to get the best image of each into the final shot, this one definitely has the most editing. You could see the cat entering the picture in the takes, it was pretty funny! The only bummer is that there wasn't a decent one of the 6 of us but oh well.

Originally Posted by Happydog

Thanks for that fritter recipie!! I will have to store that for a brunch idea!

They would be perfect for brunch! I served them with fresh fruit on the side (blueberries& strawberries tossed with a little lemon and sugar. I'd have done blackberries but couldn't find any).

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by TarzansKat

Oh my gosh! I was just grousing on another TR about how I never, ever have seen a photo of the lion standing and walking around!

THANK YOU!!! What time of day was this photo, do you know? I can't believe it! I stand corrected.

:

I was pretty excited. And it was taken by my 10 year old! From an inside seat!

My time stamps are off and I'm not sure if they are off just by am/pm or by pst/est or what. It shows 2:48 am so I know that's not right!

In looking at it, I think I've realized that my recounting of the day is not entirely correct. Almost makes me want to pull receipts and the days schedule lol. But I'm guessing that it is just off by the am/pm and it was about 2:38. Which is what makes me realize that maybe, probably, we did something else right after lunch! Or before, but I think after. I know what we did, just couldn't remember when! Oops!

But I have to thank you for pointing it out, I'm going to go reset it right now! I just looked at my pics from our recent hike which confirms they are off by am/pm. Which makes no sense actually, as I sure don't recall making a time change adjustment unless my camera is smarter than I think

But, at any rate, the long winded rambling answer is late afternoon. I think. That "feels" right in my memory.

[TarzansKat]

Oh, gosh, I don't mean to start a whole internal debate for you there. Just a rough idea of the time would be fine, no worries, hon. I just can't believe it, thank your ten year old for me! Those are some great photos.

It'll become my quest on this trip. I'll have to see if I can find that lion standing up!!!!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by TarzansKat

Oh, gosh, I don't mean to start a whole internal debate for you there. Just a rough idea of the time would be fine, no worries, hon. I just can't believe it, thank your ten year old for me! Those are some great photos.

It'll become my quest on this trip. I'll have to see if I can find that lion standing up!!!!

Really, no worries, I'm quite good at internal debates all on my own!

But it does puzzle me....the camera isn't like a phone and it was definitely 12 hours off but it really should have been 15 if it was on pst.

And, like I said, a good thing b/c it made me remember something else we did that I'd forgotten!

You go, you get that Lion!

[eandesmom]

I don't take notes. Generally my memory is decent and the photo order helps a lot. However, if one doesn't take photo's then, well, it doesn't work quite so well.

In trying to determine the time of the Lion it occurs to me that really, I was confused.

If I assume we are just off by am/pm then my day looks something like this.

11:38 at the bus stop. Ok. I know we are on PST but that seems way later than I thought. Not entirely atypical mind you but gosh, if that's right, it's depressing even bearing in mind we were there at least 40 minutes. And if the time stamps are right, I underestimated it.

1:04 sitting down to lunch. Meaning all that happened between the bus and lunch was...waiting, riding, grabbing EE FP's and ordering lunch. That feels about right though.

2:05-2:19 checking out monkeys

3:34-4:26 safari and pagani

It did NOT take us an hour and 20 minutes to determine safari versus Kali. So what did we do?

Well... I'll tell you!

We did check the times on Kali right after lunch (again) as we were right there and then went for a stroll back in time. Back to...

DINOSAUR!

I cannot believe I forgot this!

This is what happens when you don't buy the ride pics apparently. Pathetic!

I really like this ride. No idea why, it kind of gives me whiplash but it cracks me up. I should have bought the pic as it was funny. The wait was not bad and soon enough we were headed back in time to rescue our Dinosaur.

The group had some pretty mixed reactions. Wall-E and Goofy had been on it before but didn't recall a thing.

Steven - "that was dumb"
Scrooge - "eh"
Goofy - "I liked it"
Wall-E was shaking. Which was a shocker. This kid is a thrill junkie (remember ToT?) but apparently the dark and loud noise combo freaked him out. Poor thing. In the picture he was pressing the temple of his glasses into his face, apparently terrified they were going to go flying off.

Tink - I LOVED IT!

Really? Also a shocker. I mean I didn't expect her to dislike it but loved it? She apparently found it as fun as I do

While checking out those adorable simians I did take some video. I haven't tried posting video before (though I have quite a lot) so we will see if this works!

[SunnieRN]

Your kitten and your cat are both adorable!!!

What a fantastic Lion picture! I have only seen the lion move from lying on his stomach, to rolling over a bit. lol

Your family portrait is so nice! Wow! So this will be your treehouse grand gathering clan?

The morphing pictures are really cool!! I really hope we get to go to San Antonio when the train passes through!

Looking forward to your next update!

[cjackearl]

You have darling children, but morphed onto Dickens characters? Aren't ride reactions shocking sometimes? I guess you never can tell. I thought Dinosaur was well done myself.

