day 13: Last night Ben and I went out to a movie and watched La Vie en Rose, the life story of Edith Piaf which we have been meaning to see for a LONG time! It was a great movie, but so sad that I couldn’t even recover from it enough to go out and take any photos… only this one, which is kind of how I felt… exhausted. So I went to bed.

I’ve been having a lot of fun editing the photos from the family reunion. I’ve gotten a lot of my favorites together in a slideshow that you can see hopefully by clicking the play button below (I hope… if all goes according to plan!) You can also click the slideshow link to see a larger version.

http://www.katyregnier.com/slideshows/reunion/soundslider.swf?size=0&format=txt

day 129: After a hectic weekend followed by a hectic Monday sometimes you just need a little break. Lying on a grassy hill always seems to be just the ticket. Especially when the weather outside is so lovely.

day 128: One of the many family reunion traditions is that on the last day everyone drags themselves out of bed in the early morning and heads out to John’s field (remember, I said earlier that this was small town Kansas and I wasn’t kidding!) to set off model rockets with a truck battery. It’s probably something to do with growing up in a decidedly rocket-free neighborhood, but I’m always afraid that one’s going to run right into me. This year there were technical problems and only one managed to get off the ground before the launch setup was busted. Lucky for me.

day 127: The coolest part of the family reunion every year is seeing how everyone (all fifty plus people) can be traced back as a family to Ben’s grandpa. He had 8 children (one of whom is Ben’s mom) who all had children of their own, and the family reunion has now extended to four generations of people, all brought together because of his grandpa. It’s pretty amazing. Here he is, the man himself! Eighty years old and looking fabulous!

day 126: The first day of the family reunion went pretty smoothly… not much excitement. We got in about dinner time and the massive amounts of eating (typical of the reunion) started right away with dinner and birthday cake for Gabe. Happy Birthday!

day 125 : Ben, Sam and I all hopped a plane to Kansas this evening for the big family reunion. Starting tomorrow night and for the whole weekend I’ll be in the middle of the state, far from any wifi, and possibly unable to post. If I do get a hold of an internet connection I’ll keep updating… if not I’ll have to catch up on Sunday.

day 124: Ben and I were in Santa Monica this evening and in my scouting for good shots I realized we hadn’t been to the pier at all since we moved to LA over a year ago. We headed down and found no less than 6 people with huge SLR cameras… I guess it’s the spot for photographers (or tourists with big cameras). It was a fun opportunity to use my “sniper lens”.

day 123: They sell the weirdest things in the grocery store… light up mini bowling anyone? And yes… that is Ben behind the freezer door. He loves to sneak into my shots. If you’re interested in seeing a truly entertaining photo for today, check out his blog for a great shot of rita playing wii. I wish I could have taken it… but I was on the wrong side of the dog.

day 122: Working from home for the last couple of weeks I haven’t had much occasion to leave the house. Today when Ben got home from work we decided to go for a walk to go out to dinner. LA is definitely not a pedestrian friendly city but there are a couple of places within an hour’s walk that we can get to.