Butterflies

The girls and I went to the coast to see my wonderful friend (since we were 12 years old!) Alli and her daughter Nora. She recently visited a new butterfly walk there in town, and I knew the girls would love it. We spent a couple of days reading up on butterflies before we went, and we had such a great time. Here’s a few pics:

First day of summer

I’m late, but the first day of summer was Monday…and we actually had some nice weather! YAY!

The girls and I went for a nature walk that evening to commemorate the first day of summer…here are some pictures of things from our walk that they thought we should remember.

And we’re off:

Kiersten looks a bit “nature girl” herself…crazy hair day!

I told Kiandra that this wasn’t really nature, but she said since it had a horse on it it counted, and really wanted me to take a pic of it.

Guacamole

I LOVE guacamole. A couple years ago my mom, grandma, and I took a cooking class in Salem. One of the things they made that night was guacamole, and it is seriously the best guacamole I’ve ever tasted. It is a bit labor-intensive, but worth every minute of prep!

I made some today, and, mmmm yum!!

crazy weather!

Ok, I’ve been a slacker. I’ll admit it. But I’m back today and am gonna try to stay on top of it!

The weather here has been nuts. Quite a bit more rain than usual for this time of year. We had super nice days Saturday and Sunday. Monday was sunny but chilly. Today it was a bit sunny this morning and then POURED rain and hailed. And then was sunny. And then rained. And then was sunny.

Then, as I was getting dinner on the table, I looked out and saw bright sun…and rain coming down fairly hard…and knew there must be a rainbow out there.

So out I went, and sure enough. I need to read up on photographing the sky because I don’t think I’m real great at it yet. But there was a double rainbow, actually maybe a triple. The bottom, brighter one, had some or all of the colors twice right next to each other. So amazing!!

And then, about 20 minutes later when I went out, this is what the sky looked like in the same spot. In the rainbow shot, you can tell how brightly the sun was shining because the house across the street is so bright. By the time I took this one, the sun was covered up a bit by clouds.

Missed a day…oops!

So I missed a day. Oh, well…I’ll try not to this week.

We had beautiful sunshine today! This afternoon the girls and I rode our bikes to the park (I love that they can all ride now, means I can easily too!) and played for a bit. Kiandra rode her bike the whole time we were there so I didn’t get any pictures of her.

Party time!

Kiandra will be 7 next Friday. WOW!!!! Megan (my sister) leaves for Peru next Thursday, so I decided to have her party today. She wanted an “all kinds of animals” party, and wanted her friends to dress up in costumes. It was all sorts of fun. The sun was out again today and we BBQ’ed out back. We have a small bounce house we set up, plus a trampoline and swingsets, and lots of room to run. I think all the kids had fun!

Here’s Kiandra as a cat:

And with her cake, horse-shaped:

Blue Sky

This morning started out just a dreary as every other day this week. But, alas! The sun came out to play this afternoon!! We’re having Kiandra’s 7th birthday party tomorrow afternoon and I’m very grateful for the beautiful weather!

So, I had to document the beautiful blue sky!

Aleece!

I am shooting a wedding in a couple of weeks on the OSU campus. My awesome friend Aleece met me there tonight and helped me scout out some good places to shoot (if it should stop raining by then!). I didn’t take any other pics today so she was kind enough to let me post these.

oops

It’s technically Thursday, but this is Wednesday’s post. I’ll do another one for Thursday, promise!

I made a yummy dinner tonight. The girls loved it, and so did I

These are of Kiersten after she was done eating. The first one…Kiandra was trying to dance around and be in the picture…you can see her hair flying in the background and a bunny paw, I think (she was wearing her costume, of course )

And she decided to drink water like a dog, too…so silly

barely

It’s getting late, but I’m going to get a picture in today. It’s not a good one, but today was busy, the weather blah, and the inspiration low. Here’s Kiandra playing the computer (starfall.com) tonight before bed.