Creations From Everyday Life

The Trip.

We left at 9am from St. George. I kept a notepad and pen by my side the whole trip so that I could record some things my kids said as we drove. I thought it would be interesting to see the differences between the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd days. Some are funny things non trip related. Others are not funny... but reflect the mood. Conversation dwindled as the trip progressed. Especially after the introduction of the portable DVD players in the middle of day 2! The first 6 photos on day 1, and the first 2 of day 2 were taken with my 5D. The rest are via camera phone.

Day 1:

9:20am -

• Jocelyn: "Are we still in St. George?"

10:30am -

• Katelyn: "Mom, I see a Wal-Mart truck.
• Jocelyn: "That means there is a Wal-Mart near by." (isn't that the truth!)

11:31am -

• Jocelyn: "LOOK OUT FOR DEER MOM!" (after passing a deer crossing sign)

11:35am -

• Calvin: "Mom, where are we going?"
• Me: "Kentucky."
• Calvin: "WHAT!"

12:15pm -

• Katelyn: "Are we driving to the airport?"
• Me: "No."
• Katelyn: "Why can't we just take a plane?"

1:39pm -

• Jocelyn: "Are we going to be driving ALL DAY?" (this said about 5 minutes after she told me she wanted to drive 30 hours straight so that we'd get there faster)
• Me: "Yes."
• Jocelyn: "You've got to be kidding me..."

1:47pm -

•    Jocelyn: "How long is this going to take!"

2:15pm -

• Calvin: "Mom, can we get out?" (he also said something about wanting to get his swimsuit on and play in the rain we were passing through)

4:20pm - Grand Junction, Colorado

• Me: "Wow Jocelyn, look at all these trees!"
• Katelyn: "Woah! We could build a tree house!"

5:12pm - Rifle, Colorado

• Me: "Look. A Wal-Mart."
• Jocelyn: "Awesome! A green one!"
• Calvin: "LET ME SEE!!!"

5:45pm - Rocky Mountains - Heavy Rain

• "It's starting to smell like Kentucky."

Day 2:

10:38am -

• Calvin: "I wanna go home..."

Time undocumented - Shortly into Kansas

• Jocelyn: "Those people are lucky. Look how big their lawns are! Of course they have to mow them..." (said thoughtfully)

2:18pm-

• Calvin: "There's Grandma Tucky's house!" (pointing at random farm house in western Kansas.)

2:19pm -

• Jocelyn: "Milo sure is brave. He's fighting a snake!" (Watching Milo & Otis)
• Me: "He's braver than Dad."
• Jocelyn: "Yeah. WAY braver."

Day 3:

6:34am - 20 Minutes east of Independence Missouri -

• Katelyn: "WOAH! THAT is a big bush! (Talking about a cluster of trees).

8:55am

• Jocelyn: "Are we there yet?"

Total Miles Traveled from driveway to driveway: 1,700 miles.
Driving Travel Time: 26 hours, 23 minutes.
Cost of gas: $186.00
Hotel (2 nights): $184
Meals & snacks: $60
Total one way cost: $430

The House.

I was supposed to do a photoshoot last night, but the family and I moved the date back a few days. I guess, the husband went out and played golf, and neglected to wear sunscreen. The super awesome mother/wife of the family, Mele called me really worried that her husband would look like a lobster. So, we changed the date to tomorrow morning. Hopefully he will be a little less lobsterish by then!

So, instead of me doing a photoshoot in St. George, we drove out to Sand Hollow to see the status of our house. The wind was blowing when we were in St. George, so we knew it would be windy in Hurricane. I bet you can't guess how the town got that name! If you look at the picture above, you can totally SEE all of the sand and dirt blowing around. I could barely see because sand kept blowing in my eyes.

I told Jared that I wasn't going to get my camera out of the truck, because I REALLY didn't want it to get sandy. Expensive camera, ya know...

But then after walking around, I knew I'd be kicking myself if I didn't get some pictures since it was the last time I'd see the house until I get back from KY.

So, out came the camera anyway:

And although the sky looks really angry... we didn't get any rain. Just lots of wind, and some lightening.

(this will one day be Jocelyn and Katelyn's window)

And here is our stack of lumber... waiting for next week!

The Bird.

Jared and I were sitting on our driveway. Jared was putting new bike tires on the girl's bikes, when Kate ran up to us and said, "look what I caught!"

To be honest, I expected a moth, or a butterfly, or a lady bug. I was even prepared to be really impressed with a lizard.

When I turned around, I saw this:

To which I said: "HOLY COW! THAT'S A BIRD!

Jared said, "WHAT!"

I said, "STAY RIGHT THERE WHILE I GRAB MY CAMERA!"

The bird was in very poor shape. It was obviously young, and had fallen from a nest in a nearby tree. I couldn't find any external injuries, it definitely didn't look like it would make it long.

The kids (all 4) were VERY interested. They of course wanted to keep it as a pet.

In the end, it died.

Not by the hands of my children, but by the hands of natural selection. We needed to run some errands, so I placed the bird in a comfortable place, where it couldn't be eaten by cats or beaten up by some other force of nature. But when we returned, it had already died.

My kids were OK with it. It was a fun chance for them to see and touch a bird up close. They were able to learn about the importance of hand washing after handling birds. And they got a little lesson in life and death.

Family of 6 - St. George, Utah Photographer

I should probably get some of these photo shoots posted before I leave on my trip!

I photographed this family of six last week. They are friends of my sister-in-law, and were super fun to work with. We were evicted from our original location choice, so we improvised with the "public" settings around us!

The oldest is turning 8 soon, and wanted to get some good pictures in her baptism dress. This particular picture doesn't show off her dress well... but I thought the expression on her face, and her relaxed look made for a great picture!