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by SunnieRN

Your kitten and your cat are both adorable!!!

thanks, both cats actually, white lightening there is about 2

Originally Posted by SunnieRN

What a fantastic Lion picture! I have only seen the lion move from lying on his stomach, to rolling over a bit. lol

I'm not even sure we saw the lion last time, I don't think we did. I was in shock!

Originally Posted by SunnieRN

Your family portrait is so nice! Wow! So this will be your treehouse grand gathering clan?

Thanks! Yes, I hope so. The picture has MIL, her DH and BIL. I don't see BIL going but you never know. I know MIL would like him there, as would the rest of us. His GF though....sigh. It is possible, though not probable, that we might fill another treehouse with my side of the family but we will see. Of course we could end up making all these plans and then for whatever reason, DSD and/or DSS can't go but right now we plan to forge ahead with it. I foresee many a roadblock but have hopes it will actually happen. MIL and I are plotting and we usually get our way.

All kinds of conflicting ideas and priorities so we are trying to balance it out. My brother just announced he is expecting. Which could derail this trip and mandate a trip to Germany instead. Me, I'd rather wait until the baby is a year old for a couple of reasons. 1 the baby will be more fun, 2 we'd have one less kid to take to Germany and 3 this will be the last summer of "teendom" for DSS and I'd like to take him again while we can. 4, my MIL is NOT happy with us right now for lack of visits (that fit with her schedule) and this would go a LONG ways to making up for that. 5, my brother will visit here between now and then, that I can count on.

DH has decided though, in that same vein, that he wants to take all the kids to DC. Which I do as well but that's not a week trip IMHO. So either we fit that in around Presidents week or maybe tack it onto one end of the treehouse. Not sure.

MIL is the trump card though

Originally Posted by SunnieRN

The morphing pictures are really cool!! I really hope we get to go to San Antonio when the train passes through!
Looking forward to your next update!

I hope you do too!

Originally Posted by cjackearl

You have darling children, but morphed onto Dickens characters? Aren't ride reactions shocking sometimes? I guess you never can tell. I thought Dinosaur was well done myself.

Creepy aren't they? You'll notice I didn't save a single one of moi. Talk about frightening!

[MEK]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

update shortly but first, a very belated promised picture of the new kitty!

meet Melvin



or White Lightning as Scrooge calls him. It has been an adjustment having such an energetic young kitty again. He's wonderful! Scrooge barks alot but secretly loves him, I can tell.

And the original

Hank (getting in the way of my DIS-ing!)

The kitten is adorable and my cat, Max, does the exact same thing around computers. He is fixated on them and always lays on top of them in the winter, cause they are warm!

Originally Posted by eandesmom

I take it back, this recipe is from Croatia, not Capri, 5/02 issue of Bon Appetit, Islands of the Mediterranean

Makes about 7 dozen

1 1/2 c. warm whole milk (105-115 degrees F)
1 1/4-oz envelope dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
Pinch of sugar plus 2 T.
3 large eggs
1/4 c. brandy
1 T grated lemon peel (about 3 lemons)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
5 c. all purpose flour
2 c. golden raisins (1 box)

Vegetable oil
Additional sugar
---------------------------

If anyone makes them, let me know what you think!

I am giving this recipe to my DH! He is the baker in our house! They sound so yummy!

Originally Posted by eandesmom

When I left off I was being bombarded by three small people asking if they could use MY camera on the safari.



The piece De resistance....great job Goofy!





And our happy photographers!



and a happy passenger, he handled it well!



Next...the Pagani trail! We had some time to kill while Scrooge and Steven did their safari so we were off to check out Gorillas!

I hope I cut and pasted the lion photos appropriately, cause I'm at work and all I can see if the IMG code. Oh well, if I got it wrong, sorry. I can not believe how great the Lion pics are. I have been on Safari a gazillion times and I NEVER see the lion like that. Such a great time you guys had on safari!

[cjackearl]

I noticed them on your post on my TR, but forgot to mention how much I like your new siggie pictures!! SO COOL!!

[TarzansKat]

First of all, I LOVE your new siggie. It's beautiful!!!

Yay, you figured it out! I knew you'd figure out where your lost time went. I've been on Dinosaur.

Once.

That was enough.

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by MEK

The kitten is adorable and my cat, Max, does the exact same thing around computers. He is fixated on them and always lays on top of them in the winter, cause they are warm!

See and I always thought it was just to be in my face

Originally Posted by MEK

I am giving this recipe to my DH! He is the baker in our house! They sound so yummy!

I wish mine was a baker!

Originally Posted by MEK

I hope I cut and pasted the lion photos appropriately, cause I'm at work and all I can see if the IMG code. Oh well, if I got it wrong, sorry. I can not believe how great the Lion pics are. I have been on Safari a gazillion times and I NEVER see the lion like that. Such a great time you guys had on safari!

You did! thank you so much (well thank E1, he did an amazing job!)