What I've Been Up To!!

So, aside from being super busy editing photos (which has been fantastic), my summer has been pretty chill so far! First of all, I go over to my mom's house most mornings to help her in the yard, after which I do pilates with my sister Adriane, who lives a couple blocks away. This little stinker can make that difficult sometimes! Especially when he is using this pacifier!



I have also had to keep tabs on my dear Kirby. This is what happens when I leave him alone.... And yes. That is my purse. And it's full.



At the end of June/beginning of July my family vacationed up at Aspen Grove. It was a lot of fun! Gregory discovered just how much he loves to swim!



And Kirby and I took a pottery class. Kirby was a natural. And I failed miserably. But it was fun!



My parents love reading up there. They are so cute. They read and take naps for their vacations. :)



Another toothy grin from my darling nephew...



And then, on July 5th, a guy in my aunt's ward in Pleasant Grove put on a fireworks show! It was sooo cool! He's a licensed pyrotechnician, so he can get a license from the city to light off REAL fireworks. :) It was amazing. The fireworks were literally right above us. It was magical, as cheesy as that sounds! Our friends Mark and Amy came with us.





Classic Mark.



So yeah. That's just a random sampler for you. I felt like I've been neglecting this blog, with all my new posts on my photo blog! So here you go! Hope you now feel refreshed!

Memories...

How fun is this!? My friend Melanie posted this, and I thought it was fantastic, so I stole. :)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember. If we're only blogging friends write about a post that is most memorable.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you....either on your blog, in my comment box, or I will email you one back.

3. If the memory happens to involve my husband, please include him.

4. If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all.

The Alphabet Thing-a-ma-bob

So, Meridith tagged me, and I figured why not! There is no D and no R, for some strange reason, but you'll get over it! :)

A- Attached or Single—Very attached. ☺

B- Best Friends—Kirby, Mom, sisters, Meridith, and Sarah (they’re my bestest friends. I have too many “best” friends to write down!)

C- Cake or Pie—Pie, if it is apple or peach (but cobbler might win over pie,) but I’m a sucker for a good German Chocolate cake.

E-Essential item—camera (because you never know!)

F- Favorite Color—depends on the day, really. And I prefer color schemes over individual colors. Colors are so much cooler when they’re combined into a scheme.

G-Gummy Bears or Worms—definitely the bears.

H-Hometown—Orem, Utah.

I- Indulgence—sleeping in. ☺ Big time. And I love me a good shopping spree when I’m in the mood.

J-January or July—Neither, really. I prefer moderate temperatures. But if I had to choose I’d have to say July. Summer is a fun time.

K-Kids—Love em. Want em. ‘Nuff said.

L-Life is incomplete without—FAMILY (I copied Meridith on this one, but I have to agree.)

M- Marriage Date—December 28, 2006

N-Number of Siblings—two sisters, one brother, one brother-in-law

O-Oranges or Apples—Mmmmm… Oranges. ☺

P-Phobias or Fears—Drowning; Needing to do CPR on someone and freezing up; well, really… doing CPR on a stranger would be pretty freaky too… Even on someone you know! NEEDING TO DO CPR ON ANYONE!!!

Q-Quotes—“Any man who can kiss a pretty girl while driving is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves." –Albert Einstein-

S-Season—As previously mentioned, I love spring and fall. They are exciting seasons! Seasons of change. ☺

T-Tag three friends—Jewelyn, Sara, and Adriane.

U-Unknown fact—I’m “growing out” my hair.

V-Very favorite store—ETHAN ALLEN! Haha. Okay, Meridith. That was really mostly for you. I love furniture stores, where I can get interior design ideas. I love perusing jewelry stores, too, because I love sparkly things (although I never buy anything.) And I love wandering through Roberts, too, although I can rarely justify buying anything. Once We have a house and I am making good money with photography, I’m going to splurge there. ☺

W-Worst Habit—Tugging at my eyelashes (usually at night)

X-Xray or Ultrasound- X-ray? Ultrasound. No lead blanket necessary. Plus there are positive connotations. At least now. This one time in sixth grade I had to get an ultrasound because they thought I had appendicitis. I didn’t. But they made me drink over a quart of water and hold it for several hours. It was a rough day.

Y-You're favorite food—I love pasta with cream sauces. Especially stuffed ones. Mushroom ravioli is divine. But I also love me a good tender steak.

Z- Zodiac--Aries

Strawberry Days Rodeo

Kirby and I went to the rodeo for our first date! (Awww....) And last night we went again! So I guess it was kind of like our two year anniversary of our first date! And it was awesome. For the half-time show they had these two extreme dirt bikers going off these huge jumps! It stressed me out, which was rather amusing to both Kirby and the girl sitting on my left. I think my next favorite part was probably the mutton' bustin. For those of you who have no idea what that was (because we didn't, even though we'd seen it before,) it's where they have a bunch of little kids ride on the backs of sheep for as long as they can. hahaha. It was so funny!

Here we are two years ago... We were very hardcore...


