Family outing to the gun range

On Saturday, we took the kids out of the gun range to shoot our new guns. Darwin got a little 22 (the Cricket) for Christmas, and I bought him a Rugar 10/22 two weeks ago. He hadn't been able to go out shooting yet, so we decided to take the kids and all go shooting together. We had so much fun. None of the kids had ever shot a gun before, and I haven't been shooting since I was in high school. We stayed out for 2 1/2 hours and put nearly 100 rounds through the Cricket, and about the same through the 10/22. We also shot the 243, but maybe only 10 or 15 times...and London and Isaiah did not shoot that one...it would have knocked them over! =) There was also a cowboy shooting contest going on at the other shelter. It was really awesome, and these first three pictures are of London and Isaiah handling a Colt 45, and then watching the cowboys shoot. Darwin, Brooklin and I all made a bullseye...mine was on my 3rd shot with the 10/22! =) Don't mess with me! HA! There is also video after the pictures of each of us shooting.

Just for the sake of saying it...all of us had earplugs in and safty glasses on the entire time...safety first! =)

London with a 45

Isaiah with the 45

Isaiah and London at the cowboy competition

Isaiah shooting the Cricket

London shooting the Cricket


Caleb loading the Cricket by himself...BTW, this is the picture I am using for my second Spring Break photo for photograhy class.


Caleb shooting the Cricket


Brooklin after shooting the 243...she like the jolt and the loud bang!


Brooklin shooting the 243


Darwin shooting the 243


Me shooting the 10/22


My bullseye!


Darwin fixing the targets


More targets


My bullseye just after it happened


We shot so many times, we shot the stick in half that was holding the box up!


Darwin went out to fix it.


Close up of the busted stick


Brooklin and Caleb shooting

London's turn with the Cricket


Isaiah just wanted to pull the trigger...Darwin had to keep taking his fingers off the trigger so he could help him aim. The next time he got a turn, we made him count to 5 before firing.


Caleb with the 243


Brooklin with the 243


Me shooting the Cricket

Photography class theme assignments

I thought I would post some of my homework assignments from my digital photography class. These were all taken to fulfill a theme. I have three more to take by next Tuesday, but these are all the ones I have taken up until now.

Theme: "Snow"
I named this photo Snowfish. This was taken on my back deck. It was just how the snow had melted, and it looked like fish to me.



Theme: "Out of Context"
These are some of the kid's toys. They are all princesses, but one of them is not like the others



Theme: "Time"
I thought of timeout. I sprayed London's face with water to look like tears, and then we had to play with her positioning, so you could see her face, but could also tell that she had her nose on the wall. It was harder than I thought it was going to be, and she did a super job pretending like she was sad...a lot of the pictures I shot she was laughing in. One guy in our class took a picture of the prison...I think he had a great idea!



Theme: "Impossible"
I was doing my math homework, and was having a hard time with the concept of function notation. I decided to quit doing math homework, and shot this picture for the Impossible theme we had been assigned for photography.



Theme: "Go Towards the Light"
My teacher isn't a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which I am), so he may not have fully understood what I was trying to portray, but I went to Seattle the week we were assigned this theme, so I had Darwin be my model, and he is going toward a gospel light...if you get what I was doing...



Theme: "Speed"
This is the week our lessons were on shutter speeds. After taking several pictures that were not good (if the shutter is open too long, the pictures either whites out, or blurs too much) I finally got this shot. I had to move really slow, but enough to get some blur, and the shutter wasn't open for very long at all. It was interesting to play with.



Theme "Egg"
We were assigned two photos of "egg". This is the first egg picture I took. Nothing too special, just scrambled eggs on a plate. I do like the symmetry of the picture, but I like the other egg picture I took better.


This is my other egg photo. I used the cracked egg shells from the above scrambled eggs, and colored them with food coloring. Then I got some fake flowers and pulled the heads off of them, and put the egg shells on the empty stems. I had to secure the stems to the egg shells with play-doh. I also secured the stems to the "pot" with black play-doh. This photo took about an hour to do.



Theme: "Inside Out"
I didn't feel very creative with this one. I really wanted to move furniture out on to the lawn and make a living room scene outside, but with the stairs, freezing temperatures, and the 4 feet of snow on my front lawn...I had to come up with another idea. I also kept thinking of puke shots...but eeewwww! So this is what I came up with.



Theme: "Mysterious"
Darwin bought this for me in Maui, and Jellyfish are pretty mysterious.



Theme: "Happy" (without showing a smile)
Most of you know I have a thing for Nutella. This is the first thing I thought of when the teacher gave us the assignment. I took the picture, and after looking at it, decided that I would be even happier if I was eathing Nutella in Hawaii (warm, sunny), so I used photoshop to combine this picture with one of a palmtree I took a year or so ago. The class also liked that I was wearing a Juneau shirt!



Theme: "The Eyes Have It"
I really tried to get a picture of myself in Darwin's sunglasses, but it just wasn't working...and I felt like I was using the same idea as one of my friends that is taking the class with me. I also took these pictures on the day that we went sledding at Twin Lakes. I had this idea in my head, so I had Brooklin grab ahold of a railing (since that would be easy to select in photoshop) and then took pictures of my eyes. It is a little weird, but I like how it turned out.



