wild wild west

ahh, what a vacation. where to begin....after lake powell we headed up to the "valley" to hang with family for awhile. and then the real adventure began. we drove to jackson hole, where we met up with some more family. jackson is such a beautiful fun place. we did the dinner up in cache canyon. they take you by old pioneer wagons up the most beautiful canyon for dinner and a show. it was sooo cute! the kids loved it! and the food was pretty darn good too:)

we spent much of our time at different lakes fishing, kayaking, boating etc...this first picture is one of the fish that ian caught. after he reeled it in, it fell onto the floor of the boat. he refused to touch it. so this is a picture of matt kinda holding the fish. we didn't want it die, so it is a pretty lousy picture. (we were not allowed to keep this type of fish, hence he had to go back in.) unfortunately, this is the only fish we caught, lol!

isn't this just beautiful?? got to love old faithful!

this is a shot that matt took, and i absolutely love it.

isn't my baby cute?

i'm not sure how many merit badges i earned on this vacation....but i think it's a lot:)

the good and the bad!

i feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to get to know this wonderful family. the wife is truly the nicest and happiest person i know:) i was so happy to hear that the husband was being promoted to lt. colonel in the marines, but so sad to hear that it included a transfer to hawaii. here are a few pictures from the promotion. it was also their daughter's birthday that day too! a very memorable day:) thanks for allowing me to help capture these special moments for you guys!

from last night...

yes, it's another baptism:) these are so fun for me to do. and this little girl was no exception. she was so sweet and easy going. when we first moved here, she was only 2 months old....where has the time gone? congrats!

how hard can it be....

why is taking group photos so hard...this is my least favorite thing to do! i think they would turn out better if we just let them run wild. to ask a child to stand still is really asking a lot. i guess i can't really blame them...it is quite boring.

here are the hammond grand kids minus 3. not easy to get them all in one place at the same time. they had a great time with their aunt alisha who bought them a ton of fireworks and candy...the 24th of july is a big deal in utah:)

we drove over 3,000 miles in the last couple of weeks. i have many more pictures to post....just have to find the time to go through them all!

pow-ling around...

so here's a very heavy image post....we had the opportunity to go back to lake Powell with great friends. we had such a great time. the pictures can testify of that:) i shot over 1100 pictures...i know what was i thinking??? i kinda narrowed it down to 55. so here is a small portion of all the fun and love. oh, and i sooo hate shooting in full sun. so technically these are the worst pictures, but what can you do????

umm, yeah that would be ian hanging on for dear life. after this dump, ian and josh were crying and cursing matt's name:) i didn't think they would get back on the tube, but they did!

check out these faces! don't they look like they are having fun?

hope every one's enjoying their summer as much as we are:)

pretty in pink

it was such a privilege to photograph this little one. her mom and dad worked so hard to bring her here, especially mom. it took a lot work, prayers, patience, and love. i know she will probably be the most loved baby around. she is truly a miracle!

happy

i just wanted to post this picture because it makes me happy! this is ian's other buddy! he is getting baptized too and wanted a few fun shots. i haven't had time to get to all of them yet...so for now i will post my happy one!

i love this one too! i love sun flare! we had his sister sneak in a few shots too!

sneaky peaky...

here is how we started out our fourth of july weekend. we took a little trip to the beach, to do a baptism photo shoot. this is one of ian's good friends. we love him! he really was patient with me. eight year old boys really do not love doing photo shoots. they would much rather be shooting guns, jumping the waves, playing sports etc....but he endured, and we got a few fun good shots!

we sure got a lot of strange looks while shooting on the tracks. we did have to quickly run off the tracks once for the coaster...no big deal :)

a little bribery goes a long way.....it's great to be eight!

have a safe fourth of july weekend!