Park in Rapid City

Not to long ago we had a picnic at a beautiful park in Rapid City. Apparently, it was Roosevelt Park, if this sign is to be believed.

While the leaves weren't in full color when we went to Spearfish Canyon, they were in perfect form when we visited the park. We were only going to stay for a short lunch,



mmm, apples

but it was so nice we decided to stay and enjoy the scenery even longer! Some of us took photos  around the park,

























 And some of us climbed it.




Eli didn't know what to think of the crunchy leaves or the bright colors. I think in the end he decided he liked it.

But not as much as he liked playing on the playground with daddy!

























Elora and Joshua soon discovered the joys of jumping off of this low wall into the leaves that had been blown there the night before. And yes, we bought Joshua several new pairs of pants on this same day. That boy is growing like a weed! (He got these pants just in June).






Finally we went to explore the little pond that we had viewed from a distance.

























There were geese! But the bathrooms were locked, so we didn't get to stay as long as we might have liked. Still, it was a perfect autumn day!

Autumn Drawing

When I was visiting Utah for a few days last month, I had some time to work on a drawing. All Autumn I've wanted to do a nice Fall drawing, but I'd never had time. I had vaguely planned out in my mind what I wanted to do (bright yellow foreground, dark brooding background) but I didn't have any reference photos with me. I actually had been looking at a lot of Autumn photos on Pinterest to help me decide what to do, but when the time came that I could actually work on it, I didn't have access to these. Besides, I was feeling spontaneous.
I had with me a bag of several markers, but not nearly all of them. I had also failed to bring any colored pencils. So when I sat down to do this drawing, I realized I needed more colors than I had with me...so I went for the closest available medium: my daughter's crayons! We always bring them for car trips.
They aren't even nice Crayola crayons, but some cheap store brand that she got at school. That actually worked out fine, as they had a more subtle color that worked well, and seemed almost pastel-like in nature.
If I had been at home, I might have experimented more with the interaction between the marker and crayon, but as it was I just jumped in. I found that my markers could in some instances draw on top of the waxy crayons, but that also meant that they could be smeared or scraped off, which wasn't that great.
Overall, I loved my drawing (which I finished at home) except for a few small things. I wish I hadn't decided to outline the girl in black lines; she looked better without it. I wish I'd have planned out the coloring on the tree tops better, as half was marker (the dark yellow) and half was crayon (light yellow) and I couldn't really find a way to blend the two halves as I could have if it was more planned.
Finally, I kept looking at the tree trunks thinking something was wrong, but I couldn't see what it was. It wasn't until weeks later when I was photographing it for my blog, that I realized the amature mistake I had made in the placement of the tree trunks. Maybe you can see it? I finally decided it was driving me nuts and I better fix it, or I'd be to embarrassed to show it to anyone.
I actually redrew the trunk in question, and glued it onto the page. Then I made more bushes and leaves to take care if integrating the top and bottom. I like it much better now, even though it's close to the edge. Can you see the difference? The color is actually a little more accurate on the trees in the second drawing, but too dark in the sky.
First the original drawing:




And now the fixed one:

crayon, marker, collage 11x14"

Canyon Drive

           Last year we went for a drive to Spearfish Canyon. It was lovely, but most of the leaves had already fallen, it was windy and in the fifties. This year we decided to go a little earlier, in September. Yes, this post is way over due.  It was nice and warm, but the leaves were just barely turning yellow. We didn't care though, it was so nice to go somewhere with trees, and to enjoy nature!

Before we walked, we had a picnic we found a nice little area by a creek, next to the lodge where we were going to eat. There was a pretty bench there too, and I had Joseph take a few pictures of me; he did a pretty good job when he knew what I wanted.

 

 

 It was nice eating our lunch and watching the occasional yellow leaf float gently down to the ground, in stark contrast to the windy freezing lunch we had there last year!

 

We went on the same hike again, but this time starting from the other end, near the lodge. Joseph only wanted to go a short distance, but we ended up going all the way to where we had stopped last time, so now with the two trips combined, we’ve seen the whole trail. Honestly, I would have gone on the whole thing if it was just me.  The end we missed this year has a waterfall!

Jonah kept acting self conscious every time I tried to take his picture. I love this first one where he’s trying not to smile…or maybe he is trying to smile? I’m not sure.

 

We got a few fun pictures of all the kids, though Josh was pulling faces in all of them. At one point, he was putting  his arms in front of everyone’s faces and I told him to stop it.

 

 

At this, he stuck out his bottom lip and was sulking for a while, until I took some pictures of just him, and told him he could act silly if he wanted to.

 

We stopped by a little dam to look around, and it was neat being able to see all the fish swimming around in the deeper water. There were some pretty little blue flowers with yellow centers near the water, and I kept trying to take a picture of them, but my camera just would not focus that close.

 

 

All in all it was a pretty day, and we are glad we got to go!

 

 

See ya later!