Shaka's Blog

Easter 2011

2011-04-24T21:55:00.013-06:00

Here are a few shots from this year's Easter family festivities.

High-Key Shots in the Garage Studio

2011-04-11T21:54:00.047-06:00

I set up a backdrop and three hot-shoe flashes in the garage and took a few pictures. These shots are on a pure white (high-key) back ground.

You can find more pictures here.

Kolton Turns 1

2011-04-09T21:54:00.017-06:00

Curtis and Brittany had a fun birthday party for little Kolton.
Here are few pictures:

You can find more pictures here.

The Mystery Candy Incident

2011-04-04T15:00:00.077-06:00

In between Conference sessions on Sunday, Noah was playing in the front room, I was trying to find something for Noah to eat for lunch, and Jill was taking a shower.

Unfortunately, we think Noah found some old Easter candy in the plastic egg decorations that he was playing with. I noticed his red irritated hands and cheeks and he was spreading it to his eyes by rubbing his hands. I asked what he had eaten and he ran into the front room, pointed to all the plastic eggs spread across the floor and said "candy".

Benedryl worked to reduce all of the hives and redness but it was not going away. After almost an hour, three small doses of Benedryl, and his breathing starting to show some stress (he grunts) we packed up and headed to the Kids Care unit at Alta View Hospital.

We saw the same doctor that we saw back in December and the scene played out much the same way.

EpiPen Jr. and Albuterol were administered and he was closely watched. Our hope was that that would be enough. His flushed skin turned pale, then back to a more normal pink, but then continued to the a full body flush. His breathing was better but not great.

The doctor was not satisfied with how he was responding so administered another EpiPen Jr and called for an ambulance ride to Primary Children's hospital.

I pulled out the car seat and dashed home while the ambulance and fire trucks were summoned. I grabbed a few necessities, checked on Toby and dashed back. They were still monitoring him, trying (unsuccessfully) to start an IV and the doctor was consulting with Primary Children's and letting them know we were on the way.

Jill said that he slept almost the whole way up the hospital (+/- 25 minutes) in the ambulance.

The whole scenario, unfortunately, was a bit too familiar. We knew pretty quickly that we staying the night for observation. Luckily he did not have any further signs of reaction, we just had to keep dosing him with antihistamines and Zantac and let his body flush is all out.

I ran home once we were settled in the RTU (Rapid Treatment Unit). I checked on Toby, got a few needed items, and grabbed some Wendy's for dinner on the way back.

Noah was pretty wired for quite awhile and it took him a long time to finally settle down and get some sleep. It was an uneventful night with just a couple of interruptions to check on him and give him more medicine.

We ordered some breakfast for Noah in the morning and it was interesting to see the very long list of foods on his allergy list on the receipt from the cafeteria.

We got the all clear when the morning doctor arrived and we were headed for home by about 9 AM. Hopefully we can make it more than a few months before any more allergy attacks.

You can find a couple more of my camera-phone pictures here.

Kneelands and Tuckers

2011-03-30T10:49:00.049-06:00

We had the great privilege of hosting an additional 8 family members in our home for about a week (some longer than others).

Linda and Grandma Kneeland were the first to arrive.

They spent a couple of days with Jill enjoying the world renowned shopping establishments here in SLC!

Then Chris, Holly, Ryan, Jake, and Kade arrived from Calgary, Canada after 14 hours of driving.

And then Toby (Linda's husband) arrived.

We had a blast with all of the kids doing fun stuff like celebrating birthdays, laser tag, nickel arcade, snowmobiles, tubing (not such a good tubing day), restaurants, Utah Jazz game (yes they lost and so did Grandma and Kade [get lost that is] after the game!).

The trampoline and basketball court in our backyard were heavily used.

We had more Kneeland relatives (from St. George, Manti, and West Jordan) over on Sunday for a fun little reunion.

It is always fun to host people from out of town. Our summer calendar is filling up and we are sad that we have already had some availability issues for our future guests.

Make your reservations quickly.

More pictures can be found here.

Facebook Page

2011-03-20T09:22:00.000-06:00

I created a new Facebook page for my photography - EyeMotion Photography.

Please click here or on the link to the right of the page and LIKE my page.

You can also check out my website that is still a work in progress.

I will be posting some of my favorite pictures to the Facebook page from clients and some personal work too. Of course I will still post pictures here since I don't seem to be capable of creating a post that is not photo centric.

Studio Lighting Workshop

2011-03-18T21:51:00.030-06:00

Here are a few shots from the annual studio lighting photowalk put on by the awesome PhotowalkingUT group.

You can find a few more here.

Fun in the Snow

2011-03-06T21:50:00.029-07:00

Here are a few pictures of Noah having fun playing during one of the March snow storms.

Random Pictures - January and February

2011-02-25T08:45:00.031-07:00

Here are some more random pictures...enjoy!

Bald Eagles at Farmington Bay

2011-02-05T21:48:00.023-07:00

This was the third year I have gone up to Farmington Bay to try to get some pictures of the Bald Eagles that congregate there each winter.

I didn't have the time or the funds to rent a proper lens for the task, so I was trying to get a half decent shot with what I have, my 18-200mm.

There were a lot more Eagles this year than last but they were staying a good distance away out on the ice.

I actually did not even get out of my car this time. I just shot everything through my open window.

Here are a few more Eagle pictures from that cold morning.

Maya and Noah's Birthdays

2011-01-30T08:35:00.038-07:00

Maya had a fun sleep-over party with a few of her friends at our house.

Emily made a cool snowman birthday cake.

The girls made their own individual pizzas

They painted picture frames.

And they built a fort in the basement to sleep in

We had a very small, low-key celebration for Noah's second birthday.

Fun times.
Happy Birthday Maya and Noah
We love you!

