A Picture Post

The County Fair....

A Good Morning

Today was a good morning. Dave was home. The girls were happy. We went to our favorite local farm to pick some fresh strawberries.

Ali took the whole outing very seriously.

"Leave me alone, I doin' my job!" I heard more than once.

So I did...or so she thought.

Apparently her job included sampling the strawberries too.

Emma worked with Dave in finding the very best and juiciest ones. Their bucket was FULL of them.

They were warm and sweet and beyond delicious. Ali's bucket was full of hard green ones and small squished, on the verge of rotten ones.

I didn't taste Ali's but I did ooh and aah over them and told her job well done.

Then it was home to make strawberry mascarpone crepes for lunch. Dave turned on the tunes really loud and we all jammed out to Taylor Swift (Dave and the girls love her so I tolerate her) and Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA". Dave even taught the girls some new dance moves, one named the sprinkler. Emma, in turn, taught him some Zumba moves. My belly was jumping and jolting like crazy. Dave joked that the baby was dancing too. It was. There was laughing, running, dancing, cooking and chattering. I was content. I was happy. I couldn't think of anywhere else I would rather be. All of the previous days fears, frustrations and tears were completely forgotten. A good morning. The BEST kind of morning.

Wilson Family Mine and Other Adventures

You know, it's kind of funny, when Emma finished up school and speech for the summer I gave a huge sigh of relief thinking that lazier days were on the way. Ha! I forgot how crazy busy summer can be. I'm not sure how. Anyway, this week has been filled with adventures, fun and a heck of a lot of work. I had three shoots this week PLUS a wedding (I've cut back to only two sessions a week so I'm not sure how this happened ;)). And Dave, lets just say he will have about 150 hrs. on his next paycheck. Yikes! And then once you add in a late night at the drive-in with family and friends, an AMAZING albeit short camping trip, a 22 mile night biking event under the full moon (with plenty of hills, friends and a fierce headwind) and putting together and hosting a baby shower for my gorgeous sister-in-law (due 2 1/2 weeks before me) you will understand why we are all completely exhausted. Ex-hausted! The last 4 nights we haven't gone to bed until after 2:00 a.m but have still woken up between 5:30 and 7:00 am. No joke. Did I mention my body hurts? And I'm tired? Oh yeah.

But you know what? The aching body and exhaustion are totally worth it. A lot of memories were made. Take our camping trip for proof. We went with Dave's uncle and soon to be cousin-in-law to a family mine out in the west desert. I haven't roughed it like that camping in years. When I say roughing it I mean spending 2 1/2 hours on bumpy, rough back roads (one way), being 50 miles from the nearest port-a-potty and water source and simply throwing the sleeping bags on the tent floor kind of roughing it. Once again, totally worth it. The mine was amazing! The monkeys were a little nervous to head down into it. Heck I was REALLY nervous to head down into it. Imagine a very narrow, very dark hole in the ground with a questionably narrow looking ladder heading down 100 ft.

A hug for good luck. They get really sweet and sentimental when they think they are going to die.

Dave took Ali down first and even though she was gung-ho about hopping on the ladder and heading down first she keep repeating, "don't let me die" until they reached the bottom. Poor Emma was in tears and hysterics while waiting for her turn to head down. It wasn't until I told her I was kind of scared too that she braved up. After my confession she turned into the brave-we can do this-don't you worry leader. And then after Dave and I told her it was going to be a paleontologist adventure well, she was allll over it. Her endless chatter down the ladder was the only thing that gave away her nervousness. She's like me, likes to talk in nerve-racking situations.

Once down in the mine there was a lot of crawling, squirming, squishing, climbing of narrow 100 yr. old ladders and exploring.


This girl was in heaven!

She found so many treasures including many sparkly rocks, a decaying rattle snake body and a bone that she is positive is a baby long-neck dinosaur's neck bone. At one point she declared, "This is the best day of my whoooole life". Priceless.

And Ali?

Well her bravado wore off once she got to the bottom of the main ladder and she stayed quite nervous while we were down there. Especially after we ran into a human skeleton. It was just a little gag Dave's uncle had left down there but Ali kept telling us it was her brother that had died. She was sure of it. Nut!