As we were walking around, we came upon an elderly woman whose "babies" were dogs. Man, did she love her dogs! She had them in a stroller even. The kids of course wanted to pet the dogs, and the woman was more than happy to tell us all about her babies. I thought this picture was soooo fun!

This tree was cool, because there was a perfectly level/flat area between where the tree started branching from the main trunk. It was the perfect standing place for a young child. We had a lot of fun with this tree...

He's a good 5 feet up.

This picture was darkened a bit in photoshop... but not as much as you'd assume. We didn't even start our session until around 7:40pm, and we were probably after 8:30pm when this was taken. We were definitely loosing light. She nestled down in the part of the tree I explained in the paragraph above. The light was fun how it hit her face... but not much else. So I set my camera to expose for her face, making the rest naturally go dark. I did add a vignette later.

After we were basically finished, I had my camera bag out and was discussing my different cameras with the dad. His middle daughter thought the vintage camera was cool... so I showed her how to use the viewfinder. She was pretty excited about looking at things through the viewfinder, and I couldn't pass up the chance to get one last shot. Especially with a vintage camera in play!

"Oh Way, oh way..."

is what Teslyn says every time she walks into my room. That means, she wants me to open my blog. Which means, you may actually need to open my blog (instead of reading in Google Reader) to see what the heck I'm talking about. With the sound on.

And, on a subject very much related (and I'm sure my excitement is somewhat annoying by now to those close to me):

Only... it's had it's budget cut, and is only back for 13 episodes (instead of a normal 22 episode season). IMO, those NBC executives are working hard to get the show gone for good. Hopefully the budget cut doesn't mean the end of certain aspects of the show... like say... the Buy More. That would doom the show for sure.

Here is something Jared may find funny:

In other news...

Katelyn had her birthday. Jocelyn's birthday isn't for another couple of weeks... but we celebrated it at the same time as Katelyn's so that her school friends could come:

Jocelyn got a lap top style educational computer. Hopefully it will keep her company while we are in the car 10+ hours per day next week! Katelyn got a scooter. Unfortunately, it won't keep her company in the car...

We went and visited our home under construction. We have permits now!

This bag is worth $21,000:

And concrete! (worth much, much more than $21,000).

I haven't been out since the above pictures were taken. But, the last word was that the basement walls had been poured and that the forms were ready to be pulled off. Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, they will probably start back filling, and start framing. Yay.

The last couple of days, I've been going like mad... trying to get everything done before I leave. Yesterday, I went to the appliance place, and decided they wanted me to pay WAY too much. So I did my research, and got them to drop their price a bit by finding the same appliances elsewhere for less. Today I found some alternative appliances for cheaper, to help us get closer to budget. I found a nice BOSCH wall oven that normally retails for over $2000. Keep in mind, my appliance budget is only $2,500. Tomorrow I am getting the oven for $495. Sweet, eh?!

In the end. I'm still over budget on appliances by about $700. I really don't know what they expected me to find for $2500. An avocado green range/oven with matching microhood? And matching avocado green fridge? Let's not forget the avocado green dishwasher!

But we have our cabinets picked out (style and stain) and under budget. And our stair railing.

So, I think I've made good headway.

----------------------------------------------------

Katelyn had her preschool graduation.

She was also named "Most Athletic and Coordinated" in her class. Really... what family does she come from?

After the "graduation," they had a water slide party:

Tess and Calvin weren't quite big enough for the slide. They enjoyed the endless amounts of popcorn instead:

busy... busy... busy...

Trying to get everything done before I leave for a month.

Met with our builder today, and picked out a few things. Got the ball rolling on a few other things I need to do. Was going to do them today, but ran out of time/fell victim to exhaustion. Tomorrow I need to go check out the appliance place, go look at cabinets, and go to the stair railing place and tell them what I want. Today we at least decided on what style of door we wanted for both exterior and interior. We chose our style of lighting. We picked out our wood flooring. We looked at carpet and faucets... but haven't finalized any of that. I think I may make a trip to Home Depot soon. We also finalized what our travertine is going to look like, decided on the style to lay it, and what our sinks are going to look like. And our friend/the travertine guy made a rough sketch of what we want the design of our tile showers to look like. We also authorized a draw from our construction loan account for over $51,000... which covers excivation, and concrete. Ouch.

Currently they are working on our basement walls.

Our contractor said that they should begin the framing process before I leave for KY.

...

Account of us, starring mostly Tess.

This is my biggest battle lately:

 

On Mother's Day, we had a dinner at Jared's grandparents. Calvin only wanted to eat Cool Whip. Lucky for him, he found at least 4 people to grant his wish. Here he is, working on serving #2 out of 4:

We washed our truck for the first time since probably December:

We're back in the pool for swimming lessons. Trying to squeeze in one session before we head to Kentucky:

And we have a new player in the pool:

It's hard to believe that she was sleeping in a car seat this time last year during swimming lessons:

She's doing a real good job too. She's being taught how to flip over and float on her back. That way, if she falls in a pool, she should be able to back float until rescue can come to her... since she's still too small to make it to the side using strokes.

Of course, she isn't too happy about it:

This is a yard 2 houses away from ours. The kids like to go and pick the morning glories.

Is there anything more awesome than a yard full of weeds when you're a kid?

Concrete:

Another photo from Jake. I'm starting to think he's the official photographer for this project! It's nice to see the progress without having to drive out there...

Reason # 5,962 to renew Chuck:

Great music!

Get Chuck Music Here.

*the top 3 new songs on my playlist are from the season finale of season 2. Top 6 are from season 2.

How could you NOT love the show with music like that?!