Amanda's Regional Swim Meet

2011-01-29T15:05:00.042-07:00

My niece Amanda asked me a few times if I would be willing to come to photograph her swimming events.

I was only able to attend one but it happened to be the Regional swim meet.

I was able to walk around on the pool deck which was great.

I took a lot of pictures of her Skyline High School team mates too.

Amanda went on to do great in the State swim meet also.

Great Job Amanda!

You can find more pictures here.

The Vapor Rub Incident

2011-01-20T09:16:00.054-07:00

Posts with the word "Incident" in the title have come to be an indicator that a story about a trip to the hospital is about to be told.

Fortunately, this time we did not leave the house with this "incident" but I still liked the word in the title, so I kept it...

This "incident" involves an adventurous and curious little boy who slipped the watchful eye of his adult supervision for just a few minutes.

Oh what fun can be created with just a small amount of freedom and an open jar of vapor rub.

The extent of the creative application was so amazing that I just had to hold my comments to myself and find my camera.

I'm not sure why the train toy got the brunt of his love but I'm glad it did. Other objects would not have weathered the love as well.

You can more pictures here.

Random Pictures - November and December

2010-12-31T09:26:00.023-07:00

Here are some random pictures of Noah and Maya.

You can more pictures of Noah here and here.

And more pictures of Maya here and here.

Snowshoeing

2010-12-30T13:37:00.016-07:00

We only went snowshoeing a couple of times this winter.

You can find more pictures here and here.

Jill's First Snowman

2010-12-27T14:56:00.001-07:00

I am still baffled by the fact that Jill created her first snowman this winter.

True she spent a good portion of her childhood in Texas where snow is pretty rare.

But she also lived in St. Louis, Northern Virginia and Utah.

You can find a few more pictures here.

Random Christmas Time Stuff

2010-12-26T14:58:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of the Christmas activities we did this season:

Ward dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's where Noah performed in the Nursery aged singing performance

Maya's Owl Corral singing performance at school.

Gingerbread houses

Decorating Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas tree

We always have a great time spending time with family during the Holidays.

Christmas

2010-12-25T13:38:00.012-07:00

Christmas morning is always a fun time with kids.

It is was great to the excitement on their faces.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T13:38:00.019-07:00

Each Christmas Eve we spend at Grandma and Grandpa Burk's place.

We enjoy a great meal, lots of fun, and opening of gifts.

The grand kids get new pajamas from the Grandparents.

Each family gets a new Christmas book that we read together.

The kids gave Grandma and Grandpa a set of framed photos of each family and the whole group from early this year.

Christmas Lights on Temple Square

2010-12-23T20:57:00.029-07:00

I ventured downtown twice this year to take pictures of the Christmas lights on Temple Square.

The first one was with the PhotoWalkingUtah group.

You can see more of the PhotoWalk pictures here.

The second trip was with the family.

You can more family pictures here.

The String Cheese Incident

2010-12-22T10:02:00.132-07:00

Noah and I went over to Chris and Mindy's place to help them out with their network wiring in their new basement. Noah had a great time playing with his cousins.

But that all quickly changed when the girls decided to share. I came upstairs for a break and to check on Noah and noticed that his lips were a bit swollen and his face was red. I noticed that Gracie was holding some string cheese and knew that some sharing must have occurred. I gave him a dose of Benedryl as the welts and hives were becoming much more noticeable.

After a few minutes we packed up our stuff and I gave him another one of the Benedryl doses as we headed out the door to the Hospital. I sat in the parking lot wondering if the Benedryl was going to do the trick, how much did he actually eat, how is his breathing, should I go in or wait and see...

After several minutes he was looking quite good. His breathing was fine and the hives were gone. Even though Noah was emphatically telling me he wanted out of the car and to go "Right There" as he thrust his pointer finger toward the entrance, I decided to drive the short distance home and further evaluate him there.

When we got inside he was still looking good but that did not last long. Jill came home shortly after and we both looked him over. He was becoming more flush throughout his body and he was starting to grunt more with each breath, much like he does when he is sick. We loaded back up and headed back to Kid's Care.

While Jill was getting us checked in, Noah and I were standing in the waiting area watching a movie when he decided that it was time to expel some of what he ate, all over himself, me, and waiting room floor! I just kneeled down to minimize the spread and waited for some rescuing wipes as Jill took him back with the doctor. It is amazing how vomit always invokes an accelerated response. By the way, I now knew that he ate a whole lot more than a couple of pieces that we had original thought.

So the doctor went into panic mode - OK maybe not panic - maybe heightened concern. She administered an EpiPen Jr (Noah's first), steroid, albuterol breathing treatment and oxygen. Then called for an ambulance ride up to Primary Children's Hospital. It all happened quit quickly. By this time he was looking quite good.

The trip to Primary Children's Hospital was for at least three reasons:

The EpiPen was administered and that ALWAYS should be followed up by a visit to the ER.
The possibility of secondary and tertiary reactions occurring is high, and often more severe than the original reaction.
Primary Children's is the best place to be, with the best trained kids doctors in the region
Bonus - As for the need of the $1000 ambulance ride? Airway closure is a huge risk. I don't want to think about would be the outcome if he stopped breathing part way into our ~25 minute drive to the hospital.

While Jill and Noah headed to the hospital, I ran home and grabbed a few essentials. He did great on the ride and was doing quite well. When they got him into one of the evaluation rooms he started getting flush again and was grunting as he breathed. So this was his tertiary reaction. The docs and nurses went into action administering more Zantac, more Benedryl, more oxygen and more albuterol. Everything was getting under control and he was starting to relax on mom's chest when I arrived.

Eventually we were told that he would be staying overnight for observation and they moved us into the RTU (Rapid Treatment Unit). It was a long night for all three of us. More medicine every few hours, being connected to machines, not so comfy accommodations...

