more about our Utah trip

Although our trip to Utah was not the happiest of circumstances, we still had a ton of good times. One thing about Dustin and I is that we truly have fun and enjoy hanging out together and with the kiddos too (well most of the time). :)

We had a great time visiting with family that we don't get to see often enough. I am so bummed because we talked about getting a family picture and then I totally forgot. We also took a little extra time on the way up and back home again to see some sites, well mostly St. George and Vegas. :)

We drove the strip on our way to UtahBy the time we got to Utah Chloe was D-O-N-E!! (not sure why the camera flipped the pics)The kids had a blast playing at Grandma Peterson's.
Christian, Chloe, Chase & SavyPlaying train with the rake.Chloe and Brooklyn.And this was the highlight of the trip, for Chloe anyways. Feeding the cow apples. She still talks about it every night at bedtime. The kids (the little ones mostly) fed this cow so many apples I'm sure it was sick for days.
On the way home we decided to stay the night in Vegas. By the time we got there we were all wiped out and took a good nap.
Christian is into pirates right now so we decided to take the kids to the pirate show at Treasure Island. What a joke!! Not appropriate for kids at all and we were so packed in there that we had no choice but to stay. Lesson learned!We visited the discount Disney store and the kids were pretty happy with their findings.The view of the Stratosphere hotel from out our sunroof.Had to get a picture of this. Dustin was amazed I got it because I was laughing so hard.Vegas baby!!!We went to see the Las Vegas temple.Me getting a picture of Dustin taking a picture. :)And this is for all you fellow Twilighters. Look what just happened to be across the street from the temple.
On our way to Utah we hit a pretty crazy storm. It left the sky so beautiful though and so we decided to go check out the temple in St. George at night since we were staying the night there anyways. It was just so beautiful that I just had to show that I really didn't edit this image hardly at all for my photography blog.

Before:

After:

more pictures

So, if you know me then you know that I don't go hardly anywhere without a camera. I mean I even have one in my purse for goodness sake!!

So when we went to Utah for Grandpa Peterson's funeral of course I brought the camera along, but I just didn't realize how much of a priceless role it was going to play. You see, I wanted to take pictures of the funeral for pure selfish reasons. I wanted our family to have the memories to show our kids someday, but it became more than that. As I took my camera out at the grave site, I was SO nervous. I was so worried that someone was going to be irritated by me, but quite the opposite happened.

Family members began to tell me that they wanted copies of my pictures because either they forgot their cameras or they just couldn't handle the emotions of trying to capture the days images. This was going to be priceless to all of us, not just my little family. So as I started snapping images the emotions started filling my eyes. I then took a VERY deep breath and told myself that this was now a job. Somehow I just went into a work mode and pushed through ( I also think that dad's prayer from earlier in the day helped). To me this was more stressful than shooting a wedding in some ways. After all it was for my own family. :)

No fancy shooting on my part. I just put the camera on a fancy auto pilot mode (AV mode for you camera buffs) for the most part. I was happy and relieved with the outcome, but more than that I was so glad that I could do this for the family and that they trusted me to do so.

Here are some more of my favorite images from the day.

Grandpa Part 2

Ok, so time for me (Dustin) to break down and do what I have been putting off for weeks. So because this is a private blog and we are going to make it into a journal I want to give the kids some things to read and remember about one of my biggest hero's. So to be very honest I didn't know my grandfather as well as I wish that I did. What I do remember about him was that he was a MAN!! I remember his temples flaring when he ate. I remember him yelling at Greg when Greg talked about Grandma Carole's house too much. I remember him sitting around the camp fire and talking with his sons and brothers about the plans for the deer hunt the following day. I remember hugs and handshakes and teary goodbyes in Monterey. I remember Grandpa singing. I remember an early morning at home seeing Grandma and Grandpa sleeping in the front of the house in the car when my father was called as Stake President. I remember being so happy that he was there to witness my patriarchal blessing. And then Grandpa had his stroke. I remember being faced with death and the loss of somebody that I was really close to for the first time in my life. I remember crying the day that I heard that he had his stroke. Thinking that his death was imminent. But a crazy thing happened. He didn't die. He lived. And he lived well!! He got happier. He had a few key phrases that he would always say "Very Good" and "Love you". I remember every birthday even though the stroke had taken away his speech he would still sing "Happy Birthday" and sometimes even get your name right. I remember him trying to talk and pointing to his head in frustration and saying "there" or "right there" or "in there". I remember the fear that I had of him as a child being totally wiped out in his later years as he allowed his softer side to come out. I remember him even being a strong elderly man, often carrying around his walker with him just for show. What a legacy he left behind. Two children, ten grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and #13 on the way. Both of his sons, all 7 of the male grandsons and one granddaughter served missions to Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Minnesota, Central States, Switzerland, Peru, England, Argentina and Cory is currently serving in the Dominican Republic. Both of his sons and all 7 Grandsons are Eagle Scouts. The two granddaughters that did not serve missions were both married in the temple to two of the nicest hugest dudes you will ever meet!! He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and all those who loved him. I will miss him sorely. I know that he is in a better place now but I am so grateful for the gracious extension of life that God granted him for me and my wife and my kids to get to know him a little better. I love you Grandpa!!

