Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary

As an officer. Doesn't he look dapper?
He hated being an officer, though, and got to America as quick as he could. 

At Big Bend National Park with his two little girls.

Thanks for teaching me about fishing, hiking, the importance of a good education, the necessity of exercise for the body and soul, and for telling me a few of your stories. Miss you, dad. 




Besides being my dad's birthday, it is also the three year anniversary of my first date with my husband. He took me on a wonderfully sparkly winter hike outside of Salt Lake City. We crunched through snowy trails wearing a few light layers and hiking boots, not snow shoes. Which is a big deal, because Jon hates the cold. He says that it worked out really great for him though, since it gave him a good reason to hold my hand and to get close to me. Sweet, sneaky man. I am so lucky to have him in my life.

Photo I took on my Windsor film camera that day.

Picture Jon took of me from our hike. I couldn't find one of him...

31

I feel like I've hit a big landmark. Turning that page onto thirty-one was a bigger deal to me than turning thirty. Now I'm in my thirties, not a newbie. So far so good.
We've had friends staying here from northern California. That's been taking up all my time.
But I wanted to mention the very, very awesome birthday present my darling Jon got me-- A Canon EOS 7D. I don't know how I got so lucky. Jon may have slipped and referred to it as "our" camera, but I'm cool with sharing.
I have been snapping a few little photos here and there, but today I finally got to take it out and really break it in. I took some shots of our friends Tim and Genevieve, because if you stay around our house too long, you become subjects of my photographs. That's all there is to it. That and we decided that today was a nice day to take a break from some of our adventuring. So we drove to the Red Cliffs recreation area and I took all kinds of faux engagement shots of them (since there may well be real ones soon to follow, we thought it was good practice).
I haven't even finished even looking those photos yet, so I thought I'd share these flower photos instead. These were all taken today, and they are all straight out of the camera. The first two were taken while walking around the Red Cliffs, but the others are flowers that are blooming in our back yard. I like what my new camera can do already, but I'm really looking forward to learning more of what I can do with it. So exciting!

I especially love my tea rose. It makes me happy that roses will bloom in our little corner of the desert. I hoping next year is a better year for my parrot tulips. My poppies should be blooming any day now. I can't remember what colors I planted, so that will be fun to see.