I called Mindy to give her the updates and she went over to our house to check on Toby.

They released us in the morning with a regiment of continued medication for a few more days.

Noah is such an amazing kid. I'm not sure what else to say about that. He takes all of this 'attention' in stride. We are working on trying to teach him all the foods he can't eat, but that is going to take awhile!

Gracie's Birthday

2010-12-01T15:01:00.021-07:00

Here are a few pictures from Gracie's birthday celebration.

You can find more pictures here.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T20:57:00.016-07:00

Thanksgiving was going to be very low key, just us at home, with a non-traditional meal.

But that all changed at the last minute and we ended up at Jeff and Kendra's place with most of the family.

It is always great to get together and gorge ourselves on great food.

You can find more pictures here.

Sienna and Bo

2010-11-24T20:56:00.002-07:00

I had the privilege of photographing Sienna and Bo's wedding. They had a unique day at the Temple. The night before their wedding we had a large snow storm that dumped lots of new snow across the Salt Lake valley.

All of the Temples announced that they would be closed. The Jordan River Temple had a special session just for their family (most not from Utah) and one other group from Chicago. The storm cleared up while they were inside and we were able to get pictures of the family in front of the Temple.

Later that evening, I met them at the Sandy Amphitheater to try to get some sunset pictures. The clouds were all gone so the sky was not as interesting as I would have liked, but I think they turned out OK.

I also took a bunch of pictures at the Reception. Everyone was having a great time dancing and commiserating.

Thanks Bo and Sienna for letting me be apart of your day.

You find more pictures at the Temple, pictures of them and the sunset, and pictures at the reception.

Tara Comes to Utah

2010-11-21T20:56:00.051-07:00

We had the pleasure of hosting our great friend Tara for a few days while see was in town.

She wanted some new pictures that she could use for her Christmas card this year.

We went to a couple of different locations and I think she found a couple that she liked.

I know she liked at least one of them enough to actually use it to send to all of her loved ones!

Thanks for spending time with us and letting me point my camera at you!

You find a more pictures here.

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-31T11:45:00.000-06:00

We had the family over for some fun pumpkin carving.
Here are a few pics and more pics here:

Halloween

2010-10-30T20:54:00.000-06:00

Brittany and Curtis hosted another Halloween party which was a lot of fun. They made they own Alice in Wonderland themed costumes.

Brittany set up an area on the deck so that everyone could get their pictures taken.

The Clark's once again did not disappoint.

Mom and dad are always clever creating costumes from things around the house.

Maya did a great job singing in her Owl Corral Halloween performance.

It is always fun to see all of the creative costumes in the school parade.

You can find more pictures here.

Fall Soccer

2010-10-26T15:48:00.002-06:00

Here are some pictures from Maya's Fall soccer games:

Shelley and Jason

2010-10-26T14:37:00.020-06:00

For those of you who live under a rock may not know about my dear friend Shelley. I met Shelley shortly after moving to Northern Virginia from Texas. I met Shelley through Emilie Marshall Brannelly and we quickly spent all our spare time together. Since meeting me, Shelley has patiently put up with my quirky ways.

Shelley helped foster my obsession with Beverly Hills 90210, got me a job at a day care center, helped me pursue too many boys and taught me what it felt like to be in a car when the tire blows up on the freeway. Oh, and how can i forget her letting me escape living at home by visiting her on weekends down at Virginia Tech and our adventure of driving from Virginia to Daytona Beach, Florida for spring break.

And that was just the early years. :-) Once in graduate school, Shelley found me a cute place to live with a great roommate when I moved from Utah to Baltimore. She supported me when I dated guys she didn't like and then we became roommates after she bought her row house. She didn't even change her mind after I painted the bedroom with green stripes and stripped her recently redone hardwood floors when I mopped it with cement cleaner!

Shelley and Jason are a great couple and Shelley is the most patient girl I know, if you couldn't tell from the stories I just shared. Jason makes her laugh, and appreciates her quirks, I mean special characteristics. I appreciate that they enjoy doing things together and they love their Lucy and miss dearly their Cheyenne.

Corey and I were excited to spend their special day together. Shelley looked beautiful and their ceremony was romantic and sweet. I loved their vows and special touches of their personalities added in. The night was fun, the food was great, fun dancing and fabulous people.

Thanks Shelley and Jason for letting us join in on your special day.

You can find more pictures here.

Philly and Baltimore Trip #2

2010-10-04T12:36:00.065-06:00

Corey and I were invited to attend our dear friends Shelley and Jason's wedding October 1st. We were so excited for their wedding and for a weekend alone together. We worked it out that we would fly into Philadelphia where my parents met us. We worked out a great deal (for us at least), we would borrow their car and drive to Baltimore and they get to babysit Noah for the weekend.

We were worried with how Noah would handle the weekend away and the flight as he was pretty sick just a few days before the trip. Noah always does a great job of keeping us on our toes. Thankfully, he started feeling better and he did great on the flight. I was impressed he even slept for an hour on the plane. Grandma and Grandpa reported that Noah did great. He felt good, slept all through the night and ate his food.

Once we handed Noah off and stole the car, we drove down to Baltimore for the rehearsal dinner. Jason's mom hosted a delicious dinner and we all had fun telling stories about Jason and Shelley. I only cried a little. Corey and I enjoyed being alone as we realized it was the first time we were both away from Noah for the whole night. I woke up early and met up with a few friends for breakfast. It was great reconnecting and getting to meet Liz's baby girl Thalia. She is adorable.

