Category: photos (favorite)

Fall Colors

A month into school and we’re starting to settle into a groove.  Granted, it’s kind of a hectic groove but usually a happy one…at least that’s what I tell myself as we’re hurtling from one thing to another after school 😉

On Wednesday afternoon Mimi and I decided on the spur of the moment to drive up the canyon and check out the fall leaves…and we took her Korean hanbok with us!  It’s already a little too short on her and I wanted to get some pics before she completely outgrows it.

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I’m glad we made the effort to go up in the canyon because the first big storm of fall blew in and most of those leaves are probably gone now.  Just one more instance of the universe bonking me on the head with the message that time is fleeting.

I love this girl and these mountains  ♥

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Cancun: Mercado 23

A few weeks ago N and I were able to spend a week at a lovely Mexican resort on the coast between Cancun and Playa del Carmen in the Riviera Maya area.  N’s company had invited us on the trip and graciously took care of the resort and airfare.  That, along with my mom coming down from WA to stay at home with the kids, made it a real treat.

We mostly just wanted to relax on this trip so we didn’t tour any ruins or go to the big amusement parks.  But we did go on two great local Cancun tours.  They were both aimed at letting you experience the local food culture  🙂

We booked this combination market tour/cooking class.  It was one of my very favorite things from the trip.  I’ll post more about the cooking class but here are photos from when we met the chef, Felipe Morales, at Mercado 23 and shopped for lunch ingredients together.

Fruit market Mercado 23 Cancun Mexico

Shrimp for sale. Mercado 23 Cancun MexicoChicken butcher. Mercado 23 Cancun Mexico

Herbs for sale. Mercado 23 Cancun MexicoFood court Mercado 23 Cancun Mexico Habanero peppers Mercado 23 Cancun Mexico

Chicken butcher. Mercado 23 Cancun Mexico

Bananas at Mercado 23 Cancun Mexico Butcher Butcher Mercado 23 Cancun Mexico

The market was fascinating!  It was mainly locals doing their grocery shopping.  When I travel I love getting a look at how people really live in a place.

Girl on Fire

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Mimi was enthralled with sparklers and had a wonderful time this year on the fourth of July.

We all had a great time shooting off fireworks with friends and neighbors, except for a brief heart-pounding incident.  I lit a firework that was supposed to shoot several flaming balls into the air one after another but on the first shot the firework knocked itself on its side and then swung around shooting the balls out sideways.  One of them shot into our neighbor’s open garage and started a small fire, melting a model helicopter that was on a workbench!  We put out the fire and no one got hurt but I felt badly about it.  I’m not sure what happened; I had set the firework on a flat spot.  Overall it was a fun and exciting evening.

Happy New Year!

My mom brought the kids new hanbok back from Korea a few months ago and so we took a few pictures of them for New Year’s day.

Mimi loves wearing her hanbok and says she is a Korean princess (the whitest one-quarter-Korean princess ever :P)

I may have described E’s hanbok as a “ninja outfit” to him to enlist his cooperation  🙂

2014 had its ups and downs for us and I’m looking forward to a fresh new year…and part of that is blogging!  I’ll be posting 2-3 times a week so get ready to dust off your RSS reader like it’s 2008.

I want to remember this

My sister Jan and I took the kids to a splash pad this afternoon.

The weather was hot but the water was cold so the kids would take breaks to sit in the sun wrapped in towels to warm up before running back into the water.

My kids love to push each other’s buttons and every day I have to mediate more little disagreements between the two of them than I can count.  It can be exasperating!

But when I catch a glimpse of the love between them I’m bowled over with gratitude that they have each other and that I have them.

Literally my first time at the rodeo

We have family from Korea in town visiting for the summer and I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of typical “American” things they would enjoy.  Every year our town puts on a rodeo and I thought it doesn’t get much more “American” than that so last night E and I took them.

I haven’t taken a lot of photos with my dSLR lately but I took with me and it was fun to take some photos.   

I think that last photo might be my favorite.

I thought for sure that 5-year-old E would be captivated by the exciting events but he was much more interested in following the rodeo clowns’ (somewhat dirty) banter. What can I say?  The kid loves jokes.

Even though I grew up in Washington state and have lived in Utah for 10+ years I hadn’t seen this side of the American West before in real life. I did feel a bit out of place (our group of Koreans was a little conspicuous) but over all it was interesting and fun.   

The Lehi Roundup continues tonight and tomorrow if you want to check it out. 

How about you–have you ever been to a rodeo before? Would you want to go to one? 

Out and About: Hill Aerospace Museum

I don’t get to see my brother Steven that often; he has special needs and lives with my parents so when he and my mom visited a few weeks ago it was a treat.

Steven loves airplanes, trains, and trucks so I thought I trip to the Hill Aerospace museum would be right up his alley. We’ve taken the kids before and E always enjoys it. We all had a lot of fun. 

I hadn’t planned it, but once we got there we noticed that E’s red pants matched his Superman jacket  and really completed the look.  So of course we took the opportunity to ham it up a bit 🙂

More circus photos

Here’s a few more photos from our trip to the circus. It was exciting to watch and fun to photograph.

If you’re curious about the details, these were shot on an first generation Canon digital Rebel with a 35mm f1.4 lens (which I love, love, love).  800 ASA at 1/250 and f2.2. These were shot in RAW format and then I converted them b&w and adjusted the shadow/highlight levels.

Serendipitous Saturday (1 of 2)

On Saturday N and I took the kids and drove up into Provo Canyon to see the fall foliage.  The trees up in the mountains change color several weeks before those on the valley floor and usually by the time I think about going up into the canyon the leaves there have already fallen.

But not this year! We drove up to the Squaw Peak overlook and the views were amazing.

At night Squaw Peak is popular with college kids looking for a spot to park and make-out.  N and I never made it up there when we were dating–the laundromat parking lot next to my apartment complex was much more convenient 😉 –but I bet the views of the valley at night are awesome too.