White Christmas

Pictures of our property on Christmas morning 2009.

Bailey gets a bath

Here is Dallas helping Kelley give Bailey a bath. Bailey has a "get me out of this tub" look on his face.

New TV

Here is the TV I got for being at Texas Instruments for 25 years. A 42" LCD full 1080p HDTV. The Blue Ray looks fantastic as this shot of Independence Day shows. Movie night at our place as we watch some movies in Blue Ray!

Storm on the horizon

Some pictures taken near sunset with storm clouds on the horizon and my tractor. I like the colors and the suns rays shinning out of the clouds.

Kaboomtown, Addison, Texas 07/03/2009

Here are some pictures from Kaboomtown airshow and fireworks held in Addison, Texas on July 3rd, 2009. They have some great vintage WWII fighter planes that you can see taxing on the top picture and flying in the second. The third picture show some of the fireworks and one of them is of a plane trailing fireworks. They also had stunt planes and a wing walker. It was a great show once again this year.

Cowboys Stadium decor

Jerry went all out on the stadium decor. The first pic shows a Cowboy star light on the ceiling of one of the suites.

The second pic shows grafitti written on a concrete column down in the bowels of the stadium.

The next pic shows one of the service areas with lots of monitors so you don't miss any action.

The next pic shows a football shaped area with lights hanging down to look like laces on a football.

The last pic shows the marble flooring which can be seen in the 3rd pic also. It shows that Jerry was able to find black marble that has Cowboy blue in it.

Tune in tomorrow and I will have pictures from the commercial they were filming when we were there.

Cowboys Stadium from the inside

Ok, the top pic shows the field (they were shooting a comercial). The next pic is looking out of the top deck on one end and shows the end video screen. Next pic shows the 125 foot high doors slighlty opened. The next pic shows one side of the 60yard long video screen made up of many individual screens. These video screens cost 40 million dollars which is 5 million more than the old Cowboys stadium. The last pic shows the retractable roof section.

Some stadium facts:

Seats 100,000

Is the largest domed structure in the world

The arches are more than twice as long as the St. Louis arch.

The brand new Cowboys Stadium

The new Cowboys Stadium is one impressive building. I will give you a tour of it on my blog with separate entries. We will start with this blog entry showing the outside of the stadium. The top pic show the retractable roof section and one end of the two arches that were described as the longest freestanding arches in the world and as long as the Empire state building is tall.

The next pic shows the side and the other end of the arches. You can see the concrete bunkers they go into and from there they are anchored 70 feet down and 170 out from there for support.

The third pic is straight on from the end and shows the waterfall and trees lining the way. You can also see the 125 foot high end doors that are cracked open.

The last pic is the same end and the opposite side and shows the other end of the retractable roof section.

Stay tuned for the pictures from the inside!!

July 4th fireworks

Here is some of the fireworks ready to be shot off at the Anderson's 8th annual July 4th party. We will start with lots of food, friends and family, fun and games. When it gets dark, we will put on a fireworks show that will get the crowd cheering.

A wicked storm approaching

Here is the storm that caused tornado warnings and some damage in the DFW area as it moved through. This one was pretty intense with lots of high winds and lightning along with some heavy rain but no hail. We lost power, DTV and internet for various lengths of time but everyone is ok. That is an ominous looking sky don't you think?

Old wagon in the field

A weather beaten wagon sitting in the tall grass. This is my attempt at an artistic photo. I like the way it turned out. Let me know what you think, thanks.

Sunset yesterday June 1st

This is one of the best things about living where I do now. The sunsets are awesome almost every evening. These shots were all taken during the sunset on Monday evening June 1st 2009.

The Moon revisited

I got some good shots of the moon tonight and was happy with the way this one came out. This one was shot in manual with 1/4 exposure and F16 aperture.

Springtime wildflowers

Springtime brings out all the wildflowers. All of these pictures were taken on our property. In these pictures you can find a bee loaded with pollen, a green bee, a dragonfly and on one of the flowers is a grasshopper. Oh and the berries were just right for eating.

