Family, Utah and the Freedom Festival

greetings y'all!

i'm a bit torqued, if i may say. i wrote bunches last night and quit to help emma with something. we got to bed late and at some point the comp powered down and blogger did nothing to save my work.

i hate going back to step one- yet here i am!

i was in utah seeing family the week of the 4th.

being in utah at that time of year is a treat!

we enjoyed attending the Patriotic Service held at BYU's Marriott center. Matthew Holland was the guest speaker, music was generally by the Osmonds, 2nd Generation and the Wasatch Winds Symphonic Band.

additionally, we were treated with bagpipes and an extremely well done, very respectful flag ceremony.

Matthew Holland is Elder Holland's son. He gave a wonderfully insightful talk about Abraham Lincoln- even finding the above photo- proving that AL was a UVU alumni. ;)

k- this blogger/pic thing is driving me crazy! i'll add a photo- it brings it in and places it at the top- which throws all of my dialog off... i'm sorry, but why is it that blogger hasn't been able to let you add a photo to where you are in your text? hum?

moving along...

dad and mom threw a yummy dutch oven picnic for the families, including grandpa stan and charlotte. we had delish dutch over chicken and even more delish dutch oven cobbler :)

we had a surprise visit from david and lisa with their youngest, dakota, and pam. it was great seeing family that i hadn't seen in many years.

one of the many highlights of the afternoon was the opportunity to take photos of the kids while they were playing. love that! andy got a game of football going and at a break in the action i took a team photo. waaaay cute! we had hoped to do fireworks but the weather didn't cooperate- so that was rescheduled.

i have to say- cleaning out 8 dutch ovens was anything but pleasurable- but since it was dad and i, it was fun. we scraped and scrubbed and gagged and...lol... we did a great job of it!


i love my walks up the canyon to bridal veil falls. i only walked it twice during the week- the first one w/my camera. i was more concerned about trying new things with settings than i was about just taking photos- so my collection is a bore to the viewer- but this leaf photo is one that i felt i accomplished the lighting/setting as i had hoped to.

BVF's is a sanctuary to me. i love it- the walk takes effort; it's a 10 mile round trip. but the landscape, the sounds, the smells, the abundant visual opportunity is breathtaking.

another fun activity that takes place 3 days during the week is the Balloon Fest. Dani was able to join us (dad, mom, myself) and we arrived, cameras in tow, promptly at 6:30 a.m. it was educational seeing how the hot air balloons worked- so i took my version of a documentary of the event. i have tons of photos from the beginning of the process through the end. dad and dani are more artistic. that's something i need to make myself do more of :)

we had a fun time and added to that fun by meeting everyone for breakfast afterward. there's always the best food in utah! and i have to admit, that i ordered 2 eggs and dessert: the strawberry shortcake. lol- wow!

i'm going to publish this much before adding another photo messes up what i've been working on. more to come soon!

nearly a month has gone by... ouch!

i was sitting here thinking- nah. i'll write some in the morning... but i just can't put this off any longer: there's too much to catch up on! going back an entire month is not just hard but CRAZY. however, lol, i'll do my best :)

oh- and it didn't help to find out that yahoo 360 was shutting down- yikes! last night i had intended on writing here, along with writing tay's letter, only to find out that i (along with all my family) had to save both em's and my entries on that blog. i did get it done tho! all saved to a WORD doc. mine being close to 200 pages. LOL. and i didn't save everything! i will be backdating this blog with those entries at some point...

mom and dad decided to drive to texas in june to bring me the car that they were selling. while dad was only here a short time, he did get to begin to use his new camera :) we ran around getting the car title changed over to a texas driver (me!), went out to eat, saw Star Trek and out to the river for some family photos. i am SO glad that i have these pics dad: Thank You!!! i'm also very excited about the car- now i just need to unload my mazda. hey- if anyone out there wants a two year lease- i'm your gal! (not me the CAR, silly:) just a moment to say- mom and dad- i love you both so much. and i very much appreciate the lengths you'll go to, to help me and the others in this family. to everyone- my parents ROCK.

mom and i then got ourselves together after a crazy week of my camp/piano schedule (mom is a great camper helper:) and took off for the 2009 Cook reunion in Stephenville, TX. it was great seeing lots of familiar faces and catching up- but mostly we loved the time spent with Grandma and Grandpa Cook and Aunt Bobbie. we talked, took pictures, and enjoyed good meals :)

on our way home from the reunion, we had made plans to visit Woody, mom's cousin and his family in garland texas. on the way i talked her into stopping and checking out the animals at Fossil Rim. That place is so much fun! it's not too far- maybe 90 min's/2 hours but the experience was so entertaining that it is completely worth the effort! while you drive through the park, you stop where there are animals so that you can feed them and take pictures. we giggled our faces off we had so much fun! part of the excitement was learning how close you wanted the animals to get to you. they are entirely comfortable walking right up to your face, with theirs! at first we didn't know this- and i remember saying, 'he's acting like he wants me to pet him!' well, after that i quickly found out that they were happy to eat the feed right from your hands. it was breathtaking being so close to those beautiful creatures. i got fairly comfy with them right away- but mom seemed to like her space and i'm tellin' ya- don't get near her window if she has her finger on the button. she's hilarious! so to share- here are a couple of photos:





mom took this photo of me (in the tye-dyed shirt that i made with emily) and it's my favorite: yes, both the shirt and the picture! i really will always just treasure getting to interact with these gorgeous, sweet creatures!

we did get to Amy's, where Woody and Carolyn are staying, and had a yummy Father's day meal with them while we visited. Woody is not well, but he is better and this is giving them all a chance to spend some quality time together.

so- it's time to stop and get to posting tay's letter. but i will mention some things i will be writing about.

for one thing, em was around but only a little bit because shw was gone to EFY and then to girl's camp. so i'll post some things about that... and then i'll update you regarding my return to school, my chance to teach gospel doctrine this coming sunday, along with the opportunity i have to go on exchanges with the sister missionaries this friday. of course, the biggest entry of all- my trip to utah!

and somewhere in there, i'm going to be visiting other blogs and getting caught up. thanks for your patience and love! see you soon!