Tag Arvhies: candl1988

Flying High

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Okay!  I finally have 2 seconds to rub together, so it’s finally photo blog time!  In case you haven’t seen my latest posts on Buzznet or Facebook, you don’t know that on last Friday evening, Tom took me flying in his Cessna 150!  It was AMAZING!!!  I consider it one of the greatest days in my life!  It is just SO much fun up there!  I was really worried that I would be nervous or get scared, but I didn’t at all!  Tom agreed that if I was scared he would bring me right back down!  It wasn’t necessary!  So, anyways, let’s get started!


Here is Tom bringing out the plane!


This is the dash board and all the instruments!  It was cool watching Tom inspect everything before take off!  It was also cool when he was talking to other planes and pilots on the ground to let them know where we were and that we were up there too!


Here we are on the tarmack waiting to take off!





Here is the city of Cheboygan!  In the last photo you can see the privately owned grocery store, Family Fare, and Walmart beside it!


This photo is of the shore of Mullet Lake!  You can see the mansions and boats!  Most of these are vacation homes that their owners only use a few weeks each year!  There are a number of celebrities that have vacation homes in this area!  Mullet is one of the largest inland lakes up here!


While over Cheboygan, Tom saw smoke coming from Indian River, which is about a 45 minute drive in a car!  We were there in minutes!  He said, “that is a lot of smoke!  It has to be a house fire”!  So we flew down to take a look!  Sadly, he was right! You can see all of the fire and rescue vehicles too!  Later on that night, I found out on the news that the fire started with an explosion in the garage!  One man was badly burned!  I am so very sorry for these people who were both injured and the lost their home! This was one of the worst days of their life!  I debated whether or not to even post these photos!  As you can see, I chose just this one! They have been in my thoughts and prayers all week!  I have been through a fire, and although no one was inured, it was rough!


After seeing the fire, we headed back up the country side towards the Straits!  We flew right over Tom’s place!


This is the shore of Lake Huron, and I was fascinated by what we could see under the water! You can also see where the sand bar ends!  There are logs down on the bottom from when this area was being logged and settled!  It was very cool!  The land in front of the photo is my first shot of Bois Blanc Island!


Here is the BEAUTIFUL Bois Blanc Island!  Most of the homes are on the shoreline!  There is a road that runs through the middle, but it was hidden by the trees!  To get there you have to take a car ferry boat or fly in!


The green roof down there is Tom’s parents home!  He has one too, but you can’t see it clearly from up in the air!  I did get a really good look at their beach, and was impressed!  One day Tom is going to take me up there and we are going to hike the 5 miles up to his house!  That is a very long hike for me, but I am really looking forward to it!


We happened to fly over a freightor carrying ore!  It was a huge boat, but you can’t really tell that from the photos!


Here you are looking at Bois Blanc Island, Round Island, and Mackinac Island all in one shot !  If you look at Mackinac, you can see the Grand Hotel, as well as the fort !  Mackinac Island is one of the most exclusive vacation spots in the United States!  People come from all over the world to vacation there!  There are no vehicles with an engine there!  You have to go everywhere either by horse, horse carriage, or bicycle!  It is really impressive!  Back when we had our business, my dad and brother put our equipment on a barge in the off season, but before winter hit, and drilled several wells up there!  I was very nervous about our rig and water truck falling off the barge!  Oh, I should have said that you can reach Mackinac Island by taking a ferry boat from either Mackinaw City or St Ignace!


Here is an attempt at a selfie with Tom!  He looks great, but I am blurry! It was fun wearing and talking through the head sets! He is so handsome! ( :




These are all shots of Mackinaw City!


This shows all the hotels that border Lake Huron as you are going north into Mackinaw City (we were flying south when I took this)!  They are VERY expensive in the summer months!  Many close altogether as do many businesses in the winter months!


I will end with my favorite shot of the day! I know you have seen this one already, but I want you to see it again! (:  Here is our Mighty Mack with the freightor going underneath in the shipping lane!

Well there you have it!  I apologize for this being so long!  I took over 300 photos, so it was very hard to choose which photos to include!

