V.pics.vids.news

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T09:00:00.001-06:00

This was taken as an impromptu portrait at the Crown Center Plaza in Kansas City when we were shopping with some friends from Waterville...Note the hesitancy to clear the background (thanks, young lady in the green shirt) and the hesitancy to get Kylie out of her cozy warm car seat on a cold night. But anyway, best wishes of happiness and joy to you! Peace-The Vores.

Attempts at Christmas Portraiture

2009-12-21T13:56:00.001-06:00

Taking indoor, portrait-style photographs of people is a complex task even for photographers that own thousands of dollars worth of artificial lighting. Taking indoor, portrait-style photographs of people without that kind of lighting is even more difficult, because you have so much less flexibility in manipulating the light that is landing on your subject. Here's my attempt at Christmas portraits of the kids...

Kylie did pretty well for her pictures. We turned all the lights off in our living room and then took a floor-type torch lamp and aimed it at her like a canon for the main light. I used the external flash on my camera for fill light to avoid any harsh shadows on her face. Unfortunately there is little to no lighting on the background (the Christmas tree), and Photoshop only got me so far in recovering some of that detail. I was pretty pleased with these pictures, considering my tools. It must have looked pretty funny to see how we were tearing apart the living room to take these pictures.

The same night I attempted portraits of Lukas and Eli, but they weren't dressed in Christmas outfits (Kylie was the target subject and we took pictures of Lukas and Eli just to take them). The shots of Lukas and Eli really struggled in one aspect, and I couldn't figure it out...and then I realized their heads were blending into the background too much. A fancy photographer with fancy photography lighting might have a small lamp that shoots down onto the subject's head to give it some light and keep it from blending into the background, especially if the background is dark. Usually we don't realize this because in our homes the light is always 'from the ceiling,' but when taking portraits you want the majority of the light coming from 'the side' so it is shining on the face, not the head. By making light come from the side you avoid giving your subject harsh shadows, especially around their nose and their eyes. Imagine if the light were water, and if you dumped it on the subject's head from up above, some spots of the face (under the eyes and nose) would not get wet. If you shoot the 'water' or the light from the side like from a water gun, all the spots of the face get lit. But then the problem presents itself if ALL your light is coming from the front-nothing is setting off the hair, and the subject blends in. After the first night of Kylie portrait-shooting, we put the boys in Christmas clothes and I made an adjustment to my poor-man's photography studio. My improvised solution here was to unscrew 3 of the 4 light bulbs in the ceiling fan light just above Lukas' head. That gave enough light from 'up top' to keep him from blending in too badly to the Christmas tree behind him, and a bit of dodge and burn work in Photoshop also helped.

The problem here is similar with Eli, the arm on the left is really blending into the background. There's also some big shadow space on the left side of his face, but its manageable. As before, the background Christmas tree is pretty dark.

Oh well! I had fun making my makeshift photography studio even if the results are less than perfect. Merry Christmas!

First Comes One, Then Comes the Other...

2009-12-21T13:10:00.002-06:00

Eli was wandering around the house the other day munching on an apple. I mentioned to Lindsay, "Hey, that apple looks like it has mange...remember when...?" She knew exactly what memory I was inquiring about, and so she quickly got Eli into this homemade hat and scarf to take a picture with his mangy apple. Enjoy the comparison.

Eli, December 2009

Lukas, October 2006

Ho-Ho---....Oh just go home.

2009-12-19T09:00:00.000-06:00

Santa Soup Day in Waterville is a fairly big affair, a large community event. It is something run by the Chamber of Commerce, and naturally, Santa is there. It is also something that we attended in the early afternoon, which is also known around these parts as "Eli's grumpy time." Of course, he was quite shy and not in the mood to sit on that big red guy's lap, so he chose to pout. This is the result. I consider it epic.

The Many Faces of Eli

2009-12-18T08:00:00.000-06:00

At this point, we're not sure if it is because Eli is 2 or because he's a ham (but it is probably both)...but he sure does put on a show for the camera. He's always had a pretty diverse collection of faces he makes when he's in the mood, and here's a good walk through them.

The "What'chyou talkin bout?" face.

What's a 2 year old without a "Tongue All The Way Out" face?

The "Cheeser Smile" face.

And finally, the "I'm So Sweet You're Going To Buy Me A Car, Right?" face.

Street Band Boys!

2009-12-17T09:00:00.002-06:00

This is a video from a while ago, but a pretty funny video of the boys 'creating' a band set from the toys they had on hand. Enjoy!

Birthday Boy

2009-12-17T08:00:00.002-06:00

Lukas is 5 years old. That impossible reality came to be on December 10th. He had a funfetti cake made special by his Grandma Judy in the shape of a candy cane. He thought it was pretty sweet.

From Grandpa Keeef, Lukas got a full 'Army-guy' outfit. There's a few more faces of him wearing this outfit in our December web album.

From his Uncle Kyle and Aunt Kristy he got a pretty sweet looking pair of cowboy boots. This was a matter of some envy for Lukas because Eli inherited 2 pairs of cowboy boots from one of my nephews, but Lukas had none. Thanks to Kyle and Kristy, that's no longer the case! Lukas was excited enough about this gift that he insisted on wearing them to school the first chance he got.

From Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob came an Imaginext submarine exploration toy. This is a pretty cool toy, and both boys have had lots of fun 'exploring' the deep sea of our house with it. They don't know it, but they're getting more of these toys for Christmas.

How Not To Sled

2009-12-16T23:58:00.001-06:00

I didn't know this until the last week or so, but apparently Vore's cant sled. You didn't know that either? I know, right? Shocker!

Here's Lukas and Eli attempting to sled behind my parent's house in Kansas City. All goes well until the end, when Lukas ditches and Eli, well...ditches face-first. He wasn't very happy about the outcome.

The same day, my dear beloved mother took it upon herself to present us with her own interpretation of the 'face plant.' Quality comedy, just remember, the Vore Family Blog is always good for quality comedy:

A closer look:

Cookies!

2009-12-16T23:28:00.000-06:00

It is that time of year, time to decorate cookies. A favorite tradition of our children.

Lukas has a tendency to basically dump the sprinkles on the cookies. Can you tell which of these he decorated?

Eli at some point gave up on decorating and started finger painting....mmmm....finger painting with icing, what could be better?

That's our cheeser!

Snow Days, Part II

2009-12-16T12:31:00.000-06:00

In case you had not heard, there was a bit of a blizzard out here in Kansas a couple weeks ago. Our first sledding trip in Waterville post-blizzard was quite fun, a big sled run on inner tubes. Family-face-handslap-moment: we forgot to take the camera. Oh well. Later in the week we traveled to Kansas City with some of our friends from out here and stayed at my parent's house for a winter shopping trip to the big city. The trip was great, and so was the sledding behind my parent's house.

Eli was very excited about eating snow.

The kids were pretty good about pulling their sleds back up the hill. Eli wasn't as excited about sledding, he was a little discouraged with the snow spray up into his face. He had a real blast walking up and down the hill though...Yes, I find it odd as well.

The girl on the sled here is the daughter of our friends from out here in Waterville. She had a pretty good time in the city, especially with the sledding.

