Snake Eggs

I was in the middle of a re-organization project when I stumbled across an old gag. I found a little envelope labeled "Rattlesnake Eggs" and it made me smile. All of the memories of me pranking my friends and family came to the surface. A big evil grin spread across my face. I grabbed the video camera, handed it to Larry and called out to the kids. I told them about some snake eggs I found and being the curious little boys that they are (regardless of the potential danger), they wanted to see........

Poor David!

Yesterday the boys had a lot of fun playing at the park with other kids from church. It was a primary activity with lots of fun in the water. They had water gun fights, blew bubbles, played in the sprinkler and ate popsicles. It couldn't be a better day, but then again, it wouldn't be a primary activity without some kind of injury right? One boy split his lip and ended up getting stitches (poor little guy!).

After playing in the water for about an hour, David's hands were really tender - you know that wrinkled soggy feeling on your hands when you've been in the bathtub for too long? Well he decided to play on the park toys and held onto some bars to swing a little bit. I'm sure you might guess what happened to the palms of his hands.... he tore lots of skin off of them. It wasn't enough to make him bleed, but it was a big layer of skin and it has left him pretty raw. I wrapped up his hands in gauze and surgical tape. He also requires lots of TLC so he's been getting plenty of that. I sort of enjoy that he is letting me give him so much attention. Spoon feeding him his oatmeal? That's fine with me! Taking care of business for him in the bathroom.... well I could skip that.

Funny Story

Just a few weeks ago, I got a call from my neighbor who lives in back of us. She started off by saying she wasn't mad, but had to share the story because she was very amused (I'm thinking.... "what did they do now?"). She told me that the boys rang the door bell a few times and ran off. On one occasion, she was ready for them. She opened the door just as they rang the bell and told them not to do that anymore. She also asked them for their phone number. Without thinking, David just blurted our phone number out. I think that he's very proud of his memorization skills so he went into 'robot-mode' and rattled it off. Jared looked at David like he was an idiot and he realized his mistake. Before running off, David quickly added "oh, but don't call it!" Of course, I had a talk with them about ringing door bells and running away, but we all had a good laugh over this one.

Two trips to Yellowstone and a Wedding

On the weekend of the 4th, we headed out to my grandma's house in Ashton, ID. We spent the week up there and had something to do almost every day. It was a lot of fun, we visited Yellowstone twice and were at the Rexburg Temple to see my sister get married.

Tuesday we all hiked Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone. It's a 3.2 mile hike to the top (and of course the same coming down) so that's 6.4 miles total. The boys had their own Camelbacks so they felt like real hikers. I even found a stick along the trail for them to use. We saw many small critters along the way and a coyote. The coyote was just walking along the trail on our way down, I could have reached out to touch it.

















While in Yellowstone, we saw three bears. The traffic was unbelievable around those sightings. We were responsible for one of the traffic jams as I was the first to spot a black bear in the woods. It got a little too close for comfort, but the van was close enough for me to jump in and take more pictures from the window.



We saw a beautiful elk with a nice rack of velvet covered horns, I was only 25 feet away from it so it was a real treat for me. I must have taken 50 photos of it, this was my favorite one.....



At some point during the week, we visited a petting zoo and Larry found a new wild girlfriend.... I caught him during the perfect moment when he was saying, "Ohhhhhhh."

I don't know what it is about animals and Larry, but they love him! This one just leaned into him and he knew just what spots made her turn to putty in his hands.

I had to get up at 5am to get this next shot, it's in Island Park near Swan Lake (it might even be Swan Lake, but I can't be sure). If the sun had come all the way up, then the fog over the water would have disappeared. I saw it on the way up to Yellowstone the day before and wished I had stopped then, but making a special trip by myself was better because I could spend 20 minutes getting the right shots and walking around in the marsh. I took 3 differently exposed photos and turned it into an HDR photo with a special software, here is the result....



Some other random shots around my grandparents' farm.....



Another HDR photo - this is of an old tractor on the farm...


It seems like we go to the Bar J Wrangers in Jackson, WY every year, but I never get tired of the comedy and music. This guy was looking for a person with a camera. When he saw me, he made a face.


