JasonBayer.com

September 23rd was my youngest daughter Olivia’s 4th Birthday!  We started off the day taking some photos before school when the sun was just right down by a lake in our neighborhood.  After celebrating her birthday at pre-school, Jess & I took her out to First Watch (imagine that!) for a nice birthday lunch of chocolate-chip pancakes, Yum!  In the evening, Noni had us over for a Princess Birthday Party, complete with a Barbie Princess Cake! I really enjoyed getting to spend the greater part of the day with her; she was so excited that it was her birthday!  You can check out the complete gallery of Olivia’s Birthday Photos by clicking here.

I’m off to the Great Smokey Mountains & Gatlinburg, TN to attend a weekend retreat called “High in the Smokies”, which is an annual weekend of “caring, sharing, growth and serenity” for recovering people (AA, ACA, Al-Anon, CoDA, etc.) and their families. I’m looking forward to meeting some new friends and spending some quality time with my family, as well as the Saturday hike to the top of the mountain! I know the kids are excited about hanging out at the pool and hopefully just having some fun in the great outdoors… there are also going to be kids there around their ages so that should be cool! It should be interesting as we’re definitely stepping outside of our comfort zone as far as vacations are concerned, but I’m open to the uncertainty of the trip as I know that everything will work out fine. Before, I sign off for the week—enjoy a couple of my favorite photos from our last trip to the Great Smokies in the fall of 2007… hopefully, I’ll have plenty more to post when I return. Have a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend! Peace!

About a week ago, I purchased the new Nikon D300 D-SLR camera as I decided it was time to step up from my aging Nikon D70 and start to get serious about this photography career. Unfortunately, I was sick last week and the weather was terrible so I didn’t get a chance to go out and shoot until my son Bailey’s soccer game on Saturday. Feel free to check out my first images with this camera and let me know what you think! Click here to view the complete set on Flickr.

So this weekend saw the largest amount of snow fall in the Cincinnati region in a long time. We received over 12″ of the fluffy white stuff at our house in Villa Hills, KY. Of course, this made for a fun, creative photo opportunity with the kids. So we ventured outside during the afternoon on Saturday while the snow was still pounding and made the most of it! Click here to view the entire photo set on my Flickr site.