Snow Days

2009-12-16T12:29:00.001-06:00

What to do when the snow is past knee-deep outside? Well, earlier today we went sledding, which is perfectly logical. Not logical: forgetting to take the camera along. Oh well. So tonight we decorated our tree as a family. Getting the tree was a journey-and a story-in and of itself. Lukas and Eli were very excited about the whole endeavor, and they were equally worked up about putting the decorations on there.

Notice an odd absence of decorations above eye level?!:) The boys did well, and for the most part listened well. After they went to bed Lindsay did a bit of re-distributing of the decorations.

Kylie got in on the action too, she was not quite as excited as the boys but LOOK DANGLY THINGS OOOOOH! Yeah, she thought that looked pretty swell.

BLIZZARD (sorta) WARNING!

2009-12-09T23:48:00.001-06:00

Welcome to December and the snow...We had a 'blizzard' the other day. I consider the term 'blizzard' a bit odd here, b/c the snow lasted all day Tuesday but was not officially the 'blizzard.' The blizzard started Tuesday night after the snow stopped. Tuesday night the winds kicked up to 20-30mph with gusts to 40mph. I understand the distinction, but I found it just a bit odd that we basically had a blizzard without any snow falling! Below is a shot out our window of our new Christmas tree--and the snow (not the blizzard!).

Another shot of the non-blizzard snow. We got about a foot and a half (I think).

Below, another shot across the street to our neighbors during the snow but before the blizzard. I thought it was kind of funny to see the large word "Joy" halfway covered up by the snow!

This shot is out our back door the morning after the blizzard. Overnight the high winds blew the snow into large drifts. This particular drift was about knee-high if you were standing on the back patio...But if you were standing down on the grass (by the grill), then the drift is almost chest-high.

Dogs of November

2009-11-19T06:00:00.001-06:00

I have started our November Web Album, but to this point there are not many pictures in it...Mostly some shots my mom wanted me to get of Eli in this dog sweater. Once upon a time, that was my sweater. Below is a picture of Lukas in the same sweater, circa March of 2007 in Muskegon, Michigan.

I'm sure we'll have more pictures in that November web album eventually, as there is a Thanksgiving trip to Ohio in the works. Also, the savings account bunny might be bringing me a new camera soon to replace/upgrade our small digital point and shoot camera, and as we all know new cameras bring lots of new pictures with them. For the record, this will be the first major purchase made in the post-credit card era for the Vore family, so that's exciting...we've made that switch from buying now, paying later and instead are operating on the save-for-it-now, buy-it-when-you-actually-have-the-money principle. Novel, I know, but a good and healthy step for us.
I'll let you guess who that is in the helicopter wearing the Famous Dog Sweater. Circa...1985-ish.

Halloween stopped by, then it went

2009-11-18T06:00:00.000-06:00

Lukas was a bumblebee this year. This was a costume I wore once upon a time, or perhaps it was my brother (or perhaps both). The picture above is from his first ever school Halloween party, which was lots of fun.

Kylie was the exact same pumpkin Lukas and Eli were once up a time. She was so happy...We're guessing she didn't mind too bad. Kylie didn't go trick-or-treating, she stayed home with me and helped hand out candy.

Eli wore a costume that used to belong to my brother-a family treasure. He especially loved the jingly bells that went around his ankles.

Pumpkin Patch Remix: The Pumpkin Posse

2009-11-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

I'm sure I've seen this photo before, just with different people in it. I'm also sure it was on the cover art to a rap album.

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

The annual trip to the pumpkin patch this year was wonderful...great weather for being outside, it was like 68 that day and the sun was just starting to set. Also great: the boys were in a good mood and sat still well for pictures.

The fall colors were out, bright orange in the pumpkins, faded green in the grass and that gorgeous Kansas blue sky.

Hello Eli, is that a heavy pumpkin you have there?

More photos available for viewing in our October Web Album on Picasa, which is now complete.

Portraits

2009-11-14T06:00:00.001-06:00

As mentioned below, our time at the beginning of September was spent in Michigan. A great friend, Paul Petersen, took family portraits for us. His work is always very good. He's also very gracious, and didn't charge us a dime even though we practically threw our money at him. These photos, and others in our September Web Album on Picasa (see link to the right of this blog post), are mostly photoshopped by me, not him. If they look not quite professional, I'm sure it is my fault not his!

No, really, she don' like that stuff

2009-11-13T06:00:00.001-06:00

In September Kylie grew up enough to start on solid food. This was fun. We started out with baby cereal, and she had a pretty hilarious response to that...It took a few weeks of trying before she'd attempt to swallow the cereal. She does much better now and has progressed to the usual Gerber assortment. Yum.

Also done: September

2009-11-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

September saw us travel up to Michigan so I could attempt to ride my bicycle 300 miles in 4 days on the DALMAC bike ride. I got the flu, or something like the flu, before the ride and only made it 150 miles 2 days before my body basically threw a fit on me. The picture above is of our friend in Michigan, the great Paul Petersen. He took our family portraits while we were there, and is quite talented. He also convinced Eli that he had 'whisker seeds' on his face, and that if Eli would 'pluck' them and 'plant' them on his own face, with about 15 years of 'watering' them they would sprout into his own whiskers. This provided about 30 minutes of entertainment for Eli.

Kylie's dress in this picture is actually Lindsay's dress. Good excuse to try some portrait type shots of our baby girl. She crawls now, which is ridiculous, and is going to be walking in about 3 weeks ago.

We've had lots of trips to KC lately, and the boys have enjoyed seeing their grandparents. Eli and his grandma rough-housing: cute. More of (mostly) the same available in our September Web Album over on Picasa.

August is Done

2009-10-23T01:07:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm sure you're thinking "Why is Jeremie announcing that August is 'done' a full 50+ days after the month actually ended?" Well, when I say 'done' I mean that I've finished my photo editing for the August pictures. There are only a few additions to our August Web Album on Picasa, to include these shots from once upon a time before the Buckeyes were terrible. Ok, they're not terrible now but they sure aren't as great as we were hoping they were going to be back in August before we knew better. One day way back then Grandpa Keef and Namma Joodie brought the boys some Buckeye gear. Eli got a new uniform, helmet and shoulder pads, and both boys got some eye-blacks to go with their uniforms. Lukas, as usual, had to perform.

Boys Having Fun

2009-10-21T00:02:00.000-05:00

Again, we were out late in the evening and the sun was so close to setting the color cast on the shots was very very...orange. My photoshop kung-fu is just not strong enough to overcome that and make it look 'right,' so the answer? Have fun with the color effects! Some sepia shots of the boys out on 'the farm' just to the southwest of Waterville.

Yeah, so...

2009-10-18T23:52:00.001-05:00

I'm a bit out-of-order with my photo editing lately...I don't have my August album finished and my September album has not been started, so why not post some of my better October pictures? Whatever! Above we have Eli and his friend Josie being adorable, also below and...below.....

These shots were taken at Josie's house, which is out in the country just a couple miles and set on a very lovely hilltop view. The sun was very close to 'setting' in the Kansas evening and the light was very orange. The color on the pictures did NOT look good, but the shots were cute...so why not convert them to black and white? I'm glad you agree.

I've seen that baby before...