Corey and I then met up with one of Corey's work friends for lunch.
That evening we enjoyed Shelley and Jason's beautiful wedding. They had it right on the water in Baltimore. She is one lucky girl as the rain stopped just that morning. The sky was beautiful and the humidity low due to the storm. It was so fun to see them happy and in love and spending time with family and friends. Shelley has sure been a good friend to me.

The next day, I enjoyed sleeping in and relaxing. We drove home to Grandma and Grandpa's and stopped by our friends Mike and Brittany's home for a visit. I wished we had Noah to play with Camden and Dallin. They are sure cute boys. We were able to stay a couple days with Grandma and Grandpa.

We took Noah to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia and he enjoyed every moment. I was not surprised that his favorite part was a big tub of colored balls.

More wedding pictures can be found here and pictures around the Kneelands are here and the museum is here.

Silver Lake

2010-09-28T20:51:00.032-06:00

Family walk around Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

You can find more pictures here.

Grand-Am Racing Series

2010-09-22T20:55:00.042-06:00

Here are a few pictures from the Grand-Am Rolex series of races held at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT.

There are lots more pictures here.

Tracey Aviary

2010-09-20T20:53:00.030-06:00

I have not been to Tracey Aviary for several years so we decided to pack up the kids and go see the birds.

Here are few pictures from our fun afternoon at the park.

You can find more pictures here.

Camping at the Cabin

2010-09-18T23:08:00.066-06:00

We enjoyed a couple of relaxing days at our favorite borrowed cabin. The Van Leeuwen's are always gracious in letting us invade their fabulous cabin from time to time.

Matt and Cami were the first ones to arrive, even though they traveled several times farther than the rest of us from Colorado.

The next challenge was that we did not remember the code to into the house (or remembered the wrong one).

After a several attempts and a drive down the canyon to get cell service to make a call, we finally were able to enter the cabin.

I whipped up a double batch of dutch oven meatless chili that was pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

Some of us set up tents in the yard while others staked their claim on the beds and couches inside.

Most of the group went on a hike up the road. It was nice to walk and chat while checking out the fall leaves. We didn't really make very far but it was still a great little hike.

We took advantage of the fact that everyone was together for some family pictures. Cami and I tried to get some good pictures.

You can find more cabin pictures here and more family pictures here.

Random Pictures - July and August

2010-08-26T14:42:00.027-06:00

Here are some random pictures:

The Yogurt Incident

2010-08-23T23:40:00.030-06:00

Noah really likes the Soy yogurt that Jill found for him.

But one day, Jill bought some regular milk based yogurt that was in a container that looked extremely similar to the soy version.

Unfortunately I did not notice my mistake until Noah had had a few bites.

As you can see, he was not amused by my mistake. Nor was I.

He also was not amused that I stripped him down and took pictures!

We love Benedryl!

There are a few more pictures here.

Day Trip to New York

2010-08-18T23:14:00.062-06:00

We drove up to New York City for a day trip. I have been through the New York airports and several places in up-state New York, but I had never actually done the whole city thing before.

We ~~stole~~ commandeered the Kneeland vehicle again and drove up to the Staten Island Ferry. We rode the free ferry across to the bottom of Manhattan. The ferry passes right by the Statue of Liberty.

We walked through Battery Park, then up Broadway, past the Stock Exchange and Trinity Church.

We ate gyros and hot dogs from a food cart in Zuccotti Park.

We walked by Ground Zero and looked at some of the memorials and all the construction going on.

Next we found the metro station, then walked and walked and walked through the tunnels until we found the right platform that we wanted to be on.

We rode the train up to Time Square then we walked and wandered a bunch more stopping in a few shops to browse (and purchase).

Eventually we walked up to Central Park where we rode one of the bike rickshaws around the park.

Next we hit FAO Schwarz, the Apple Store, and The Plaza. Then we walked down to the American Girl Place, Rockefeller Plaza, WitchCraft sandwhich shop, NBC, a Cupcake shop and back to Time Square.

We caught a taxi all the way back to the ferry. Unfortunately the where only able to catch small glimpses of the fabulous sunset as we rode in the taxi. By the time we got the ferry, the sky was getting dark.

It took us several tries to get out of St. George with the confusing one-way streets but we finally found our way to the freeway and were back at the Kneeland's around midnight.

We had a great adventure by car, ferry, foot, metro train, bicycle rickshaw, and taxi.

Of course, you can find more pictures here.

Camden Aquarium

2010-08-16T23:16:00.035-06:00

We visited the Camden New Jersey Aquarium with the Kneeland gang.

Noah loved seeing all the fish.

Maya and Noah liked being able to touch the sharks and rays.

Noah was struggling to make it through the all of the exhibits toward the end.

And he did not like the 4-D interactive movie at all. The water sprays were no fun and we could not figure out how to block all of them.

You can find more pictures here.

Grandma Kneeland's 60th Birthday

2010-08-15T23:24:00.036-06:00

We celebrated Grandma Kneeland's 60th birthday while we were in the Philly area.

Linda and Toby hosted the festivities and decorated their house with 50's themed decor.

One of the presents for Donna was a book that we put together.

We gathered lots of photos from her youth, early married life, and each of the kid's childhood and beyond.

It was a fun project, but a lot of work and time to put it together.

Donna's sister, Linda was also in town for the celebration.

You can find more pictures here.

Philly and Baltimore Trip #1

2010-08-14T12:17:00.075-06:00

Our summer vacation this year was a trip out East to visit friends and family. We were excited to go as it provided an opportunity to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday and allow me to help host my friend Shelley's bridal shower. For those of you who don't know, Shelley has been a dear friend for the past 17 years. I met her when I moved from Texas to Virginia when I was seventeen. We had fun in high school, visited each other in college (even when I was going to school in Utah) and then had many fun years living in Baltimore. Shelley was even brave enough to have me as a roommate for a few years right before I met Corey. Anyway- I was really excited to be able to help her celebrate her wedding.

