Photography 101

You might remember that for my birthday this past year I asked for a new camera. A Nikon D60 SLR, to be exact. And Nic, being the precious pea that he is, gave in and got it for me. (Or it was compensation for the week long hunting trip he went on and left me on my birthday.) One way or another, I got it. Since then, I have been trying to master the art of photography. I have always admired beautiful photography, and it has sort of turned into an obsession of mine. So I signed up for a basic photography class and yesterday was my "graduation" if you will. I feel like I really have learned a lot, and enjoyed learning something new. It has been quite a while since I've been in a classroom type atmosphere and it felt so good to actually use my brain again. (You know what I mean.) I've added to my vocabulary words like aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, ISO, white balance, polarizing filter, UV filter, F-stop, camera raw, just to name a few. I never realized that taking pretty pictures could be so technical. I'm signed up for the advanced class that follows and am looking forward to hopefully continuing to learn and get better. These are my pictures I submitted to our teacher at the end of the course.

I know, I know, I am still an amateur...

Spring Training

The other day I woke up knowing I had 5 miles to run. I knew snow was in the forecast, but was hoping that for some reason it would be a beautiful morning. As I peeked out my shutters, there it was...that white stuff...all over my grass. Yikes!! (as Kade would say) I laid back in my nice warm bed for a minute, but the nagging reminder that my half marathon is not getting any further away got me back out of bed and dressed in my gear. I stretched, poured 2 bowls of honey nut Cheerios's for Kaden and Rylie, and headed out the door. The snow was coming down, but I had been out in worse. I started to run and for the first time in a long while nothing hurt. It felt so good. As I continued on I got lost in thought (and the tunes on my i-pod). The only thing annoying me was the snow blowing into my face. By about the 3rd mile or so I looked down and saw the front of my black sweatshirt was caked with snow. I could feel warm tears running down my cold cheeks. Every once in a while a huge white flake would land on my cheek or the tip of my nose, and then slowly melt away. I was thinking to myself, why do I love this so much? Am I crazy? I should be home in my nice cozy bed, but instead I am out here pounding the pavement in the cold. Fast forward to today. It was beautiful, a little breezy, but such a nice day. I then realized why I train through all of those cold, miserable days. To get to the warm, beautiful days. Days that I head out early in the morning, and watch the sun rise up over the mountains. I never thought it would be, but running is just a part of me that I love so much. I love the sense of accomplishment it gives me. Especially on days that it feels like I've not been able to accomplish much else. Anyways, I am beginning to sense those warmer days becoming more and more prevalent and it makes me so flippin' excited! Can't wait to ditch the ear-muffs, gloves, and sweatshirts... I'm on the lookout for the perfect running skirt. That Salt Lake half is going to be here before I know it. That flu set me back a bit- but I am starting to make some progress again! Yay!

p.s. If anyone is interested in putting in for the St. George Marathon (April 1st) let me know. We can get a whole gang of us together- it would be so much stinkin' (you wonder where my kids get that) fun!!! Think it over :)

St. George Getaway

A couple weeks ago we went down to St. George with the Sparrow's. It was a much needed escape from the cold weather. It was so nice to be able to romp around in short-sleeves and sandals. The first night we ate at the pizza factory. I love that place!!

Zac was getting some great snuggles.
Next we were off to Cold Stone for some delicious ice cream... oh, the choices...

Then we took our sugar-buzzing kids outside to run around and get some ants out of their pants...
The big boys and their treats...

Me and my 'sweets'...

The next day the boys headed off to the Nascar race. You heard me, the NASCAR race. It was Nic's first time, so he was extremely excited. While they did that, we decided to take the kids to the park. Low and behold... here came the ice cream truck!! We were SO excited!!

The kids were in heaven...

The weather was perfect...

Here are some pictures of the race...

Nic and The Judge

Papa and Matt

Nic's guy Carl Edwards...AFLAC!!!

We had such a great time down there. Erika and I got a good run in before we left. It felt so good to be out running in a tank and no ear-muffs!! I even came home with a slight sun burn. Oh, I seriously can not WAIT for summer!! I was so sad to leave those red rocks behind. Lucky for me, we will be heading back down next month!! Yay!!

Draper Temple and the Flu...

Holy Influenza!!!

That flu bug floating around is NO JOKE!! It owned me for like 5 days. 4 of which were seriously spent IN MY BED!! Not good for my training. I am SO glad to be back with the living and back to running, but I am weak. So annoying. Only 5 1/2 weeks left until the Salt Lake Half Marathon... I better kick it back into high gear.

On another note, we just got back from touring the new Draper Temple. It was beautiful as I had imagined. Not a corner went unnoticed. It was peaceful, serene, and most importantly, my children got to see the inside of it. They were so excited this morning when I told them we were going to see the new temple and they would be able to go inside. Kaden looked at me puzzled and said, "But Mom, I thought you couldn't go inside the temple unless you got married?" I explained to him that it hadn't yet been dedicated, and that's why we had this neat opportunity to see the inside before they did. On the bus ride back to our cars I asked them what their favorite part was. They both said, "The 'bathtize' part." Meaning the baptismal font. They also thoroughly enjoyed the refreshments at the end. We didn't venture to far from the beaten path while at the temple, so there were no great photo ops.

Back at the chapel sufficed. Of course our kids were not cooperating, but here ya go.

Afterwards we went and got some Chinese food. It was quite a treat. Thanks again Ben for the delicious dinner.

{Doesn't Rylie look so happy to be there? She really did not want her picture taken, but she got it anyways.}
What a great night. I am so thankful for temples, and how blessed we are to have so many readily available for our convenience. Anyone who still hasn't seen it, there are still a few more days. I highly recommend going down.