Park City and the Alpine Slide

This weekend we went on a mini vacation up to Park City with the girls. It was fantastic, the air was nice and cool, it was beautifully green and we had no schedule to follow. We went swimming, watched tv in our bed (Paige thought that was pretty cool) and road the alpine slide. All in all and pleasant trip. I am just going to post a few pics in case any of the 2.5 people that actually read this are interested in seeing what it looks like up there. I had mentioned the alpine slide which Mike was gracious enough to let me take Paige on while he waited at the bottom with Mia. We rode up to the top of the mountain on the ski lift, which is pretty high, especially if you are three. Paige told me her heart was feeling a little wigglish, which I took to mean she felt a little nervous but once up at the top she was all grins and giggles, and absolutely fearless, I kept having to pull the brakes because she was taking us down at such break neck speeds. I will never forget how much fun we had or how brave she was. You can check out the alpine slide and other fun attractions by clicking here .

Farmers Market

Its Farmers Market time! and Salt Lake downtown farmers market is the best one I have ever been to. Aside from farmers vending their produce, there is a pluthera of other hopefuls sitting in tents hoping to sell their wares or make a name for themselves. There is also a ton of food. Every type of food you can imagine. Mexican, Indian, Argentinian, Bavarian, I even saw a group of yoga spiritualists with their own food booth. And on every corner is a musician hoping to entertain the crowd and fill his or her instrument case with some dough.

Paige and I went to check out the action on Saturday. We decided to let Daddy stay home with Mia because while he will go to these festivals with us, I think he secretly dreads the heat and the crowds. We had a blast getting ready and heading out. Paige dumped her piggy bank savings into her wallet and off we went. There wasn't a ton of produce because of the crazy weather we had this spring but there was a booth selling mushrooms. I pointed it out to Paige who said "yes, that is what I would like to buy with my money." And then she went to the booth, a lady helped her pick out her mushrooms, Paige paid her with her quarter and walked away with a bag of five Porcini mushrooms that go for 28 dollars a pound. I could hear the sales people giggling and I am fairly confident that they gave her a good deal as we walked away. I asked Paige what she wanted to do with her mushrooms, she said "oh I don't like mushrooms mom, you and daddy can eat them tonight for dinner." Little pretty! We had a great time the rest of the morning even though it was so hot. We wanted to get some delicious organic juice or some limeade but the lines were too long so we ended up getting snow cones instead, which was Paiges favorite part of the market. Here are some pictures from the day.

Briana

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last minute shoot I did tonight for my good friend and grandma to be, Theresa (wow, grandma?). Hope you enjoy the little preview, and the best of luck to Briana and her wee baby girl. I hope to see you back soon, and so does my three foot tall assistant, Paige, who was very upset to discover that the camera phone that she was "helping" me take the pictures with is actually just a piece of plastic that makes tinkerbell sounds.

Super Hero

Paige is a hero. Actually, she is referring to herself as either a hero or a "super, only I don't have a costume, right mom?". What happened was that she went to "check" on Mia (aka wake her up from a peaceful slumber) and she very calmly came walking back out to tell me that there was a spider on Mia's bed and I needed to go check on her. So I walked in and sure enough there was a giant spider about three inches from Mia's unsuspecting little head. (I am fairly confident that it was a brown recluse or a black widow, or something equally as dangerous) Luckily I was able to grab her out of her bed just seconds away from a sure bite. Paige had saved the day and I told her that she had saved Mia's life. That was two weeks ago. And she hasn't let anyone forget it. We have heard over and over again Paige tell herself or Winks (her stuffed elephant, that's a whole other blog, by the way) "I just can't believe I'm a hero." or "I sure am glad I am a hero" or "I wish I had a costume like elasta girl since I am a hero". Lets all congratulate her one more time for being a super heroic big sister, and saving this little sweetie (pictured below) from the enormous eight legged ball o terror. Good job Paigey!!

On a side note, know who is not a hero? Jack, from Jack and the Beanstalk. I mean really, the guy first of all sells his cow for "magic beans", then climbs up the stalk unannounced, sneaks into a castle and runs off with gold that isn't his. Isn't this called robbery? And it wasn't a tiny bit of gold, either, it was enough that he and his mother lived happily ever after. Right after they chopped down the stalk and the giant came tumbling down with it, never to get up again. As in, he died. Because they killed him. And that my friends, is one of the most popular stories in history that we tell to our children at night before they go to bed. I keep trying to hide the book that Paige has but it turns out that it is in several of her bed time story collections and we revisit it every so often. The story of a thieving murdering magic bean buying bonehead. Its a classic.

The Burbs

So there is this lady on our street that I met recently at a neighbors house. She came over to tell us that her beautiful brick mailbox had been hit and destroyed by a teen driver in the neighborhood. She was really mad about it because the kid doesn't have insurance and won't pay for it, but last I heard they were going to just hire someone to build them a new mailbox because they were getting nasty notices from the mail man that he didn't want to climb over the pile of rubble anymore to deliver the mail. I was telling Mike the story about it but couldn't remember why the lady had said that the kid ran into the mailbox in the first place. Just yesterday Mike took Mia for a walk down the street past that particular house and I got a picture text from him. It is of a tin mailbox (just the box part, no stand) sitting atop a big pile of broken bricks. The mailbox had painted on the side "Text Messaging" . I love livin in "the burbs" .

Gabby and Alex

I just finished up editing these pictures and I am so excited about them! I met Gabby a few month ago when I did her family and maternity pictures. I was so happy that she trusted me enough to document her precious new edition, Jasline. Gabby has such a gorgeous family and aside from being beautiful, they are all very kind and a blast to spend time with. They are coming back to do family portraits and I cannot wait! I hope you enjoy the pictures.