Easter 2011: The Pictures

I Love Spring!

The Germans have a different notion of weeds than I am used to. Here the dandelions are given free reign. They grow in the grass, in the cracks, everywhere. Also, there are daisies and other small flowers in the grass. It is quite idyllic. I like the thought of nature being given a little bit more license to be nature! Yesterday, Eliza and I laid in the flower grass in the sunshine. It was fantastic. She wanted to take a picture; so, here you go.

Houston, we have a problem

The other day we went for a hike to the Coronado Butterfly Preserve on the Ellwood Mesa. Imagine my surprise when I took a picture and got this:

This was on an automatic setting. I took this next one in manual. See the difference?

Same exact scene. Uhoh. I knew I had a problem. Shortly thereafter, I got an error message: Error 01, Communications between the camera and lens is faulty. Clean the lens contacts. I cleaned the lens contacts and still the error message.

I took these the day before:

Confused, I google'd the error. I got everything from faulty lens connectors to a blown motherboard in the camera. To test the camera, I tried on another lens. Here is the result:

"Good" news. It is only my one lens. Sigh. Anyone else ever lose a lens? I can't figure out what changed from one day to another. Strange.

A Tale of Two Flower Girls - Part Two

Everyone in the Ridge family was delighted when Andrew proposed to Sarah. While the girls that Andrew had dated before where super nice, Sarah seemed to be the perfect fit. We were even further delighted when Sarah called and asked Eliza to be a flower girl. We knew that she was a little young, but Sam, one of Eliza's favorite cousins, was also a flower girl. And, in the past, Eliza followed Sam like a little duck; therefore, we hoped that it would also be the case with the flower girl job.

We began preparing Eliza by reading tons of flower girl books. We discussed what she would do. Eliza even helped pick out her flower girl dress. She was very, very excited.

The wedding was two parts. On Friday, Andrew and Sarah were married in the DC temple. Eliza didn't really have any responsibilities this day, but she was a bit surly.

On Saturday, Andrew and Sarah were having a ring ceremony and reception at the Union League of Philadelphia. The day started well. Eliza let her Mimi (my mom) do her hair. She was excited to put on her dress and carry her flowers, but this is where the fun came to a screeching halt. We had to be at the Union League early to prepare. Eliza laid in Sarah's bed, but only got about half of her nap. Picture time came around and this is what we got:

She refused to stand with the wedding party (of which her dad was a party). She refused EVERYTHING! Time comes for her to walk the aisle for the ring ceremony. Here is the picture:

Wait! That's not Eliza you say! Well here is what Eliza was doing:

Like mother, like daughter I guess. I may have had a shiner, but at least I made it down the aisle and in the pictures. Here is an example group shot:

Yup, no Eliza again. This is the closest that we got:

Fail, fail, fail.

The reception starts and someone gets excited. Here she is welcoming the bride and groom.

By the time dancing comes around:

Did she make up for it? Welllll... I still feel like I should regularly apologize to Sarah, but thankfully, Sam was there to take up the slack. What have I learned? If I have any more girls, we do not accept flower girl positions!

Andrew's Awesome Wedding: Sea Holly

Sarah asked me to be on the look out for flowers to take pictures with at the temple. On Thursday, I went to visit my cousin, Melissa and her beautiful new baby girl, Nina. (Which I stupidly did not take any pictures of.) On the way home, I stopped in Chichester at the Produce Junction to look at flowers. There I saw these crazy blue/purple flowers that I have never seen before. I asked the sales girl what they were. She didn't know but got her inventory sheet. It listed them as Eryngium. They are commonly known at Sea Holly. They are from South America.

Here is Eliza with one. The bottom side of the petal is green.
I gave them to Mom Ridge along with some white roses, and she put them together. Here they are: