Mountains & A Musical

DJ's mom and dad have been here for a couple of days. They came to see Ben's musical "Into The Woods". Last night was opening night and the kids all did such a great job! 
Ben did awesome in his role as the wolf. He nailed his solo :)

This is what our side of Snowbasin looked like last night when we went out to eat.

This is a little later in the evening ~ The light on the mountain was so pretty.

Dan, Vivian, Ben, DJ and Me

Dani, Ben & Heather

Dani, Ben w/ his wolf mask, Heather


It's snowing again. Hoping for a snowy weekend as the mountains sure could use it.

 

Daffodils & Teenagers

Who doesn't love daffodils? 

It's like the sun burst apart and attached itself to little green stems all over the world :)

I couldn't resist putting a little pot of daffodils in my shopping cart today as I shopped for groceries.

Shortly after I got home Ben called and asked if he could bring a couple friends home with him from school. I said that would be fine then my mind immediately asked itself "What are you going to feed these kids?" That's just how my mind works. I like to feed people. 

Our table soon looked like this and I warmed up chicken enchiladas from last nights dinner.

Ben then called and asked if a couple more friends could come....the plate stack kept growing :)

These little guys make me smile every time I look at them.

A soft look

Ben and his friends are downstairs watching a movie. They are all in the musical at the high school that starts tomorrow night.

I'm always nervous the first night of Ben's musicals or plays. After all his hard work I so want him to pull it off. I find myself holding my breath almost as he comes onstage the first night. Crazy, right?

I love that at 16 he still loves his momma and isn't afraid to say so. He came up shortly after they started the movie and said "Mom, I'm going to ask Aaron if we can borrow this movie because you would love it or would you just like to come down and watch it with us?"

Things like that melt my heart and make me want to savor every bit of these next 2 years :)

Celebrating boys who love their mommas and the fact that spring is around the corner (ish) ~ we do live in Utah after all! 

New Camera Bag & Crates

Momma wanted a sneak peak at the crates I brought home from work the other day :)

It's amazing what a coat of paint will do. I'm using Behrs primer and paint in one. I love it! One coat is enough.

When I got my new camera a few months ago I needed a new camera bag that it would fit in. I knew I didn't want just a camera bag. I wanted something that would work for snowshoeing and hiking. It needed to have room for my camera, extra lens, etc. It also needed to have room for snacks, first aid kit, extra hat, gloves, etc.

Heather and I were shopping at Imaging Depot and she spotted this bag. Perfect!

Shoulder straps are wide and nicely padded.

It has the little pocket at the bottom to set your tripod leg in and then a strap at the top to hold the tripod in place.

I keep my extra battery in one of those pockets.

The camera compartment is nicely padded on all sides to handle jostling around.

This great Versapack 200 AW is made by Lowepro and I am SO happy with it.

This pack is very comfortable to carry.

I'm looking forward to many  great adventures with it!

A Perfect Day To Ride

We were blessed with a beautiful day and I didn't have to work! 

I did not want to be inside so DJ and I loaded up the ATV's and met some friends of ours up on highway 39 at the snowmobile parking lot.

Driving through Ogden Canyon

I'm ready to go ~ Do you see how little snow there is? We have more snow at our house. Kinda weird.

So pretty

We don't normally camp in designated campgrounds but if we do my very favorite is Monte Cristo. Elevation 9,000 feet.

Jordan, Brenda and Doug along with DJ.

What a great day to be outdoors!

Snowmobile tracks

These next few pictures are inside Monte Cristo campground ~ I had my snowshoes with me so used them to walk around the campground.

Love the shadows

This cute little tree caught my eye

Every time I see this little cabin nestled in the woods I just want to move in :)  It's part of the Monte Cristo Guard Station. I don't think they want me to move in.

It was a lovely day filled with good friends and clean air ~ the kind of day you don't want to end.
I'm serious about the clean air ~ It's been a gross kind of winter on our side of the mountain. It was so nice to see such blue sky and breath clean, good smelling air! 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day to my husband who also happens to be my best friend! 

We started dating 23 years ago this coming May.

I am so grateful to have this man in my life ~ He truly is my better half :)

I love you DJ!