While down in the mine our awesome tour guide and soon to be cousin-in-law, (no idea if that is the correct title, but you get the picture) Steve, broke out some mining tools.

We were able to see some silver and gold. Pretty cool.

The monkeys had a blast

Yes, even nervous little Ali relaxed for a bit to pound out some rocks. Because really, what is more fun than that?

I'm pretty sure we will be heading back out to the mine someday for more fun.

One last picture from the trip....

Dave must have snapped this one. Let's just say when I saw it my mommy heart shed some tears. Love it! To pieces!

Yes, I'm THAT big.

It's almost 8:30 in the morning and my little early-rising monkeys are still fast asleep. Sa-weet! One of the many perks of summer...it's easy to exhaust the little ones into slumbering for hours. Apparently two full days of fun in the sun will do that. We just got back late last night from an awesome camping trip with some awesome friends where somehow I didn't take a single picture. Nope, not one. Anyway, there was perfect weather...you know the kind where you can play happily all day and still sneak a tent nap in in the middle of the day, that is if you can convince the kiddos to...grrrr.

Yummy dutch oven food...where I did learn the hard way that no matter what the recipe says 1 tbsp. of Cayenne pepper is too much...umm sorry guys

Lots of shade, exploring room and warm mineral pools to soak and play in nearby.

The girls of course loved the pools. Ali pretty much "swam" the Olympic one numerous times in nothing but her little arm floaties while Emma floated cautiously near the edge of the pool. I wish you could have seen Emma. She could hardly move because of all of her floating devices but still insisted on having one of us adults VERY close by. There were a few times she was on her own (meaning Dave or I were more than two steps away from her) and Ali "swam" out to rescue her. Too funny. It sure kills me how different those two are. Sure love them.

Anyway, onto the highlight of the whoooole trip and my whole reason for blogging. While I was playing in one of the pools with the monkeys an adorable, blond-haired, 7 year old girl named Madison who spoke with the cutest little accent came over to visit. Seriously, I love how social little kids are and how much they can talk..and talk...and talk. I learned more about little Madison in 20 minutes than I have about some of my friends I have had for years. To open up the lines of communication little Madison pointed straight at my belly and asked me what my baby was. I told her it was a surprise and asked her what she thought it was. She thought on it for a second and then said....

You ready for this...

"triplets"

Yup. Apparently that's how big I look in a swimming suit. Excuse me while I go find a corner and cry. Haha, no seriously, I laughed pretty dang hard. As did all around us who heard the convo. Ahhh kids, sure do enjoy them and their honesty.

Now, is it time for this baby to come out YET?!

The Zoo

We went...

We saw...

We played...

We ran...



And we got wet. Very wet.

Surprisingly, not so much from the scattered thundershowers. I found it a little bit funny that as parents were dragging their kids away from the water fountain ball with threats of pneumonia (it was a rather chilly day especially after the clouds and rain moved in) my kids were diving right in and laughing all the while Dave and I just sat back and watched them happy they were entertaining themselves. We finally decided to play the part of responsible parents and drug the monkeys away after Ali's lips turned blue and she started shivering like crazy. Emma didn't get quite as wet. She is always a bit more responsible and reserved. All in all fabulous day for the zoo.

The Great Valley of Rocks

Here's the thing, when it comes to vacations or even little day get-aways Dave and I seem to have two different views on how they should go.

Dave, likes to wake up before the sun is even up to get a jump start on the day. I figure that on a day "off" we should sleep in as long as the monkeys will allow.

Dave, is always in a hurry to get out the door and get on with the fun. And then there's me...I like to take a leisurely approach. It seems like everyday I am rushing to get out the door...to drop Emma off at school or pick her up, to make it to a gym class on time, to tackle my long list of errands before hitting a shoot and don't even get me started on making it to church in time for a soft seat (which is a MUST for my tailbone lately). Rush. Rush. Rush. So, I like having a few extra minutes to straighten my hair, scrub the counter a second time or double check to make sure we have everything we need. I like the feeling of not HAVING to be somewhere by a certain time. Don't get me wrong, I don't plan on spending ALL day getting ready to head out the door but if we leave the house at 9:00 instead of 7:30, I'm OK with that.

