Flora

We were out walking around the property a little bit this evening and I decided to take along my camera. I saw some interesting wild plants and flowers, so I thought I'd play with the close-up mode on my camera a little. Then I thought it might be fun to take pictures of all the different flowers around our house. We have some beauties! Some are just growing wild and others along the front were planted there (not by us). They are all so pretty (and a couple are pretty prickly too) -- enjoy!

This first set were all growing wild out in the fields:

A big patch of sunflowers blowing in the wind!


This next group are the ones planted in the areas around the front and side of the house:


The bees love this strong-smelling lavender bush (not sure if that is officially what it is, but that's what it smells like!)


Courtney was the first to notice that these purple flowers are "closed" up most of the day and open up a lot more in the evening hours.

I have no idea what these red and yellow flowers are, but I think they are so neat!

And I'll end with a picture of the sky as it was getting close to sunset:

What a beautiful world Heavenly Father has given us!

Ant Invasion

Our friendly neighborhood winged ants are back (again). This afternoon, I came home from taking McKay to the eye doctor (he's finally getting new glasses) and looked out on the back patio to see the swarms of ants EVERYWHERE. They went all around the patio to the side by the kitchen -- they were on the concrete, in the landscaped area, all over the railroad ties (that create a "border" for the landscaping, all over the roof, in the grass, flying all around, EVERYWHERE!

I'm pretty sure this is some kind of mating thing -- and it always seems to happen a few days after it rains. We apparently have a "nest" of these ants somewhere nearby that they are coming out of. The last time we had a big ant problem (4th of July), they were mostly dead when we found them. Today, they were very much alive -- moving all over, so much that you could hear a buzzing sound when you went outside.

Even though I have a big "yuck" factor with these ants, I did venture outside with my zoom lens to try taking some pictures of them along the railroad ties.

Fortunately, I only found a handful inside the house today. I can handle them better when they stay outside. I just keep thinking that surely their mating season is over by now so these swarms will just go away.

Snake Story

The girls came running inside this morning screaming that there was a snake. We have been told there are rattlesnakes around here, so they know (hopefully) to be careful about snakes and not pick them up like they do the turtles.

We all went out and spotted the snake hiding in a bush off our patio:

It appeared to be about 4 feet long. We didn't know what kind it was so Brian decided to take a shovel to it (sorry if there are any snake lovers out there).

After the poor snake was gone, we put it in a box and tried to figure out what kind it was. Brian even took it down to the apartments to see if anyone there knew. The general consensus was that it was a basic garden snake (I think) and not poisionous. In fact, one of the apartment workers who is from Korea (I think) asked if she could have the snake so she could cook it up to eat! (And yes, she did take it home with her!)

A Few Weekend Shots

I've been taking more pictures this weekend. Our challenge was to take pictures inspired by the word "blue" (in any sense it inspired us). Here are a couple of the ones I took:

I also tried taking one of the homemade rootbeer we made after we added dry ice:

And, I decided to post my sunrise picture for my class instructor to critique to see how it could have been improved. This was her comment:

When your camera's meter is reading a scene like this, it sees a lot of light and a lot of dark. It tries to find a happy medium. Since there was more light than dark, it exposed it to have it darker than maybe it truly was. I think the colors are beautiful. Try cropping out about half of that dark bottom and see how you like it. You hit the rule of thirds perfectly here but I think a more severe crop may make this more dramatic. It really is beautiful.

So I tried her cropping suggestion, and I do quite like the results. What do you think?

I also decided to upload my double rainbow picture as my second picture this week because I'd really like to know how that could have turned out better and brighter.

In other news, Julie & John and their two boys are still here with us (they've been here since last Tuesday, I think). John's been doing some work at the apartments and Julie's been helping me shop and decorate. We got some new bedding for our bed (bought some local and ordered some online) -- I am so excited to see it all put together! I'll be sure to put some pictures up. We also finally hung a few pictures up on the wall today.

And, our dining room table and chairs arrived -- hooray! I love the table and the extra room! (Picture coming soon.)

Finally, Brian and I both got callings in our ward today. I was called as a "Primary Worker," specifically for now to play the piano and possibly fill in to teach as needed. I am totally happy behind the piano and Courtney & Hayley went into Primary easier today (i.e. only a few tears instead of many) because I was going to stay in there. Brian got called to be one of the Elder's Quroum instructors (switching off with another teacher). He also got asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting next week!

