Family!

I visited my grandma this past weekend.  I love her so much!

You're probably wondering why on earth she's wearing a banner across her chest with her name on it.

Here's why.

It was her sister Lil's 80th birthday.  The theme was Queen For A Day, and her kids organized a small type of skit for her. Grandma was given the job of reading Lil's biography.

The best part of a big party like this is the number of people that come. The last count I heard was 225! That's a lot of family and friends!  I hope I have that many people attend my 80th birthday!
 
I got to meet cousins I'd never met before.  The two ladies and the little boy in this picture, for example. They are my cousins from South Dakota. The man is my great uncle, Clubby.  I had never met the ladies or boy before.

I also got to catch up with family that I rarely see. My favorite part is the stories and the laughs.

Or maybe it's all the young kids and the babies. We all know what a sucker I am for the little ones!

 

Or it could be the funny situations like this one where Evald (my grandma's husband) fell asleep holding his glass of wine and my grandma stared at him and kept saying "I hope he doesn't spill that wine. He's going to spill his glass of wine!"

Busted! He must have felt us all staring at him.

Overall, it was such an awesome weekend! What a blessing to be able to connect and reconnect with family. Besides, now I have a place to stay when I take my family on a vacation to South Dakota!

Remember your blessings!

Amber

Make Room for Spring!

I love springtime and I'm so glad it's finally arrived!

The tulips have arrived.

The apple blossoms.

The bleeding hearts.

Even the busy little bees are a welcome sight. The wasps on the other hand are another story.

Happy spring everybody!

Remember your blessings.

Amber

Mobile Monday - A Big Thanks to Technology

Warning:  If you came here to see quality photos leave now.

Now that I have that warning out of the way, I'll share something with you.  More often than not, I do not have my camera with me.  I love the quality photos I can take with it, but it's big and heavy and not very convenient.  Yes, I have a small point-and-shoot camera, but most of the time the battery is not charged, and I unload the pictures on it maybe twice a year so the card is often full.  Or, I just plain forget it, like at Levi's 1st dentist checkup.  But... since I'd rather have a bad photo of something than no photo at all I use the camera function on my phone.

Surprisingly, it takes pretty good pictures, for a camera phone. Of course they aren't big enough to print very good photos, but at least I can drop them onto my computer and look at them and smile.

I also love to use my camera phone to send quick pictures to my family and/or friends live during fun times like this one right after the Vandals scored a touchdown!

Or I can post silly pictures of my dog, kids, or me to facebook when I'm bored or having so much fun I just want to share.

Here's one that Casey took with his phone.

Yesterday I sent pictures to my husband to share our son's first archery shoot with him since he couldn't be there.

He loved receiving these pictures on his phone.

Once in awhile I get lucky and catch something cool like the arrow just leaving the bow rest in this shot. Can you see it?

And his final score.

So, thank you technology, for the creation of the camera phone! 

So I can check my hair in the morning and see how messy it really looks.

Remember your blessings!

Amber

Gus

This is Gus. He is a 10-month-old German Wirehaired Pointer, a.k.a. Drahthaar. He belongs to some very good friends of ours.

His favorite person is Ryan. Wasn't he an adorable puppy? Not Ryan, Gus (for those of you that may have been confused).

(picture courtesy of Gus' family)

Gus totally cracks me up, and I'll tell you why. He LOVES his owner, and when he's not with him he cries. It's pathetic, and sweet, and very entertaining.  My heart breaks for him. Seriously! I can understand where he's coming from though. I mean who wants to be left out of the fun?

On Easter Gus wouldn't stick around camp when he was granted freedom (remember, he's only 10 months old). So, he ended up having to be tied up for a bit. During that time Ryan wanted to practice shooting his rifle.

You have to understand one thing about Gus. He is a hunting dog. He LIVES for the hunt, and the shot of a gun means a bird is down and he has to go get it. This is a picture of him with his first bird.

 (picture courtesy of Gus' family)

Gus was left with us ladies while Ryan took off to the shooting table, and the following is the crying that ensued.

Was that a gun shot? Oh dear... here we go.

THE AGONY!!!

When no one came to his cries, he decided to lay down and try to sleep (he continued weeping in his sleep. Honest!).

Until the next shot was fired.

In the end, even though Ryan had forsaken him, he loved him just as much when he returned.  Besides that, he still had his boy who loved him.

Yes, Gus loves his owner, and his owner LOVES him!

(photo taken with mye cell phone)

Remember your blessings!
Amber