Putting Your Pictures Online

If you've been wanting to share your photos on the blog, but weren't quite sure how to do it, here's a brief tutorial:

You can use any website that lets you share photos for free, like Flikr or Photobucket, but Blogger automatically gives you a free Picasa account that is linked to your Blogger account. All you need to do is go to your DASHBOARD on Blogger (This can be done simply by clicking on the orange "B" in the upper left hand corner of the webpage) and go to the very bottom, where you'll see a link that says "Picasa Web Albums" (see picture below). (You can click on any picture if you want to see it better)





This will take you to Picasa. It will ask you to login. Just use the same login that you use for your Blogger account (which is your email address and the password that you created for this account) Once logged in, you want to "upload" photos. Click on the upload button like you see in the picture.

Next, you'll want to "create a new album". Click on the link that says the same.

Type in a title for your album, and any information that you want us to know about it. For example, "Christmas 2009 in St. Louis". After you fill that out, hit "Continue" in the lower right hand corner of the page.

Now you want to add your photos. Click on "Add Photos". Choose the photos you want and click "Upload". If you want to add or remove photos later, you can. Uploading will take a few minutes.

Make sure you know where your photos are that you want to upload. If you saved them to "Pictures" on your computer, then click on that, but if they are on your camera, click on "Computer" and look for your memory stick or SD card.

After uploading, click on "Slideshow". This will show you a slideshow of your album.

While viewing the slideshow, right click on the address bar and select "copy". This lets you copy the address so you can share it on the blog. (I find the link sometimes breaks if you include any information after the word slideshow/ so I don't include it. It's up to you)

Go back to Blogger, and click on "New Post". Type your message and make some words for a link. For example "Click Here for Photos". Highlight that phrase and click on the hyperlink icon (which is a chain next to the "T") Right click in the box where it says URL, and click on "paste" and then click on the OK button. Your link should now take us to your album and pictures. (If your link does not take you to the slideshow, you might want to take out the nunbers after ...slideshow/ in your URL)

Click "Publish Post" if you're finished or "Save Now" if you still have work to do. Now we can all see your pictures.

Christmas '09

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Here's some pics so you can see what you missed in the Lou'.

****Click here for Christmas pics****

Have a good New Year!

Thanksgiving 2009 / Celia's Birthday

******Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving 2009******

and

******Here is a little video of some of the activities******

Hawaii

Hawaii 2009

Leslie and I decided to go to Hawaii for our fifth anniversary. Mostly we stayed in Maui, but we did swing over to Oahu (Honolulu) for a Jack Johnson concert.

****Here's a link to the pictures****

I didn't label all the pictures; I figured I could explain a bit here and you could look at them.

Luau

We started off with a Luau on one of the first nights we were there. It was next to the ocean, and there was a stage where the dancers performed the hula, other Polynesian dances, sang, chanted, and performed native music. Upon entering, we received a lei and a Mai Tai (a nice touch), and because we booked our reservation so early, out table was right in front. As the sun went down over the sea, they began to bring out the food which consisted of four main courses, an appetizer, a dessert, and all you can drink. Each course and performance had a theme paired with one of the Polynesian islands (Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, and New Zealand (Maori)) They brought out so much food each time (plus vegetarian dishes for me), that we could barely eat it all each time. At the end, they capped off the evening with a fire dance which was a pretty cool display of danger and concentration.

Haleakala

Haleakala means "House of the Sun". It is a big, dormant volcano with a crater at the top. We decided to make the trek 10,000 ft. up the mountain. On the way, we saw a lot of different things like free-range cattle that inhabit part of the mountain. Leslie liked the cows, so she took a picture. It got pretty cold up at the top, but the view was amazing. The clouds were below us, and we could see the island of Hawaii in the distance, which is over 100 miles away. Inside the crater, it looked like an alien landscape of barren rock.

