Flooded

Same old story here. Flooded with work, flooded with kids, flooded with life, but today....
we also had flooded streets.

It was a cloudy morning but at 11:20am the clouds opened up and a months worth of rain came down on us. I was sitting in my living room, getting the kids ready to go pick up Ty from school when it started. The boys and I watched the rain pour down as we sat at the dining room window. Minutes later we had our very own waterfall as Tanner called it. There was so much rain it was running over the gutters and making a solid wall of water in front of our window. While I was enjoying the show, my main thought was, really, this, 10 minutes before I have to pick up Ty. Maybe it will stop? But it kept on coming. I figured if this rain wasn't going to stop, I was going to at least get a front parking spot at school, so I packed up 5 minutes early. As we stepped outside all bundled up and ready to dash to the car... it stopped. As quickly as it had came the rain was gone, but the fun was about to begin.

The neat thing about where I live is the subdivision is on higher ground than the streets just west of us. So guess where all that rain goes???? Down the street. The drive to school had a few detours, some because there were AWESOME puddles, and some because the puddles where too big and I wasn't even going to try. By the time I had picked up Ty, dropped off one of his friends, found a few more puddles to splash and gone home to get my camera, it had been about an hour. I really wish I had gotten the camera first because it was amazing. In fact, some kids actually got their canoe and floated down the street. Of course I had to let my boys out and play in the water too. Luckily it was decently warm while we were out there.



This is one of the puddles I decided not to go into, but because no one else wanted to drive in it too, the boys had a great time in it.




We finally went home but before I could get Tanner inside, he made one last mad dash to the gutter. Mind you, this is about and hour and a half from when the rain stopped and there is still a ton of water.



Austin was dying to join in on the fun, but some of that water was taller than he was, so we let him play out back while we got lunch together. Who needs a swimming pool and where else is it warm enough to have a naked baby in the water in October? Only in California. (mother side note, he was only out there for about 2 min.)


They wanted to stay out all day, but I was wet enough for the whole week and called it off. What a fun afternoon though. It is great to have days like this, once in a while.

But as they went to bed tonight they both asked, "Can we drive in the water again tomorrow Mom?" Too fun!!

Needing My Own Station

So if my friend Jenni doesn't stop finding all these fun YouTube videos I might need to start my own site with my favorite videos. There are a ton of things happening in my life right now, and it's a lot easier to post a video than write about what's going on so I'll do a cram session later to update about me. But until then.... check out these funny missionaries. Is this the kind of thing I have to look forward to?

Another good one

My friend Jenni (who owns the fabulous Lush Boutique) is always finding these great things on the Internet and posting links to them. She recently found this one and I love it. I'm Yours by Jazon Mraz is one of my favorite songs, Eric and I sing it ALL THE TIME. And this rendition is INCREDIBLE. Thanks Jenni for sharing...

He's going to be a soccer player... he is

I mentioned a month or so ago Austin loves to play soccer during Ty's soccer practice and I finally got it on video. He dribbles around the adults and loves the attention he gets for it. Not bad skills though for a little guy.

Good Morning

Now that I've let out my nature obsession and made it public, there might be many more cloud posts. I also discovered I inherited my love of clouds from my Grandma. Thank you Grandma, I love it! This was the site that greeted me last week on my way to a weekly meeting. Breathtaking.

Framing the Fall with Style

Perfection. My boys did a great job this day!

Work, work, work. That's my life right now. If it's not one thing, it's another. This week, photography is the name of the game.

It been a week or two of variety. I love it when I shoot different subjects, it keeps me on my toes. I started by getting together these photos for my bride next month. I am very excited for this wedding as the location is amazing and this bride is so sweet. It will be a post that is worth looking forward to. But these engagement shots came from our second shoot. The first one took place on a 105+ degree day and the poor bride felt like she was melting the whole time (I think we all did) so we tried again on a day that wasn't so hot and came out with some great shots.



Then that weekend I did a afternoon show at a local gym here in the area targeting families. I am really bad at "selling myself" but I had a great time getting prepped for the show. When ever I have something like this to do, I get to go over all my past work to pull pieces to show. I found this one that I took this spring and blew it up to a huge poster size. It was the hit of the show and one of my all time favorites.


Changing pace once more I hit the local high school and took pictures of the Drill Team. I love taking team pictures because you can have so much fun with every one's personalities.


There is still more in the mix. Right now I am editing photos from the family reunion I did in Tahoe with 14 grandchildren. The lighting was so beautiful up there, the photos are looking great.

Oh my goodness, I smell dinner burning. Time to get my other hat of being a mom on for the night, or at least until the next picture perfect moment.....

Say Cheese

Another one of those, playing the back yard, grab the camera quick, moments. Glad I did.