Thursday, August 27, 2009

Las Vegas Baby - ok so it was for photography classes

So after photographing on the Green River, Tyler and I arrived home in time for me to wash everything and re-pack for my trip to Las Vegas for Skip's Summer School - a 4 day and very intense 8 am to 10 pm photography school. I really learned a lot, but missed the speaker I most wanted to hear. I spent the evening in the ER. We went to a place to grab dinner (I brought breakfast and lunch foods and snacks because of my food allergies - but without a place to cook my own food, I wasn't about to try dinner that way as well.) Anyway, I ordered a milkshake and asked them to make it a plain chocolate milkshake sans wheat/malt/ etc. Didn't happen and I went into anaphalactic shock and had be rushed to the ER. I couldn't swallow and it was so painful. Then I got so sick to my stomach from the shot of benedryl from the paramedics. And I was mortified to be surround by security in the middle of a busy restaurant - especially when I started to cry. Anyway, my roomie and new found friend Nancy stayed by my side even though I urged her to go to class. She was a true example of the Savior. I now carry epi-pens with me where ever I go, because if it can happen to me - it probably will. My goal is to keep it from happening whenever possible.

Needless to say, I found my reason for photographing again. I lost it somewhere about 4 years ago when my health became a challenge. I am slowly making progress on it and I am so excited I could jump out of my skin. It's going to be good. I'll keep you posted!

So here I am with my awesome Uncle Tony Dude who gave me a priesthood blessing in the ER. I couldn't be more grateful!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

All sorts of NEW things

And we have a new pet. My 3 year old took this photo right after I cleaned the fish tank. The walls are covered with bubbles. But you get the idea. It's a blue and red beta. I'll have to share my daughter's drawing of her fish. It was more expensive but cleaner than a gold fish for sure. She is good about feeding him. So far I like this fur-less pet.



And my son started preschool today. I ran some errands while he was there and I kept checking in the backseat to see how he was doing. There was a hint of relief mingled with a hint of panic. He is my baby. What can I say?


So my daughter started another school year. They really do grow up so fast.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Catching up - Green River trip

first of all, if you have a business, don't be afraid to ask a photographer if they'll photograph it for you. Professional images for your brochure, website, etc really go a long way with people. And it's surprisingly more affordable than you think. Sometimes we'll even photograph your business for trade. We completely enjoyed our trip to the Green River to photograph Dave Hardy's fly fishing drift boat business. My dad, who is an avid fly fisherman, sat here at my computer tonight just drooling.

I'll post more later, but here a few. We photographed mostly for Dave, but we were the 'models' so to speak which is funny because Tyler had never picked up a fly rod before in his life. Guess who caught the most fish?

Can I blame it on the fact that I was recovering from pneumonia and taking lortab at the time??? probably not...

But I think I've talked my Dad into giving us a few lessons so we can go again.












Thursday, August 20, 2009

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Willard Peak

I wasn't up to much after the county fair and so Tyler drove us up to Inspiration Point. I am recovering from pneumonia and still have no voice. He hiked after these Mountain Goats after we parked the Jeep. Tyler is an amazing hiker. His lungs can handle just about anything. He amazes me. Afterward we looked up mountain goats on the internet. Let's just say I'm glad he didn't get too close! I LOVE the photo with the baby goat in it!

