Photography 101, Sand Dunes and World Cup Games

First, I want to thank you for visiting my blog and I hope that  you continue to enjoy what you read and keep learning about our family.  Don't forget to sign up if you want to receive e-mails for post updates.  ¡Gracias!

Photography 101

After watching some YouTube videos, reading tips and techniques about our new camera (Nikon D3300), it was time to get some practice.  So, we decided to go for a road trip to Blackfoot and visit Grandma.  It’s amazing how much a nice camera makes a difference in your pictures and how complicated they can be….and as many of our family and friends, it can be an amazing but expensive hobby. Either way, it’s a great way to record those invaluable memories in your life; in our case, we are in the phase of big changes. So, if you don’t have a DSLR camera, I would recommend you to get one (which one? Well so far, our Nikon D3300 is a great one).

Practicing our newly learned skills.

Yumminess and fat, why not take a picture of this? (McKenzie River Pizza)

Beautiful flowers on mom's porch.

Sand Dunes

Since someone, who shall remain nameless (an Idaho native) had not been to the sand dunes...(cough...cough....Bar....fhh).  It was fun, to take pictures and continue practicing our skills. Celena and I are getting very creative. On our way there, we stopped at Prepared Pantry to get some baking goodies  and Manwaring Cheese. (it's not the best place for me, since I am lactose-intolerant, but I made do....I have some pills that relieve the monstrous pains, maybe TMI, but it's your fault for reading this.) Anyway, it was a fun little trip.

Mom and Bart, and Celena...;). Did you find her?

Celena and Bart racing to the top.

Tony Horton!...King Dancer Pose

My gorgeous wife.

This is one of my favorites...beautiful.

We didn't find water in the desert, but we sure found beauty!

My supermodel and some guy that was allowed to take picture with her...:)

Mom and her Gucci shades....maybe not Gucci, but very fashionable.

For all the ladies out there........this guy is taken!

I told her to pretend she's happy...she did pretty good right?

I hope you enjoyed our pictures.  Don't forget to comment.  We have another great adventure coming up this weekend....after we can get over another looong week.  By they way, if you did not watch the US game against Portugal...sad day...so close.  Have a wonderful week! If you are not a soccer fan yet...it's ok, you have less than a month.  ¡Adios!

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Posted in adventures

Father's Day Weekend

June is such as busy month for our family  We celebrate not only Father's Day, but mom's, Cassi's (my wife's little sister), and my brother Diego's birthday as well.  So we get a lot of family time.  We first celebrated mom's b-day by going out for dinner.  The pizzas was yummy, with delicious fresh vegetables.

Mom's Birthday

Having fun at dinner with the fam.

And like always, everyone took turns holding the prince of the family.

Aunt Emily enjoying our spoiled nephew, Braxton.

Aunt Rachel taking her turn.

Mom opening her presents.

Cheesemaking

Celena and mom had been wanting to make cheese for a long time, and the day finally came.  After hunting down the famous Rennet (which we found at a small brewery store downtown, we had no idea what it looked like by the way).  Once we had all the ingredients, it was cheesemaking time!

The magical ingredients for cheesemaking.

The whole milk was first heated with the rennet and citric acid until it reached 90 degrees, then allowed to set.  The curd separate the whey and it was heated up again until it reached 105 degrees and...

Heating up whole milk with the magic rennet.

....and viola!

Why buy cheese at the store when you can make your own!

We then used this fresh cheese to make our dinner, paninis.

By the way, we are using our new camera...:)

Father's Day

We had a lot of fun visiting pops and enjoying using our new camera, Nikon D3300 to capture these beautiful memories.

Cassi and Braxton visiting pops.

Finally taking my turn.

Celena with Braxton.

There he is...posing for the camera.

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Posted in Family Time, Father's Day

The World Cup is Here

THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER

Courtesy of FIFA.com/Getty Images

If you have not heard that the World Cup started yesterday, you must be living under a rock...or just have not turned the TV or even checked your Web newsite.  It is the 2nd biggest sports event in the world after the Olympics.  Why?  Well, because it brings together all of the best soccer players not only in the U.S. but in the whole WORLD.  You can obviously tell that I love soccer, and how can I not love this sport?   I started playing since before I can even remember, probably 4 or so, with cans, rocks, or whatever we could find that was round enough to roll.  But what about this World Cup, well, it's a month of pure soccer talent and lots of snacking in front of the TV, in other words, no work gets done.

