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!