The Frame Photography

It has been many years since our family has had professional photos taken.

Recently I had all four of my children home for a few days.  It was wonderful.  Oliver and Kattie and Asher live in San Diego, so to get them here at the same time wasn't easy.  Tyia and Nikki live in our sweet town now, but they aren't off work at the same time, hardly ever, so let me again express how unusual it was that they could all be here at the same time.

So, on that certain day, I brainstormed, and knew we needed to get pictures.

I started calling around to get some prices.  Boy, professional photographers aren't cheap, nor are they spur of the moment.  I posted on Facebook, "help, I want our family photos done, and it has to be today. Does anyone know of someone who is available?"  At that point I was willing to spend the money to get someone.  We were running out of time.

My dear friend, Connie, called me and said she would call around for some referrals.  I was so happy.  Then she called with a couple of names.  So, I jumped for joy and called The Frame Photography.
Bree Anderson was the photographer.  She has a partner, her name is Kacey.  They were darling.  Darling!  And they both dropped what they were doing and met us that evening.

Bree asked me a few questions of what I would like the pictures to look like.  I didn't want the "studio" look.  I like spontaneous, and texture, and "outside of the box". She knew what I was saying.  She gave me a couple of choices for location.  I chose the outside barn look.  There is a big red barn, a really old big red barn, just about a mile from our house.  She has taken photos there before and so we settled on that one.

I texted all my kids with the message. "7:30 pm.  Family photos.  White shirts and jeans." I knew it would be tough.  Nikki works until 7:00 pm on the other side of town, so she would have to hurry.  I layed out a couple of white shirt options for her to try, and she would meet us at the location.

So, we quickly got our clothes picked out, did what we could with our hair, and headed to the location.

During the late afternoon on  that day the wind had been blowing pretty hard.  The western sky was getting dark with big rain clouds.  I said more than one prayer that the weather would hold off for us. As our time for the photo shoot approached the wind calmed down, and the harsh sun was behind the clouds.  The lighting for outdoor pictures was very good.  I said another prayer of Thanks!

We started with Kattie and Asher.  Wow, they looked so beautiful against the red barn, the weathered wood, the tall weeds.  I loved it!  It was just what I wanted.

Then Nikki arrived and we started mixing us up in groups.  We started laughing, and Bree brought the best of us out.  She was so cute and relaxed.  She told us over and over how easy we were to work with and how beautiful our family is.

I wanted to adopt Bree, too.  She was just like one of us. Kacey had to leave early so Bree was on her own.

It was the most fun we had had together in the last few days.  We laughed and helped each other, and really enjoyed it.

I have a big Family Tree Picture that has space around the tree for about a dozen photos.  I am going to fill those spaces with black and white photos, and frame the colored ones to display in my home.
I love everyone of the photos, and Bree made it all the more special.

 The next time you need a photo shoot, I suggest The Frame Photography ~208-757-1686 and talk to  Bree.  You will enjoy the experience as much as the results!

Love,
Me

Family Pictures With A Red Barn

I won't be saying much today.

I am going to let the picture; who is worth a thousand words.

This is the second daughter I gave birth to.  She gave birth to my grandson.

I have four children.

Everyone of them are beautiful adults, who I am so proud of.

I would bet my life that this mommy feels the same about her child.

Yeah, that is a safe statement.

He is darling!

It just doesn't get much better than this.

Like I said, I am so proud of these kids.

We had so much fun!

We laughed, and tried to be ourselves.

And........................

I will share more at another time.

Stayed tuned.

Love, me

Feeding The Baby Adventure

My grandson was here a few weeks ago.
He charges my battery.

He also exhausts me.

But he is worth it.

Meal times with my grandson are really a......"for the birds"........"for the dogs"..... "a hoot ".

Let me show you.......

Zoey is so gentle, as she licks the sticky, grimy, greasy, slobbery fingers.
Zoey eats as much as this guy does.
In fact, all the dogs do.

They gather, waiting............waiting................waiting.

Some of the dogs keep their eyes on the floor.  Just waiting for the tidbits to fall to the ground.  But, if they are really hungry, they put their paws on the legs of that little boy, and lick whatever they find that has landed in his lap.  It is usually a feast.  The bib is just there for show.  It is really not effective against this pack.

This boy doesn't mind the dogs germs.  I think it is more flavoring, a new seasoning, or more moisture to the morsels he is shoveling into his mouth.

The nice thing about this boy, is he doesn't even mind which hand he uses....

Remember, the right hand fed Zoey.  Then the right hand fed the boy.  But, wait, there is more.....

...........the left hand works quite nicely, as well.

He doesn't care.....

Right hand, left hand, both hands, dogs, food, slobbers,.............he is really easy to get along with.