The first game was Brazil vs Croatia, and what a game!  Brazil was disappointing, but as every World Cup game, you have the magic of a Brazil's star to the rescue, in this case, Neymar.  First, Marcelo scored an own goal (Real Madrid player, and not Barcelona of course).  Neymar ties the game, and the crowd goes wild.  The Brazilian fans have their team back, but wait, why are they still playing so slow with so many missed passes?  Where is the defense? 

After much frustration, Fred comes into the field, and with perfect timing and wonderful acting skills, he literally falls after the Croatian defense touches his left shoulder causing the Japanese referee to call not only a penalty kick, but a yellow card!  What?! Oh wait, we are in Brazil, and it's Brazil...this allowed Brazil to score and finish the game by adding another goal on the last minutes of the game.  It was quite a controversial game with all the bad calls by the referee.  At least the referee was able to leave the stadium alive.

Now that you've seen one of the best national soccer teams in the world play the opener game for the 2014 World Cup, I hope that you enjoy the rest of the games.

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Posted in 2014 FIFA World Cup

BusiER weekend!

The bum days are over!

We went from having a free weekend to a packed weekend of errands, parties, baking and soccer watching. Not to mention picking weeds and doing some gardening.

Picking some weeks in the hot and humid Idaho summer...not really, but it was still sunny.

Taking a quick break to hydrate.

Baking

A weekend without treats does not deserve to be called such, so my wife decided to try something new!  They are called alfajores.  They were a lot of work, but they were delicious!  Shortbread cookies with dulce de leche dipped in chocolate.  I'll let you imagine the taste for yourself...too bad licking the screen won't help.

The shortbread cookies first.

Meanwhile getting the dulce de leche prepped up.

Quick little snack (Celena's favorite chips) while we wait.

Now tell me, don't you wish your wifey was as good as mine?!

Here are some, dipped in chocolate.  I'm sorry, but you've got to try them.

They taste better in person. ;)

 

We made plenty, but I think they're gone now. 

It was definitely a crazy weekend, but one think for sure is, there is nowhere else I would rather be but with my wife and family.  We've been married for over 2 years, but it feels like we've known each other forever and got married yesterday.  Time has gone by so quick, and this is just the beginning.  I have learned so much in our marriage, and one thing for sure is, she owns me!  I hope you enjoy the pics and I will post more about our little adventures.  Sign up for email updates and once again, thanks for reading our blog! Adios!

Don't forget to visit my wife's blog here if you are interested in improving your health through fitness and nutrition (and burn off the calories from these yummy treats, after all, that is the main reason why we workout!).

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Posted in adventures, baking

Road Trip!

We are going to miss Idaho. Mainly the summer weather not definitely not the winter.   Two more months and we will be in Texas...I think my wife is more excited that I am.   But before we leave, we want to take advantage of the beautiful area, so we decided to take a road trip.

We first went to EBR-1 where we learned about the first light bulb lit with atomic power...it was pretty cool.  We then stopped at Craters of the Moon National Park, were we looked at rocks.  After taking some geology courses, it was pretty cool to recognize some features.   We hiked up a hill that had a great view and of course...we had to do some yoga poses while we were up there.  Tony Horton would be so proud of me!

Yoga Pose!

Selfie with my gorgeous wife

We started to get hungry so we stopped at this place called the Kneadery in Ketchum, ID.  It was good; it was mainly a breakfast and lunch place.  

The Kneadery

Mom and Celena waiting for Bart after lunch.

We then drove to Sun Valley, where all the reach people go to ski, and ice skate as you can see in the background of the picture below.  Apparently famous ice skaters come here all the time.

Ice Skating rink at a hotel in Sun Valley, ID.

We're excited for more adventures before we leave Idaho.  I will post more what's going on in the Morales Family!  Thanks for reading.

Bonus Pics

Rebelling with our fake tattoos.

Mom hiding her Candy Crush addiction....at church! :)

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Posted in adventures