I also have to say THANK YOU, TOM!!!  It was so very nice of him to take me!  I hope to get up there again soon! ( :

Independence Day

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Hi there!  I had a very quiet and emotional July 4th holiday this year!  Jordan and I went to the fireworks thinking we would be meeting a lot of family there!  Some weren’t feeling up to snuff, some were mad about things, some just didn’t show up, and in the end the only one that showed up was my dad! My mom gets a pass because she had to work! Jordan’s feelings were really hurt, and it made me cry!  This is his first 4th that he has been home for in 4 years!  He was really looking forward to the festivities!  He even bought an air mattress for the bed of his truck!  We went early at 7pm to get a good spot and to save spots for everyone else! It didn’t get dark until almost 10:30pm!  It was a long wait, and for some reason they NEVER have bathrooms there to use!  Lucky for me, the Hospice House that my mom works at is right by the fairgrounds!  I was able to walk down around the corner and use their bathroom… twice! You would think that they could put up some portable toilets for the thousand plus people that show up every year to watch the fireworks! In spite of everything, the 3 of us ended up having a wonderful time and the fireworks were magical!

I learned an important lesson!  I can’t shoot firework photos with a DSLR or an iPhone!  I pretty much suck!  Thankfully, I had my Kodak Easy Share with me and even though the batteries were almost dead, it got me through the night!

Lets start with the DSLR photos, just to prove my point!

This last shot is of the grand finale, I do actually like this one!

Now for the iPhone attempt!

Not good at all!  My friends on Instagram take brilliant photos with their phones, but I just cannot!  Here is proof ! (:

Now for the Kodak shots that I am happy with!

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As you can probably tell, I forgot to take my tripod, but I don’t think it ruined the photos!

I will end with my favorite shot of the night!  I can’t put into words why it is my favorite, but it just is!

Which photo is your favorite?

If you are in the US, I hope that you had a wonderful holiday!  If you are outside the US, I hope you are having a great weekend!  Either way, I would love to hear what you have done/are doing!

HAVE A WONDERFUL REST OF THE WEEKEND!

Shooting Some Hoops

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Saturday night before Kay got cut, I went with Trevor to play basketball and get a work out!  Of course, I had to take my camera and work on my action shot skills which are rather poor!  I usually blur them!  I am pretty happy with how these turned out!  So check out my AMAZING son!

The boy can jump!  I actually caught a few shots of him with both feet off the ground!  Annie does that with Hovis on the beach all the time, and I have always admired her skills! (:  However, I have never been able to focus fast enough!  Well, until now anyways! (:

The art of dribbling!  I should probably add, for what it is worth, both his dad and I played basketball in middle school and high school!  My brother played basketball too!  It kind of runs in the family!  Trevor, since his weight loss, has been playing at college with his friends for exercise!  He is trying to keep that going this summer! Luckily right behind our complex lies the elementary school!  School is out for the summer, so the playground is open to use! (:

I am SO incredibly proud of him!

He can even shoot it backwards! This made me laugh! (:

Like always, I will end with my favorite shot!  I hope to do this again sometime!  We can see how much we have both improved!

How was your weekend?

My Visit To The Pellston Fire Department

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 I got to visit our local firehouse here in Pellston, Michigan where I happen to live!  My brother was doing computer work for them, and he invited me over to have a look around!  Our firefighters are all volunteers, so there isn’t always a crew in the building!  I got a look at everything without disrupting anyone and was able to photograph everything that caught my eye!

So here we go…PHOTOBLOG time!

I took these as I was walking up to the firehouse!  I think it is a very pretty building, and one that we can be very proud of!

I thought I would get a few shots of the signs that were around the building!

I ventured into the upstairs of the building, and found that it had a rather eerie feel to it!  There was dust on the floor and my shoes left prints!  That tells me that no one else has been up there in some time!  I thought this cracking paint looked like something from a haunted house, so I took a quick shot of it!  It was dark so I had to use a flash!  There is a basement in the building, but I wasn’t brave enough to go down there!  Basements often have mice, and I just don’t do mice! (:

Now for the AMAZING fire and rescue equipment:

This fire engine looked so pretty!  Just seeing it makes me feel safe in my decision to live in the beautiful village of Pellston!