2009-08-31T06:00:00.001-05:00

The general consensus around here is that Lukas and Kylie get their good looks from their mother (thank heavens) and poor Eli looks like his pappy (tough luck kid:). Now, these two pictures don't coincide by age for Lukas and Kylie, but what you see above is Kylie at about 5 months and Lukas at about 1.5 months. Decided for yourself if they look simliar...

(facebook reader disclaimer: if the pictures aren't showing up, i have no idea why...visit our blog at www.vorenews.blogspot.com to see everything)

ZOO!

2009-08-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

When our bestest friends from Ohio wandered out here to Kansas we took a day trip up to Lincoln, NE to visit the children's zoo. Above you'll see Lukas on a pony ride, which he enjoyed.

Below are the boys plus Grace Dent (daughter of our friends) in a full-size mockup of a bald eagle's nest.

And below, still in the eagles nest, is our theatrical son Eli showing us how baby eagles look up and get food from the momma and pappa eagles.

Eli and Grace found a caterpillar to sit on outside of the butterfly room...

Inside the butterfly barn both boys managed, after much work, to get a butterfly to land them. Eli was freaked out at first, but eventually calmed down for a smile. This picture is in between the freaked-out-screaming stage and the relaxed-and-smiling stage. Lukas, on the other hand, was enjoying it the whole time.
(facebook reader disclaimer: if the pictures aren't showing up, i have no idea why...visit our blog at www.vorenews.blogspot.com to see everything)

Hai!

2009-08-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Kylie wants to say hello, and to let you know there's pictures of her and our zoo visit and other activities in our August web album.

(facebook reader disclaimer: if the pictures aren't showing up, i have no idea why...visit our blog at www.vorenews.blogspot.com to see everything)

Movin' on up

2009-08-24T15:39:00.001-05:00

Lukas started preschool today! Last year he went 2 half days per week, but now he's in honest to goodness preschool and attends 5 half days per week. I have no idea how he got this old.

(facebook reader disclaimer: if the pictures aren't showing up, i have no idea why...visit our blog at www.vorenews.blogspot.com to see everything)

Whoa Weather

2009-08-24T15:26:00.001-05:00

About a week ago we were enjoying dinner at a friend's house just to the southwest of town, up on a hill that overlooks the valley that Waterville sits in. The day was beautiful but the clouds looked like weather was coming. We weren't very worried, b/c our hostess is on the EMS team and could listen in on the local radio chatter if things got spooky. Oh, right, and severe weather season ended TWO MONTHS ago out here in Kansas. I know these storms can pop at any point in the year, but its just not nearly as likely now as it was in April/May/June.

Anyway, these initial strange clouds gave way to a much more orgainzed thunderstorm cell. Being up on a hill and out in the country with no large trees and buildings around to obscure our view, we got a very good look at a very spooky looking frontwall of this thunderstorm. This is the frontal boundary and has all kinds of strange cloud characteristics, from the banded, smooth front wall to the bubbly/spikey underside. As this storm went over us it was throwing hail and blowing hard wind on a town about 8 miles to the west (where the storm was coming from). Watching this 'spaceship' blow over us with its low-low-low cloud formation was creepy and exciting at the same time, but by far the part that really got our hearts pumping was when we looked into the center of this cloud mass (just to the right of this picture) where we could actually see a small section of the cloud formation spinning-rotating-at about about 1 revolution every 4-5 seconds. I'm no pro storm chaser, but as I understand it this is the mesocyclone; the section of the storm where the hot air is being sucked 'up' into the cloud structure before the moisture is thrown forward and drops as either rain or hail. The mesocyclone, if the updraft is severe enough, produces high winds as the storm 'sucks up' air and if really severe enough those winds will intensify into a tornado. So we were basically standing right underneath the section of this storm that would have produced a tornado if the updraft had been strong enough. As it was, the storm was weakening and we just got rain (not even any hail). So, whoa. Lukas was spooked out for a good 2 hours. Yeah Kansas!

(facebook reader disclaimer: if the pictures aren't showing up, i have no idea why...visit our blog at www.vorenews.blogspot.com to see everything)

Oh, Hai!

2009-07-21T06:12:00.000-05:00

Would you like some?

Oh, Grandpa Teef

2009-07-19T06:15:00.000-05:00

You are just too funny when you read stories.

YO!

2009-07-17T06:14:00.000-05:00

What's UP?!

Football and Fireworks

2009-07-15T06:17:00.000-05:00

Lukas and Eli got to spend a week at Grandma and Grandpa's house in June. They had a great time turning a football-field rug into, well, a football field. Yes, that bucket is being pressed into service as a helmet.

My parents bought the boys some fireworks, mostly poppers and snakes. I think these pictures tell the sad tale of the snake firework...it just kind of burns until its gone. The new snake trademark? Most Exciting Fireworks Ever (TM).

HEY!

2009-07-13T23:30:00.001-05:00

Eli thinks you might want to check out our July Web Album, available here and via the link to the upper right of the blog page. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Eli

2009-07-13T23:20:00.001-05:00

We have many pictures of Eli's big birthday (or the multitude of them, given various family celebrations), but by far the most defining shots of this obnoxious 2 year old are these, taken at my parent's house. First Eli thought it would be fun to scrape up some chocolate frosting and eat it. Well, why not?

Then his father (that would be me) thought it would be great to teach him to eat his cake sans all utensils and hands and fingers...he liked that method...

Happy birthday indeed!

We Didn't Just Go to the Pool

2009-07-13T22:47:00.001-05:00

Our vacation in Florida last month included some things that I didn't have photographic proof of until I got the chance to pilfer my mother-in-law's memory card for her pictures. Above you can see Lukas and myself after racing 5 laps at the local go-kart track. The track was 9/10ths of a mile long (!), which made for a long, fast, fun ride.

Another treat that was special for Lukas is shown below. These Armenian guys at the local shopping area had a giant Jumparoo set up for all ages, up to 200 pounds (!). Lukas said he wanted to go, so we let him have at it. First they put him in a harness and then hooked the sides of his harness (around his hips) up to some giant bungee cords that were hung from poles on either side of him. Then he was supposed to jump on a trampoline to get some height and bungee away. Some kids were doing flips and back flips, but Lukas was more cautious. He got pretty high though!

And what's a blog post without a shot of Eli being ornery? This was the scene just about every day as Lindsay tried to grease the little bugger up with sunscreen. It was quite the battle, although he lost every time.

Nom Nom

2009-07-11T18:51:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my favorite, absolute favorite part of living in the Midwest: sweet corn season. If you haven't had it fresh from a local's garden, then it's just impossible for me to explain how it could possibly be 10 times better than what you get at the supermarket. Eli agrees.

And Finally

2009-07-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Lest you think that the boys and the parents are the only ones who had a good time on vacation, here's a shot of the Vore Family Princess enjoying her time in the sun. I love how if you look in her sunglasses you can see me snapping her picture.

Who needs color?