Grandpa Peterson...part 1

It's been almost 2 weeks ago that we got the call from mom letting us know that Grandpa Peterson wasn't doing very well. Then a short while later that night we got the call letting us know that he had gone home to be with out Heavenly Father. That was Monday, July 27Th. The next few days were a blur and then we were on the road Thursday heading for Utah.

He had such a sweet spirit too him and made you feel very loved even though he wasn't able to speak many words. But his famous "very good" was all you really needed to hear anyways. I wanted to post some of my favorite pictures from our past visits with him and Grandma P.

Four generations of Peterson men (and boys) :)And this one is a favorite because Christian took it! :)
I'm so glad we listened to that small voice a few months ago that told us that we needed to go and visit them and I'm even more grateful for Eternal families and knowing that we will be together again.

Christian cracking me up

So yesterday Christian said two of the funniest things, well I was laughing anyways.

First, while I was editing pictures he walked in and the conversation that followed went something like this.

C- What are you doing?
M- Just fixing some pictures.
C- Oh, is Becca coming over?
M- No, I'm just fixing her pictures for her.
C- Oh (pause)...She's cute!

I then just burst into laughter and said to him "yes, she is." He then went on about his playing, but throughout the rest of the day kept asking if Becca was coming over to play with them and even Chloe was asking. You see, Rebecca is one of our favorite people and is nice enough to babysit for us when she is home on break from BYU. I'm so glad that she has made such an impression on the kids and that they love having her over.

This is the picture that I was working on at the time.

Just a short while later he spotted a dead fly and yelled to Chloe that there was a bug. He then said, in a very excited voice, that he had to tell Tyler, Kyle, Kory, Chase and even Trey about this find. Yes, he really did name ALL his boy cousins. He then ran and got a cup and put it over the fly. He then started yelling "die, die" at it and soon Chloe was yelling with him. I was laughing again! This all started in Utah last week when all the boys were catching bugs for what seemed like hours. Christan had so much fun with them and I love seeing him bonding with the boys since it seemed to take him a while to warm up to playing with the bigger boys. You could never tell now by watching him that he ever had a shy moment with them. It warms my heart!!

So all of a sudden I have a not so little boy anymore. He's calling girls cute (even though he really has no idea what he said), is yelling "DIE" to poor insects and even wearing big boy unders all in a matter of a few days time. Where did the time go???

our anniversary weekend...part 2

During our time in San Diego for our anniversary I also got the chance for a very special photo shoot. This family was nice enough to attend our church fundraiser to help the youth go to camp. One of the items up for bid was a photo shoot with me and when they bought me I was jumping for joy inside and terrified at the same time.

For those of you who are long time followers of our blog then you may remember last year when we had a friend pass away after colliding with a train leaving her husband and two young girls behind. Well this is that family! If you don't know the story or need a reminder I urge you to click HERE and read my previous post about this. It hit me very hard and still hurts my heart.

I was so excited for the shoot because I couldn't wait to spend time with them and see how they were doing. I was terrified because I wanted the pictures to be as close to perfect as they could because they deserved nothing less and also worried about how I was going to hold it together emotionally. Thank goodness Dustin kept the kids occupied so I didn't have to worry about them too. :)

I had to rely on Mitch to pick the location because I didn't know the area. It's funny when you ask someone else to do this because all they think of is a pretty location. And yes, this location was beautiful, but it was also crowded, had really no shore, no boardwalk and the most crazy bright sun I have ever had to try and work with. So the shoot took longer than I expected since I was trying to wait for the sun to go down a bit more, but overall I am content with the results. And Props to my hubby for all his hard work that day also!! :)

At the end of our time together that day I asked if they had any other plans for the rest of the day. Mitch said that they were most likely going to bake a cake since it was Traci's birthday. Me and my BIG mouth I thought...just stab me in the heart!!! So I said goodbye and headed to my family to enjoy the rest of our weekend.

I was grateful to be able to put my kiddos to bed that night and am so grateful for my awesome hubby who is my best friend and am so grateful to know that we will be together as a family forever!!!


Thank you to all of you who left such kind comments on my photography blog when I posted the preview of this family. I have put all the images from this session on a private slideshow for the family, but wanted to share it with those who might be interested. If you would like to view them just vistit my website, click on clients (bottom right corner) and the password is beach.