Precious

One of my friends let me practice taking photos of her 1 month old baby. He was adorable and pretty easy to work with. I learned a lot in the short time he was visiting. I also took pictures of his older sister, they are in my photo blog.

The best things in life are free....

Larry and I went on a date and didn't have to spend a dime! We went on a night shoot. Now that I have my new camera, I keep my old one as a back up or let Larry use it. So we took the cameras, tripod, and headed for the bridges. It was dark out and a bit chilly, but we enjoyed snapping pictures of traffic. I practiced panning - I describe this in better detail on my photo blog. I also got some light streaks and some awesome bridge pictures.



This weekend, I went to Spokane to an event called 'Time Out For Women' and enjoyed myself. On the way home, I saw a train and thought it would be neat to get some pictures up close. I sped up to beat the train to the next turn off and had a little time to set up for some shots. The size of it vibrated the ground around me. It was an adrenaline rush being that close to the train, I could have touched it as it went by. My goal was to get action pictures with a little blur for the motion effect.



While I was in Spokane, I was able to catch a little of the St. Patricks Day parade, it was like any other parade so it wasn't anything exciting. I did wander off near the convention center and this friendly seagull let me take pictures. I thought the spots on it's tail were pretty.

Distracted Monday

I had every intention of doing a kind deed for my grandpa by boiling his combs, he complained last night that he couldn't get the gunk out of them. So I stuck them in a small pan of boiling water and got distracted. My head is still swimming from a cold and my nose is stuffed up so I couldn't smell anything. David came to tell me that there was a fire and I ran upstairs to a smoke filled kitchen and a small fire in the pan. So I started it this time.

The good news is that the gunk is gone. The bad news.... ash is all that's left of the 2 combs.

Where I've been.....

I just updated my picture blogs so if you'd like to see what I've been up to with my business, then please visit my photo blog to see some of my favorites.

I got a new camera body this weekend so I'm excited for the possibilities. It has more bells and whistles which are perfect for what I wand to do with it. Here are the first two pictures I took (of course, it was of my boys).....




They look so innocent, don't they?

Busy as a Bee!

This weekend was pretty busy. Larry went to Portland to visit family and be a part of my new niece's baby blessing. While he was there, his dad and brother-in-law went up to our old house to do some work. It was VERY nice of them to help Larry out. We've fulfilled our end of the bargain with our buyer and we're hoping it will be smooth sailing to the closing date. I can't wait to say it's officially sold!

I had 2 weddings to photograph, one was actually just the reception, but I drove for more than an hour to get there so it took up just as much time. I was invited to do that with Misty, who photographs a lot of weddings. It was awesome to meet her and learn from her. I also attended a photography class by Jim Worgull, a friend and co-worker of my dad; he is a gifted photographer and it was a pleasure to meet him.

All of this and the boys are coughing up a lung. Poor fellas!

Field Trip & David in a Box

Jared went on a field trip to a local news station to learn about the weather, he had lots of fun asking questions about the gadgets all around him. He now thinks the weather guy controls the weather. At one point, the kids got to choose what the weather was going to be like in the region. All I can say is, it's a good thing they can't control the weather because they chose a tornado, snow storm and hurricane. Here's a screen shot of what they did:

Here's the class with the weather guy:

They also got to do a little video which was fun for them. It didn't go on the air, but was found on the news website. If you can't tell which one is Jared, he's the one with the red bandaid who can't stand still.

And last, but not least.... David loves to play in boxes. Eventually, he cut a door and window into this one and cried when I had to throw his "house" away - it was in pretty bad shape after a week of hard playing.

No worries, we'll build a new house if everything works out with the one in Tacoma.

Stitches

Jared met a pole, it made quite an impression on him. I don't think Jared was impressed enough to spend any more time with it, though.

At least the stitches were a manly blue :)

It took 3 of us to hold him down for the doctor, he wasn't very excited about a numbing shot or the stitches. But hey, at least he will have a matching scar on the other eyebrow. See? There's always a bright side.

More pictures from Arizona

The night after James's funeral, I went out with my MOFia friends. We went to Dave & Busters in Tempe, it is like a Chuck E Cheese for adults. We had fun and laughed about a tree I found in Mesa near the Temple..... and you'll see why.

Here are the party girls....



My grandpa and I met with my aunt, uncle, cousins and their grandma at the Texas Roadhouse. Their grandma's birthday was very recent so she rode the saddle and got a Texas "yeee ha" from everyone around her. It was a blast.

Back from Arizona

It was nice to visit with my cousins and Aunt after nearly 20 years. I've found that our families have a lot in common. James liked a lot of the same things as some of my siblings and after getting to know him through family and friends, I truly felt the sting of his death. My comfort is knowing I will see him again. While I was in Arizona, I found out that my mom's best friend and dear friend of my family, Michelle Dunn, has passed away. I was just at Michelle's house about 3 weeks ago getting my pants altered, I sat in her living room and listened to her tell me about her girls and her faith. She is a wonderful person and we will miss her!

Here are some pictures I took in Arizona.....

I used to live in this house in Phoenix from 1985 to 1990, they've done a lot of landscaping, they yard looks much better now than it did. I'm glad they removed a certain cactus, I got pushed into it a few times by neighborhood kids so I hated it.


Mesa Temple, very pretty at night


Crater Lake in Oregon - it was clear as we flew over it, I was lucky to see it.


The funeral

I'm flying to Arizona

My grandpa and I are leaving Thursday for Arizona (he lives with my parents now). My cousin, James, died in a car accident on Saturday. I didn't know him at all, we haven't spoken in nearly 20 years and I feel bad about not keeping in touch. James's dad just died last month so this is a double tragedy, although it is more shocking to lose James at the young age of 25. If anything, this is a lesson that life is too short and that we should not let years go by without getting to know our relatives.