Then he fools the dogs, and drops the food off the other side of the high chair.

They don't care if it is hamburger, sting beans, pasta, they really don't mind.

Left hand, right hand, which one should I use?

Intsy weensy spider climbs up the water spout,
Down came the rain and washed the spider out,
Up came the sun and dried.........

Well, he does THAT, too.

Like I said, He Melts My Heart!

Then he is done!

Finished!

The end of the meal, as far as he is concerned.

.................... Until he discovers the hole in the bar (that is trying to keep him in the high chair one more second....)

Whalla!

I heard him yell, "puppies, come...there is more!"

And the puppies ran, with their toenails sliding on the slick tile flooring, as they tried to abruptly stop under the source of more food.  Which happens to be anywhere near the high chair.

Yep, the puppies were there to scarf up every morsel.

That little boy emptied out the pocket of his bib, dropping each morsel of food through the new hole and the puppies were grateful.

All was good.

And I didn't have to mop the floor.

Kisses and hugs my little man!!
How I love you!!!!

*smack* I kissed you last!

High Water 'Round Here

The past winter we had so much snow!

It snowed until Spring missed it's opportunity to come.  We went from Winter, to Wind, and then Summer.

But, really, that was a good thing.  Because we didn't have Spring, the snow just melted slowly.  That was a blessing.  The snow filled the streams and creeks, and the water management people knew just what to do. 

The Water Management People let most of the water out of the reservoirs and filled the canals and ditches and the Snake River. That makes fishing very poor, just ask DH!  However, it diverted a threat of flooding.

I have showed you some of the "high water" pictures I have taken.
And some of the water fowl on the high water.
I am going to share a few more.

So, sit back and relax, because I am going to show you some more, that I took in the "wind" season.

If you want to get a Coke or a tall glass of H2O, go ahead.
I'll wait.
These pictures may make you thirsty.

And while I wait, I am going to do a bit more editing on a couple of pictures .
I have a wonderful photo, but in the back ground I see two really bright red things.
I don't have a clue what they are, so I am doing away with the red things.
May be a little black and white will get rid of the red.

Oh, hi.
Glad you are back.

On with the show.

Do you know who this is?
She is my first born.
She lives here now.
She is so happy.
Except when I take her picture.

I could be watching The Food Network, but I am glad to be here with you, sharing my life.

The only nice thing about having a season of "Wind" is...........
I am thinking..............
Oh, yeah!
It is because it is too cold to plant our garden, so I can hang out on the banks of the Snake River.

And I am hanging out with people I love.
I have loved them for as long as I can remember.
Loved them with all my heart.

And the bottom of my heart falls out when I see pictures like this.
He doesn't know I took this picture. 
He was looking at the water, and the rapids, and the drift wood, and.....geese.....

And I want to see what he is looking at, too.

I am the luckiest woman in the entire world.
To be loved by this man.............................................
It just doesn't get any better than that.

(He put a new sink and faucet in our kitchen this week.  He has skills!)

Ummm, see that high water in the back ground?
Go ahead and look at it.
For now, I am going to sit on this Bluebird Bench Art Thing with my DH.
You know, the guy I love................
So, ta ta............................................

Bye for now,
T

Old SD Card '10

I came across an old SD card.
I wasn't sure what was on it.
So I opened it up.
It is full of pictures.
One was of the gift I gave Tyia for her birthday.

She got 2 of these little chairs.  I just loved them, and she had a table they would work well with, so they were hers.


However, there a few more random pictures.

Like the day we did corn for the freezer.
That was a fun day with my niece and daughters.

In total we did 50 bags of frozen corn.  Some of it is in my freezer still, and some is in my daughters freezer.

It takes a lot of kernels of corn to fill 50 quart size bags, to put in the freezer.

But some of my favorites are of the time we were at the State Fair.
My youngest grandson was a tiny baby then.
The pictures helped me smell the fair.
The hamburgers, cow manure, sheep, lots of people, dust, flowers, etc.

Yep, this baby was just little then.  He didn't have any teeth, he wasn't eating solid foods, and he thought his mommy was the only one in the world.

And another of my daughters was still hanging out a lot more with her parents, back then.  She was helping in our kitchen, keeping us laughing, and using our driveway.

We looked at all the home grown produce and found a pumpkin which weighed 460 lbs.  Yikes.  Who picked it?  Who loaded it into a truck?  Who had a big enough truck?  How did they get it to the fair?  Who unloaded the pumpkin?

Tyia wanted the answers to all of the questions.

How long did it take the Native Americans to bead this clothing?
Where can I buy some?
Do they still do shoes?

Yes, they "do shoes", or rather moccasins. 