It's going to be a busy Monday tomorrow -- cleaning, swimming lessons, errands and more! Have a great week!

Sunrise

I rolled over in bed this morning to have some bright light make me open my eyes -- I looked out the windows of our bedroom (in the "sitting area") and saw the most beautiful clouds with the light hitting them just right. It was enough to wake me up and I wondered if I could take a picture of them, they were so pretty. (See, there's my photography class at work already!)

So I got out of bed (no one else was up yet) and got my camera and stepped out on the patio off the kitchen. The sun was just barely peeking up over the horizon. It wasn't the same angle as I saw out the bedroom, but I tried taking a picture:

The picture makes it look a lot darker than it really was. It doesn't do it justice! I'm wishing I already knew about all my camera settings so I could have known what would have made it turn out better. I suppose there will be lots more sunrises to photograph!

Photography 101

I'm so excited today to be starting an online photography class (called, appropriately, "Photography 101") from Big Picture Scrapbooking (a Web site started by my friend Stacy who I worked with on a couple of books projects ages ago).

As you might know, I'm not really a "scrapbooker" anymore, but I happened to hear about this class before enrollment opened, so I marked it on my calendar and got signed up the morning it was open (and a good thing, too, since the class was full later that same day).

The class runs for 10 weeks and is taught by Barbara Carroll, a professional photographer. She gives a handout/audio message each week teaching about different aspects of photography (mostly related to learing how to use the manual settings on a digital SLR camera, like shutter speed, aperture, etc.) and then you have access to message boards, etc. and can ask her questions. She also gives weekly assignments and then you can post two pictures each week to a special gallery where she will critique them.

I've really wanted to learn more about using my new camera since we got it last Christmas, which is one reason I'm so excited for this class. I also just want to learn how to take better pictures of my family!

The first week's assignment is to take at least 10 pictures (outdoors or indoors near light) and look for inspiration in other photographs in magazines, etc. I got two willing participants this morning to go outside with me (in the wind, of course!) and take some practice shots. Here are a few!

I imagine I'll be taking lots more practice shots -- then it's the matter of trying to decide which two to have critiqued!

Scenes from Swimming Lessons

Today was Day 2 of Swimming Lessons -- another great day for everyone. It was raining a little earlier this morning, but fortunately cleared up so lessons weren't cancelled. I took my camera today and was a busy little photographer!

Here are some scenes of each of the kids...

McKay (with his teacher Laramie):

Hannah (with her teacher Grace-Anne):

Courtney (with her teacher Mark):

Hayley (with her teacher Kevin):

Swim Lessons, Day 1

Today was the first day of swimming lessons for the kids (done through the city Parks & Recreation Department). I signed them up for two 2-week sessions, so we'll be at the pool a lot during July!

I didn't take my camera today, but I'm sure I'll be taking some shots soon to share.

The kids were divided into classes of about 4-5 kids, depending on what ability level they're at (whatever the parents say when they sign them up). Most of the teachers were teenaged lifeguards. We got there just as they were calling the names for each class. We walked up and heard Hayley's name called (she is on Level 1) and they pointed her towards her teacher. Her teacher was probably the only non-teenager -- he was an older bald guy. Hayley took one look at him, then looked back at me and just burst into tears. I gave her an encouraging nudge and told her I'd be right there and she did go with him. I sat near her class and really liked what I saw of her teacher. He was just great with those little kids! Hayley was happy the whole time, got dunked several times and didn't mind and seemed to really enjoy it.

Hannah and Courtney are on the same level, but got put in different classes, which is probably a good thing for them. Hannah was the only one who got a female teacher. Every time I looked over at her, she was talking her teacher's ear off. Typical Hannah! They all said they liked their teachers. It will be interesting to see if they get the same teachers the next session or get all mixed up again.

Now they all want to go swimming to play and practice what they're learning. I guess we'll have to do that again soon!

The Piano Arrives!

Our "new" piano got delivered this morning! In case you were wondering how they move a 6'1" piano, I took a few pictures. :-)

First, they bring in the detachable parts (pedals, lid, legs):

Then they carefully roll the piano in:

attach the legs...

the pedals...

...the lid and it's ready to go!