Theme: "Spring Break"
I actually have to take two pictures for this theme, so this is only half of it. I totally don't sleep in, but it seemed to fit the theme. I set up the tripod, and took 25 pictures of myself pretending to be asleep. I set the alarm on my clock to be somewhere around noon, so the time wouldn't change while I was setting up the shot. I'm glad no one is home during the day with me to watch me do these shots. I set it up, push the self-timer, run and jump into position, and then wait...click...I jump back up to see the shot before it goes off the screen. Darwin came home for lunch one day, and I was sitting on the floor in the bathroom with all the lights off...flashlight in hand, camera on a tripod, taking pictures of that snitch. He opend the door, shook his head, and then just shut the door agian!...like "OK...Whatever floats your boat!"



Theme: "Hands"
This theme also requires two different shots. I totally have a great idea for the other shot, but can't find one of the props I will need. I stole this idea from somewhere...but I can't remember where. I saw it along time ago (meaning this semester, just before the assignment was given) and wanted to take a picture like it, but didn't know what to use it for. Lucky for me, the teacher assigned a hands theme, so I got to use it! =)


The other shot I have to have done by Tuesday is themed: "All Shook Up". I am having a hard time with it, because I want to be creative, but can't get past just taking a picture of Yoohoo...it says Shake it up right on the bottle. I will come up with something. Hope you had fun viewing my crazy photography assignments. I had tons of fun taking them.

Calvin O'Russell visits the Jensens!

Each year, we have a special leprechaun visit our house on March 17th. His name is Calvin O'Russell, and he likes to play tricks on our family. This year, he left us a treat for breakfast...Lucky Charms (which we don't usually buy, because of the marshmallows), a green table cloth, and he turned our silverware green. He left the kids each a new green shirt and hat (or hair) and a green toy. He left shamrock stickers in with the lunch sacks, along with an array of green food for their lunches. We also noticed he left us a card with his picture on it.

I always loved going to my mother's parents house on St. Patrick's Day and eating corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread. It was a special holiday, since I didn't know anyone else that really celebrated St. Patrick's Day, other than just wearing green. My grandfather (Calvin George Harold Russell)passed away in Dec. 1998, and the tradition kind of ended. I wanted to share the fun of St. Patrick's Day with my family, so in 2001, I "invented" our special leprechaun (Calvin O'Russell)to keep my grandpa's spirit alive for my children. I have had a lot of fun with it, and although St. Patrick's Day isn't really about leprechauns and gold...to me it is about family and ancestory and keeping our distant relatives in our lives. They know who he was, and we get to remember him today.

March-ing right along

We've been busy. Being in school takes up a lot of time. This weekend we went to Twin Lakes and went sledding. It was pretty fun.

This is a picture of Darwin being patient with me. My theme assignment for this week is "The Eyes Have It". At first I was trying to get a picture of me reflected in his sunglasses, then I was taking pictures of everyone's eyes close up, then I just started doing close ups. He never smiles for pictures, because it is much more fun for him to pull some crazy face. He let me take like 20 pictures of him, and he never pulled a face! =) (I was using the self timer to take the ones with me in them.)

We are glad to have Darwin back from Houston. He went there for a conference last week (for his work). While he was there, he was able to reconnect with one of his aunts (his mom's sister) and her daughter (his cousin). He got to go to an aquarium (that PALED in comparison to the one we had in Maui) and he took a six hour walk to eat lunch at IKEA!



Darwin playing in the snow this weekend. He had just pushed ALL the kids down the hill in our toboggan.

This is one of my photography assignments. We had to take "a million" pictures showing different kinds of lighting. This is a picture of a snitch. I took it in the bathroom, because that was the only dark place in the house. !!! =) This one turned out the best (of the, seriously, 50 shots I took.) I had to light it from the front, back, side, top, below, reflect light onto it, use different light sources, on and on. It is VERY fun and VERY interesting and I'm learning a ton, but it takes up A LOT of time.



Brooklin is in the 7th grade choir. They sang two songs from Grease last week. She and two other people dressed up. They were all supposed to, but out of the 10 kids in only three "remembered" to dress up. They did good, but were very quiet.



Caleb earned his Arrow of Light award last month, and was awarded it this month. The Arrow of Light is the highest award a boy can receive as a Cub Scout. It is like the Eagle award for the Boy Scout program. He is now in Boy Scouts, and is loving it. Caleb is also obsessed with Bakugan toys. They are like big marbles that transform. I don't see the fun in them, but he will do anything for one. =) My house has been cleaner ever since he found out I bought some to give out as rewards for "extraordinary" behavior.



We found out that London has been wearing glasses with only one lens in them for about 4 months. We took her to the eye doctor, and when she opened up her case, her glasses only had one lens. She keeps them at school at her desk, so we never see her in them, but I guess she lost the lens and couldn't find it, so she just wears them with only one lens!! Little turkey never said a word. She need a new prescription now, so she will be back to regular vision soon!




Not much new with Mr. Isaiah. He still keeps us guessing and laughing constantly. This sunday, the choir got up to sing, and he jumped up after all of us were up there, and came up with a book to sing with the choir! He sings intermittently but the parts he does sing, are LOUD! Gotta love him...you just can't help but smile when he is around.