And then there is the trip itself. The drive to me in the past has been a necessary evil to get to the fun. Nope, not to Dave. The drive, in his book, is a BIG part of the fun. The more scenic and roundabout the better.

I'm not going to lie, in the past these different views on fun days have led to a terse start to our vacation. But, I think we are finally starting to balance each other out.

This past week Dave and I found we BOTH had two glorious days off in a row. Seriously, between all my spring/senior picture shoots and Dave clocking almost 100 hours a week, two days off was nothing short of a miracle. Of course we had to head out for some sort of an adventure. We decided to hit the golden spike monument and then make our way to the City of Rocks or as Emma calls it, "The Great Valley of Rocks". I've never been and Dave barely remembers it. Plus, we knew it was the type of place the monkeys would love.

We started off our adventure by sleeping in until almost 8:00 (YES!) and then Dave tried his hardest to mask his impatience while I took a good hour to get me and the girls ready and make food for the trip. Yup, the boy was a gem. Not a single sigh or grumble even though he had the truck all loaded with some basic camping supplies and was ready to go. Silence and some fierce rocking in the rocking chair were his only giveaway. And for my part? I didn't grumble one bit when our 2 1/2 hour drive took literally all day. Nope, I didn't grumble when we got lost for HOURS in a maze of dirt roads and sagebrush with old beaten signs that didn't lead to where they said they did.

I didn't grumble over Dave's "map" which was really just a crumpled piece of paper with a list of a few landmarks or odd roads that seemed to be in no particular order. And when we finally reached the "Great Valley of Rocks" and couldn't stay to play because it was dark, we were in a truck that was running on fumes and Emma had no pants on because she had puked all over them, I didn't mind one bit because the day had already been perfect (minus the barfing). We had had a full day of exploring along the way,

talking to the local bovine,

laughing, listening to little girl stories and most importantly just good ol' un-interrupted family fun. The joy was definitely in the journey this trip.

I Am Thankful For...

Ali, "M'emma and puppies"

Emma, "Heavenly Father gave us eyes so we can see and for Mama making the house so pretty and for bones and Mama being so snugly.

Dave,"Howie and well, errrr, lots of things and my job with AirMed"

As for me, there are SO many things I am thankful for but on the top of my list are the simple moments I get to spend with my little family each and every day.


I've really been making an effort to acknowledge and enjoy these moments instead of rushing right through them. I'm not going to lie, it's taken quite a bit of effort and some prioritizing. Kind of goes back to an old saying I've heard...laundry will always be there, little ones will not. On that same note, I'm sure thankful to have a camera to capture all the simple moments.

Happy Thanksgiving. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to dig into some pie. Guess I better hop to baking some first, eh? ;)

Fall Splendor

I love Fall. I love the cooler temperatures. I love the crispy, colorful leaves. I love the pumpkin and spice candles. I love it all.

This year, though, I've been so busy with photo shoots that I feel I haven't had as much time to just sit back and bask in the Fall splendor. Don't get me wrong, I'm up in the mountains quite a bit (as you can probably imagine) but I get so wrapped up in getting the perfect shot(s) that I forget to look around at the beautiful scenery and just take it all in. Luckily, for our Sunday drive we headed up Farmington canyon.

We let the girls out to run and explore.

It was so refreshing to listen to their giggles and snap away as they played.

Now, you wouldn't know by these pictures but on this particular drive, between the two of them, they had four bouts of...I hate to say the word...and two bouts of puking. Yeah, the flu bug decided to hit them...hard. Haha, just goes to show, life is never perfect but it can always be enjoyable. Which brings me to another point. Lately, I have really been reflecting on how blessed I am. I'm almost overwhelmed by all of our blessings. Life is good. Not perfect. But very, very good.

One last thing, a picture I snapped on this particular outing was featured on Pioneer Woman's Photography site!!! You can check it out here. I'm quite excited.