This is my favorite shot of the day!

Here are some of the brave firefighter’s lockers where they have their gear ready to go the next time a call for help goes out!

This antique toy fire truck is sitting on top of someone’s desk area in the main office!  I absolutely love it! One day I hope to actually meet the fire chief and photograph his office too!  I could see through the window that he has a collection of antique clocks!  That would mean another photoblog! (:

A photo of a photo! (:  On the bulletin board they have a group photo of our volunteer firefighters posing with the big fire engine!

Just before we headed off to lunch and shopping, Andy took my camera and got this shot of me sitting on my new favorite engine!

So what is fire and rescue like where you live?  Have you ever been inside your firehouse?  If so, what was your favorite part?

THANK YOU TO EVERY PELLSTON FIREFIGHTER FOR THEIR SERVICE TO OUR COMMUNITY!!

Precious #7

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As you all know, I have had a crappy few weeks! Today is my first day back babysitting after being sick and having a tooth extracted !  I can’t think of a better way to share how I am feeling today, other than through the attempted words and antics of my little man!  I will post the photo and then narrate as I go!  Just wanted to let you know how this here blog is goin’ down!

On with the narration:

I spilled my morning snack on my shirt, so I took it off! I didn’t want a clean one, and it is warm enough inside that Auntie let me go without one! Speaking of Aunt Lory,  I don’t want her to take photos of me!  So I will run and hide under the coat rack in our mud room, laughing all the way!

I pinched my finger in the hinge on David’s sunglasses that I insist on playing with!  It hurted and I cried!  Aunt Lory kept snapping away at me!  Someday I am going to steal that camera!

I got hugs and kisses from Aunt Lory and a BooBoo Bag and that made it all better!

I did eventually put on the evil sunglasses that pinched my finger!  Don’t I look rad?  I definitely got it goin’ on!

Here is me looking all cute, so you will comment on my current state of blonde curls and overall cuteness!  So, yeah, leave your comments below! ( :

I hope you have a good rest of the week!

Shoe Tree

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Yesterday was Thursday, and we all know what that means … shopping day in Cheboygan!  As my dad and I were finishing up our shopping and errands, we were headed out of town and saw this tree!  It is just full of shoes thrown over the branches!

I have seen shoes thrown over an electrical or cable wire over a city streets, but never have I seen anything like this!

I have no idea what this is for, or what it means!  There was no explanation that I could find!  My dad is used to me and a very good sport, so he pulled over and waited while I shot a few photos!  Thanks Dad! ( :

You can also see in this shot, that the snow is almost gone!  WAHOO!!!  There are more piles of it yet to melt in Pellston, but Cheboygan is mostly clear!

Based on the fact that this tree is about 4 or 5 blocks from the highschool, and the style of the shoes in the tree, I am assuming it was done by teenagers!  No matter who put them up there, for whatever reasons, I thought it was rather cool and wanted to share it with you!  If, per chance, you know what this is about, please fill me in! (:

I also got to eat lunch at Your Spirit, Your Place and it was YUMMY!!!  The owner came up to me, even though they were BUSY, and gave me a big hug and thanked me for my blog about her restaurant!  It made me feel so good!  Someone was pleased with my efforts, and that is just the best feeling ever!  Most places they wouldn’t even remember me!  Not Dominique!  She recognized me right away!

SO MUCH HAPPY!!!

HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

A New Hangout

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(click on photo to see it in full size)

This silly little girl kitty has now taken to hanging out in my laundry basket!  I had just done my laundry, so there isn’t much in there besides her!  She prefers having a basket full so she has a comfy place to lounge around! (:

Kay had to work today, so I went up and spent the day with my dad!  It was a good time!  We chatted about anything and everything!  We watched Let’s Make A Deal !  We both love that show!  We talked somemore and my dad made dinner!  YUM! I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I have 4 men who will now cook for me!  I love it because I hate cooking!!!  After dinner, we were watching the evening news when Kay called and said that she was ready to be picked up!  Now I am at home watching tv and hanging out on Buzznet!  I also have 2 kitty cats vying for my attention while I type this!  I love all of my girls so much! (: