Of course we have our Obama sign posted proudly in the front yard. 

When Jennifer stuck this sign up, our tenant wanted to show her support with a McCain/Palin sign.  Unfortunately for her, she did not read the fine print of her lease and we had to tell her, "no."  However, since I am a kind, understanding landlord I made an exception and allowed her one yard sign.  The only stipulation, it could not be larger than two inches by two inches.  "Ha, ha!  Take that you tenant."

Of course she did and I almost fell off the sidewalk when I saw her response.

But then she takes it a step further.

I need to update the lease to somehow keep unsightly pumpkins from taking over my front porch.  The only upside is the squirrels have now destroyed most all of the pumpkins.

Don’t forget to vote!

UPDATE: The dissenting opinion can be found on Fighting Gravity.

I guess it is time to get caught up and start adding posts.

To start I am gong to add a link to photos from our trip to Loveland.  They are up on Flickr.com and can be found in this set.

Of course being on the lake gives us lots of photos of water…..

…but we also got up into the mountains one day for a little horseback riding.

Truth be told, we also spent a lot of time just hanging out and playing on our computers.

To see the rest a couple more shots of the entire family, look at my Smugmug site under the Family section.

Of course I took a couple photos of my girls.  Not many, just a few while they were playing the game Pretty Princes.  I am not sure what brought it on, but at one point Mia wanted to make sure that her cousin Katie knew exactly what she wanted. 

Olivia was a little more loving when she posed with Katie.

For the rest of the photos from the day (as well as the previous day), look at my Flickr page and look at the Reunion Weekend set.

It was a little tricky to light such a large group with only two small umbrellas, but with the help of Lightroom, I think the group photos turned out ok.

There are a couple other options on my Smugmug site under the Family Galleries, but I chose to use the one above in this post because Mis is being her typical silly self. (Look in the bottom left, third child in from the edge)

I also got photos of two of the families while we were together.  If any other family would like a family portrait, just let me know.  It is fun to photograph families!  Send me an email or drop a message from my Contact page.

While I was setting up my lights I made Katie be my test model.  Little did she know that I would then post those photos to my Flickr page.

Be sure to see the photos of Katie trying to win at musical chairs.

Listing of links:

• Group photos on Smugmug
• Photos of Katie on my Flickr page
• Photos of Katie playing musical chairs
• The contact form on my website.

To see the rest of the photos from the fun, look at the Sprinkler Time set on my Flickr page.

I have taken enough photos of my girls that they don’t really flinch when the camera comes out, but when I focused on Britt, she gave me a typical here-is-my-camera-smile pose.  Cute enough, but definitely not natural. 

I then made Olivia sit on the wall of the porch and tried to make a photo of her in front of the downpour.  The rain was coming down so hard and our gutters are old enough and probably clogged with leaves that the rain was pouring over the sides and made it appear that it was raining even harder than it actually was. 

Some how, one of the girls got the idea to go out in the rain and wave to Jaeda & Britt’s mom who was looking out the door just two houses over.  From there it was all over.  The girls were out in the rain, laughing, squealing, running and having a great time. 

The best shot of the day is the one of Britt where I was on our front porch and she was playing in the spillover from our gutters and loving life.  If I have ever made a photograph that captures the pure personality of someone, this one of Britt is it.  If you know Britt, you know this photo is her wonderfully vibrant personality.  If you have never met her, well now you know.

I still had my camera in hand so I was playing around with trying to capture the rain, but none of them really did much for me.  Although, I do find the birdbath photo somewhat interesting.  As I was manually dialing in the correct settings to take some photos of the sky, when out of his house comes Jaeda and Britt’s dad, Jon.  Now Jon is a former NFL running back, so not someone who would typically walk around with a lacy parasol.  But out he came with Britt’s parasol, trying to protect himself from what, I could not tell.  I swung around and clicked off a few photos, but forgot to change the exposure settings from the sky.  The result, pure black.  Oh well.  Fortunately through the magic of Lightroom I was able to at least lighten it up enough to make it possible to keep the memory.

To see the rest of my photos from the day in the rain, go to my Flickr page and search for the tag: rain

Over the weekend I was able to watch and photograph my niece Katie’s softball team, the Red Hots. While the rain screwed up the schedule, it could not put out the fire of the Red Hots.

(How is that for some really obnoxious writing?)

Anyway, the team did great and I posted photos here.

If the link does not work, go to my SumgMug page and look under the Sports galleries.
http://pomranka.smugmug.com

This year Janet, a young woman with a disability, attended our LTTW camp.  The camp started on Monday and consisted of five sessions.  Each session had eight riders and lasted for 75 minutes each day.  On Thursday, day four of the camp,  Janet was out in the parking lot, riding a bike around completely independent.  Her mother and sister simply sat on the grass in awe saying, “We have to get her father here tomorrow to see this.”  I was talking with mom about Janet learning to ride a typical two wheel bike.  I found out that Their family likes to ride on vacation and often visits Mackinaw Island for summer vacations.  (NOTE: Automobiles are not allowed on the island.  The only methods of transportation are horse and buggy, bicycle or foot.)  Janet has always had to ride on a tandem with her dad, but not this year!  So I asked how long they have been working with Janet, trying to teach her how to ride a two wheeler.  “Since she was about five.” was her mother’s reply.

“And how old is she now?”

“Seventeen.”

I almost cried myself.  Janet has been working for the past twelve years to learn how to ride a bike by herself and the LTTW program taught her how in four days!  Less than five hours of practice, AMAZZING!

That is just one of the very typical stories I have heard over the past three years the DSAGSL has sponsored a LTTW camp. 

Everyone that I talk to has the same question, “How?”  I don’t really know all of the science behind it, but I will tell you the basics.  The riders learn to find their balance by riding a highly modified bike that offers a ton of stability in the beginning.  The back wheel is replaced by a roller that keeps the bike stable.  As the rider practices and their body figures out the balance the rear roller that starts out pretty flat is replaced by a roller that is a little more tapered on the ends, and offers a little less stability.  As the rider gets better, the rollers become more and more tapered.  The next thing you know they are on a two wheeler and able to ride.

For more information, visit the LTTW website.  To view a lot more photos that take you through the progression of the week, visit the DSAGSL’s Smugmug site.