When we went back down the mountain, we got some lunch, and I was playing with a wild chameleon. I also included a picture of what the land looks like at the bottom. Maui is big mountains with flat land at the bottom where most of the civilization lives. I snapped a picture of the sugar cane fields with the mountains in the distance.

The Road to Hana

Actually it's called the Hana Highway, but everyone calls it "the road to Hana" I guess because it sounds like a book title or something. The road to Hana is a very, very, very twisty, tricky drive. You cannot drive more than 5-10 mph in most places, and you pretty much have to stay in your lane going around the many hairpin turns in the road because there could be a car coming the other way that you cannot see. On one side of the road is a mountain and on the other side is a cliff that goes all the way to the sea. Getting to Hana really isn't the point of the drive, but rather you're supposed to stop off often at the many beautiful vistas along the way, and revel in the lush and diverse vegetation that spreads out across the mountain.

Along the way, there are people who run little stands and sell fruit juices, tacos, coffee, shaved ice (or as they call it "shave ice"), etc. We stopped, got some juice, took some pictures, and enjoyed the beautiful drive. When I read about the road to Hana, I heard it was so, so beautiful, and I guess when I hear that, I let my imagination run away with me. Don't get me wrong, it was a beautiful drive, but by the descriptions, I imagined some sort of tropical paradise with flowers everywhere and parrots flying all around. It wasn't exactly what I imagined, but there were a lot of different plants, and flowering trees, and fruit that littered the road, vistas of the ocean, and a few waterfalls. It took us over 6 hours to drive 50 miles that day in our white, convertible Mustang.

Beach

The beach was nice. The waters were really calm the first few days we got there, and people were snorkeling. Kaanapali beach is on the west coast of Maui, and in the distance we could look out and see the islands of Lanai and Molokai. It was a nice backdrop looking out at the ocean, and you can see the islands in several of our pictures.

On Thursday, the surf was way up, and all the surfers came out. What we thought would be another relaxing day at the beach turned into an exciting day of watching people surfing. It was an unexpected event to watch on our vacation.

Honolulu

We hopped over to Honolulu for a day to go see Jack Johnson in concert. He was playing a benefit for the Kokua Foundation at the historical Hawaii Theater. The venue was super small -maybe a few hundred people - and made for a great, informal concert.

We saw a bit of Waikiki beach and the main drag in the afternoon. Honolulu definitely has a lot to offer, but seems very busy and crowded, and we were happy to go back to laid-back Maui again.

Kula

The last day we were in Maui, we drove to Kula Botanical Gardens, and I finally got to see the concentration of exotic, tropical flowers that I had imagined before. All kinds of interesting flowers were around every turn, and it was just a beautiful place to be. It was a nice way to wind up the trip before we had to start on our journey back home.

Thoughts

Hawaii was a lot different than I thought it would be. It is such a complex layering of language, culture (both old and new), food, land, and vegetation. It starts to seep into you when you're trying to remember the difference between Kaanapali and Kapalua or street names that are 20 letters long. It is definitely something very different. I thought because it was an American state, it would be just like the U.S., but I came to realize that it was something very unique unto itself.

I left with images of cars that all have surf boards on top of them, and people whose main goal it to go to a beach park, surf, BBQ up some fish, listen to music, and do the same thing the next day.

Everything is a diverse, complex mix - from the people and culture to the many forms of life you can see from the tops of the mountain all the way to the sea.

All these layers form a tapestry and a society that is unlike any other place I have seen before. I went expecting cheesy re-enactments of historical culture and some nice beaches, but was really impressed with the uniqueness of the culture and the relaxed feel of a place where you drive with the top down and enjoy the day.

Mahalo Hawaii - It was fun.

