Practicing Photographer

I really like taking pictures. 

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don't need to have a fancy camera to practice taking pictures. If I practice now, then when I do get a fancy camera, I'll be ready.

But it's harder than it looks. Photography has quickly become my I-wish-I-could-do-that-but-don't-feel-like-I-ever-will-be-able-to hobby.
I don't really care, though, because it's so fun.

So here are some pictures I took of the festivities two weekends ago, when I took a few friends with me to stay at my parents' house for the weekend. It also happened to be my dad's birthday. And my grandparents were visiting from Illinois. Needless to say, there was a lot going on.

My mom made Texas sheet cake, and we lit 52 candles in honor of my dad.

Then, everyone gathered around to cut the cake and pile on homemade ice cream that my grandparents made. And homemade hot fudge. My great-grandma's recipe.

That same weekend we took a trip to the JFK assassination museum in Dallas. My brother stood in the road, right where the X is that marks the fatal shot (seriously; there's literally a taped X on the pavement), to take a picture of the School Book Depository. From the car honks, it appeared the locals weren't too happy with tourists running into the middle of the street.

On Sunday afternoon before we left, my mom made enchiladas for lunch. Pretty sure I wanted to eat the entire dish.

And then my mom made us take a family photo. It took longer than expected to get us together. After finally getting an arrangement that worked for six people, we're going to have to figure out how to make seven work--since Jordan's officially part of the family now.

 So that was my Texas weekend. A lot of fun...and some good photo-taking opportunities.

And though this is not related in any way to the previous events, I really have to tell you about the most amazing pizza ever. I've been searching for a good pizza dough recipe that sounded good, and yesterday I found one buried inside a cookbook Jordan bought me. So I made the dough and then went to the store and bought some squash and zucchini to add to our other toppings: sausage, pepperoni, garlic, onion, and mozzarella cheese.

It. was. delicious.

The kind of delicious where you can't decide whether you want to eat it quickly so you can immediately get seconds or slowly so you can savor every bite.

I chose the former, mostly because I didn't want Jordan to get seconds before me.

I'm selfish like that.

{Also, I finished a few scrapbook pages over the weekend. Check them out here.}