Groovin & Fishin

When is the last time you heard music that just made you have to boogie-woogie it out?? It's happening right now for me...

I have been grooving to James Morrison this morning. No, not Jim Morrison. JAMES Morrison. Wow. My friend Dom introduced me to his music last year. Last weekend, he gave me a couple of his albums. This guy has more soul in his little toe than most artists today have altogether!

Check him out here: www.jamesmorrisonmusic.com - just listen to the first sample in the player - you won't regret it.

Dom came to the cabin a few weeks ago and we all got our fish on. It was a beeeeeeeeutiful weekend! The water was still a little high, but we all caught fish and had a terrific time!

Here's Dom on a cool stretch of the river-

Here are Dom & J sharing a section.

Yup, it's too bad it's so ugly up there.

If you could hear me in this one, I'm saying "Heeeeeeere fishy fishy fishy fishy"

J trying to be artistic...

I actually kinda like it!

Back in the boggy section, there were these little bitty pine trees coming up. They were no more than three inches tall! So precious!

Dom & J recapping fish stories from the day, an absolute essential to the art of fishing!

After taking the above picture, I turned around and took this of the beginning of one stellar sunset. Gosh, I dunno why it's gotta be so ugly up there...

Piggly Wigglies

I ♥ Faces is a really terrific site that runs photo contests and shares great tips with us photo-lovers.

This week, their contest is for the best feet picture.

I recently took this shot shooting sweet Baby Jack. I LOVE the way his lil' tosies are poking out from his crib!

He was totally asleep and had no idea I was gooooshing over how cute they were!

Turns out, I ♥ Feet !

Go check 'em out!

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Where is home for you?

For me, it is Coeur d'Alene. No, Denver. No, Coeur d'Alene. No, no, Denver. Yes, Denver. Noooo, Coeur d'Alene! Argh.

I grew up splitting my time between Colorado and Northern Idaho. Literally spending my Summers in Idaho and the rest of the year in Colorado. It made this weird transitory thing in me... When I'm in one place, the other is home. Neither and Both are actually home, yet they both are.

Growing up, I didn't see any of my school friends during the Summer, and then I didn't see my Summer friends for the rest of the year. So, even though I went to the same school with the same group of people from 9th grade to 12th grade, I don't have that same tight-knit relationship that most do. Sometimes I still wonder if I hold the friends I do have a little too loosely because of it...

Part way into my Senior year in High School, I moved to Coeur d'Alene to finish out the year. I stayed for a number of years and made it my 'home'. Until I got in trouble, and needed to move 'home'. To Colorado.

To this day, I have moved back and forth a few times as it seems the other place is always beckoning me...

It was a real treat to drive up to Coeur d'Alene in late Spring and stay for a full month. Who gets to do that?? I got to see friends, family, and all the places I love that fill my soul. After a couple weeks of pondering this dual-home catch 22 of mine, I decided that in the end, I really am fortunate to be able to call two places home, and wouldn't change it for anything.

Here are some pictures from my journey. It's hard to explain, but when I see these landscapes and views, I always feel like I'm going home...

A lake between Boise & McCall... Can't remember the name of it, but it almost doesn't matter because they all look about the same in those parts: STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL

Farmland up ahead! There are a couple hours worth of farmland to drive through, and I LOVE the rolling hills of green shoots with mountains and forests peeking up behind them...

You know you're in REAL farmland when there is a sign of all the names of people that live in the entire VALLEY. Not their address or phone number, just their name. Yep, the Gordon's live here and if you'd like to see em, just ask the next person driving down the road... they could probably point you in the right direction... What really cracks me up is the SAME SIGN is another 25 minutes down the road with the SAME NAMES. There must be one on each side of the Benewah Valley, just in case you missed the first one!

Across the street from the sign... A stunning set of silos and towers working hard for their farmers to make a living.

And then, just out of farmland, you hit the south end of the lake. Wow, it's always breathtaking. I was just in time to get a shot of a boat heading out from harbor...

The rocks along the lakeshore are truly unique to this part of the world.

When I finally hit the city, the first mandatory thing, every time, is to take a tour around the dyke road (yes, it's really called that, but it doesn't mean that) to see the river and pylons, and remember my college days here. This time, I saw THE biggest family of baby geese I've ever seen down there. I had to go get their picture...

Look at all those cute little gosling tookeses!

A parting note...

Although the grass may always SEEM greener, it really rarely ever is. Home is where your heart is, if you let it be there.

Yes, I've just been waiting for a post that I could use these 'grass is greener' pics!

p.s. Special Thanks to Trish, for being my friend every summer since we were about 8, and the rest of the year now that we're all growed up. I heart you.

Sailing on the Sound

Guess what? I got to go SAILING!!!

Saaaaaaaaiiiiiillllllllllliiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg, takes me away to where I'm goin tooooo-oooooooo...

I hope you can hear the music because I would embarrass my self and annoy you by typing out the phonetic sounds of the music to go with this song (or any other). So, if you didn't hear the music while reading that, start back at the beginning until you get it.

On the 4th of July, after the wedding, JJ and I traveled down to the piers in Seattle to enjoy the water, people, sights and sounds.
There was a booth set up to go sailing in the Puget Sound for an hour and a half at a very reasonable price.

After much capitulation about if I should go sailing with a skirt on or not, and figuring out how I could hold my skirt down with all the wind, and how if this was truly being modest or not, and how I WAS wearing bathing suit bottoms anyways, so did it really matter? We decided to GO!

I am so glad we did.



I've never been sailing before and was fascinated by the maneuvering, engineering, physics, or whatever that is (I got a D in Physics AND Geometry). Here is the First Mate on the boat getting the sails ready...



I took one hundred and one pictures of the city from the boat. It was definitely the best view in town!



It was AWESOME to just sit with the wind off the water, cruising in absolute tranquility.



There was an adorable family in the middle of the boat who ended up in just about every picture I have looking back at the boat. I love this one. It shows the truly joyous smile that we all had. You couldn't wipe mine off my face for the rest of the day!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...

If I took one hundred and one pictures of the city, I definitely took one hundred and TWO pictures of the sails! Here are a couple neat ones:

Although I look serene here, I was really thinking, "I'm SAILLLING! I'm SAAIIILLLIIINNNGGG!!!" Like Bob in What About Bob?

If you EVER have the chance to get yerself on a sailboat, do NOT skip the opportunity.

Sneeeek a Peeeeeek!

Saturday, on the 4th of July, I had the ultimate pleasure of photographing my dear friend Kendra's wedding to Mr. Joe Weitz.

Mr. Joe and his entire family are THE most fortunate people this side of the Mississippi! They have just inherited one of the most amazing, tender, smart, funny, responsible and wise women on this very planet. Words just cannot do justice to the woman and friend that Kendra is. That's why there's pictures - if they're worth a thousand words, then maybe we can get close here...

The Weitz's are currently sailing to Alaska for their honeymoon, so I can only share a SNEEEEEEK peek here - they have to be the first to see their pics - call me old fashioned! That's fine, so long as I'm half the friend to Kendra that she's been to me.

Here are a few little details that make me smile...

Joe's shirt had some seriously stellar swirly details:



Katie, Kendra's Maid of Honor, has a shoe-thang. OK, well, it's really an all-out love affair with them! These were the perfect shoes for the occasion, the dress, and the stage:



Ahhhhhhh, the cake! It was beeeeutiful. I love this shot with Kendra in the background:



Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Weitz ~ and to both of your families for the wonderful additions you just received. May your years and lives be blessed all the love and joy you can handle!