We arrived in Philadelphia on a Friday afternoon. We had so much fun being at grandma and grandpa's. This was Maya's first trip to their home and to Philadelphia. On Saturday, we decided to enjoy a beautiful day by being outside.

We met up with Shelley at a State Park in Delaware to go hiking, have a picnic and play around. It was a fun way to hang out and let the kids be kids. We had fun touring a cool nature center and the best part was eating ice cream at a local creamery. Sooo good! On Sunday, we went to church and then spent the day at Linda and Toby's adorable home to celebrate mom's birthday. That is a separate post.

Since Corey and I were in charge of creating the scrapbook gift, Linda and Kelly were in charge of the party. They did a great job. The 50's decorations were so cute and of course there were games to play. They created some fun challenges such as ping pong, hula-hoop, and blowing the biggest bubble. They even had a candy bar filled with 50 and 60's style candy. I think mom liked the scrapbook and I hope she knows how much we love her. Noah's favorite part of the night was playing with the mylar balloon that played music when you hit it.

I was one of several hosts to Shelley's bridal shower. Since her last name is Foote, we thought it would be fun to do a flip flop party. We also were having the shower at her Aunt's house next to the pool. It was initially a challenge to organize everything as the hosts live all over the place, me in Utah, friend in Philadelphia, friend in Texas, mom in Florida, mother in law in Baltimore and aunt in Maryland. But, thanks to email it all worked out. There was an adorable cake, fun games, nail polish favors and delicious food. It was a lot of fun thinking about Shelley and getting excited for her big day. It also wouldn't be a surprise that I caused a hiccup to the day as when I gave everyone a hug to say goodbye and then my car doesn't start. I needed a jump start. Ohhh good times.

I was so grateful my friend Brittany took time to come and visit me with her two adorable boys. We spent the afternoon catching up with each other and having our boys play together. It was so fun to see them. I don't know if everyone knew this but Brittany is a great friend whom I met while attending Utah State. We were both in the social work program and learned as graduation approached that we were both moving to Baltimore to attend UMB graduate program. We played together as members of the Baltimore singles ward and even started working at the same foster care agency for a few years (thanks to her for getting me the job). I am so sad we are now far apart but have dreams of her moving to Utah.

The whole family (grandma, grandpa, Linda, Toby, Kelly and us Burks) drove into Jersey to visit the aquarium. It was a hot and humid day so it was nice do an activity in doors. We enjoyed all the aquarium had to offer and would recommend it to anyone.

Grandpa wanted to some special time with Maya so he took her to one of his favorite places, Valley Forge National Park. I have no idea what they did but I bet grandpa talked a lot and Maya pretended to listen. We appreciate that he wants to spend special time with her.

Once we knew we were planning this family vacation I knew I needed to take Corey and Maya to New York City. With all the years Corey lived in Virginia he never made it up to New York City. As Noah was a big adjustment to the family we really looked forward to taking Maya alone for the day. The day in New York City was busy, hot and so much fun. We drove to New Jersey and rode the ferry into Manhattan so we could have a view of the Statue of Liberty. We walked to the subway and took the subway north to Time Square. We enjoyed Time Square, some lunch and shopping. We then rode on a bike rickshaw around Central Park. We then took a cab through the city back down to the ferry. We stopped at souvenir shops, the American Girl store, M&M World and the Swatch store. It was so fun being in the busyness of the city and spending a special day with Maya.

While I was in Baltimore for Shelley's shower, Grandma took Corey, Maya and Noah miniature golfing. It was special grandma time. Maya even made a hole in one.

Aunt Linda and Aunt Kelly planned a fun date with Maya and Linda's niece Emma who is close to Maya's age. They found a charming old home that hosts tea parties. The girls first went to the craft store and bought items to make fancy hats. They wore the hats to the restaurant where they ate sandwiches and lemonade in tea cups. Maya had a blast and loves spending time with her aunts.

We had an allergy scare on the plane during the flight home, well actually while waiting to take off. Everything was going smoothly until we had to wait for take off after boarding. The weather was bad and we had to wait for planes to land before to could take of. Noah was getting restless, jumped off my lap and found a peanut on the floor. He ate it as most 18 month olds would do. We quickly had him a drink of some water and gave him some Benadryl. We waited anxiously to see what would happen and are grateful he was just fine.

Unfortunately while we were gone, our small aquarium crashed, meaning that all of the fish, corals, snails and crabs died.

We had a great trip, thanks to everyone for making it so fun.

Noah Burns his Hand

2010-08-08T23:09:00.120-06:00

CAUTION: You may not want to see the pictures included on this post. There is no blood or gaping open wounds. In fact most of us have had a blister in our lives and know what it looks like once the blister breaks. That's all this is - except that the blister is pretty much the whole hand, on an innocent little boy, and it may make your stomach ache a little bit, you might wince, and you will definitely want the empathy pains to go away quickly.

Second Caution: This post actually has a lot more words than pictures. I know you are not used to that from me, so you may need to pace yourself. OK, I think you have been sufficiently warned. You may proceed now, carefully!

After the aforementioned hike, the family met at Mom and Dad's place for hot dogs and tin foil dinners cooked in the backyard fire pit. This was all as a replacement activity since we were unable to go camping as a whole group.

Dinner was great and as most of us were nearing the end of our feast, Noah tripped and his hand landed in cooling bed of hot coals in the fire pit.

Grandma was instantly up and retrieved Noah before most of us knew what happened. We had a large bowl with melting ice cubes (for our drinks) that was quickly recommissioned into a burn treatment vessel. Matt also suggested applying vanilla so we did that too.

I held him trying to console him, keep his hand cool in the water/ice cubes and try to evaluate the extent of the damage. After about 10 minutes or so, we loaded him up and went to the InstaCare a couple of blocks away.