Packmeeting nature hike

Our Packmeeting theme was leave nothing behind and it was about interacting with nature. We held the Packmeeting at Breckenridge Park and the Scouts and their families went on a hike and took pictures of nature. Here is a slideshow of some of the pictures I took.

Ice Ice Baby

Well we did not get much snow this winter but had about five ice storms. Here is a collage of pictures taken after various storms this past winter.

Flight of the bumblebee

I found a bunch of bumblebees flying around my backyard and was able to get some nice shots of them. Enjoy the flight of the bumblebees.

Ace of Cakes

I know you are thinking that there is already a TV show called "the ace of cakes" but let me present you the real ace of cakes. My wife Amy has had the nickname of Ace since she was a little girl. She is very talented as you can see from the pictures of cakes she has made over the past few years. Which one is your favorite?

Lake Lavon

There is a saying in Texas that if you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change. This picture collage shows a boat ramp on Lake Lavon at different times. During 2006 we were having a bad drought. The picture taken in August of 2006 shows a boat ramp with no water anywhere near it. By May 5th of 2007 the lake was back at a normal level after a lot of rain. By the end of May the lake was many feet above normal and by the end of June the water was right at the top of the boat ramp.

Easter Eggs

We just finished coloring Easter eggs. These eggs will be used for "pocking" on Sunday and that is why some have words of encouragement on them. If you don't know what pocking is, ask me and I will explain. It is always a lot of fun.

Red Moon

When I took the dogs out tonight, I saw this red moon up above. I got my camera and snapped a few pictures to share with everyone. About ten minutes after taking this picture, the red was gone. The color was not adjusted on this pic.

Texas Bluebonnets

What makes Texas special in the spring are the bluebonnets. We went to a park near our house to take some pictures with the bluebonnets. I was happy with the pictures I was able to take. Amy and I both took pictures of the kids. If you want to see more of the family photos, make your way over to Amy's blog which is linked in the upper left.

The Iris in bloom

Here is an Iris in bloom from our front yard. A little Photoshop work and the colors of the Iris really stand out.

I give you the moon!

Taking pictures of the moon are a challenge because you have to use manual mode to get the exposure correct. It is also easier to use manual focus to dial that in better. The other month I was surprised to see the moon out in the afternoon. I especially like the center picture that was taken about 4 in the afternoon. The top and bottom center pictures were taken tonight 3/31/09 and the remaining ones were taken in early February of this year. The nice thing about taking pictures when the moon is not full, is that at the border between light and dark, you can see the shadows from the moon craters and that adds to the picture.

Beavers Bend state park in Oklahoma

During spring break we stopped at Beavers Bend state park. As you can see from the collage there are lots of photo opportunities here. We hiked a trail that was about 3 miles and went up and down a number of peaks, it was a challenging hike. The photo showing Tyler, Tim, Tierney, Brayden and I is at the start of the hike. Amy, Dallas and Cady went on a train ride during our hike. The photos looking down on the river were taken on the trail after we climbed up one of the peaks. The views were awesome.

Robbers Cave state park in Oklahoma

We spent a few days at Robbers Cave state park in Oklahoma during spring break. The rock climbing was great and everyone had a lot of fun. The collage above shows a small sample of the pictures I took during this trip.

Sunset

The Texas sunsets from our property are beautiful. Here is the sunset from this evening.

The fight with the bees is over

Here is the aftermath of my fight to evict the bees. This is the end of the couch and the entire inside was honeycomb. I got all the honeycomb out and the couch is loaded up on the trailer ready to haul off. There are still a number of bees buzzing around all of the honeycomb pieces on the ground.

Spring is here

Now that spring is here, the leaves are coming back and everything is turning green. I noticed this cardinal sitting on a tree in my backyard and got a few pictures of him.

The bees part 2

Ok, I now have one end of the hive exposed and as you can see it is very large. The entire end of the couch is bees and honeycomb. The bees are not active this morning because it was only 46 degrees outside. I am still hoping they will find another place to live now that I have exposed their home to the outside. The top picture of a piece of the honeycomb shows some bees ready to come out and some that are still larva.