Feeling Better, Smarter, Friendly, and Adventurous

First, I am feeling better. I found myself hugging Kleenex, coughing,feeling weak after a few steps, and laying around a bunch for about a week. I picked up one of those seasonal bugs. Haven't dealt with a lingering cold/sinus infection like that in nearly 3 years.

That put me on sign-in table duty on a Saturday morning for Birds & Breakfast - an event we hosted over Valentine's Day weekend. I enjoyed greeting everyone in the morning and kept my hands away from the food. haha

We even had some kids join in on some of the birding. A few of these girls actually came back another day with their mom and some friends to show them some of the cool things they saw and did.

Second, I am feeling smarter. With the Birds & Breakfast event, we took some Avian Adventure Tours while participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count. I rode along a couple times working with Bill our expert birder volunteer from the Loess Hills Audubon Society. That's him on the right in this photo.

Third, I am feeling pretty friendly thanks to some good friends being in town this past weekend. We spent quite a bit of the night playing some board games, which we LOVE to do! We also took some fun photos including a few "family portraits".

I gave them a grand tour of the Park and talked about what I do here. We even went on a short nature walk despite the rather chilly temperatures.

They also enjoyed some of the friendly animal encounters inside the Education Center.

These photos remind me that I had the best hands-on critter programs I have led yet at the park that Saturday morning before my friends arrived. I had a nice size group of 9 children and 9 adults. They did a good job of listening, not crowding too much, being engaged, and asking questions. This is the sort of thing that makes you feel good. The other two programs I offered that day including a nature walk, involved 7 attendees, and we had a blast!

One more nice photo of the friends group that spent a night in one of the park's cabins with me. We made a stop at the Three-State Overlook, where it was looking  rather picturesque on that Sunday morning.

I had been feeling rather adventurous before I got sick, and I'm getting back into it.

There was one whole week where I went on an outdoor walk everyday at lunch. That was pretty nice! Gotta keep taking more advantage of where I am at.

One February afternoon after clocking out, I went on a hike. This tree caught my eye. Does it not remind you of a headless man with a collared shirt?

This is photo that I took from way down on the ground of the Nebraska prairie. While Ponca is mostly hilly and forested, grassland prairie is also in the mix.

On my Monday off, which wasn't quite as cold as other days had been, I chose to embark on a hike of the longest trail at the park. While I made some stops along the way to enjoy the view, I was out for nearly 2 hours.

Took note of some tracks below my feet, and I plan on using this photo in an upcoming program.

I spent quite a bit of time sitting at this spot overlooking the river amid my hike. In my opinion, this is one of the best views of the river from the park. I had to sit and enjoy it. Then, I could hear some screeching in the distance, so I watched a few Bald Eagles soar around for a while. It was pretty cool. While I didn't have my handy dandy binoculars or telephoto lens, it was still very cool to watch, listen, and enjoy.

Finally, something just for fun. I must mention that I see the trend of straight-legged pants being back in style. I have owned several pairs of boot cut jeans and have had a few sets of straight-legged along the way. They're not so bad. :-)

However, if they ever try to bring back the pleated pants, I will run in the other direction. Hope that last comment brings a smile to your face. Have a pleasant day, everyone!

I Enjoy Taking Photos

From time to time, I enjoy not being the one behind the camera. During our Winterfest event at the park after Christmas, I was a bit preoccupied with other duties to be taking any photos. One of which included me dressing up as Queen Elsa to serve as the Queen of the National Fruit Cake Fling.

I enjoy how the perspective of a photo can make it seem like something else may have been going on. Here, I look like I am singing, when in fact I was really only speaking as the emcee throughout the competition.

I enjoy a good black and white photograph. Karena and I set the timer for a few on a enjoyable Saturday morning.

I enjoy a photograph showing two friends together. It's always nice to have a great friend pay you a visit at your new home. Karena spent a Friday night and Saturday morning up in Ponca before we got together with a group of friends in Sioux City.

I enjoy a group photo that shows you how many college friends you got together after a while, plus the additions to the group since leaving school. We had a fun friend gathering for Christmas and New Year's. It's always great to get a group together and enjoy one another's company like no time has passed since the last time we were together.