They rushed us right to one of the rooms and began to check him out. Unfortunately there really is not much you can do. It is just pain management, keep it clean and wait and see how much damage has been done.

The doctor and nurses wrapped his hand (coated with burn cream) in gauze. Noah quickly ripped it right off. They tried again and he quickly ripped that one off too. Then we wrapped both hands so that his left hand would not be able to remove the bandages from the right hand. That came off too but it took him a bit longer. So one more time - both hands wrapped up, then ace bandages wrapped around both hands.

During this whole time of me trying to console Noah who is screaming in pain and really annoyed that the nurses kept wanting his hands completely wrapped up, Jill went to drop off a prescription for pain meds (lortab) so that it could be filled as quickly as possible.

Now that he had two clubs for hands, Jill and I swapped. I went across the street to pick up the drugs while she stayed with Noah. Jill said that it was one of the most heart breaking moments she has ever had. Noah was rolling around on the floor trying to get away from the pain. He also was unable to hold onto his bottle which frustrated him even more.

Gratefully the pain medication kicked in pretty quickly. He was quite entertaining as he was clearly not feeling any pain once we got back to the house.

We continued to struggle with the bandages. Each we had to reapply the salve and rewrap. We went back to the InstaCare a couple of days later. They trimmed a bunch of the dead skin off and said that it was looking quite good.

Since we were only a few days away from our big trip to Philly to visit Grandma and Grandpa Kneeland, Jill made an appointment with the UofU Burn Clinic so that we could get a second opinion and make sure we were doing everything we needed to do while we were away.

The burn clinic confirmed that it was looking pretty good. All the skin was pink (meaning second degree burn) not black and charred (third degree). They cut off a lot more dead skin then wrapped him up in a new silver foam treatment instead of the cream. This was much better to administer and let the skin breath more.

They gave us all of the supplies that we needed and we were set for our vacation.

By this time, we were no longer wrapping up both hands. He knew that he was supposed to leave the bandages on his hand. But boy, they are sure tempting! Every day (sometimes multiple times) I had to repair his bandages. He is just too active for them not to fall apart at some point.

The trip to Philly was fabulous. Jill will be writing about those adventures, right Jill?

Each day the wounds looked better and better. Each day the bandages decreased in size. The silver foam allowed us to wrap each finger individually so that he had limited use of his hand. That made him much happier boy than he was with the club hand. By the end of the trip, he was able to play in the water with Grandma's water toys which made Grandma very happy!

We returned to the burn clinic after our trip and they said that everything looked great. We just need to keep applying lotion and massaging the area to make sure that the skin stays soft and pliable.

It is truly a blessing that the burns were not any worse and it is amazing how fast young kids can heal. You really have to look to see any of the original wounds. There are couple of spots on the back of hand that really the only scarring left. Amazing.

You can find more pictures of his hand here.

Family Hike to Donut Falls

2010-08-07T23:18:00.022-06:00

We enjoyed an almost annual tradition of hiking to Donut Falls this summer.

It is a fun casual hike that all the kids can enjoy.

There are more pictures here.

Rainbows and Lightning

2010-08-06T14:44:00.023-06:00

Here are some fun shots from one of the summer rain storms.

There was a nice rainbow in the afternoon.

Then lots and lots of lightning later that same night.

You can find more pictures here.

Albion Basin

2010-08-02T14:39:00.036-06:00

Noah and I went for an adventure up Little Cottonwood Canyon.

It was nice to get out of the valley for a bit.

Noah loved finding his way through the wild flowers at Albion Basin.

It was quite the maze for him since the flowers were often taller than him.

As we worked our way back to the car, we saw a mother moose with two babies.

We watched them for quite awhile only a few yards away from the parking lot.

It is fun having nature so easily accessible.

You can find more pictures here.

Maya's Spring Soccer

2010-07-30T12:34:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures from Maya's soccer team this last spring.

You can find more pictures here.

Saley's First Birthday

2010-07-27T12:34:00.008-06:00

Here are a few pictures from Saley's First Birthday.

You can find more pictures here.

Camping at Pete's Hole

2010-07-26T22:11:00.037-06:00

We took an impromptu camping trip to one of my favorite areas to camp.

We drove up Ephraim Canyon, along the Skyline Drive at the summit and down into Pete's Hole.

Since it was the July 24th weekend, we were not sure if we were going to find a place to pitch our tent.

But we actually found a really nice spot right near the small lake.

Noah loved playing with all of the rocks and sticks.
We ate yummy tin-foil dinners
We went for a sunset stroll around the lake.

I took some long exposure pictures at dusk.

The next day we went for a hike

We drove along the Skyline Drive

We visited Aunt Judy in Manti

Noah was fascinated by the chickens

You can find more pictures of our camping trip here.

Sunsets and Fireworks

2010-07-03T22:15:00.006-06:00

Here are some pictures overlooking Sandy and Salt Lake City as we waited to watch the fireworks on July 3rd.
You can find more pictures here.

Random Pictures - May and June

2010-06-26T14:41:00.084-06:00

Pictures from May and June. You can find more pictures here and here and here and here and here.

Discovery Center and Sidewalk Art

2010-06-16T14:40:00.019-06:00

Here are some pictures from our adventure at the Discovery Center.

You can find more Discovery Center pictures here.
They were have a sidewalk art exhibit also that day.

You can find more Sidewalk Art pictures here.

Jake's Birthday Party

2010-05-30T22:14:00.003-06:00

Here are some pictures from Jake's awesome birthday party at the park.
You can find more pictures here.

Yellowstone

2010-05-24T22:13:00.032-06:00

We ventured North this spring to meet up with Jill's parents in Yellowstone National Park and Teton National Park.

