Warm Tones & Flooded Rivers

Finally!

Sunny days, blue skies and warmer temperatures are here :) Curtains are fluttering in the gentle breeze as we air out a house seemingly full of pent up cabin fever! Winter seems to have lasted extra long this year.

These first four pictures are in the 25th St. area of Ogden. I took a photography  class this week on natural light and last night our instructor took us down to 25th St. as well as other areas to practise what we learned. The light was beautiful. I love the warm tones in these pictures.

The back side of 25th St. 

Some of these pictures are crooked on purpose :)

Our ladies group that snowshoed together this winter is now walking/hiking together weekly. This week we met at Ogden Botanical Gardens and walked the pathway along the river. The river is really high.

Normally it is hoped that snow melt off will fill the reservoirs. The snow pack this year was way beyond normal. April was unusally cold and wet, not allowing the snow to start gradually melting off. Water is being released from dams to allow room for all the upcoming run off.

The pathway is flooded in a couple places

Not even 6" before the water hits the bridge at Grant or Lincoln ( I can't remember )

More pathway flooded

These beautiful flowers were growing along the river

Not at all what this river usually looks like

I love the orange and timber on this bridge

Springtime is here :)

Ogden Botanical Gardens

It's wonderful to be outdoors in the sun again! We are working on the front porch ~ we need to paint the cement steps, replace the wrought iron with wood and landscape the flower bed.

The kids are almost out of school ( 2 weeks ) and summer is around the corner! 

Have a beautiful day :)

~JanMarie

Tree, Track & Silly Girls

Yesterday I was enjoying my morning coffee in my usual spot. A comfy, oversized chair where I can look out the window at the sky and tree tops.

I'm an Oregon girl. I like my trees. Alot. ( No, I'm not a tree hugger :)

The sound of a chainsaw cranking up broke through the morning quiet. I figured they were just cleaning up the bottom limbs of the fir tree across the street.

That happens to be the fir tree I see from my comfy chair every morning. For the last 8 years.

My heart rate quickened as that chainsaw kept working it's way up that grand ole tree. Yikes, they were cutting "my" tree down. I didn't remember them knocking on my door to ask my permission!

This is the after picture....minus the trunks. I will adapt to the new view. I will miss it most in the winter when the other trees are bare. The city is cleaning that property up so hopefully they will do some nice landscaping.

Ben had a track meet last Friday. He's running the 100, 4x1, doing the high jump and shot put.

Some things never change :) How glad that makes my heart. I have pictures of the kids in their toddler years doing this very thing after I made cookies. I love that they still do it at 16 & 18!

Even when things change in our daily lives ( cut down trees and bigger life changes : ) I'm so grateful that God NEVER changes. He is exactly who He says He is!


"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
                                              ~Isaiah 40:8 (NIV)

Over The Mountain And Through The Snow!

Springtime weather.....you've gotta love it! Wild and unpredictable. Winter holding on as tightly as it can and spring desperate to make its appearance.


That's the way it is here in Utah anyway :)


One day I'm taking a picture of Fuddrucker sunning himself on Old Blue then the next day a crazy snowstorm moves in.

Laura and I drove up to Logan yesterday. She went to decorate her sons college dorm room door for his upcoming birthday. Our church, Alpine Church, has 3 campuses ( that's what we call our church buildings ). We have one in Logan and I went to talk to the campus pastor about getting some clean teams set up for that campus. We don't pay anyone to clean our campuses. It's all volunteer from church members.


This is what we ran into going over Sardine Canyon. There were probably 6-8 cars that slid off and one fender bender.

Alpine's Logan campus is in the old Maranatha Baptist Church building and before that it was a LDS ward. It's 100 years old or so. Below is a picture of one of its beautiful old windows. So much character :)

Logan is a wonderful old town. It was incorporated as a city in January 1866. Laura and I plan on going back in May and exploring more of the shops and taking pictures of the many beautiful old buildings. I'm not sure what the building below is. I snapped the picture as we were turning a corner.

