Our week!

Realized I forgot one thing from last weekend! Brynn & I went to the grocery store to get some stuff for our picnic lunch up American Fork Canyon and when we got to the store, they were having a big fair of some some. Lots of booth, inflatable fun houses, and a FIRE TRUCK and AMBULANCE to look at!
Brynn had a great time exploring both and talking to the firefighters that were there.




OK on to this week! I'm still working on my photography and have posted some of my new pictures on my photo blog. Feel free to check it out.
I put out a call for practice models for more maternity and newborn pictures - and got 6 responses! YAY! So I'll be busy practicing and learning with those.
Most of the week was boring with school, work, etc. Yesterday was pretty good though! We worked in the yard, and Callie got her own garden spot planted. She's wanted her own patch of ground for flowers for a long time, and spent hours poring over gardening books picking out what she wanted! She planted some marigolds, zinnias, nicotinas, alyssum, and snapdragons from the garden store and she also planted some poppies and black-eyed susans from seeds.

Then we went hiking to the Rocky Mouth waterfall:




After our hike, we cleaned up and met Darrin's family at the cemetary to see Darrin's grandparent's graves and do some annual cleanup:



And then had a fast food dinner and went home for baths and bed.

Catching up!

Oh my it has been a crazy month! I've posted a bunch of stuff, you may want to go back to the post about Brynn's birthday and read them in chronological order. I think this is my 8th post for today.
Some hodgepodge catching up that isn't really worthy of its own post:
1. Kyra attended the drama club banquet and won an award for best stage makeup. She's been learning it in her theater class and is pretty good. Some examples:



2. Kyra's been very busy with rehearsals. First for the one act plays, then for the one act plays AND the Draper Temple Celebration simultaneously, and now just for the temple thing. Plus end of the year stuff, like the AP test and other big projects and tests for school. Plus she's learning to drive and will be taking driver's ed this summer.
3. We found termites in our house. Sigh. Dealing with it.
4. Mother's Day was fun, and I didn't even have to do a birth! (Mother's Day is the only holiday I've ever missed for a birth before. And when I had a client a week over due, well, it could have easily happened!) We just stayed home all day (except for church) and relaxed.
5. Kyra's getting a real interest in photography, and she's pretty good! I'm going to start teaching her some things. Here's an example - she had this picture framed in a rich wood frame and gave it to me for mother's day:

It's nice to share that interest!
6. I have had my first practice sessions with pretend-clients-who-are-really-friends. I did maternity shots of my friend Angie and newborn shots of her baby Piper afterwards. The maternity ones are on my photography blog, the newborn ones are not ready yet. I've been immersed in learning to edit photos as part of this. I'm also doing quite a bit of practice and trying to learn how to better use my camera. It's almost an obsession.... Here are some pictures I took of the girls with my new black background:



(yes, I did buy this the day Kyra learned to do wound makeup in her theater class...)
7. End of semester and beginning a new semester at the Midwives' College is always time consuming. We're implementing the 6 new courses I wrote earlier this year.
8. I've done 2 births since I last blogged.
9. Got our garden cleared, tilled and planted!
So you see how crazy (in a fun and adventurous way) the last month has been? No wonder I haven't blogged!
You may all now stop bugging me about blogging...

American Fork Canyon

So yesterday we took the whole family for a picnic up American Fork Canyon. It was a much WARMER experience than our last trip! We ate, walked around a bit, and drove up to Tibble Fork Reservoir. It was nice to get outside and not spend all Saturday on chores!

Timpanogos Cave

Last week, Darrin and I set out to do what Darrin REALLY wanted to do for his birthday: Timpanogos Cave! It didn't open until the 9th, so we had to wait. Darrin took Monday off work so that we could go. But then my client called at 5 am Monday morning when her water broke, so we had to reschedule for Thursday. (It was a good birth, though LONG since she didn't deliver until around 6 am Tuesday!)
So Thursday as soon as we were done with the states program we set off to hike to Timp Cave and do the tour.





Spring afternoons are a GREAT time to visit the cave! There were only 6 people total on our tour and the rangers were all bored, so we got to take a much longer tour and take as much time as we wanted. We asked lots of questions, took lots of pictures, and had a great time. Our tour was at 3pm. Earlier they'd been flooded by school field trips, later the after school hikers come. 3pm turned out to be perfect! I brought my big flash, and used it wirelessly to take pictures of cave formations. You can see them on my photography blog.

States Parade

With the end of the year comes a boatload of projects, big tests, and performances for parents. Kyra took her first AP test on the 14, and on that same day Callie had her big State Report project, 3D model, poster and float for the parade. (WHY do they have to do SO MUCH?!?!?) Callie was "lucky" enough to draw Iowa!
Callie's 3D model was a ferris wheel from the Iowa State Fair. We used
it on her float as well, along with a barn, some livestock, some corn, and a cardboard version of the Iowa State Quarter.


Since we don't own a wagon, we had to scramble to borrow one (Thanks, Dave & Jenny!) I really felt sorry for the parents of the triplets that are Callie's age, putting together THREE sets of state reports. And finding three wagons!
For the performance, the kids sang lots of patriotic songs and did some square dancing. (Don't ask me why square dancing. It makes no sense to me, either!) Then the kids all pulled their state floats all around the gym showing off their work. Then we got to go back to the classroom and see the written report, poster, travel brochure, etc. Darrin has all the pictures from that on his computer, I'll try to remember to get them and update this post when he gets home.

Good intentions, bad idea

Fresh off our fun hike up Battle Creek Canyon, Darrin & I decided to do a family hike. We chose Donut Falls, having heard it was a good hike for kids. Apparently, not until July! We were not prepared for the snow at all.
We didn't make it to the falls, but had fun anyway.








We'll probably try Donut Falls again in August.

One Act Plays

Kyra performed in a student-directed one act play at her school. She played Eve in "The Diaries of Adam and Eve" by Mark Twain. She did a great job!






Michael, who played Adam, is the same guy who played the crazy Christopher Wren in the Mousetrap.

Darrin's birthday!

So Darrin had a birthday and to celebrate, he wanted to go hiking. We went up Battle Creek Canyon in Pleasant Grove. A long hike, but beautiful and it felt great to be getting up in the mountains again!





You can see more of the scenic pictures I took on my photography blog.