vintage

I'm not a huge car fan, but I do love old, swanky cars that have vintage running through their tubes. ha! So when it comes to this or this, I am a huge car fan. 

This: 

belongs to this: 

a 1972 MG. When I was growing up, our old neighbors had a canary yellow MG parked out front for years. I remember because my mom and dad didn't think too highly of it, but I loved the look of it, even with the little rust spots. Plus, it provided a great hiding place for Ghost in the Graveyard during night games. The only thing I know about these cars is this: when I asked my mom why our neighbor wasn't driving it, she would say, "Because these cars catch on fire really easily." 

Bummer. It would be a lot of fun!

autumn updates

Autumn is here! The trees are breathtaking colors, and I'm already setting out my autumn decorations around the house. Speaking of the house, I finally took a picture of our textured paint using Theresa's EOS (see below post) and am putting it on our house blog. Take a looksey if you're interested. 

Also, I finally sat myself down and posted some photos I've been busy snapping this week. Yes!

*This picture was taken (using the EOS) of the mountain side across the valley on Thursday night.

canon EOS

Thursday night, a woman at work, Theresa, let me take home her Canon EOS that is a few years old. She knows about my curiosity for the 'bigger cameras,' and is trying to persuade me to the Canons. I use a canon point and shoot right now, and love the vivid colors. 

I got home a little late after work, but had to beat the sun before I started my homework for the night. I ran and drove around our neighborhood trying to get some shots of various colors, textures, and distances. Here are some shots from my photo-shoot with the very big and heavy Canon EOS; my arms weren't used to it! Maybe I need to start pumping iron. I was able to use her regular lens and her favorite, the telofoto lens. The focus was incredible how it would adjust and settle, with little or no work from me. Is that cheating? naaah..

In our backyard. I love the shadows at the edges, and how the flash had brought out the closest branches without drowning out the sun through the trees. 

Where the street ends, I climbed through our GX's sunroof to get the height advantage for this shot. The colors were beautiful on the hill, even with the encroaching snow.
Close up on a snow capped mountain in the same spot (from the sunroof!):
The Eagle River:
More Eagle River:
Thank you, Theresa! I loved using it! I only wish I knew more about the camera itself. Now I just have to find someone with a Nikon digital... anyone? 

around the world in 5 days

Mark's trip around the world certainly blew the hot air balloon out of the water. He was only flying for 5 days! 

Mt. Fuji over Japan: 

Flying over the Indian Ocean, not far from Thailand: 
Mark in all his desert-glory. Shortly after this picture there was a wall of dust coming in their direction. They all made it inside the plane just in time: 
Diego Garcia, the British owned, US military operated island in the Indian Ocean. It is only 7 miles long, and is shaped like a horseshoe, but the bay is deep enough for Navy ships to anchor: 
Then in Germany, before making the long flight back to the sates. Here he saw a friend of ours, Austin Hansen. Talk about it being a small world, after all. 
Thanks for all the pictures, my traveling man! 

a night in and out

After a nice night in yesterday, I knew Mark would want to get out and explore a bit. We had Stake Conference's Adult Session, so afterwards we went to midtown to Manhattan Pizza. Across the street is this lit up windmill... serving a purpose only known to the person who built it. But it was so vivid against our now-dark-night-sky! We're losing our night-light. 

My favorite quote came from Mark's Priesthood session: "It takes a pretty good meeting to be better than no meeting at all." - ? 

weekend relaxation

"What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue." -Henri Matisse 

Maybe this bench isn't as relaxing as what Henri describes, but it did provide some relief two weekends ago at the State Fair. This weekend is stake conference, so I will be soaking up my relaxation whenever I can. Here's to a nice Friday night watching television, playing for the first time Clair de Lune while Mark starts the fire to roast the mallows,  taking cat naps and reading the end of my book! Tell me a few things you do to relax? 

eee! wolves

I am sitting here on the couch in the living room with the sliding door and windows open to let the cool breeze in. It is so refreshing! In the quiet of my typing and Buckwheat's window-gazing, I begin to hear quiet howls. In the distance (probably across the valley), I can hear the wolves. They must be coming back from the mountains with the cooler weather. I haven't heard them since June.

Oh gosh! You all know of my fear of wolves. I'm glad I'm reading Twilight and understand the facts. They're not all bad. right? HA! right..

*I took this picture when I was on a walk with Buckwheat earlier this week. This is at the end of our street where the road ends and you can see both sides of the valley and the glacier in the back. You can see the red and fall tints on the back mountains where the trees are beginning to turn.

farmer's market

Saturday, my sunny day, was spent outside! I took Buckwheat with me to the farmer's market downtown and enjoyed the shops and excited cooing that little kids would do in the general direction of "the toto dog." 

I found 3 of these beautiful Russian Matryoshka dolls. Two small ones from the vender where I took this picture, and one big one from another vendor. The second vendor was a tall, beautiful woman wearing a fur hat, the stereotyped signature of her country, speaking Russian to her much shorter, balder, but very funny boyfriend. As I finished my purchase, I waved and said, "Do Svidaniha!" We truly are in Eastern Russia up here!!