Date Night.

This is relaxing.

Happy Friday!

Movie of choice?

Documentary on Ansel Adams.

Worth the watch. Learning more about

a person always makes me appreciate what 

they do even more. I am so glad that Brian and I

enjoy the same kind of movies. 

One movie that we could NOT get into?

Eat, Pray, Love=Boring

Austin & Niki: A Spring Wedding from 2010.

      Do you have a closet or a drawer that houses your miscellaneous, I'll get to it later stash? It's the little pile(s) that all of a sudden become(s) a "landfill". Overnight? "Whoa! When did that happen?! You were just a baby yesterday!"  The crazy thing about our modern, 21st century lifestyle is that those piles, drawers, and closets aren't just confined to our house, car or office anymore. There's digital, cyber "stuff" we have to deal with, too. Some of it is easy to take care of (delete) , like junk mail, but then there's the other stuff....the emails you want to respond to, the "desktop" that looks like a dump with photos, folders, downloads, school assignments, and other fodder that just keeps piling up. My desktop is nothing compared to my 2 TB External Hard drive that houses all of my photos and other stuff that just gets swept in there, when I decide to clean up the desktop for company. I have a "back room" on my Hard Drive that is actually pretty organized, but the problem is I have to run through the landfill to get there. I run as quickly as I can, with blinders on, so I don't have to see what's out there...but it doesn't go away. It grows. Eeek!

     Today, I decided to venture into the mess to look for photos of my niece, Olivia, but on my search I found these lovelies, patiently waiting for me in a folder marked AustinNikiWedding04MAR2010 Blog. Austin and Niki have been married almost a year. My good friend, Jo, did their wedding and I worked with her as her 2nd shooter. (An Aside: Love working with Jo. Miss her since she moved to ID.) Austin and Niki did get their photos, but I never posted any of their wedding day on my blog. Austin and Niki are a cute, cute couple. I did their engagements, so I got to meet them before their wedding day. Thanks to my friend, Jo, for the opportunity to be there for their, wedding, too.

I'm sure Niki and Austin won't mind revisiting this day again. I know I had fun...

So happy.

I loved how floppy this little guy was on Austin's shoulder.

 I also love how kids try to make their own fun. 

I mean, how exciting is looking at a bride and groom for 2-3 year olds.

 This little boy was attached to this grapefruit, and a good little caretaker of it he was. This was his little corner of the world for the group photo outside the temple.

 The Wright House offers two beautiful venues. Niki and Austin had their ring ceremony and reception at the Provencal, a setting inspired by the Provence region of Southern France.

A bride's shoes have gotten a lot more personality over the years. 

 The mother and father of the bride.

 Father and mother of the groom.

 The bride's sister.

 

Who says bouquets are just for brides!

 One of my faves.

 I'm a sucker for enlargements and using photographs as a focal point for the decorations.

Happy Almost 1 year Anniversary, Niki and Austin.

So, I'm going to be digging through my photos in the coming weeks, months...well, in the future, and file and organize and see what other little goodies I find. For those of you with piles, too...good luck and may the force be with you. It's not all bad...you never know what treasures await you.

Life's Bookend Birthdays: John and Olivia

Happy 91st Birthday!

Birthdays are worthy of special recognition, even if the celebration is on a small scale. It is, after all, the day we each came into the world and like the hallelujah chorus that rang out for the Savior's birth, I'd like to think that each of us had our own chorus of angels singing out on our birthdays. Happy Birthdays in our family, this month go out to Leilani, Kevin, Helena, Jimbo,  and John with an early H.B. to cutie pie Olivia (in February). My family (Flinks) don't have many relatives here in the USA, but John and his sister Elsie are my grandfather's cousins and as luck would have it, they live only 2 miles from us. It's been fun to get to know both of them. They are fun to talk to. John still drives and loves to watch sports on t.v. They both seem much younger than their years. I hope I inherited that family thread, too.
When I looked at the photos in my camera the other day, I loved seeing photos from John and Olivia's little celebrations while they each visited us and I thought about everything that comes between their two birthdays in a person's life. John just celebrated his 91st birthday and Olivia will be 4 at the beginning of February. John can look back and Olivia doesn't even comprehend what it means to look ahead yet. By the time Olivia turns 91, so many of us will be long gone, but she will have a rich, full life behind her and many loved ones anxiously awaiting her arrival on the other side. When John turned 4, the world was a differnt place. It was 1924. 

If you were around in 1924, then this is what was happening:

• Ira and George Gershwin, along with Irving Berlin continued to dominate the music industry and Rhapsody in Blue is played for the very first time. (Rhapsody in Blue lives on and sounds as fresh as ever. Adam likes to play parts at our house.)

• The IBM corporation was founded.

• Calvin Coolidge was President.

• The Indian Citizenship Act passed on June 2nd which confers citizenship on all Native Americans born within the United States.

• California had both a Hoof and Mouth epidemic AND 25 people in LA die from Pneumonic Plague

• The first regular airmail services started in the USA

• A Ford Runabout cost $265. $85 extra for a starter (Could you start it without a starter?? I don't know.)

• Eggs- .25/doz.

• You could buy a 7 room home with garage and fruit orchard in Wisconsin for $5,200.

• And for your listening a viewing pleasure from 1924 a recording of Sweet Georgia Brown:

Now, John's birthday...

What's your wish, John?

My dad and John

John and Annie

This is my mom with Elsie, John's older sister. Guess what?! She's going to be 100 in April!! I haven't met too many people who have been on the earth that long. We are going to party. We can hardly wait!

Now little Miss Olivia's Pre-Birthday...

And what does a 4 year old wish for I wonder?

Olivia's 2nd and 3rd birthdays are here and here.

Happy 4th Birthday, Olivia! Wishing you at least 87 more years of Birthday Wishes coming true.

Casey: Senior 2011

       Casey's stepmom, Laurie, who lives in Wisconsin wanted to give Casey her Senior pictures as a gift. When I met Casey, I felt the love that her step mom has for her and I knew immediately why she thinks Casey is so special. Casey is a beautiful girl, who exudes confidence, humility, sweetness and a sense of fun among other things. She is going to go far. She's been involved with theater in High School, but is thinking about going into medicine. 

The possibilities are endless for a girl like Casey.