Hello again - did you miss me?

It's been a few days since my last posting, and with good reason. One of my other pet passions is videography, and I have spent the last three days working on the latest installment of Hill family films. My wife's family makes reunion videos every year, and as a family we dress up, act something out, and put it on DVD to share at the annual reunion. It is good silly fun, but it means that I end up logging late hours editing the thing and can't do anything else.

But, that's done now, and I can get back to updating my blog. Today we went for a family hike up the Cathedral Tree Trail to the Astoria Column. It was our first time, and we really enjoyed it. My four (nearly five) year old was able to hike all 3 miles without needing to be carried or whining! Hooray. And along the way, I took these pictures.

I don't know what this stuff is called (other than moss), but I think I know what J.R.R. Tolkien was thinking when he came up with the character "Treebeard." I like the lens flare - it makes me feel good about myself.


My daughter is choosing which flower to pick for her mom. It doesn't get much better than that.


Curse you MR. Squirrel! You move around too much and even when I do finally hold the camera steady, you twitch and look blurry! ARRRGGGG! Really, I just should have brought my tripod, again.


This is another shot that turned out blurry, but to good effect. I like the way he's looking off into the distance and seems to be wondering if he's doing the right thing.


Ahhh, the column. The second most photographed place in Astoria (I made that up). I liked the cloud pattern in the background, and if you squint at the bottom, you can see my family patiently waiting for me to get done with this foolishness and climb the column with them.

So I did.