Quickies - Random Outings to blog about - ongoing

[Skatchkins]

Went fishing on the Verde Saturday night. Only a couple small cats but great skys on the water and the temps pleasantly suprised me to the point long sleeves would have been appropiate. Couple otters were playing off the shore. Shoulda stayed but church was in the morn so I left around 1.

Couple of standard shots between casts.

[Avis]

Your camera amazes me

[Skatchkins]

Your camera amazes me

Thanks. I wish I had a better one so it wasn't so noisy/grainy (to me) in night shots. That's part of the milky way in the second one.

[Avis]

Well when you buy a new one, I"ll buy your old one lol Seriously though, you take awesome pictures

[offroadaz]

can you turn down the iso to get rid of some of the noise?

pic would still look good a little darker, its almost looks like daylight with stars in the sky

[Skatchkins]

can you turn down the iso to get rid of some of the noise?

Of course but then half the stars wouldn't burn through at less than 20sec to keep them from moving.
The noise is only truly apparent on the large scale pics. A better sensor would eliminate that.

pic would still look good a little darker, its almost looks like daylight with stars in the sky

Beauty of the moon. When it went over the hill I took the same pics but I didn't like them. I wouldn't have posted them if I didn't like them

[Skatchkins]

Went with Bob to the river. Caught a medium sized catfish.
Then went down 11mi wash and saw mice, 3 skunks, hawk, owl, and a bobcat.
We also saw a grapefruit sized frog hopping down the bike lane on Cave Creek.
Thanks Bob

[fatbob309]

I had a great time Mike. Thanks for letting me tag along!

[sweathog]

Every July 4th we head up to Payson to see my wife's grandparents. We've also made a tradition of spending a day at Fossil Creek while we're in the area. It get's pretty crowded, but we've never had trouble finding a place along the water to hang out with just our family, so it's nice and relaxing. The water is beautiful and always refreshing.

We spendt some time at the larger falls so we could get some jumps from the top in. This year was pretty exciting because my 6 year old son, Nathan, decided to jump with us. It was a little nerve racking for me but both my kids are great swimmers, and there's nothing but water to hit below us. So after chatting with the wife we decided that if he wasn't scared, we shouldn't instill that fear in him. So we climbed to the top, practicing how he should hit the water at each clearing. My buddy jumped first so he'd be down there if needed, then it was Nate's turn. I started the 3 count. 1... no sign of backing down 2... he squats down a little in preparation to jump 3... he jumps faster than I can say the word. He flies through the air for seconds that felt like minutes and hits the water just like we practiced. I watch for him to pop up out of the water and he does. All smiles, gives me the thumbs up and I jump down to meet him. It was awesome. I was so proud of him. I expected him to tell me it was fun but that he didn't want to do it again. 10 mins later we were standing on the top together for his second jump.

The rest of the day was spend snacking and hanging out in a secluded area we found on the way out. Then a short hike back to the hot dust road and we called it a day.

on to the pics. sorry they're not skatch quality, my mother-in-law was in charge of the camera.

the falls


my little man jumping off a the waterfall


my turn


show-off


my little sweetie


our hangout spot

[Skatchkins]

This year was pretty exciting because my 6 year old son, Nathan, decided to jump with us. It was a little nerve racking for me but both my kids are great swimmers, and there's nothing but water to hit below us. So after chatting with the wife we decided that if he wasn't scared, we shouldn't instill that fear in him. So we climbed to the top, practicing how he should hit the water at each clearing. My buddy jumped first so he'd be down there if needed, then it was Nate's turn. I started the 3 count. 1... no sign of backing down 2... he squats down a little in preparation to jump 3... he jumps faster than I can say the word. He flies through the air for seconds that felt like minutes and hits the water just like we practiced. I watch for him to pop up out of the water and he does. All smiles, gives me the thumbs up and I jump down to meet him. It was awesome. I was so proud of him. I expected him to tell me it was fun but that he didn't want to do it again. 10 mins later we were standing on the top together for his second jump.

So awesome! Thanks for the story too. Sounds like ya'll had a great time.