And here we were last night! :)




So... side note... those are my "cute giant goggles," as I affectionately call them. :) I finally decided to suck it up and get some big ones. No regrets, by the way. :)

Hooray for Shanna!

So, my friend Shanna got married on Thursday, and Meridith was so kind as to join me! Since I was shooting candids for Shanna I needed to be at the temple, and at the reception, and I didn't want to have to drive to Salt Lake twice, so we stayed up there all day! That was about seven hours of free time!

When we first got to the temple, we had to wait 10-15 minutes for the goofballs to actually come out of the temple, and I got antsy. So I got my camera out early and took some pictures of Meridith! This one is my favorite. :) I love the vibrant greens in the background, and the crazy thing is--her eyes almost look green--but they are not even close! Sky blue, is what they are...


Mer wanted her turn, too, but unfortunately I was facing the sun. And I prefer to be behind the camera, not in front of it... can you tell???


Hooray for Shanna and Branson! Happy wedding! I'm wearing my pseudo-maternity dress. Haha. It's not a maternity dress, but since it has an empire waist, it kinda looks like one! :)


First stop after the temple was the Olive Garden (naturally) where we had a nice leisurely lunch. Oh man, it was good. You can tell here that I switched to my point and shoot camera. First of all, this pictures not even in focus, but I liked it anyways. :)


Charming! The salad is just so delicious I couldn't help but try and fit the whole thing in my mouth at once! :) Now that I think back, there were no tomatoes on that salad! Darn salmonella...


After we'd had delicious food and a lovely chat we headed to the Gateway to explore. We're both not very familiar with it, so it was a good adventure. We didn't see half of it, though, I'm afraid. We stopped in at Gap and took a rest in front of a tri-fold mirror. And then I bought a hot pink shirt. And I love it. :) It's in my lap in this picture...


Haha. So, y'all may think we're nuts, but while we were driving around trying to find something else to do we passed Ethan Allan (Allen) and I thought to myself, "COUCHES!" We'd been walking around for several hours at this point in our Sunday shoes, and our feet were beginning to feel the effects. We spent somewhere around 3 hours walking (and sitting) around that store! It was glorious. And every so often I'd snap a picture. Here's one of a comfy office chair.


Now THIS chair was glorious. I sat in it and at first I was like, "BWUUUUT?" because it was way too reclined. But then I did a little wiggle and a footrest popped out and it slid back and it was heaven. Trust me--Meridith was very happy in that chair, despite how she may look in this picture. :)


SURPRISE! This was awesome. The flat screen moved down into this cabinet with a bunch of DVD storage in the front. So cool. I don't know how I feel about the wash of the wood... or if you can even call it a wash... but the idea was awesome. It even had a little keychain like you'd have for a car to unlock the doors!


We stayed here the remainder of our time and loved every minute of it (even though once Garrett got there he was excessively unamused. BOOOO) Then we went to the reception.

I've posted pictures of the actual wedding on my photography blog! davisonphoto.blogspot.com.

As a side note--Mer and I are lucky we made it home from Salt Lake. I mean, we wouldn't have died, but she should have broken down. One of the belts in my car was completely shredded. We knew it was loose for a while, but once we were up in Salt Lake it really started to sound different. When I got home, I had Kirby and his friend Brad check it out. Yup. Shredded! They fixed it that night. We were blessed!

Hydrogen Peroxide

This movie is a little long, but it's pretty funny. Kirby is cleaning his wound (see the post below for more details...) Hooray for Hydrogen Peroxide!

Recent Injuries... Not for the Faint of Heart...

So, Kirby is playing on the Senior MTC's soccer team in the MTC soccer tournament (the media crew didn't have enough interested in playing, so he's playing for a different department.) During the first game, he made a courageous goal attempt and in the process slid underneath the goalie, doing this to his leg:


Later on the the game Kirby came running up to me saying, "Take another picture!" And it turns out he had done this to his other leg:


So after the game we went to our friends apartment because they own some hydrogen peroxide. (We only ever go there when they have something we need to use. Hahaha. Just kidding.) Anyways! This is Dr. Curtis (Mark and Amy's resident doctor) overseeing the use of the hydrogen peroxide. We weren't allowed to use it until we cleaned all the rubber bits (from the astro-turf) out of his wound.


Mark and Amy had some funky tool we used like tweezers to pick the rubber bits out. Not an easy task considering Kirby's legs are like a jungle.


On a side note, here's a wound I received about a week before Kirby's. I got it caught on our DVD player. A bit of a mystery, really, but pretty sweet looking!


This is the wound about a week later, after it stopped oozing.


Back to Kirby's wound... This is what it looked like after a couple days.


After another couple days...


This is from about the same time as the picture above, but this is to show how his leg swelled up. We're not really sure why it looks like this because he wrapped the whole leg for a day or two so he could walk (and play racquetball) comfortably, and when we got home we busted up laughing when we saw this...


For everyone concerned: Kirby's leg is doing fine. It is now just a giant scab that he likes to show off. Ask him to show it to you sometime! It's rather impressive. :)