Sledding can be deadly

If you haven't heard, St.Louis and the rest of the Midwest has recently received a ton of snow. Being the adult that I am, I organized a small sledding excursion to none other that Art Hill in Forest Park. I was joined by my friends Cara and Cody. We had about an hour of sledding magic, running into hay bails and getting snow pretty much everywhere, and then Cara decided that a break was needed. We all agreed that some rest was in order, and took a seat on the hay bails to watch a few other sledders biff on the way down. We saw a large inner tube coming our way and we dove out of the way. As we jumped to avoid collision the clover shaped inner tube, we turned to see it pummel through the hay bails, and as we screamed to warn them of the 4 foot drop onto the ice covered Grand Basin, they inched towards, and then toppled over the edge. Luckily the ice over the lake was thick and solid. Cody and I jumped down onto the ice and Cara was ready at the edge as we handed two young children up to her. I jumped back up to make sure the little boy and girl were OK, while Cody helped the dad, and the third child, a special needs boy, get up, and back off the ice. All the kids were crying but seemed fine. We couldn't tell what condition the third child had but he seemed pretty upset and the dad seemed embarrassed with the whole ordeal. In the end, we had done our good deed for the day, and after one more run down the hill, we headed home to warm up. Never a dull moment at Art Hill.

Forest Park in the Snow

I took an hour and a half journey today into Forest Park after the 8 inches of snow that fell last night had blanketed everything in stark white. Here are a few of my favorites.

What I learned this week.

I Went to the Park today after about 8 inches of snow fell last night. I learned a few things.
1. Having a camera backpack to carry your lenses, keys, and tripod is awesome.
2. To photograph nature, you have to be patient. I waited for a lot of animals to move to good postions. I had to be stil lso they wouldnt run/hop/fly away.
3. Blurry can be a good thing. If you dont have a certain focal point that needs to be in focus, you can get some really great effects by manually focusing.

I got some great shots but I liked these two! (Sorry Courtney, I couldn't choose!)

Horsetail Falls

I'm trying to finish posting my Seattle pictures, and the last full day of our trip was spent 3 hours south in Portland Oregon. On the way down we took a slight detour along the Columbia River gorge to Horsetail falls. It was a pretty intense hike but the scenery was unreal. Check it out.

Gummy Time

So I think I am behind the curve on this one, but recently I went to the doctor and he told me I was low on Vitamin D (which seems to be the cure for everything now). I take a multi-vitamin on occasion but not regularly.  When I was home for Christmas my mom showed me that she and my dad take gummy vitamins. She was a little overly excited about them, but I went along with her. Verdict? They are AWESOME. I love gummi bears and Haribo and all of those, so I was surprised that the vitamins tasted great! I just bought my first bottle of Gummi-Vitamins and have to admit it was hard to stop myself after the prescribed 2 gummies per day.  Random topic I know, but hey, if you don't know about 'em yet, you heard it here first!

TAUM SAUK TRAIL

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! But before we ring in the new year, there is one last 2010 story to tell. On New Years Eve, Kristen, Chris, Rachel and I went hiking on the Taum Sauk trail in Southern Missouri. There were isolated storms forecasted for later that day but we left a bit early and made the hour and a half drive down to the highest point in Missouri. We drove the back roads and finally got to the trail head.  There were signs that said rugged terrain but we thought, hey, its Missouri, how rough could it be. Basically what it meant was that the trail was a rocky path that led us over boulders and almost tripping over stones. It was a great hike for  the first 2 miles. It was cloudy but the vistas were spectacular. (I know, its Missouri, how great could they be? but trust me, it was pretty great) It started to drizzle but having been hiking out in the Pacific Northwest, its wasn't anything we couldn't handle. We made it to the Mina Sauk Falls, and the rain picked up. We decided to continue the loop back to the car instead of taking a small offshoot to another geologic feature. Then the rain hit. And I mean it hit hard. Within seconds the sky was black, the wind was gusting over 30mph and the rain was so intense we could barely see. The trail became a river and we had to climb up rock that were now waterfalls themselves. Needless to say we were drenched! The photography lesson for the day is to always have a waterproof storage place for your camera. In this case it was inside Chris's coat. The rain picked up and it got loud. We ran. Rachel and I got ahead and Kristen and Chris had fallen behind. We couldn't see more that 30ft. 20 minutes later and a lot of running, Rachel and I made it to the trail head shelter and waited for what seemed like forever for Chris and Kristen. They got there safely, and of course the rain stopped. We changed into any dry clothes Kristen had in the car, and got in the car to find out that Iron County was under tornado warning. We were hiking in a tornado basically. There were like 7 others in the area. Glad to be alive for 2011 but have to say that was an exciting hike. And now for the pics...