What Went Wrong?

Saturday was a beautiful day.  We went to the greenbelt and creek area a few blocks from our house with the kids and their scooters.  I shot over 200 pictures with the new camera but was very disappointed with what I found when we got home.  Most of my pictures were over-exposed despite what I thought was a correct reading on the light meter.  Photos with the telephoto lens were grainy.  The decent pictures were general scenery pictures and nothing special.  I did get lucky with a cute picture of Little Boy.

Today I'm going to spend time with my 'Understanding Exposure' book and the new camera and hopefully I will figure out what I did wrong.