Cleared for Takeoff

Easter was a lot of fun this year. We got up and the kids had Easter baskets to find. Collin’s had eggs hidden around the house with clues about where he can find his basket. Kaitlyn’s basket was hidden in the middle of the living room floor. I had pictures of all this but somehow the memory card got erased. Kaitlyn spent about an hour laying on the floor and playing with (aka: licking) her plastic eggs; she thought they were fantastic. Turns out there was a lead recall on the eggs, so I had to throw them away. If Kaitlyn can’t do math, I’m suing Walmart.

We went to church at the new Vineyard Kalamazoo; it was their first service. It was very rough going but overall it was good. I think they have a lot of potential and because it’s new, it’s small and will be close-knit. I would like to see if they have a weekly group I can go to because it’s hard to get everyone out and about on Sunday mornings. After church we got home and met my brother, then all went to Brian’s parent’s house for Easter dinner and hanging out. Dennis & Keva always make great food and far too much. I think it was nice that they were more than happy for Justin to join us. I’m glad I got to see him too.

Here are some pictures from Kaitlyn’s first Easter:

And, I just have to share this, too. Kaitlyn’s Easter basket had a few candies in it for me to eat (haha), but she also got a pink bunny (the one you see in the pictures above), a little toy fox, and a pair of ADORABLE shoes. Aren’t they so cute?? Baby girl clothes and shoes are some of the best things in the world.

I’m waiting for a good chance (and a good mood from Kaitlyn) to take some “formal” portraits of her in her cute little Easter dress. I don’t have any professional lighting yet so I use daylight, which has been hit or miss lately.

Tonight, I decided to check out Craigs List for the first time. I ended up calling a guy about a dresser he listed for $20, picking up Dennis’ truck, and driving down to Portage to pick up a dresser. What a STEAL, too. I’ll have to take a picture of it because it’s unbelievable that I got this for $20. It’s HUGE - it’s a dark honey wood and it has 6 large drawers and four small drawers. There are black iron drawer pulls on it. Brian is shocked that I not only found this thing online and got a truck and drove down there by myself, but that the dresser is so nice and huge and it’s REAL wood (not particle board) and it was only $20. Ha! I’m going to keep going checking out Craigs List. I am going through the baby gear section and seeing if I can find some cool stuff.

I visited my parents the weekend after Easter and had a wonderful time seeing some friends. My dad had some old photography equipment and I wanted to look at it; they ended up giving it all to me. There’s an old Minolta 35mm SLR camera with a bunch of fancy lenses and filters and a flash, a normal Canon 35mm automatic camera, and a very, very, VERY old Kodak Stereo/3D camera. The 3D camera is pretty cool - it’s got two 35mm lenses that are side by side so it takes a stereo image that you can look at through a special viewer. I don’t care about the old Canon, but the Minolta is pretty cool; Brian and I are going to get some rolls of 35mm film and try it out. There’s a wide-angle lense and a pretty nice telephoto. One of the filters is a star filters (not sure if that’s what it’s called) - it has this weird grid embedded in the glass but if you look at a light source through it it creates really pretty rainbow crosses. If I ever get it working, I’ll be sure to scan the images and show you all.