2009-07-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

When we were down in Florida I was often having a tough time keeping my camera's settings up with the action and the great moments for photography that were coming my way. As a result, when we came home I had more than a few great pictures that were basically dead, mostly thanks to terrible color settings in the camera or poor exposure. For fun, I converted one of them into a black-and-white image and was amazed at how much life returned to the picture-how salvageable it became. Above is Jaidyn in her hotel room. My white balance was way off on this shot and she looked to be very yellow and strange. But guess what-there's no yellow in a black&white photo! Below are two shots of Lindsay on our cruise to Shell Island with Kylie. The very bright window really screwed with my chance to get good exposure on these shots, but so much more detail is able to come out when I crank these down to grayscale images.

And finally, also on the Shell Island cruise...This shot of Lukas looked great in color, but the lighting was so perfect I had a feeling it would convert wonderfully to a black and white portrait. Voila.

The Very Photogenic Cousin

2009-07-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

Our kid's cousin-Lindsay's brother's daughter, is about as cute as can be. We really enjoyed being around her on vacation. She also takes great pictures. Below is Jaidyn with her mother, Kristy, in the pool.

Later that night she was having a great time running from her father (Kyle, Lindsay's brother), who was chasing and tickling her.

And out at Shell Island she also had a great time playing in the large puddles.

More Vacation

2009-06-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

The family arrived home from vacation (well, sort of...we left the boys in KC with my parents for a few days) on Saturday. The time in Florida was relaxing, hot, fun, hot and really hot. Lindsay's parents and her brother's family are always great fun for spending time with, so it was good to be with them. We ate lots of great seafood, and spent a lot of time at the pool. The above picture is of Lindsay, Eli and Lukas under the waterfall that was in the kiddie pool at the resort hotel. Eli didn't think it was so neat. Below we have Eli enjoying the fountains that lined the kid's pool.

One day we took a 3 hour trip that put us on a boat ride out to Shell Island. While out there we played on the beach for about an hour. The tide was coming in, and left these small pools of very shallow, very warm water that the kids really enjoyed.

More pictures (all 161 of them if you can bear it!) are available by clicking into our June 09 Florida Vacation web album in the list of links to the upper right.

Once Upon A Time

2009-06-29T16:23:00.000-05:00

While we were on vacation in Florida, Eli conned his Grandpa Bob into reading a few stories. The light was coming in from the large balcony sliding door (that overlooked the beach) and the moment was great for a few pictures.

Fun in the Sun

2009-06-21T17:11:00.002-05:00

A couple days into our Panama City Beach vacation and we're having a ball. I know it sounds bizarre, but we're spending more time at the pool than the beach...what can I say, the pool here is more little-kid friendly than the beach is. We're having a great time with Uncle Kyle, Aunt Kristy, Cousin Jaydin, Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob. A couple pics--there are a few more available via the link to the right in our June Web Album.

Crappy Old Cell Phone Picture, 1 of 1

2009-06-17T10:20:00.003-05:00

A couple months ago we bought a bicycle trailer for the boys. It's very nice, has big inflatable wheels on the back and can be converted into a jogger stroller. For getting around town (to the pool, etc) it is so much easier to push than our wagon is to pull that I think we've supplanted the wagon as the go-to-haul-kids-around vehicle. We also bought Lindsay a bicycle, and one day she got the moxie up to ride out to Blue Rapids (about 6 miles). I pulled the boys behind my bike and when we got to Blue Rapids she went in to buy some Gatorade at the store. The boys were too cute to not take a picture.

Now, this shot below is not a Crappy Cell Phone Picture, so it's kind of out of place...but it fits the subject at hand. Shortly after buying the bike trailer I took Eli for a ride around town. He was sleepy, and I guess the gentle turbulence if riding over the roads of Waterville knocked him out all the way.

Crappy Old iPhone Pictures Part 2

2009-06-17T10:09:00.001-05:00

About a month ago my Dad (who Eli refers to as 'Beef') bought some tickets to a Royals game for the big boys-grandpa, Dad and Lukas. The game was supposed to be really great-Zack Greinke (KC's ace) was going to pitch and the Royals were hurting for a win to end a losing streak. The park was sold out (it was hard to get tickets) and it was a Friday night, so we were supposed to get a fireworks display after the game. Well, the typical Kansas-in-May warmfront/coldfront fight got started up, and after a 3 hour rain delay they finally started playing baseball just before 10PM. The sell-out only equated to about a half-full stadium, which was a disappointment. Thankfully we had seats under the overhang of the upper deck, so we were out of the rain the entire time we were waiting for things to get started. The game itself was pretty good, Greinke pitched well and the Royals hitters blasted a couple home runs, which got Lukas excited. The pic below here is from silly Lukas-he decided he was cold, so he put on my rain coat, then drew his legs up into it, then pulled his head down into the body of the coat. It looks like some headless blob is sitting next to my dad. He got warmed up and enjoyed the game..and the popcorn...and cracker jacks...and hot dogs and who knows what else. Also, the fireworks after the game were pretty good and eventually we got Lukas in bed at around 1AM...he usually goes to bed at 8. Yikes. Fun times!

Crappy Old iPhone Pictures, Part 1

2009-06-17T09:52:00.002-05:00

It occurred to me today that I have some crappy but fun pictures on my iPhone and my regular cell phone that might be worth sharing, if not for their quality-quality, but for their fun-quality. These are some shots from back in January...Lukas got tickets to go to Sesame Street Live in KC with his mother and grandmother, so Dad (me) and Grandpa 'Beef" went to "The College Basketball Experience" next door in the Sprint Center in KC. "The College Basketball Experience" is an interactive museum and activity center. The third floor houses plenty of basketball games, inlcuding a series of hoops that are lowered to the floor at various levels so that short-can't-jump-kids-like-me can try their hand at dunking. Eli thought dunking was pretty cool:

There was also a 'clutch shooting' game. When you started the game, you had 20 seconds to make shots. A single light on the floor would come on, and you had to dribble to the light and shoot until you made the shot. Then another light would come on and you'd have to shoot from there, etc. The idea was to hit as many late-game-clutch-shots as you could in 20 seconds. Eli thought it was great fun just to run from one floor light to another as they came on:

In the more-kidd0-section, there was a gigantic basketball that went in a gigantic basketball hoop. The ball was some kind of light weight foam, but it was still too heavy for Eli to pick up. He did think it was pretty cool to stand in the hoop though:

And even more April

2009-06-16T13:52:00.005-05:00

April also brought Waterville's Victorian Day celebrations, including a train ride. Here's Lukas and Eli getting a ride on a pump car from a congregation member. I got up there later and pumped up and down...that's a good workout to get some steam going uphill!
Eli is a wonderful kid, full of love and also full of independance. When he gets torked off, he has the ability to refuse any and all consolation offered towards him. This was documented earlier on this blog when he cried himself to sleep after getting upset that his mother left the house. Well, he did it again (although I'm not sure why this time). The funny part is the way that his nose was running down towards the floor. Can't see it? Click the picture for a bigger version. As you can imagine, he was really crying that day. It just had to be photographed.
When he's happy, he's quite photogenic and likes to love on both his brother:
And even cuddle with his sister. I think we'll keep them all.
He's also good and ornery, a classic Male Vore Trait.

Now, if you click off to the right to look at May's pictures, you'll notice that was about the time I hit 'the wall' and stopped taking shots. There are three pictures up there for May, and that's really all I took. There' a couple shots on Lindsay's little camera I'll get up later. Also, June has one picture taken in the first half of the month (though it's a good one). Thankfully we'll get more shots here as we head out for a 9 day vacation in Florida come this Thursday. Stay tuned!

And also

2009-06-16T13:35:00.002-05:00

As for April, well that month included Easter. Some highlights:

Kylie in a pretty dress:
Eli and Kylie:

Lukas and Eli:
Egg collecting time (nobody was in a picture taking mood that day, at least not anyone under the age of 27):
And, in good reverse chronological order, here's the boys coloring eggs with Grampa Keef and Granma Joody:
The April album to the right also includes some good shots of Lukas with Kylie all dressed up after Easter services, as well as all three kids together.

So, that happened

2009-06-16T12:46:00.003-05:00

Look, I'm not going to make a mega whiny post here about how busy life is, mostly because I don't believe much in excuses. What I do believe in is disclosure, honesty and explanations...so here's what happened the last 3 months. I have a great camera, and with it comes a healthy amount of computer-processing work. This is fine if I stay on the ball. When I get behind the ball, however, processing the pics and getting them up on the web moves from 'fun hobby status' to 'major chore status.' And when we hit 'major chore status,' I am far less motivated to take new pictures because that only creates more chores. With a new baby, Easter and some other events in the last three months I ended up with about 750 pictures backlogged that I had to go through, select keepers, crop, edit, export, import, backup, backup and backup (I keep a triplicate backup system). With a long vacation looming (WOO!) I decided it was in my best interest to spend the 7-8 hours to get this done now rather than later. You will see new links to the right for April, May and June albums. Also, as of yesterday, the March album has about 70 new pictures in it. Some highlights:

One night (this was after Kylie was born) we had a huge snowstorm, got better than a foot. It was a very wet, heavy snow and almost gave the shoveler (that would be me) a heart attack as each shovel full in the driveway must have weighed in above 30 pounds. Or so it felt. Anyway, we got a 4-baller snowman out of the effort:

The weather was bizzare, as the March-June stretch in Kansas is wont to be, and the next day, literally, THE NEXT DAY, this was the scene as our one-foot-plus snowstorm was followed up with a 60-degree day:Soon after the arrival of Kylie we bought a new stroller/car carrier combo deal, in great magnificent pinkness for our new lovely girl. Eli was smitten with the idea, and had to climb in the van to make sure things fit right. Also, in his great concern for his new sister, Eli was under the impression that she didn't have enough diapers on. So he covered her. In diapers. See that tiny skin colored center of flesh there in the crib? Yeah, that would be Kylie's face.
Also, Lindsay's parents were out here for a quality week-long trip right after Kylie came home. It was great to see them. They brought Linday's best friend Jen along for the trip, and her girl Grace. More pictures from that trip are in the March album to the right.

Homecoming

2009-03-11T00:28:00.004-05:00

Kylie came home with her mother Saturday, and has been a wonderful addition to our family. If you didn't know: Kylie is the first girl in the family on my side since my mother, which kind of makes everyone sort of excited to buy pink. My parents were here until Saturday evening around dinner time, at which point Lindsay's folks arrived from Ohio with Lindsay's best friend (Jen) and her daughter (Grace). The Ohio clan took over household operations at that point, and we are grateful for their presence with us in these first days home.

Kylie is, of course, changing on a daily basis. I will try and update our web albums more frequently. At this point I have started a March album, which mostly features pictures of our new baby girl. One of my favorites so far? Well how can I pick one?! Here's a couple. Enjoy!

Welcome Kylie Rebekah Vore

2009-03-05T14:34:00.006-06:00

I know we haven't posted in awhile and I take blame for that, but hey! Good news!! Lindsay and I went to the hospital at some insane hour of the morning today and had a baby (csection) at 8:16AM....and its....A GIRL!!! We are very excited. Lindsay is doing wonderfully and so is our new baby. Perhaps you'd like a picture:

Kylie Rebekah Vore was born at 8lb4.5oz and 20.5 inches long. She is already eating well, when we can pry her eyes open from her cuddly naps to get interested in nursing. Thanks so much for all your well-wishes and prayers.

Lindsay will be at Community Memorial Hospital in Marysville KS until Saturday afternoon. There is no public internet at the hospital, so she will not be in the loop and I only will be when I slip away to the coffee shop. Cell phone reception is horrid in there, so if you want to you can give her a call at 785.562.2311--ask for room 328.

There is a small album of pictures posted in a Picasa Web album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/vorejl/WelcomeKylieRebekahVore?authkey=Gv1sRgCLqRqLCbmsaeSw&feat=directlink

Enjoy, and thanks again for your love, prayers and support! And if you were wondering, Lukas and Eli seem very interested in their little sister....so far.:)

Energy Waster

2009-01-22T11:17:00.000-06:00

Today Eli fell asleep in the middle of throwing a fit. I guess he got
so tired from fussing about his mother leaving to pick up from big
brother from school he just plum got worn out. He woke up about five
seconds after I took this snapshot...right as he heard the garage door
opener announce with a loud creak that 'Mommy was home.'

Chop Chop!

2008-12-29T21:53:00.003-06:00

Eli's hair has been rather long for rather too long, so we looked to take care of that tonight. He was not so keen on the idea (neither was Grandpa Bob, who is still pouting). When they got the clippers out we had to hold Eli's head down, which he liked even less. Well, we thought it was fun! Lukas got his hair cut as well. Check out more pictures in our December web album.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T01:00:00.001-06:00

Greetings from the Vore family. We hope this day finds you in peace and joy, celebrating with family and friends. As for us, my parents are here in Waterville with us for the next few days, and as they leave my wife's parents will be in town for a good week or so.

These penguins sit on our coffee table. They sing an obnoxious song that drives me bonkers-but the boys love it. I saw them yesterday and fired off a quick shot. Anyway...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love,
The Vores

You have heard it said...

2008-12-23T18:48:00.003-06:00

More than once I've heard the anecdotal story about parents who tried their darndest to avoid gender-specific playing and shaping only to watch their children engage that on their own. You know this story, the parents of the young girl who refused to give her a dollie, only to watch her create her own dollies to play with-and the story of the parents who refused to let their young boy have a toy gun...

Lukas and Eli, to this point, have never had a toy gun. And yet, without any prodding on our part, we found them doing this today:

Bird hunting. With rolls of Christmas paper. Seriously...Lindsay and I had no choice but to giggle at this...

Christmas Cookies, Part 2

2008-12-21T19:09:00.004-06:00

The continuation of last night's fun was the adventure in decorating Christmas cookies tonight. Eli really could have cared less about the fun of it, he was all about getting his hands in some frosting and then licking his fingers. Lukas, as you might expect, was more than a little enthusiastic about getting each cookie an 'adequate' amount of sprinkles.

Other subjects

2008-12-20T22:22:00.007-06:00

Believe it or not, I do take pictures of more than my kids. Allow me a moment, if you will, to share some of my more recent photographic adventures...

When we went to a pumpkin patch/Christmas tree farm to reserve our tree in October, I saw these pumpkins and fired off a quick shot. I loved the form of the shot and the way that white pumpkin stuck out in the middle of the focus field.

