Ice Skating

January 31, 2015 - So, I'm kind of facing a dilemma with this blog.  On one hand, my family is taking more photos than ever before, so I could post pretty often, but averaged quality of the posts would decrease because so many posts would consist of cellphone quality photos and the ever repugnant, but increasingly prominent "selfie." 

So, I'll try to find a good recipe for a mixture of everyday life photos and event photos taken with the nice camera.  If you have a preference for one or the other and for the frequency of these posts - please leave a comment and let me know which kinds of posts you enjoy the most. 

(Or I could just look at the statistical data for each post and utilize my online marketing acumen to figure it out...

...nah, just leave a comment!)

Alright, Noah and I seem to have become the perennial social butterflies of the family.  So, this evening we attended the FCM annual family ice skate.  It worked out that Marscel was able to come along with us.

The beautiful ice rink at Shaw Park

It was a beautiful night for ice skating.

Granted, I'd use that phrase for any day that had a temperature under 60 degrees, but it was a "beautiful night" in the conventional sense.

This picture was taken by Melanie Thomas (who came later to skate) and stolen from the Thomas family blog...shhh...keep it a secret and she'll never find out...

Walking back to the car with Melanie and Marscel

Noah and I loved being able to catch up with friends and we had a blast ice skating!

Game Night

January 24, 2015 - This evening we got together with friends for a night of games!

Before dinner we had a walk as the sun set:

We played Apples to Apples for awhile...I thought that my adjectives were a little interesting:

Playing card games

Oh yeah!  Finally playing Settlers of Catan for the first time!

Baby Shower

January 17, 2015 - My aunt is expecting a little girl in February, so my Mom helped to organize a baby shower for her.

Abigail and Emma graciously offered to help us decorate and prep for the shower

Food!

Emma & Kate

Abigail and Anna

My cousin Isaiah...

...and cousin Gwen.

People talking and "mingling"

Woah, how did I make it into a picture?

It really was great to reconnect with some family...

...and friends of the family.

We've got to get together more often.

Okay, I'm sure that there are pictures somewhere of my expectant aunt, so I'll have to update this post sometime in the future with more photos.

In the meantime, here are some "photography" shots of the decor:

The rosettes on the cake turned out being lovely

Coffee station

Mason jars with pink straws

Ice Skating

January 8, 2015 - After such cold temperatures last week, Noah had the brilliant idea of checking the depth of the ice on a creek nearby...the result was some fantastic ice skating!

Noah drove us down to the creek on the four wheeler

So wonderfully rustic…we sat on the rocks to get our skates laced up

We had an enormous "rink" all to ourselves!

We could skate on almost all of the ice you see in this picture

Noah doing a hockey stop

Geared up for the chilly – but short – ride home

Cutting Down a Tree

January 6, 2015

Sherlock Exhibit

January 3, 2015 – Today most of my family and I met up with friends at the International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes. While I was woefully negligent in taking photos, thankfully my Mom and I did snap a few for me to share.
My family and I are pretty big Sherlock Holmes fans.  We’ve listened to several of the books together and have watched several versions made for television.  So, it was great to get together with some other fans of Sherlock at the exhibit and solve a mystery together.

The game is afoot.

- “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A map of London in the 19th century

These are the actual props from the BBC Sherlock television series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

Bomb vest from “The Great Game,” 

tour sign from “The Hounds of Baskerville,”

and the pink suitcase from “A Study in Pink.”

So, after learning about the history of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, crime detectives, forensic science, 19th century technology, and the origin of Sherlock Holmes, it was time to solve a mystery!

Visiting 221B Baker Street

 

We learn the facts of the case:

We broke up into teams and then searched the crime scene for clues that would help us solve the mystery.

The crime scene

There were 4 clues to find, and then you had to test various theories on how and why the clues were there.  Most of the clues were very inconclusive and after completing the assigned exhibit tasks, there was still a lot of mystery surrounding the case.

Examining the crime scene

A police report...

...and Sherlock's opinion.

Discussion at the crime scene

Talking with one of the reenactors/guides

After finding the clues, you’re supposed to read the solution which will solve the case...

...but what fun is that?

Time for some serious deducing!

We all collaborated to do some brainstorming and try to formulate a satisfactory theory that would explain the clues from the crime scene and the disappearance of the man’s wife and child.

Micaiah reviews his notes

Some ENTP “mind palace” action…:)

With some helpful guidance from those who had already read the solution, we were able to formulate an explanation that satisfactorily solved the case. 

So, in the end, we all read the solution - which filled in some of the details and told the elaborate back story behind the characters.

All in all, I had a great time. 

There were some holes in the case that we solved, but when you get together with good friends and do some sleuthing, there's no mystery as to why I had fun.  Case solved.

Interested in how Sherlock Holmes solved his cases? 

He primarily relied upon the process of deductive reasoning and his acute powers of observation.