Hannah was excited to try it out (as was McKay):

We put it in the corner of our family room over by the master bedroom (we figured there was the least amount of "traffic" over there). Here's the view from standing in front of the kid's bedroom:

We're very excited to have it here! We did discover one concern this afternoon when we checked the serial number on Yamaha's Web site -- all Yamaha pianos are made in Japan, but this seems to be a piano that was made for Japan (as opposed to North American markets and climates). Perhaps that is why we got such a great deal on the price. We plan to call the dealer on Monday and talk to them about it -- hopefully it won't be anything to worry about.

There is music in the air!

4th of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Ours was a little low-key, with a few minor "challenges," but we had a fun day. Julie, John & 3 of their boys are still here visiting. We had a big breakfast and decided to go see a movie. We discovered the day before that the mall here has a $1.50 movie theater. They had "Nim's Island" playing, so we took everyone to see that. McKay was a little unsure about going (he gets scared easily in movies) and I wasn't sure how Hayley would do, but we enjoyed it. Hannah sat next to me and peppered me with questions through the whole movie ("Why is she doing that?" "What's going to happen?" etc.) I was glad no one was sitting near us or they probably would have been pretty annoyed. She also got scared during all the storm scenes. Hayley sat on my lap most of the time and did pretty good.

After the movie, Brian went with Julie & John and the boys to run a couple of errands and I came home with the girls to get the food started. When we walked in, we discovered that we had been invaded by those darn winged ants while we were gone. They've been swarming out on our patio every few days (we think they are carpenter ants and have wings because it is their mating season). We've had some get in the house, but not like this.

The best part, I suppose, is that most of them were already dead. I think I would have really stressed out if they were all crawling around alive. They were all over the tile that surrounds our family room and in the breakfast area of our kitchen. We had to vacuum them up. YUCK! We've got to figure out how to keep them from getting in the house (and I hope they aren't already IN the house to begin with!).

Julie & John had bought some nice steaks so Brian decided (a little impulse shopping here) to buy a grill.

Actually, we have talked about getting a grill for quite a while since we've never had one. It's just usually not like Brian to buy a bigger item like this without doing a bunch of research and comparison shopping, etc. But it seems to work just fine. We got the grill home and discovered the fittings didn't work with the older propanes tank that was here at the house. So they had to go back to the store and get a new propane tank. That meant that the rest of the food was done before the steaks even got started, but we were able to keep it warm okay -- and it all turned out yummy!

I tried a slightly different variation of the "flag cake" dessert this year. This is our flag cookie:

It is a sugar cookie crust with a cream cheese frosting and fruit. Of course, Hannah complained that she doesn't like cream cheese frosting -- there's always somebody who isn't happy.

My other challenge of the day was my little Courtney, who is still really struggling with potty issues (and she will be starting Kindergarten soon!). She goes through several pairs of pants every day and it has been very frustrating to say the least. Yesterday when the movie was over, she had wet pants and we ended up not going right home (we drove down into the Canyon area to look at some lots Julie & John are considering). During that drive she informed me that her car seat was wet -- soaked was more like it. I don't know how she's going to manage with full-day Kindergarten -- I can hope that the peer pressure will be enough to finally do the trick for her.

That evening (the girls were in bed), we sat out on our side patio and watched fireworks off in the distance. We weren't sure if we would be able to see any, but we ended up having a decent view of several different "shows" throughout the city. There was a big show that the city sponsors that we could see and several smaller fireworks here and there. It was pretty neat to just scan the horizon and see fireworks. Plus, there was a nice cool breeze (we love that it actually cools down at night here!) and it was just really enjoyable to sit outside for a little bit.

Shopping!

Brian's sister Julie (and 3 of her boys) are here with us for a few days and we went out and did some serious shopping today! Not that we bought a ton of stuff -- just a couple of "big ticket" items.

First, we found a kitchen table and chairs. Yeah! No more tiny folding table! Well, we have to use the little folding table for a couple more weeks until it gets delivered, but at least we know it's coming. The one we ended up getting was from Ashley Furniture (with 6 chairs):

Second, we got a PIANO (since we left our old one behind). Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! I am SO excited for this. We found a great deal on a used piano. Thanks to the wonderful, generous housewarming gift from my parents, we are getting this piano on Saturday:

It is a Yamaha C3 grand piano, about 12 years old. I seriously cannot believe we are getting a grand piano! We were shopping for a baby grand, but found this used grand (it is a 6'1" piano) and couldn't pass it up. Thank you again, Mom and Dad! It is a dream come true!

Now we just hope it fits in the family room!