We decided to grab dinner before heading back home. We went to the Coppermill Restaurant on Main Street. The building was full of different shops like an art gallery, barber shop, antique store and the restaurant was on the upper level. We were so hungry I forgot to take a picture of the food! It was amazing! We both got the Logan River Pasta.......oh my :) Breaded chicken tenderloins, real bacon chunks, tomatoes over a bed of linguine with a mouth watering, creamy, alfredo sauce. Plus homemade dinner rolls. What more could a girl ask for? At that moment not much!!

This was the view from our table.......the Logan tabernacle.

It was a great afternoon :) These next 2 pictures I took from our front door shortly after I got home. I love the blue in the sky!

Really Mom?

In 7 weeks this sweet girl of ours will be 17! She's in the acappella choir at school. Last night they had an informal concert as a fundraiser. Wanting to capture the moment I asked Dani to stop for a picture on her way out the door. She gave me the typical response I get from my kids when I want to take their picture...."Really mom?" Do you see it in her face? I love it!

Someday they will be glad I'm a crazy picture takin' mom :) Someday when their kids roll their eyes and say "really mom (or dad)?" at the idea of getting their picture taken...again and again...I will try not to laugh to hard as moments like last night come to mind!

These moments are going so quickly.......a year from now Dani will be graduating. So I'm going to keep on capturing these moments knowing someday they will be treasured by my dear children who for now can only moan and groan when they see momma headed their way with a Canon in her hand :)

  

I love you Dani! You guys sounded awesome last night as always :)

Outlaws & North Fork

I just wanted to stop in briefly and share the last couple of days with you :)

Friday DJ and I decided to snowshoe up at Weber County's North Fork Park near Liberty, Utah. It was a beautiful day to be outside. Unseasonably warm at 70*. I wasn't really in the mood to snowshoe as I hadn't slept well the night before but that's ok. DJ doesn't get the chance to adventure as much as I do so away we went! The sky was that pretty deeper blue and it's a really nice area to explore!

Today was Bens first spring soccer game! The first half wasn't alot to be proud of...but they did much better the second half and won 3 - 0 :) We've watched alot of these boys play soccer since 2nd or 3rd grade. It's fun to watch them grow up and improve.

Can you believe it's April already? Yeah for sunny days, green grass and snow still on the mountains :)

~Determination~

Go Ben!

A brief rain storm that passed over us

So many wonderful elements ~ deep blue sky, beautiful evergreens, shadows on the pristine snow and bare branches

You never know what you'll find in the woods :)

Snow melt off running it's course

Me

Our outdoor cafe where we ate lunch 

Blessings to you today :)

Cougar Tracks?

Here in Utah our snow is melting pretty quickly. Laura and I headed out to snowshoe today with our furry boys :)
It wasn't the prettiest day. It was a bit hazy and there was a cool breeze but it was great just to be out excerising and chatting with a friend!

I always keep an eye out for moose. I've taken some pictures of moose over our years of living here but not any real great ones. I'd love to get some better ones! At a safe distance of course:)

I'm also aware that we could run into bear or cougar. Cougars are usually in the higher country and are known to avoid humans typically. So today seeing what we're almost certain were cougar tracks was a little unnerving. We were on Old Snowbasin Road adjacent to the Ice Box Canyon area. The first paw print we saw caused us to look at each other and say "What the heck is that?" It was BIG. It was way bigger than a dog print. They weren't fresh. Sadly there were bunny tracks alongside the cougar tracks for the next 1/2 mile or so. You could tell the cougar at times was walking and then you could see where he'd run. At some point we lost the trail as it merged in with the groomed road.

A good reminder to always be aware of your surroundings :)

Laura and her boy Fred

Me and my boys Koda and Max

Snow melt off and icy creations

Laura and I - the camera was sitting on a post

A bit concerning...............hey Mr. Cougar, I hope you're not still lurking about :)

A good 5" wide ( same paw print as above )

I found this picture of a cougar track online and I'd say it's a pretty good match.

Well, that was our big adventure for the day. The boys came home and have been semi passed out the rest of the day. They run hard up and down the hills and through the trees when we're out.

It's like a little slice of heaven for them and I pretty much agree :)