And it's...more tennis

Sorry for the delay in finishing up our second weekend camping trip.

I have been busy sewing Halloween costumes, and I'm still not done yet.

Anyway, let me back up to (not last weekend, but) the weekend before.  On Saturday Caleb played in his first regular draw tennis tournament.  Up to that point, he had been playing in a Round Robin format, which is great for beginners because it means continous play.  For U10 tennis regular draws, there is also a consolation round, which means at least 2 rounds of play.  These tournaments typically last two days, so there is a bit of a time commitment.

 Caleb played a tough opponent in his first round.  And although he didn't win, he played very well.

 I didn't take too many photos because I know he can hear my shutter clicking, and I didn't want to be a distraction to him during a bigger pressure tournament.  After heading out for some lunch, we came back and waited for a court to open up for his consolation round match.

 Madeline was a trooper and let Havi play with her face/head.  They both laughed pretty hard.  It was sweet to watch.

 Havi eventually fell asleep on the blanket we laid out during his second match.  He played very well, even better than the first match.  But it wasn't enough for a win.  Still, we let him know that just two months ago, he came to the very same courts in his first ever tournament and played very differently.  He's come so far in such a short amount of time.  He looked like a completely different player out there this time around- greater confidence and skill set.  Anyway, after the match it was time to pack up and head back to our campsite.

Since Havi had taken such a late nap, she was up late.  I let her play with my iPhone for a little bit.

On Sunday, we hit the beach again, except I wasn't feeling very well at all.  So I didn't take my camera with me.  We had a super great time camping again, though we are looking forward to some camping without tennis just so we can relax a little more.

This past weekend was just tennis, both on Friday and Saturday.  Caleb played in his Friday fun night matches, again mixed doubles.  And on Saturday, he played in a Junior Grand Prix tournament.  This type of tournament is also a Round Robin format.  We thought he was going to play other 8-10 year olds, but it turned out that he was playing against 11 year olds! And he ended up in a three-way tie for first place!  We were so proud of him. And as we were getting ready to leave in the parking lot, he said, with a huge smile on his face, "I'm just so proud of myself!"  I don't think I've ever heard him say that before.  It just melted both my heart and Patrick's.

This weekend coming up will look a lot like the last two.  Friday night will be the last in the Friday night fun night tennis series.  I'm not sure when it will pick back up again.  Caleb really enjoys playing, even if it's doubles.  Then Saturday we will head to my sister's neck of the woods for another Junior Grand Prix tournament over there.  The girls will get to hang out with their cousins while Caleb plays.  And then on Sunday, we have some sweet family coming in from out of town.  We can't wait to get everyone together.

Low-key photography

Last week in my photography class, we were supposed to work on low light shots.  Well, since all the photos taken inside our house are done with low light, that wasn't really stepping outside my comfort zone.  Instead, I decided to give low-key a try.

Here's Caleb watching the Olympics one night, lit by the lamp on the end table.

These next two shots are actually an illusion of low light.  They were taken during the brightest time of day in our living room.  Again, Caleb was watching the Olympics.  I saw the rim of light reflecting off of him and knew I wanted to capture it.

You better believe I'm keeping my eye out for more low-key opportunities.  I had so much fun with these low-key shots.