In November, when Lindsay left me to go home to Ohio for Thanksgiving and a wedding she was in, I realized I didn't have to head home right after work. Usually when the sun is setting and the light is great for photography it is also just about dinner time at the house and it's in my best interest to be home...While Lindsay was gone though, I was out for three nights in a row taking shots around Waterville as the sun was setting. This is our grain elevator downtown.

This is the Waterville Railroad Depot, which is now a museum. There's a few other great, ancient limestone buildings around town that really pop in that golden, late-day Midwest sunlight.

As you may know, I enjoy animals. We recently got a great new dog, but I don't have any nice shots of him yet. This is my parent's dog, Button. She is a miniature schnauzer and totally cute. I got this shot at my parent's house in Kansas City. The rising sun was coming in the window to the left, giving a nice, soft and diffuse light on her silver hair.

This one might be one of my favorites. When I was at my parent's house in Kansas City (again, while Lindsay was in Ohio over Thanksgiving), we saw a hawk perched in their backyard. This guy was up about 70 feet in a pretty tall tree. At first, I thought I wouldn't be able to get close enough to get a decent shot...but it turned out that the height of the tree helped more than it hurt: I had to shoot at such an angle as to remove all the rooftops from the background of the shot. Would you believe it if I told you this shot was taken standing in the middle of a housing development in suburban Kansas City? I love the way the golden sun gives details to his feathers, the way the tree frames the subject and the fact that I got lucky enough to catch those geese out-of-focus flying through the background!

Lately...

2008-12-20T22:00:00.007-06:00

Lots of new pictures up in our November and December web albums, which you can always find links to off on the right of this page.

So what were we up to in December? Well the month is only just past half-over, with Christmas still on the plate, so it's not all set in stone. We got started with the end of football season, Eli was dressed in his best for that.

Lukas had his fourth birthday and got lots of great gifts. He had a great time blowing out the four candles on his cake, and his mother had a great time making a cake that looks like a racetrack (that green in the middle is the infield of a racetrack, get it? You better like it, because Lukas loved it).

And then, just this evening we made our first batch of Christmas cookies. To the boys, it's like playdough that you can decorate with sugar and eat, and oh yeah, there's sugar involved so why not love it?

Eli was more than happy to get involved.

And Lukas was smiling. Again, sugar was involved...

That's the most recent news from us. We've been enjoying getting your Christmas cards and notes. I'm sure there will be some more pictures up as the holidays continue, so check back!

Lindsay-Look!

2008-11-21T14:57:00.001-06:00

*****UPDATE*****
As of about 5:00 this evening my wife told me to 'go ahead and get him.' This guy will be our dog! I'm picking him up from the shelter tomorrow morning. Hooray!
*****---------*****

I have wanted an English Springer Spaniel for close to 1o years now, and have never been in a place where it would work out. Finally I graduated from seminary, moved into a real house and started looking seriously for a breeder. Imagine my dismay to find out that a well-bred dog could cost as much as $1000.00! And now imagine my excitement when my parents found a Springer named Ragtop at a shelter in their community.

I went to meet this guy today. He is so cute, has lots of energy and is extremely friendly. The caretaker at the shelter said they found him as a stray. She suspects that since he is of the hunting 'sub-type' of the English Springer Spaniel breed, that he probably was first bought by some hunters. Apparently if some hunters get a dog and then find that it doesn't 'hunt' very well, they are known to simply release the dog into the woods. So sad! Anyway, my wonderful wife has reservations about a dog this size and she's in Ohio right now, so she can't make a quick visit to see how sweet this guy is. I'm hoping these pictures (and my constant pleading) will do the trick!

Apparently they are calling this guy Ragtop at the shelter because the hair on the top of his head is curly and long-almost like dreads. I joked that maybe he had a toupe on.

Back in Action

2008-11-17T20:08:00.003-06:00

I had to send my fancy camera back to Canon for some warranty work. I was having some issues with my shutter release (it was requiring an excessive amount of force on the shutter button to actually take a shot). I was nervous about packing my baby up in a box and putting it in the mail, but everything went smooth as could be and I got my camera back today. It is now fully repaired and Canon even did a bunch of 'extra' service to tune it up at no charge to me. All in all I was quite impressed, which is good since my warranty expired the day the camera returned to my doorstep via FedEx. I pulled out my goodies, fixed a lens on the front and got this quick portrait of Lukas today. He really takes nice pictures when I can get him to sit still for more than 2 seconds.

2008-11-03T21:11:00.003-06:00

Eli managed to get (all by himself, mind you) into a wicker footstool tonight. And he didn't mind being in there either, in fact he seemed quite pleased with himself. He played, smiled and giggled inside his self-created cell for about 15 minutes until he decided he wanted to get out...and he couldn't get himself out. Then there was some whining, followed by some crying and squeeling, and eventually his kindly parents came over to rescue him. There are a few more pictures of the exact same thing available through the link to your right in our November web album.

Anatomy of a Drive-By Tackling

2008-11-01T18:17:00.004-05:00

A scene from our trip into Nebraska to pick out our Christmas tree earlier today...The air is warm, the sun is out and the boys have had too much sugar.

Lukas: Wanna play?
Eli: Umm, I don't talk yet, but OK. Just be gentle man, gentle.

Lukas: I'll show him gentle. Let's play tackle, yeah, tackle football without a football. You don't need a football to play tackle, do you?
Eli: ?

TV Announcer: Notice the good form on the drive-by tackling, there has been minimal body contact to ensure that there is limited blame available on the tackler when the parents come to write the tickets for the collision. When then authorities show up, the tackler has ample opportunity to hide behind the "he was getting in my way" defense. However, note the trailing arm as the tackler passes the victim-this ensures the success of the tackle even in light of the minimal body contact used just a split second earlier. Very good form, very good form.

TV Announcer: See, this is what I'm talking about-if you only looked at this picture you'd swear that the contact was limited to a fingertip-brushing of the victim. The success of the tackle is assured, the liability to punishment is minimized.

Lukas: Keep on trucking, leave him in the dust, good work my boy, good work.
Eli: What just happened? Didn't I tell that punk GENTLE? What part of that does he not understand?

Pumpkins, Costumes and Other Fall Favorites

2008-11-01T18:11:00.004-05:00

Fall is in the air and we are past peak color here in Kansas. Soon we will have to rake. Ugg.

Last week we took a trip over to a pumpkin patch and picked out some good ones. Lukas and Eli enjoyed playing on the pallets-o-pumpkins as their father tried to snap pictures of them.

They were more willing to sit still for a nice picture in front of a pumpkin wagon.

Of course, eventually Halloween came and the boys got all dressed up. Lukas went out collecting candy as his most-favorite Disney (Pixar, actually) character, Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars." Eli went out as a cute kitty-cat. We had a good time visiting the houses in the town we live in. Eli didn't quite 'get it,' and Lukas thought we had to walk too far, but they had a good time. The pumpkins in this picture are the two that the boys carved out in Kansas City with their grandparents.

Aaaand this picture falls in the category of 'too cute not to show.' Today we traveled up into Nebraska to a pumpkin patch/Christmas tree farm. For the first time ever, Lindsay and I picked out our Christmas tree for the coming season. Lukas also found a pickup truck full of pumpkins, and thought it was a cool scene...