I enjoy capturing the energy on the face of a girl who is running around participating in my photo scavenger hunt on a Saturday.

I enjoy photographing families who work on projects together. Some guests that were up at the park for a family reunion participated in the activities I led that Saturday.

I enjoy photographing people that don’t mind showing any side in the picture.

I enjoy snapping a photo of a masterpiece that a boy worked on during my scrapbook program at the park.

I enjoy sharing some photos with the world. The National Park of American Samoa has a Traveling Park shirt project on their social media pages. If you own one of their awesome green t-shirts, they ask for submissions wearing the shirt at any location. I finally used some Christmas gift money to purchase a shirt for myself. I am still great friends with some of the Park Rangers down there. This was my first Traveling Park Shirt submission:

I enjoy getting up close with my lens in nature. I love how you can see some frozen droplets within the icicle on this bud of a Wahoo shrub.

I enjoy attempting to capture the beauty of various sunrises and sunsets. Two of my favorite things, and I couldn’t help but walk out the door when I noticed this beauty of a sky on Friday evening. Good thing I went out when I did, as the sky changes so quickly.

I enjoy gaining a sense of motion in some of my photos. Here you can see women stretching as they were instructed at the beginning of an opening speech at Women’s Wellness Weekend at the park.

I enjoy noticing great expressions in photographs I take, like these of enjoyment on the faces of these ladies in a Zumba session. I LOVE Zumba. Felt so good to jump in on that one, and I even knew the steps to one number thanks to my awesome class in American Samoa from 2 years ago.

I enjoy capturing the calmness of some activities, as you can sense in this photo of a yoga session.

I enjoy photographing from different angles, like framing this photo from across the table during an aromatherapy class.

I enjoy the sense of where you are at and the conditions on any given day in a photograph. You can notice how the wind is blowing pretty strongly in this photo as we headed down to the riverfront to do some bird scouting.

I enjoy capturing what a moment was all about. You will notice in this photo that I focused out in the distance with the person in the foreground with binoculars is out of focus. In this moment, many of the ladies on our tour were elated to be seeing a bald eagle soaring in the distance. Look for the thin shape just to the right of tallest tree in this frame. That was the moment.

I enjoy playing with light. We put together these awesome ice lights for our night hike during Women’s Wellness Weekend.

I enjoy capturing movement, which you can tell is happening in this photo as the ladies hiking up the hill are blurred.

I enjoy a focal point in a photo. What an interesting sight it was for others to see me hiking back up the hill with this glowing sack as I had gathered the lights on our way back out.

Hope you all have a great week and are enjoying the warmer winter temperatures!

Refreshing Time

While this time of year can seem busy at times, it is always nice to enjoy the refreshing parts.

 

Like the cousins dogpiling on your brother on a Sunday family Christmas.

Not to mention the looks on some of their faces.

A time when you can gather the entire family. Not a single one of the Wingerts was missing that Sunday.

A time to really notice how much your "little cousin" has grown up.

A time to enjoy a bit of the beauty of snowfall. I was asked to take some promotional photos around the park. Here are some of my favorites:

This is my absolute favorite from the favorites that day. It gives you a real sense of where we are at.

A time to see one of the newset members of the family be the center of attention in all her cuteness.

Christmas is a great time to enjoy hanging out in a great dress.

A time to see how all grown up we are all getting. We had most of the Boschen crew on Christmas Eve.

A time to put on an elf hat and smile with the Santa baby.

 

A refreshing time to partake in a First Day Hike. I led a group of 14 people on a 1.3 mile hike to kickstart 2015. The first day hike initiative is put on by the American Hiking Society.

A time to enjoy a beautiful crisp day along a trail in the woods.

A time to make memories with your family. There were 4 diferent groups of families on the hike I led on New Year's Day.

A time to stop and think about how refreshing that mildly crisp hike was.

A time to enjoy where we are at. Here is the First Day Hike group at Ponca State Park:

Hope you all have a great start to the new year. Enjoy some of the refreshing moments, and keep smiling. :-)