Did you want to buy a pair?

My DH likes to learn things when we go to the fair.
He doesn't just walk around and "look"....

he "studies"!

Some of my favorites are the animals.
I think I should have married a farmer. 

I actually like the smell of a barn, and the warmth of the cows and sheep.
I even like the straw they lay in and the big brown eyes of the cows.

I like to see the bony hips on the girls.....

 
.......and the big brown eyes of the cows......

....and my daughters love to hang out with me in the same places.....

They get a kick out of this stuff, too.

We also like the bunnies.......

Well, I could go on and on, on on on on on on ononnnnnnn

But, it is the middle of July, and we are just 2 months away from the State Fair again.

I am getting my mind ready to decide what foods I am going to eat this year.
Will it be the doughnut burger.....?
Will it be a tiger ear.......?

Will I enter anything in the fair this year????????

But for today, I am enjoy summer, and realizing that fall isn't too far away.

Love for now,
Me

PS.  I just had to share one more picture .....
       have you ever seen a sheep with dread locks/?????????

Makes me wonder what is so special under the blanket?????

ok...

The end.

The Grand Tetons

A few weeks ago DH and I took a drive to Lander, Wyoming.
There is a good reason to go to Lander, Wyoming if your best friend is there.
Dave, who is DH's best friend was there.
Dave and DH were carpool buddies for 30 years in Arizona.
They were buddies before that, when we lived in Idaho, so we went on a drive to see Dave.

From our house to Lander, Wyoming you drive through incredible country.
We passed The Grand Tetons, and drove through Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Even though I was raised in this country, I never get tired of seeing the Teton Mountains.

On a clear day I can see them from where I live.

Here is a zoomed in photo I took as we were leaving to take our ride.

They are HUGE.

When we got close to those magical mountains we stopped and spent about an hour just taking pictures.  The light changed, the shadows of the clouds were creeping across the mountains, and the weather changed.

Like I said, we both took pictures.
DH got into it and really took some fabulous photos.
He has an eye for composition.
But I am only sharing some of my photos....
And he is one of them.
I just want to hug him when I see this!

I'll do that later, first I have to show you some of the sights I enjoyed during that hour.
I took about 105 pictures, so it is hard to pick just a few to show you.

I want you to imagine how high we are.
The air is clean and the oxygen is thinner up here at this elevation.
You can smell the fragrance of the sage brush, and hear the water running near by.

Because of the clean fresh air, the colors are more vibrant.
The sky is indescribably blue.
The clouds are white, gray, pink, purple, and moving constantly in the wind up there.

Within moments the wind carries clouds to the tops of the peaks, and lets them sit there for a few moments, then off they blow and we can see the top of the peaks again.

Remember what the mountains looked like when we left....not a cloud....and it changed quickly while we were there.

Many people who have tried to climb these mountains have been caught in terrible storms on the mountains.  Only real experts even try to climb very high on the Teton Mountains.

Snow is on these mighty mountains all year long.

There are glaciers up here.

I have a favorite spot along this mountain range.

Someone is living there and taking care of my favorite spot until I can live there.

When the run off of snow isn't as bad, the water is crystal clear. 
Fish live there, waiting for me to catch them and eat them.

But for now the river is muddy and and nobody is fishing.

I don't need the fancy cabin.  I would be thrilled with a log exterior, plumbing, and electricity.  It could be one big room for me.  I would make a quilt for the bed, have a wood burning cook stove, and a garden which the deer and elk would eat.  And while they ate my garden I would take their pictures.  And maybe DH would hunt one of them and we would eat it.  That is what you do when you live here.

There are lots of critters who live in this area. 
Moose, elk, deer, badgers, squirrels, coyotes, bison, and many birds.

There is grass for the wild animals to eat.
And a lovely place for a elk to have a picnic.

The Teton Mountains are so high, trees don't grow on the top.
About half way up those mountains those beautiful trees said, "I don't want to go any further."
And they just stopped climbing up.
It is hard for them to breathe, too.

The elk, deer, etc. are really happy the little trees decided to stay lower, where the ground is flatter.
The hunters are glad about that, too.

And the flowers...............they really like it down on the flats, with the sage brush.

With all the moisture from the snow, the late spring thaw, and recent rains, the flowers were growing more than I have ever seen before.

And if you look closely at the lower left photo you will see the bison.
Someone is raising them.
They are good eating!
I love a "buffalo burger"!

I hope you enjoy seeing some of the things I get to see.

I never take for granted the beauty of this earth, and all that God created.

Next time I will show you some pictures I took while we walked through the flowers, sage brush, and squirrel poop.  You will love the little creatures I found hiding in the ground.

See you soon,

Bye.