Cable News

We've finally caught up to 1982. The only thing cable we've had up to this point is a cable knit sweater...(but we really didn't have a cable knit sweater) : P

Now we don't have to say, "We don't have cable; I have no clue what you're talking about" in those random TV conversations that we all have. Basically, I got it for the sports - I missed Monday Night Football - and Leslie is delighting in all the new shows she can watch. I have to admit, in the past I gave cable a hard time about being a vast wasteland of channels that I just flipped through until the next half hour, but now there are some interesting shows and channels out there. It's something to kill the time with on lazy, boring days.

The only downside is the cost. I really enjoyed not paying for a cell phone and cable all those years, and now I have two extra bills to pay each month. I guess it's worth it...we'll see.

(P.S. I know "delighting" isn't a verb, so no need to comment on that)

mon & dad

hi guys,

chris just set us up on the blog so we will be able to post our info to all

Puerto Rico

Okay, I'll go first. Leslie and I went to San Juan, Puerto Rico at the end of summer. I got pulled into summer school, so we decided to take a vacation before I had to be back at school again.

It was fun. I was kind of expecting Mexico, but it was completely different. It had more of a Spanish feel, with a teaspoon of USA thrown in. The culture there is very friendly.

Most of what we did was the beach, but we did rent a car and go the rainforest - El Yunque. Thanks to our research on the 'net, we got there very early on a weekday and missed the crowds that take away from the rainforest experience. Nothing but a slight wet feel and nature.

The rainforest is basically a drive up a big mountain with places to get out and go on hikes or look at vistas of prehistoric plants. At one point, there's a big tower. I guess the Spanish put it there so they could see ships approaching the east coast. The fact that it's in the middle of the rainforest and on top of a mountain makes me think it took a lot of effort to build.

Old San Juan was another adventure. It's the old Spanish settlement at the opening of the Bahia de San Juan. The streets are paved in stone - but not rough stone like on Laclede's Landing - and they are very narrow. The architecture is Spanish, and everything is painted brightly. It almost reminded me of New Orleans, but a little bit better well-kept. There's a lot of shopping there, everything from touristy-type stuff to handmade hats and cigars. There are even contemporary stores like Coach and Burberry, and small shops of independent clothing designers.

The Castillo de San Cristobal was a Spanish fort built on a big hill in Old San Juan. We walked around it and saw some really nice views from the top. It was a lot just walking to the top, so again, I couldn't imagine building such a huge, sprawling, stone complex.

The rest of the time, we were at the hotel. The area had more of a neighborhood feel than a tourist area. There was a mix of hotels and condos, so there wasn't a continuous stream of restaurants and bars. There were a few restaurants within walking distance, so we'd stroll down and get some food. The surprising thing was that we never really got Puerto Rican food. We ate Italian, Mexican, Argentinian, etc. I guess this was the American influence on the city. They had a lot of outdoor dining which was nice with the pleasant weather.

It was a really fun vacation, and it was nice to be on the beach again. I was happy to be there, and happy to come home like on every trip. It's nice to have memories of being away.

***Here's a link to some pictures from the trip***

Links to Photos and Videos of Kentucky and Labor Day

Here are some links to the photos I took at the anniversary in KY and Labor Day

Kentucky Anniversary

Labor Day Video '06-'07

Labor Day '09 photos

Welcome to the Mattler Family Blog!

A blog works just like email. Type in your message or story, add photos, and hit "Publish Post". Your post is up for all of us to see!

You can edit your posts at any time, so don't worry if you make a mistake.

"Preview" in the upper right corner lets you see what your post looks like before your publish it.

Clicking the orange "B" in the upper left corner will take you back to your dashboard which will give you options like "edit posts"

Your posts automatically save every minute or so, but if you want to save, hit "Save Now" this doesn't publish your post, however, it just saves it for later.

Comments can be made about posts by clicking on the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post (in case you were wondering)

Play around with it, and you'll feel more comfortable as you go along.

Also, the blog will be private, so only immediate family can see it. No one else on the Internet will be able to see your posts.

(Sometimes spacing screws up, so you have to click on the "Edit HTML" tab and manually put in p and /p in angle brackets)

Enjoy,

cm