On our way we made a short detour into Twins Falls, ID.

It was very windy and cold so we quickly took a few pictures then continued on.

We were able to take advantage of a sweet time-share from Jill's aunt Lindy in West Yellowstone. It worked perfectly as our base camp.

Each day we went into the park we found new and exciting wildlife and of course lots of cool geo-thermal stuff too.

Maya (with the help of the rest of us) kept track of all the different license plates that we saw each day.

It was fun to watch the young bison playing within close watch of their mothers.

Jill won the 'Eagle Eyes' award for spotting the wolves.

I am still amazed that she was able to see the two wolves as they traversed across the huge scree field.

Even through the 400mm camera lens it was difficult to find them as they blended into the gray rocks.

The weather was a bit on the cold side. Each day there were road closures in the park due to snow.

If want to see the rest of the pictures, you can find them in these 5 galleries (one for each day).

Bell Canyon Hikes

2010-04-26T22:11:00.006-06:00

My goal this past spring was to get more active and get back in shape.

My plan was to hike once or twice a week up the Bell Canyon trail which is close to our house.

I would take Noah up with me in the backpack and enjoy an hour or two of sweating.

It was fun to see the changes on the trail as winter slowly released its grip on the mountain and spring finally started to show its colors.

I am not a gym rat by any stretch of the imagination. I much prefer being out in nature to get my exercise.

I also push myself so much more if I have great scenery to spur me on.

Jill joins us when she can which is always a treat.

Sadly I am still very far from where I need to be...but at least I am making progress and spending time with Noah.

More pictures from the hikes can be found here.

Kolton

2010-04-23T22:14:00.004-06:00

Here are a few shots of my nephew Kolton that we took on our front room couch.

You can find some more pictures here.

Random Pictures

2010-04-10T22:55:00.004-06:00

Here are some random pictures from March and April 2010.

Anniversary Get Away

2010-04-01T09:11:00.008-06:00

Jill planned a great get away for our third anniversary. A quiet weekend alone. No baby to wake us up in the middle of night. We can sleep in as long we wanted. She made all the arrangements to make it so.

But alas, Noah had did not cooperate as fully as we had planned. Through the week, he was just not feeling well with a cough, fevers, and the occasional regurgitation.

We finally decided to go ahead and take him with us instead of inflicting his ailments on the three households that were lined up to watch him. We packed up the Liberty with our overnight bags, winter gear, and snowshoes.

Yep! There is no snow in sight, but when Jill called to confirm our reservation, she asked if we should plan on hiking or snowshoeing. To our delight, they are still covered in snow.

Friday afternoon, we headed North on our adventure. Only 10 minutes into our trip, just as we are getting up to cruising speed on the highway, Noah reminds us that he is still not feeling 100%.

We pulled off the highway, cleaned up as best we could, assessed the level of damage, and decided to continue North. Gratefully that was the last time Noah got sick on the trip and he continued to get progressively better.

We arrived at our destination late in the afternoon, after a quick refueling at the Sonic, mmmm!. We checked in at Sherwood Hills in Sardine Canyon then promptly found a path to a winter wonderland.

The snow was falling as we put on our winter gear, loaded Noah into the backpack, strapped on our snowshoes and ventured into the woods.

The snow was still several feet deep all around the resort. It was firm and frozen with several inches of fluffy powder on top. Perfect for snowshoeing, not too much energy expended but everything had a fresh, pure covering of white bliss.

Just a short distance away, there was very little evidence that snow had been present any time recently. It was as though the snow was there just for the guests at Sherwood Hills.

We wandered through the woods until we found a pathway. We headed for the only GeoCache that was on the property and found it without too much trouble although only the very top of the clever cache could been seen as the rest was buried under the snow.

That night we enjoyed a great dinner all by our selves in the nice restaurant. Toward the end of our meal another couple joined us, doubling the dinner quests for the evening. Quiet and relaxing indeed.

The next morning we ventured out again on our snowshoes. This time making a loop across a portion of the golf course.

Logan was next our itinerary. Lunch, ice cream from the USU Creamery, and visiting the ducks and geese at the reservoir.

It was a great weekend. Thanks Jill for all you do. I look forward to many more anniversaries.

You can find more pictures here.

Noah and Maya's Birthdays

2010-02-28T12:15:00.002-07:00

January is a big month as we celebrate both of our perfect children's births. Noah turned 1 and Maya turned 9.

I can't believe it has already been a year since Noah was born.

He has been such a joy and a perfect baby. We decided on a jungle theme for his party. The decorations were fun as they were the same ones used for my surprise 30th birthday.

We invited our family and friends over for cake and ice cream and had a lot of fun celebrating his birthday.

I made my first cake from scratch as I needed to use Soy milk and an egg substitute so Noah could eat. We were all gathered; very tightly, in the kitchen to watch him enjoy this chocolate goodness.

Noah however ate it very slowly, quietly and timidly. As with all "table food", he likes to play with it and squish it through his fingers.

After cake and ice cream Noah was showered with love. He didn't really understand what was going on but his cousin Lexi (1 1/2 years) really enjoyed opening all of his gifts.

It was a great day and we look forward to all the adventures Noah brings us this next year.

Miss Maya surprised us all by breaking tradition- No Bounc'n Off the Walls!!! The whole family was heartbroken, except Maya.

She was thrilled to instead have a sleep over party and a new Wii from mom and Grandma. Maya was so cute as she could not have been more excited for her sleepover. The next day Maya spent with us.

We opened gifts, watched a movie, ate Dominoes pizza and enjoyed being together. We sure love Maya and think she is the greatest 9 year old we know.

You can find a few more pictures of Noah's party and Maya's party on SmugMug.

