Grandpa Visits

My dad came by for a short visit.

We stuck him on the couch with all the kids,

and this is what we got.

Thanks for the visit Dad!

Bath Time

Now that Hannah is an expert at sitting up, she can take baths in the big tub. She has inherited water bug genes from the Ricks side of the family, and LOVES her baths.

Aliens in our Backyard

OK. So there aren't really aliens in our backyard, but that sounded so much better than Animals in our Backyard. And sometimes the animals act like they are from outer space, so I'm sticking to the Alien title.

Introducing....

Yukon. Our Retriever/Lab mix. He's a great dog, loves to go for walks, play with the kids, guard us from Mountain Lions...

Agate, our half wild cat that Yukon found on one of our walks up the canyon a few years ago.

Sir Galihad, or Hadley for short. He is the king cat. A great mouser/bird killer :( Doesn't like Agate, and chases her off the property whenever he gets the chance.
The flock. We have 11 hens and 2 roosters.
This is King Henry. His name says it all- He rules the roost. Except when he's not watching closely and Wilber sneaks privileges with the Hens. King Henry gets FURIOUS when that happens and chases poor Wilber away.
Wilber is a lone rooster, shunned by the Flock. He's at the bottom of the pecking order. I'd feel sorry for him, but at least he's alive. He was abandoned up the canyon, and our neighbor's dad's dog found him and took a bite out of him before the Dad saved him and dumped him over the fence into our yard. So he's really lucky to have such a nice safe place to live, even if he is the outcast. And he is pretty good at sneaking privileges, so don't feel too sorry for him.

Our Backyard

We have the BEST backyard ever. My kids, the neighbor kids, and their neighbor's kids, all love to play in our backyard. I love the backyard too. It has shade in the summer, sun in the winter, and a never ending source of inspiration for pictures!

My newest obsession is to learn the photography technique called Panning. I've taken hundreds of picture of my kids in motion to try to get the perfect shot. The lucky thing is that my kids never get tired of being in motion, so I can practice as long as I want (or until my arms get tired from all the pushing). This is one of my best attempts. What do you think? The subject is supposed to be in focus while the background blurs, creating the feeling of motion.

This one is only ok. Ben's not quite moving fast enough, and the background lines aren't blurry enough.


I love this picture of Daniel, but the horizon isn't straight, so I'll have to work on it some more.

Stay tuned for my next post: "Aliens in our backyard"

All in a Weekend

The reason for the abundance of photos is simple. I'm still having fun with my new camera.

Saturday morning we went to the BYU museum to see the Walter Wick exhibit. He's the author of the "seymour" books. (Anyone knowing Daniel well will understand the significance of this) I took a few illegal pictures in the museum. Ignorance is such bliss.


Clark took some time to practice his newest hobby. Much cheaper than my newest!


And of course, Hannah looked cute.

Sunday morning Daniel made juice.

After church we took a walk,
and then played outside for a while.

Daniel gathered the eggs,

and Hannah hung out on the trampoline, looking cute.

Until Ben took a turn to show off some amazing tricks.
And that was it. The end of another great weekend.