Are you ready?

2008-10-23T00:30:00.003-05:00

A couple weeks ago I loaded up the car with the boys and headed a couple hours away to to see my friend Shawn Norris in Lawrence, KS. Shawn is the campus ministry leader at Kansas University and he was having a tailgate BBQ of sorts. The guest of honor was to be one Rebecca Boardman, an aquaintance of mine from high school, part 1, in Texas. In one of those 'what, who, what?' moments we ran into each other at the last Synod Assembly. Turns out Rebecca is now the campus ministry leader in St. Louis. Small. World.

Anyway, Lukas stole the show in Lawrence that Saturday. My beloved Buckeyes basically layed an egg against Purdue, so I was kinda funky...But Lukas was ready for some football. I think he ended up giving Rebecca and Shawn a decent workout. More pics of the day available in our October album.

September pics

2008-09-30T23:00:00.005-05:00

Our September web album has been available for some time as a link to the right of this page, but now that the month is complete I thought I'd make an 'official' post about it and share some of my favorite pictures. The drill is the same-these are some of my favorite pics, but if you want to see all 70-ish of them, check out the web album here.

Eli has figured out that the 'Dinner Time!' call means one thing-FOOD. When he hears the dinner call, he knows that food will soon be served. He often makes a bee line for his chair at the dinner table and hangs on it until dinner is served and he is happily eating. We don't call him a chow-hound for no good reason.

When we were out at my parent's place in Kansas City last weekend, the light was great and the boys were in matching shirts--great time for a portrait! They, however, were not in the mood to cooperate. This was pretty much the best shot that I got, you can see the full sequence of shots on the web album.

I suppose I can't complain too much though, as I got this great shot of Lukas only 20 minutes later.

Eli loves to crawl into Lukas' bed for some reason, not sure why. He had some fun cuddle time with big brother tonight before Lukas had his bed time.

Yes, yes, he was funny

2008-09-29T15:18:00.004-05:00

So you totally can't tell by looking at this picture that I snapped very hastily on my iPhone as the show got started, but the subject of this shot is none other than Jerry Seinfeld. My Dad scored 3 tickets for himself, Lindsay and myself to see the famous comedian last week in Kansas City. To be honest, I was not so sure what to think-I had seen one of Seinfeld's stand-up routines on DVD and was not that impressed, and his stand up bits that are integrated in and around the Seinfeld TV sitcom usually seem more 'cute' than 'funny.'

My worries were entirely not needed, however, as Jerry proved himself to be quite the funny man. I think my wife looked at me strange more than a couple times as I was laughing so hard.

The picture is bad for two reasons...First, its an iPhone camera, and we were sitting probably about 3/4 of the way back on the main level of a rather large theatre. Second, the ushers were threatening to soundly thump anyone caught taking pictures, so I was trying to be as quick on the draw as possible. I suppose the resulting picture is virtually worthless, and if I ever had to prove I was there that night I'd do better to rely on my ticket stub. But alas, here he is, Mr. BlurryMan Jerry Seinfeld, standing on DerBlurryStage in DerBlurryKansasCityTheatre. Enjoy!

Nebraska!

2008-09-23T22:21:00.003-05:00

Ok, so the title Nebraska! doesn't quite give the visual 'jingle' that Oklahoma! does, but hey, its a Midwest state with an exclamation point after it. What more do you want?

A couple weeks ago we took our first trip out of Kansas since we got here. We ventured up to see our friends Mike & Alison Kern(s) in Albion, NE. Mike was a seminary classmate of mine, and a good friend; Lindsay and Alison also became close friends this last year of classes. Mike & Alison are at a country church in Albion, NE (you have to drive about 20 miles down gravel roads to get to their home). Honestly, Mike's parish defines rural ministry-and makes Waterville Kansas look like an uber-chic-and-trendy metropolitan hotspot.

We had a great time with Mike & Alison, it was good to see them again. While there we enjoyed the countryside. The boys picked peaches off the fruit trees in the Kern's front yard:

Lindsay and Alison later made peach jam, which I haven't tried because peach creations are far from my favorite. I hear, though, that their jamming experience was quite successful.

Lukas was kind enough to pose for a portrait:

Lukas also spent some time in the garden picking tomatoes:

And Eli got some tennis balls put under his shirt sleeves, making him appear to be quite the linebacker:

All in all, a good trip. Thanks to Mike & Alison for the great time & hospitality! There are more pics from Nebraska-and from other events-in our September album, which you should find a link for over to the left of this page.

Oh yeah, it's that good

2008-09-23T21:17:00.004-05:00

Ok, not really. But our August 2008 Web Album is up on Picasa, and you can see it here.

A couple of my favorite pictures from August:

Eli likes his popcorn. It really is that good....

As for both the boys, their mother made them head bandannas one day. They both were digging the new look, so much so that they cordially agreed to stand still for the 20 seconds required to snap a picture...This is a rare occurrence for sure!

Come On In

2008-08-23T19:26:00.004-05:00

You know that video walk-through of our house that I promised you? Well, we finally did it.

This is our new house, from front door to back door. For the record, its a rare day that our place is this clean, so...lucky you. Also, Youtube decided that a good 'thumbnail' for this video would be a shot of our bathtub (I was hoping for, you know, the front of the house). Whatever!

This is the 4th home that Lindsay and I have lived in since we were married all of...4 years ago. Kind of hard to think we're going to be set here for more than three years!

May I Have Your Attention Please?

2008-08-20T10:15:00.002-05:00

The Vores have an announcement to make:

Since there's not enough new stuff going on (new job, new school for Lukas, new home, new everything) we thought we'd add a new addition to the family.

That's right! Lindsay is pregnant with baby #3. We're hoping for a healthy baby, but if it turns out to be a girl, well that would just be swell. And if its a boy (we won't find out until the baby comes), well, then God bless my poor wife.

Lindsay will be due in early March. The doc says she is 11 weeks pregnant right now. It seems we have a baby every time we move to a new state.........

Here's the first picture of our newest baby. The peanut is only about 2 inches long right now, but does have hands and feet! During the ultrasound this morning Lukas noticed that the baby was wiggling around and asked his mother, "Why is the new baby dancing in your belly?"

First Day of (Pre)School!

2008-08-18T08:45:00.003-05:00

Lukas is a Valley Heights Mustang today. Valley Heights is the name of the local school district; this is a cooperative, combined district in the Blue River Valley between Waterville (where we live) and a slightly larger town 4 miles away, Blue Rapids. I think Valley Heights makes it sound like we live in Southern California, but whatever.

The IMPORTANT piece of this story is, of course, the pictures of Lukas' first day of school. He seemed a little overwhelmed by all the other kids, but I think he'll have fun at preschool (on Mondays and Thursdays, at least!).

The lady in this first picture is his new preschool teacher, Mrs. Gros.

Hopefully we got him good and ready for preschool. He knows his alphabet pretty well, and was able to find the cubby with his name on it without any special hints from Mom. He also found the 'L' and 'K' on this rug without any problems. Have fun today Lukas! We love you!

