Practice at my favorite place

A couple weeks ago, I reveled in driving to and from the Ranch on a day when there were storms rolling in. This is Heber Valley with one of those on its way in.

The Ranch is my favorite place on earth. It holds so much of my childhood, my views of how good the world can be, and a few sorrows of family discord and the poison of grudges. I've always wanted to take the Ranch with me for the bulk of my life when I couldn't be there. Now I am able to capture it in some degree with my new camera. :) On Thursday of this last week, I was able to take some time to take more pictures while up at the Ranch. I did all of the following photos with all manual settings, as opposed to the automatic settings I've been using most of the time prior to Dustin's photog lesson earlier this week.

I love this one.

Joranelle was so blue!

Real love

I had the true privilege this week of visiting with my cousin, Lee Snow. I was also privileged to meet her sweetheart, Steve. I'm thrilled that she has found someone to love and who loves her. They seem very happy together and I'm happy for them.

The summer I was 15 years old, I spent a couple of weeks at the Snow cabin with Lee and her daughter, Anne, who is a couple of years older than I. That interaction solidified a bond between me and Anne and between me and Lee. I appreciate more and more what a privilege it was to spend time with them and to spend time at the Ranch. The precious friendships continue. I value their genuine frankness and courtesy and am so pleased to count them as dear friends as well as relations. They are two of the finest women I know. I look forward to seeing Anne later this month. :)

First Harvest

Here are the first fruits from this year's garden. It's the first time we've tried garlic, so I look forward to tasting it. It'll be time soon for a batch of pesto with our basil plants... I love home-grown produce!

Gettin' Around

My favorite store to shop at with the boys is Costco. Reason: the carts are big enough for all my children and some groceries. My next favorite is now Home Depot. The boys love the "camion" (truck) carts. They're not as big as Costco, but at least the boys are well-entertained.

Havin' a blast with the everyday!

Fife Fam

It was nice to have Amber, Dustin, and Corban visit with us for about 10 days. The main motivator for coming into town was Dustin's little brother, Austin, getting married, but we were very happy to have them extend their visit to spend more time with us. We lucked out that we had the basement empty, so there was plenty of space for everyone.

Chris sharing his "jus de Papa" (Papa's juice) with the boys. It's actually a protein shake. Corban's expression was hilarious. He seemed to say with his eyes, "I want... that. Don't know what it is, but I know I want it because the other guys want it... please? Please?!"

Thank you, Fifes, for spending time with us. Thank you for being patient with us. Thanks for sharing darling Corban. We're glad to have been able to have some cousin time. Love you!

Pool Party

Monday, June 6th, we went up to Bran and Ashton's new apartment in Murray for a pool party and dinner at their place. The boys survived riding three across the back bench.

All toddlers were stripped and

we put swimmy diapers on them.

"Ready!!!"

Totally up for water play.

I took the opportunity to practice a few things with my camera that Dustin had taught me the night before. This would be an accidental over-exposure...

Whoops. Underexposed.

Much better!

Sam was content to go through the "tunnels"

Don't I have photogenic relatives?

"Uncle Bwan" is a stud muffin.

This is post falling in the pool and being

rescued by Ashton. Poor kid.

The boys loved the mirrored

ceiling in their dining area.

Thanks for a fun evening, everyone!