And of course, there was my sister's wedding. She married Gnanam from Mauricious (a little island off the coast of Madagascar) and his parents flew all the way here to attend - even though they are not LDS and could not be there for the actual ceremony. They brought sari's from India which they flew there to purchase back in January. I had a lot of fun wearing mine, they certainly are beautiful. Tara wore a wedding sari. I will post a few of her favorite photos....

More Silver Falls....

Both of these are HDR images (I combined 3 differently exposed images with special software). I can't remember the name of this waterfall. I saw other photographers taking pictures of the signs and I now realize they were doing it to keep track of which names belong with which waterfalls. Smart idea! I will have to remember that for next time.



It was a little windy when I was trying to take a photo of the South Falls, but I kind of like the motion blur of the ferns and how they frame the picture.

Silver Falls

Larry and I went to Silver Falls State Park in Oregon with the local photography club. It was amazing! We saw many beautiful waterfalls in perfect weather and enjoyed scenic hikes. I think we hiked about 15 miles total and it was mostly uphill or downhill - rarely level. We are both a little sore, but it was worth it to spend some time alone and capture some amazing photos. Larry earned the nickname "Sherpa" from other photo club members because he was kind enough to haul my heavy camera equipment around on the trails.

This photo an HDR image which means I took 3 differently exposed images and combined them with special software. The effect is cool, it's certainly unlike anything I've ever used. More to come soon!

My adventures....

I recently had the opportunity to take a trip to Toronto again, here are some of the things I did on my days off.....

Niagara Falls has fireworks every Friday, Sunday and holidays during the warm season. This time, the fireworks are real (not photoshopped)





If you can take your eyes off of the amazing water anomaly, you'd see a bustling little town.


These next 5 are at the same place, Casa Loma. It's an incredible castle with secret passages, a rich history and creepy underground tunnels.








This is the view from one of the windows...


I told the boys about a haunted old house, which might not be too far from the truth. I was driving around the country side and decided to take a road which had a sign next to it saying "Warning: road unrefined" and it looked like no one ever used it so I took a chance and drove in a little way. It was like a tunnel, lots of trees all shading the road. A little clearing through the trees revealed a dilapidated old house (completely empty). I had to walk through grass that was almost as tall as I was to get pictures. Here is the front door...


I visited Palmyra and the Sacred Grove, this photo is literally a miracle for me. It had been raining a lot during the first couple of days of my trip and my only chance to go would be Sunday. I checked the weather report and it was raining when I decided to leave. It would take 3-4 hours to get there so I hoped and prayed that there would be a little sun when I got there. Although there were clouds, the sun peaked out for about 45 minutes while I was in the Sacred Grove. I was able to get some amazing pictures. As I was driving off, the clouds rolled in again and it rained again.



And this creepy black dragonfly was amongst a dozen friends when I walked around the corner, but they all flew off. This one might be mentally retarded because it let me get within inches to take as many macro shots as I wanted.

True Love

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.



**sniff** Larry has a mistress. Oh well, I do have my camera... it's only fair. And I can't complain about the steak, it's better than any restaurant we've ever been to.

My birthday boys

Larry and David share a birthday today, I can hardly believe my youngest is 6. What a fun age to be! I feel bad for kids who have birthdays in the summer time because they don't get to celebrate with their classmates in school. I did send cookies to school with him on Tuesday so he wouldn't feel left out.

It's a tradition to take a picture of the birthday boy on his birthday so here are today's shots. David loves the camera so I'm always able to get the sweet shots that I need.





6 things I love about David

*His smile lights up my day
*His playful personality - he loves it when I chase him
*His sense of humor and laugh
*He loves music - I love that he plays his guitar for me and sings his made up songs
*He likes to cook and is interested in helping me, he can almost make his own macaroni and cheese
*He is always concerned for the wellbeing of others around him, it's very sweet

Long overdue

I seem to have blogging phases where I'm on top of it or allow myself to become too busy to post. I need to get better at this as it has been years since I wrote in a journal - this is essentially an online family journal for us. Each year I put a book together and have a hardback printed of the past year's events straight from this blog. Of course, I add things to the real book - details I wouldn't type here for the public.

Here is a picture of Jared on his baptism day with Larry. I forgot my camera (gasp!) when we went to the church so this is the best I have. Jared sure was excited that day and we were happy to be apart of it.