Post Irony

We stormed Branson a couple of weekends ago to spend time with Mimi and Pawpaw. Mimi got us another sweet suite at the resort where she works.

Last summer I stopped by the place that’s home to the World’s Largest Banjo, dubbed “Branson’s Eiffel Tower,” just to take a photo of it. This time we hit the place to take advantage of the fun-packed attractions on the other side of the colossal instrument.

The big draw at the Grand Country Square is 3-D Blacklight Mini-Golf. For an additional $3 you get the 3-D glasses to get the full experience. Although I immediately observed that if one is playing mini-golf on a real-live mini-golf course, one is experiencing actual 3-D. No extra enhancement needed.

This is possibly the greatest photo I’ve ever taken. Click on the picture to see the big version. You won’t be disappointed.

The 3-D mini-golf caused a bit of sensory overload for Abby. She enjoyed the mini-bowling much better.

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Little Rock’s first snow of any significance in 7 years (according to the news) happened this week. Abby was so excited she got dressed in record time, and all by herself to boot. She never does that on a school day.

Her first snowman.

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After enduring weeks of a Christmas-fueled Abby, endless viewings of RTRNR and last-minute runs to Toys R Us, the big day finally arrived. It was the first Christmas when Abby was fully cognizant of the implications of the season. I got all my picture-taking junk set up the night before (I used the Strobist Christmas game plan) in anticipation of capturing the surprise and wonder on Abby’s face when she saw Santa’s bounty laid before her. But instead of letting her awaken to her own circadian rhythm, we woke her up, which resulted in her being groggy, confused and in a kinda cranky mood. She did show a little classic Christmas emotion when her jaw dropped upon seeing the half-eaten cookies and empty milk glass left from Santa’s late-night snack.

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Time for the annual family Christmas portrait. Merry Christmas to you and yourn.

Strobist info: Last year I used a single reflective umbrella and another flash for a hair light and I had weird shadow issues. This year I used the reflective umbrella on camera right with an SB-600 at 1/4 power and my ghetto foam-core softbox on camera left with an SB-26 also at 1/4. I wanted to keep the light ratio very close. Even though both flashes were on 1/4 power, the different modifiers put out different light levels. The softbox was a little brighter than the umbrella.

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What’s the one thing you don’t want to do when acquiring a Christmas tree? Drink the goat water. We figured we couldn’t put off getting a tree any longer, so we went to Motley’s Christmas Tree Farm and Pig Racing Stadium on Sunday. Motley’s is chock full of holiday fun. There’s the petting zoo, the racing pigs, the shop full of Christmas-themed junk, the hayride and, of course, a field full of Christmas trees.

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I didn’t have classes on Thursday, so Abby stayed home from school, too. We went out exploring just like in the old days when I was a full-on stay-at-home dad or STAHD. We headed down to the river market to see how the fish were getting along at the Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center.

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Abby decided she wanted a Halloween pumpkin, so rather than just picking one up at Kroger, we decided to go in for pumpkin getting experience. We headed out to Garner Homestead Family Farm in deepest Garland County. The Web site promised a petting zoo, a corn maze, hayrides and a pumpkin field. This place has pretty good PR, but the actual experience is a bit of a letdown.

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We took a day trip to Texarkana on Sunday to visit my Grandmother and see her new digs at Cornerstone, an assisted living community. She actually has a very nice two-bedroom house in what looks like a regular suburban neighborhood. Apparently the assisted-living part of the deal is that she gets a certain number of meals at the main building and housekeeping services. Abby and Mur-Mur, which is her cutsey-itsy name for great-grandchildren, had a great time playing with Pickles the Plastic Dog.

I told them to look at the camera for this one. Abby evidently didn’t know where I was and Grandmother evidently didn’t know I was going to take her picture.

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Abby and Gina fixed me breakfast in bed for Fathers Day. I’ve never had BIB before. It was nice. (Photo by Gina.)

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We gathered at Funland in Burns Park to celebrate Abby’s 3rd birthday on Saturday. No drama like last year. Abby announced that there would be no traditional singing of Happy Birthday. I didn’t get very many decent pictures. I was too busy jacking around with the video camera and other tasks.

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