Simplicity

Simplicity is sort of a 'meh' concept until you find yourself without it one day. I find myself craving more of it as life goes on.

As a kid, I remember coming home after school with my best friend, PJ, and digging holes in the ground so we could sit inside and eat crackers. Profound, right? We would explore the hills of Springville and curiosity would often lead us to do things that probably weren't too bright. There weren't a whole lot of cares or worries back then. My only task was to enjoy life and be the recipient of a family that loved and provided for me. 

I am not trying to romanticize the past, because life right now is pretty amazing for me. I am what you would call a lucky dude. My wife, Amy, is a charming and wonderful human being who lives life with a passion. She is so compassionate and giving, she makes me feel like a selfish little brat. However, life is anything but simple at this moment. There are a lot of things competing for our attention. I realize this isn't a revelation to 99% of you reading this, but our lives are crazier than yours :) haha

My college Spring Break was two weeks ago and I took two day off work to slow down. I met my brother, Tim, for lunch on Friday (something I very rarely have the chance to do) and we caught up on things and talked about big ideas. We ate at Arby's - a place where all of my brothers and sisters worked at one point in their life, including me. Afterwards I made my way to my dad's house to hang out with him. On the way I decided to stop by Tim & Jodi's house to say 'Hi'. Both of my nieces were home and the neighbor girl was over and they were all playing outside. It was a beautiful day and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to act like a kid. 

My youngest niece, Ashtyn, wasted no time in showing off her domain. The first stop was the trampoline. She was pretty pumped about it. Next, the swings. I pushed all three of the girls for about 3 hours or so. Morgan was taunting me by saying her daddy pushed her higher than what I was pushing her. Ashtyn kept wanting to switch between the big swings and her little blue swing. Next, we fed the chickens. She started out by handing single grains to the chickens - she became more generous eventually! After that, we rocked the swings some more. To wrap things up, we climbed into the playhouse and played 'drive-thru'. I ordered a triple Big Mac with sour cream, but they were out of those. Oh, and who could forget to mention Morgan's tendency to just 'appear' in view of the camera looking all posed and beautiful? I'm pretty sure she was thinking, "Who, me?" Jodi and I were cracking up at her. 

Remember simpler days and do one thing to simplify your life. Thanks for reading.

**Slightly Technical**

As always, I had a camera with me and I decided to experiment with the video recording feature that was present on the Nikon D300s that I was renting. I had never played with video on a DSLR and it was very challenging. I think it had something to do with the fact that it was all manual focus and I was shooting with a 50mm f/1.8. I had the lens wide open or near wide open through all of the footage (i.e. shooting at f/1.8).