Friday, August 07, 2009

Cache County Fair



Today we met Tyler at his office and ate sandwiches, apples, and cheese. Then we loaded up the Jeep and drove over to the Cache County Fair. Haeley had entered 2 photos (children can enter 2 - adults can enter 3) and Tyler and I both entered 3. I really wanted Haeley to win 2nd place or higher and so I was so nervous walking to the Art Exhibit. Let's just say that the judges are usually art judges and not photographers. Haeley about jumped out of her skin when she saw that the photo I took of her received Best of Show. I started talking about her sunflower one and this cute little old lady standing there got the biggest grin on her face and told her where to find it and that she was going to love her ribbon. So we ran back there and WOW! Best of SHOW!!! Haeley got Best of Show on her photo too! Tyler got 3rd place on all 3 of his photos - which really is my fault. He couldn't decide which pics, so I ordered them all in 5x7 and stuck them behind glass. As discovered today to win the PRO division you have to go with a matte spray and no glass and larger- which is also why one of mine did not place at all. It just looks more professional without the glare from the glass and typically larger sizes place higher. The only problem is that they want standard sizes no larger than 16x20. So guess what? We want to sell large prints so we order large examples. And truth be told a 16x20 is small. I did the photo of Haeley as 16x20 because it would fit a frame in her room and it's a close up of just Haeley. We did Haeley's sunflower as an 11x14. It was super fun to see her so excited! After that we went to see Erin at the Sheriff's booth and she gave them both stickers and pencils. Then we went to see Angie's daughter's lamb and 4-H blanket entry -congrats to Arissa! Her blanket is going to state and her lamb did extremely well. Congrats to Grandma Sharla on her 1st place win with her delicious butter horns! I rode on the Ferris Wheel with Haeley and Coleton. I've never been on a ferris wheel before. It was kind of cool (now I'm regretting not riding it Chicago) and my little ones loved it! Got some fun pictures. And last of all we took a drive up to Willard Peak tonight after dinner. Love having a vehicle that will get us up those rough roads. We handed Haeley the camera a few times too. We really need to do that more often. I'll post those later!

Monday, August 03, 2009

My garden ... what a blessing

HK shelled all of those peas. Some of them were extra big - oops. The smaller they are the better they taste. On Saturday I sat on one end of the table with HK at the other end. I worked on snapping the ends of all the beans I picked. I picked 3 and a half pounds (1600 grams) of bean that morning. They are just starting to reach the right size for picking. HK and I enjoyed an hour of talking and working together. She actually worked the entire hour. She is learning that being provident is an important life skill that is very rewarding. She dropped a few peas and we talked about being careful and how every pea counts. One pea may not seem like much, but it adds up. Just like one row of peas doesn't really amount to much (may be a $1.50 worth or one bag of peas from the store) but when you take into consideration the corn, peas, snow peas, red and yukon gold potatoes, red, green, and walla walla onions, squash and zucchini, cucumbers, roma, plum, and big beef tomatoes, basil, lavender, cabbage, carrots, spinach, and four types of pumpkins - well, it adds up. It's so worth the work!

Here you can see the shelled peas, the always out of control zucchini plants, my red onions (I'm going to have to plant some more spinach so I can enjoy my red onion/spinach/feta cheese/bacon salad.), and my genovese basil plants. I found that the basil did better planted right in the ground, rather than trying to transplant it.


Here you can see the 1600 grams of green beans, my best cucumber plant, the beautiful white blossoms of the jalapeno plant and an up close view of the basil's curly leaves.



Our first crook neck squash! And the sun setting near the mountains (I was messing around with manual mode). We may or may not have a jack-o-lantern pumpkin this year - but at least there is hope with this little guy showing up FINALLY! And I forgot to delete some of the photos but this is the echinacia I bought on clearance - it's a perennial, so next year it should look a million times better.


The corn silk is just now showing up, as well as the tassles. Again, playing with my camera settings - low f-stop of 4 something. Walla Walla onion - I never saw this on my yellow onions last year. Can you say SALSA?

Again I forgot to delete some of these but I love the view from the upper section of my backyard.


Carrots and grass clippings, a baby Spirit Bush pumpkin, three baby Pumpkimons, and looking west over my garden.


9 half rows of green bean plants, the last of my snow peas, finally a sweet slice cucumber, and the ultra amazing cone flowers (all things denote there is a God - I so believe it when I see beauty in nature)


Squash plant, two pics of our out of control lemon thyme (want some? it transplants easily) it's just over taking my rock stairs. And last but not least - Roma Tomatoes! Every branch is loaded like this. Again: SALSA time is just right around the corner!