May 2009 ~ Outside our villa in Santa Marinella, Italy

Father's Day 2009 ~ We were living in Sicily at the time

 

My New Blog Signature

I've been wanting to create a blog signature and I finally did it. I used www.mylivesignature.com and it was super easy. I'll probably play around with it and tweak it here and there. It's just a little thing but it made me smile to create a pretty signature :)

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

A New Blog Banner

I've been trying to figure out what pictures I wanted to use in my blog banner. (I used Picasa to make my blog banner).   
 Really, it shouldn't be so difficult but my mind goes a mile a minute in all kinds of directions. I finally decided to use pictures from two of my most favorite places to be. Oregon and Alaska. Evergreens. It's the Pacific Northwest girl in me. Having grown up in Oregon it's in my blood I guess.

The middle picture is Juneau, Alaska and the four end pictures are at Icy Strait Point, Alaska. The name Icy Strait Point doesn't bring to mind anything as enchanting as what it looks like there. I fell in love with the beauty of that area.

 The other two pictures are pictures of my playground as a child. The railroad tracks bordered our backyard and provided hours of entertainment for us kids. Many a penny was flattened on those tracks and the nearby trestle was a place where we would so bravely walk until we heard the ever familiar train whistle. That whistle was enough to quicken your heartbeat and make you run like you didn't know what bravery was! 

The gravel road picture was taken above the house I grew up in. The road was not there when we were growing up. It was an orchard. A prune orchard along with filberts and walnuts further up. My brothers and sisters and I spent countless hours running through these orchards. We would rub dirt on our faces, play army, build forts or spy on the old man who owned the orchards. In high school I would often sit down by the trestle (close to that grove of evergreens in the gravel road picture ) to write my creative writing assignments. It was a peaceful place to sit and dream as the wind rustled through the trees and canyon below. The canyon is called Hells Canyon which goes against how very beautiful that place is.

Well, I best get busy. I need to go bake some valentine sugar cookies for tonights family dinner. Sunday night is the one night we make it a point to eat together since the girls moved out.

My boss was going to throw these crates away at work unless someone wanted them. You know me, I snatched them up in a hurry! They need some new life painted into them. My art studio is their new home and I think they are begging to be painted Behr's Marina Isle ~ a pretty blue green. I'll share their makeover soon :)

~JanMarie

An Unexpected Hole & Other Piles of Rubbish

Yesterday began like any other day......my eyes not wanting to open while drinking my morning cup of joe. Joe doesn't really do anything for me like he does for some people. It's just psychological for me...."I've had my morning joe so I must be ready to wake up." Anyway, Joe doesn't really have anything to do with this blog post so let's leave him behind.

I wonder how her morning went? Lets call her Ella. If she knew yesterday morning that she was going to create an unexpected hole and other piles of rubbish would she have made wiser choices throughout her day? 

 I work at a local frame shop ~ I just want to say I'm blessed to work along side such wonderful people :) 
There were 3 of us at work yesterday about 4:30pm. We were chatting together....no customers in the store.
 One wall in the store is mostly a row of large windows which we were facing. We heard a slight noise and saw a streak of color (a car) catch a little air as it came over a snowpile. By the time it began to register what was going on we heard a much louder sound. Looking toward our front entrance door we saw that this car had crashed into our building creating a hole and a pile of rubbish. 

Long story short ~ No one was hurt ( I'm giving God ALL the praise for that! ). She crossed 2 lanes of oncoming traffic and a sidewalk ~ hitting no one! 
The lady we're calling Ella was handcuffed and taken away on DUI charges. 

I happened to have my camera at work to take pictures of frames. 

Thank you Lord that no one was shopping in that corner!

Thank you Lord that no one was walking in or out of the store ~ they could have been pinned or worse.

We have a lot of older customers ( 70's - 90's ) that wouldn't have been able to move very fast even if they saw this car coming.

I'm so glad no one was hurt! I hope and pray that Ella finds the help she needs. I pray that she would know there is a God who loves her more than anything and would love to walk along side her during this dark time in her life. I want her to know that mercy triumphs over all life's ugliness and that God's grace is enough!

I pray that you and I would think about choices we make every day and how they might affect others around us.

Ok, I'm going to find Joe now :)

~JanMarie