the Parker Family

These long-time clients of mine are just a joy to be around. It's like getting to see old friends again when they come into town! Someday I'm going to have to talk the mom and dad of these two cute kids to sit in for a picture or two! Can't wait to see you all again this winter.








If you look closely between them, there is a deer standing there.

The Sherry Family

Taking pictures of people is always a treat for me, and even more so when it's my family! Here's my oldest brother and his wife and their hilarious little girl. She is obsessed with hugging Lucy 24/7. Generally in involves her taking Lucy down from behind. She has the longest eye lashes, and sweetest lips. They are a wonderful example to me and I'm so grateful to live nearby them so that we can have times like these together.

**Sofia's fabulous dress and hair accessory were made by her amazing seamstress of a mom!

At the risk of seeming conceited

Lucy and I met up with Geoff and Isaac at BYU (they biked there and back, that's a 2 mile bike ride for my 4 year old!) and walked over to the beautiful stream and waterfall they have made there. There were lots of baby ducks and Lucy couldn't have been more excited. I was taking some pictures of Isaac and Geoff walking on the rocks, while Lucy disrobed and started walking in the water. She is certainly a water-baby!

I intended to just take some pictures of the kids and the ducks, but Geoff took my camera while I was playing with the kids and got these. At the risk of seeming conceited, I post them because I think he did a great job and honestly, it's nice to have some visual memories of myself with my babies. It's warm summer evenings like these, spending time with those I love the most that I'm reminded how lucky I truly am!












**Technical note: these were taken with my 85mm at 160/f3.2 (which should have been smaller so that we were all in focus, but oh well). I happened to lay down in a patch of sunlight coming through the trees--HELLO, must do that more often because it did wonders for my face and under eye bags!

My little cowboy

I went to kiss Isaac goodnight tonight and this is how I found him. So precious! Isaac is such a good boy. I am so grateful for him and the happiness he brings to our family every single day.

Because she looked cute today

Well, let's be honest, she's always cute to me.

A picnic and some marshmallow guns

We met up with the Dovers for a delightful evening together, complete with a picnic, marshmallow guns (made by my resident handyman), swinging, biking and a surprisingly good Christian Rock group serenading us in the background.


Amy was very serious about her gun and the trajectory necessary to achieve full marshmallow-flying status.



The lineup of hoodlums, minus Ethan and Lucy who stole the bag of Doritos and hid on the playground shoving them into their faces as quickly as possible.



Nothing wrong with a little game of "Hit the Kids". I'm surprised this picture is even in focus I was laughing so hard.



Livi and Isaac with their bikes. Isaac has totally mastered bike riding, and Livi has clearly mastered picking her nose.






Lucy could stay on the swings all day long!






Amy had a classic middle school swinging blunder when she went to jump off the swing and got nervous. This is what I turned around to see. I'll spare you and her the up close shot of her sprawled on the bark chips. The highlight of the evening for sure.





Summer, don't leave us, we're having way too much fun!

Bon Iver-2009 Twilight Concert Series

Oh my, what a treat it was to go see Bon Iver in concert with my sweet friends, Kristin and Kiera. He was AMAZING! Seriously, check him out. And, did I mention it was free? I cannot wait for the Iron & Wine and M. Ward concert as well. Jenny Lewis was the opening band, and while I hadn't heard her before and was really going for Bon Iver, I really enjoyed her music as well. Very Jewel-like.

Kiera brought her camera along and let me play with her tilt-shift which I'm in love with. Here's a couple shots that she got.

Thanks for the fun evening gals!











After seeing the first shot, we decided we clearly weren't enjoying ourselves enough, which explains the last picture.

Stewart Falls

We decided last minute to go up to Stewart Falls yesterday (above Sundance). Geoff's sister's boys were with us from Vegas so they had a blast seeing real trees and green grass. It was the perfect little hike for the youngins (if you can get someone to open the Berkshire Gate and drive up to the start of the trail, it's only about 1.5 miles to the falls) and a delightful escape from the heat.

Fourth of July festivities

I just LOVE the Fourth of July, and I love Utah on the Fourth of July especially. Every year it seems, loads of old friends come through and it's party time from morning to night. I was able to see lots of my old roommates from SkyView days at a pool party at Jen's, and spent time with several of Geoff's best buddies and their families as well. There was lots of food, lots of laughs, and lots of reminiscing going on.

Geoff and our awesome neighbor Bryan, got up at 5am to save us a spot along the parade route in Provo. It was a great parade as usual, and thankfully not quite as hot as it has been in past years.



Isaac was memorized by the whole event.



Isaac wanted a picture with Captain America so bad. We had to take off running down the street to catch him.



This is Geoff's dear friend's son, Zach. We are SO sad that we don't live closer to them. Isaac and him played so well together and even had a sleepover in a fort.



A shot of some of the boys and their girls. Who would have thought!! And yes, I'm quite aware that my daughter has a very "special" smile.

Nail painting with cousins

The rest of our Fourth we spent at Geoff's oldest sister's house in Alpine with almost all of Geoff's family. They just got their swimming pool up and running so we were out there most of the day. I decided there has been enough swimsuit pictures for a while, so I didn't bust out the camera till Lucy got up from her nap and wanted to be a part of the nail painting event. It was real cute.

After a delicious dinner and some Pickleball (the best game EVER), we lit loads of fireworks and got home way too late. Ahh, summer.

Carlos Family

Melissa and I were co-workers back in the BYU Center for Instructional Design days, and Geoff and her husband were freshman year buddies. We haven't seen each other in quite a while since they live in upstate New York, but you'd never have known. They are such a fun, sweet family. And their kids? Holy cuteness! We lovingly refer to this shoot as the "Poop Shoot" as their baby stepped in dog poo which ended up on the entire family by the end of the shoot. Funny for me, not so fun for them.




My favorite shot of the day.