Baga's and Ce-ce's

I know, those are very little-kiddish names for grandparents, but that's what came out when the first grand boy wanted to call out to his grandpa. It will be sad when they are "too Big" for those names. We and they will enjoy it while we can! Every summer we go to Big Lake, EVERY summer. We spend it with whichever Jones relatives can get off work and get out there. It's in the White Mountians and very similar in climate to Flagstaff, but at 9000ft, the vegetation under the pine trees consists of ferns and fluffy green things, perfect for fairies and imagination--and as Bethany hopes every year, GRASSHOPPERS!! But this year a very scary thing happened. A forest fire was started by a disgruntled forest service worker--I know, so sad---and it turned into a blaxe that terrorized that whole region. Hundreds of thousands of acres were destroyed and crowned, ruining everything in its path. It was so hard to watch on the news and think of all the generations and summers and camping trips of Joneses, memories still in tact, but the place burned. Luckily, the actual campsite was spared. It never crossed the border into the temple district and so many, many homes were spared. Our friend Whitney Wiltbanks families lodge was spared as well---truly miracles from a kind and loving Heavenly Father. So sad.

SO, instead, we just went down to the Valley and spent a bit of the time we had calendared for that trip together anyway, just in a different place. We'll get to go next year and see the beauty of nature fixing the harshness of man's mistakes. Heavenly Father is so wonderful! It was so hot, but we had a wonderful time together. We just went down for a day and it was a blessing as work for Brandon had been especially taxing and hard; there was a job opening that he applied for and he didn't get it. It was so hard for him. He is such a courageous warrior, sometimes you don't see it until something so mentally and emotionally difficult happens. Sweetheart, I love you so much!! I am so proud of you!! Happy memories were made!!

Scrapbook, Photography and Memory Keeping Camp Completed!

Well, our camp year has officially started and by camper feedback, I'd say this newest camp is a keeper!!

On our first day we were so lucky to have Jamelle Kelly from Cameron-Kelly Studio come and share her motivation and inspiration for making photography her life's career. She taught us about the science of photography and how it literally means "Painting with Light". We went outside and made cyanotypes---pictures using the sun and very light sensitive paper as an example of painting with light; a very early version of photography in itself. Jamelle challenged us to take pictures thinking about color, zoom, angles, and action remembering the "rule of Thirds" and to always have a reason to take our pictures.

Later Monday, Krista from About Memories and More, (Flagstaff's only exclusive Scrapbook Shop in the Safeway shopping center at 1500 Cedar Ave.), came and showed us some ideas for scrapping our pictures and journaling our memories. She stayed for an hour helping us organize our first ever scrapbook pages and answered all our questions.

Thanks to these two talented and wonderful ladies for sharing their time and gifts with us!!

Tuesday we went to Francis Short Memorial Pond. With lovely ducks, the cutest baby duckling ever, and lots of water and rushes and birds and bugs, there was plenty of "Scope for imagination" and lots of reasons to take pictures. We were having so much fun, we barely made it back in time to download all our shots and scrap them!!

Wednesday we went to the Tree Park to shoot and also experimented with trying to capture bubbles on camera, what a great day!! Bravo to Lindsay and Grace and Garrett for being the most prolific and dependable and AMAZING bubble blowers! Just WOW!!!

Thursday we hiked up the Mars Hill trail a bit to find some wildlife to take pictures of and we weren't disappointed! Squirrels, baby chipmunks, and amazingly furry and fuzzy caterpillars were all over and so fun to try to catch "on film"! The kids were amazing troopers hiking that far as well!!

Friday we stayed close and walked to the ball fields to do tricks in the grass and have fun on the equipment. SO fun!! At home we burned CD's of all our pictures, finished scrapping and journaling and made homemade ice cream as a reward for a week learning and working hard!! What a blast!!

Fun with the Camera

OK, so while I was cleaning, preparing for camp sessions, cleaning, whatever I was doing, one little Miss and a certain little Mr. got their little grubbies on my camera. Now, I could have gotten spit-fired mad, but luckily I scrolled through the pics they had taken, and they were pretty stinkin' cute! They did take very good care of the camera too. So, while they WERE being pretty mischevious, I let it slide. Their silly faces and funny poses were pretty amazing. brandon wasn't too thrilled about the ones taken from such a great height---those were sitting astride the TOP of the fort... hmmmm. ;)