Cool Times for a Hot Summer

2008-08-17T17:51:00.005-05:00

One pleasant surprise that we've come to enjoy is the fact that almost every small town out here in Kansas has its own municipal pool. The pool here in Waterville is in great shape and costs next to nothing to get in (how does $1.25 per adult, Lukas & Eli free sound?!), so we've been taking advantage of the opportunity to cool off on these hot summer days. What better way to spend spend a long Sunday afternoon after a good morning of church services than at the pool? Eli agrees. He's fussing here because he was psyched to get in the water; he wasn't so keen on this 'take a picture' idea.

He looks ready to get wet to me!

Lukas has developed a good bit as a swimmer this summer. He is still not so sure about going 'under,' but he sure does like to tread water in his floater-suit. It has only been in the past couple weeks that he got brave enough to do this:

Gobs 'o New Pictures

2008-08-15T22:51:00.003-05:00

So yeah, we've moved and we're in the normal swing of things. I've promised a video tour of the house, and its coming. In the meantime I've settled into my old photographer's routine and have worked through some of the pictures I've been backed up on. You can see all 300-or-so of the new pictures I put up onto Picasa today by clicking the links to the right. The albums for May, July & Eli's Birthday are all new as of tonight. The links for March and April take you to albums that have been up for awhile yet, but were never linked off the blog. Enjoy! And if you don't feel like flipping threw a few hundred new pictures, I don't blame you. The hardcore fans (read: grandparents) insist on seeing all pictures possible. For the rest of you, here's a few of my favorite most recent shots:

Ride'em'Cowboy!

2008-08-15T22:35:00.006-05:00

So, two pictures to share. We've been enjoying the social side of rural life here in Kansas. The first shot is from about a month ago (very shortly after we arrived in Kansas). The Marshall County Fair was in full swing and we attended, of course. We were excited to note that there was a 'youth rodeo' scheduled during the day we attended. Did Lukas play? You bet he did. There were about 5 events in all. For the first one, Lukas had to ride his horse to the goats and untie a ribbon from a goat's tail. After doing that, he ran back to the starting line and won the event! The picture is from another event, where he had to ride his horse to a sandbag filled with hay (is that a haybag?) and rope it, then drag it back to the starting line. He didn't win the other go-rounds, but I think he had a good time all the same.

This next shot is from this evening. We were invited to an annual birthday-party/trail-ride/picnic/excuse-to-have-a-good-party at a farm not too far from town. There were plenty of horses there getting ready for the trail ride Saturday morning. Lukas managed to mount a horse and ride that bronc bareback! It was really a pretty mellow horse, a huge Belgian. Lukas wasn't too sure at first, but his Mom got up there and then he figured it was alright. Folks, I reckon we might have a regular cowboy on our hands!

Remember, if you click on these pictures you should be taken to a 'full-size shot' where you can better see the facial expressions and other details of the shot.

It's Because She's Shy

2008-08-15T18:17:00.004-05:00

Some of you have complained from time to time that there are 'not enough' pictures of my lovely wife Lindsay floating around on this blog and in our web albums. The reason is really quite simple, and also quite beyond my control. When I try to take Lindsay's picture, this is almost always the reaction I get out of her....

I don't know why she is so shy though, because when I DO actually get her picture, she's really very pretty. This shot was taken on the beach of Lake Michigan at our friends' (Tom and Karen Montgomery) wedding rehearsal dinner in Pentwater, Michigan.

Light the Fire

2008-07-24T10:49:00.000-05:00

Say hello to my new little friend. Half-gas, half-charcoal, it's the
best of both worlds!

Welcome to Kansas

2008-07-24T10:47:00.000-05:00

So yeah, there are some flat parts out here but overall it's quite
pretty. This is a snap of a straight stretch of road between I-70 and
Manhattan, KS.

Rock Star

2008-07-24T10:40:00.000-05:00

Eli found his mother's giant sunglasses this morning a started to
model them. What a cutie!

Happy 1st birthday Eli!!

2008-07-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

News from Eli's first birthday: he likes cake. Shocker...

Happy 4th

2008-07-05T16:04:00.006-05:00

So what happens when you take a nice camera into the night and expect the fireworks to provide enough light to take pictures? Crappy pictures is what happens. But, hey, here's a couple shots of the boys enjoying the fireworks in Green Springs, Ohio last night. Since Eli was born 2 days after the 4th of July last year, this was his first fireworks experience.

Puddles!

2008-07-04T19:20:00.004-05:00

Lukas and Eli found a large puddle in their grandparent's front yard. Eli decided to sit in the puddle; Lukas ran and jumped into it, spraying water everywhere. The funniest part though was clearly Eli's many facial expressions. He has many faces, and they come out the most when he gets excited. Enjoy.

TIP: You can click on these small pictures and be taken to a full-size shot. I made the pics really small since there were five of them.

Uh-huh

2008-07-03T17:06:00.000-05:00

I was trying to keep Eli awake in the car today by acting silly. He
didnt seem too enthralled. It's as if his face has "you're not
interesting dad" written all over it.

Moving

2008-07-02T12:25:00.001-05:00

Eli seems to enjoy the packing process more than his mother-he is
finding all manner of curious spaces once filled up by 'stuff.'

Eli: Funny faces, Oreos, and Oreos with funny faces

2008-06-27T15:21:00.004-05:00

So Eli has started to make some funny faces at us. He has a mad/crying face, which is pretty pathetic. There is also this "I'm excited" face, which we now have photographic evidence of. In other news, he has discovered he loves Oreo cookies. Big shocker there.

These pics and a few other new ones have been posted to our June web album. Enjoy!

Shopping

2008-06-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

The boys sure do love Target...I think they get it from their mother....

Eli: "I CAN HAS COMPUTER?!"

2008-06-25T18:30:00.004-05:00

So Eli is like his father in more ways than one...for instance, he is fascinated by technology. But he's a lot cuter when he 'asks' to play with it than when his father grovels to his wife to purchase it...

Ordination: To the future we go

2008-06-25T14:01:00.005-05:00

Jeremie was ordained June 17th at his home congregation in Lima, Ohio. The evening went very well, and after the service there was a brief reception. The evening served as a way to both share appreciation for all the people in our lives that have supported us to this point, as well as look forward into the future that we are soon headed into. Speaking of the future, the Vores will be living in Waterville, Kansas for the next three years, where Jeremie will serve the congregations of St. Mark's Lutheran (Waterville, KS) and Trinity Lutheran (Greenleaf, KS). Pictures of ordination and of the churches in Kansas (and our parsonage-our new home!) can be found in our Ordination/Kansas Interview web album at Picasa.

Eli Walks!

2008-06-25T13:44:00.004-05:00

Eli stepped into the world of the toddler last night, and took his first steps. Lindsay, who has been working with Eli for weeks to convince him to walk, was just a little bit excited. Teensy. Bit. Overjoyed.

Slugger

2008-06-25T02:01:00.001-05:00

Lukas likes to hit at grandpa's batting cage. He already can hit a
pitched ball-and can usually get it further than his father...

June Web Album

2008-06-24T23:58:00.004-05:00

New pictures are available of the boys in our June Web Album at Picasa. Pictures include, among other things, the boys in Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, some portraits of Lindsay, Lukas at his grandpa Bob's batting cage and a few other random pictures.