Allergies, Ear Infections, Eczema and Impetigo

2010-02-20T14:01:00.005-07:00

Maya went in to the Allergist to check on her allergies. Consensus, Yep! she is still allergic - to everything!

This winter was a challenge for Noah but he is healthy and happy. He is generally a happy baby which is good or I think he would be a real handful with all of his ailments. We continue to struggle to find foods that he can (and will) eat. Gratefully he does pretty good with baby food fruits and veggies but he should be moving on to the much cheaper table foods. We are trying to alter our cooking and eating habits to include items that he can eat (although he usually just plays with it instead of eating it).

Jill was eating ice cream one night with Noah on her lap. He really wanted some and Jill thought a very small taste wouldn't hurt. His lips swelled up immediately! We knew he was allergic to dairy but hadn't realized how allergic. Jill still feels bad about that.

He was sick for his first birthday and he starting getting a rash on his face which we figured was his eczema. At his one-year check-up the doctor said it looks like impetigo and he also had a mild ear infection in both ears. We started a regime of antibiotics and new ointments for the skin (one for the face and another for the rest of his body). It really cleared up within a few days but as soon as the antibiotics ended it all came back and he was so fussy that we took him into an InstaCare.

He now had a full blown ear infection in one ear and the impetigo did not go away. This doctor gave us a stronger antibiotic but after four days there was no improvement of his skin, he was itchy all the time, had very loose stool, and developed a very bad diaper rash. It looks like he may be allergic to penicillin based antibiotics.

We took him back to his doctor to check on his ears and discuss our concerns with this skin. Luckily the ears were looking better and we obtained a referral to a dermatologist. The dermatologist looked at him for about 20 seconds and told the nurse, write up the prescriptions this boy has severe eczema. He gave Jill a brief education on Noah's imbalanced immune system. This imbalance is non-treatable and genetic and the symptoms include eczema, food allergies, seasonal allergies and asthma. We learned that the eczema gets worse whenever he gets sick. That makes sense to us now. The doctor also gave us lots of advice on using moisturizing creams, 100% cotton clothes, steroid creams and lots of love.

The creams seem to really be doing the trick. He only seems to go one or two days before the eczema flares up again. But at least we have a day or two of clear skin.

Round two of the accidental dairy allergy test occurred when Corey mistakenly grabbed the regular yogurt instead of the soy-based yogurt. The projectile vomit, extreme itching, and hives was not nice. Zyrtec to the rescue! It was my turn to feel like a bad parent!

Follow-up visit with the dermatologist resulted in more steroid creams and a new cream for his extremely raw buttocks. His diaper rash looks very painful and he let's us know that in fact it is very painful every time we try to wipe his bum. No fun!

We are very hopefully that we are finding some solutions to his ailments and are so grateful he is generally a happy baby.

The Kneelands Come to SLC

2010-02-17T12:12:00.001-07:00

Chris, Holly and the boys came to visit the week after Christmas.

(I know that was several months ago! Deal with it!)

A big Thank You to Holly's parents for moving back to Utah that gives the Kneeland Klan an excuse to come visit. It was a short but very fun and rewarding time. It always makes me wish we lived closer. Chris hasn't changed as he spent the day skiing and then when he met up with us told us story after story of his adventures; broken ribs, walking miles in the snow, losing and finding his cell phone and hanging out with celebrities all included. Holly is the same adorable socialite as she left us to go spend the evening with her girlfriends. The boys are growing up way to fast and have more energy than one can even imagine.

Maya had fun giving them a tour of our new home. The tour included showing off the fun laundry shoot. Which was then turned into a human slide as Jake decided to slide down head first! Luckily he was OK.

Aunt Judy and her exchange student (I am so sorry to admit I cant remember her name) joined us for the evening which just added to the joy. We piled into the cars and went out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Cousin Rick and his cute family (wife Lisa and kids Rian, Carter and Berlin) joined us. We had a great time at dinner catching up and eating good food.

After dinner we walked over to see the temple lights. As it was Jan. 2 we wondered if they would still be on, so we looked online and were excited to see that it would be the last night. We were highly disappointed to find no lights were on once we walked over there. The boys had never seen the temple so we still took the time to walk around.

We then headed home and enjoyed talking and playing. The kids took over the downstairs and all slept together on the couches and on a big air mattress. Chris and Holly were the second guests to ever enjoy our guest room, Judy slept in Maya's room and her exchange student slept on the futon in our storage room. Needless to say the house was bursting at the seems and I loved it. I love having our home and this is one of the reasons. I love having it filled with the people I love most.

The next morning we made a delicious big breakfast and continued to play. I had to say goodbye early as I needed to work. Maya loved being with her cousins and I loved seeing them play together.

We miss you guys and loved spending some time together. We cant wait for you to come back.

New Snowshoes

2010-02-15T14:00:00.005-07:00

Santa brought new snowshoes, coat and snow pants for Jill this year.

The day after Christmas, we drove up to The Spruces campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon to try them out.

We had to improvise some gloves for Noah since we forgot them at home. I put my huge gauntlet style mittens over his whole arms.

It was snowing and cold so we did not last very long, but Jill had a lot of fun making tracks in the snow.

A couple of weeks later, we returned to The Spruces for some more fun.

This time Maya was with us, Noah was better prepared, and I remembered my camera.

You can find the rest of the snowshoeing pictures here.

Family Photo Shoot

2010-01-18T20:29:00.001-07:00

We staged a photo shoot in order to put together some Christmas gifts.

Since the portraits were going to be presents for Grandma and Grandpa, I had to wait until have they had been delivered before I could post this on the blog.

Then it took it a little bit longer to actually write the post just because that seems to be my pattern lately.

We took shots of each of the grand kids which were then printed and put into ornaments for grandma.

We also did family shots for a calendar for grandpa.

Cami took some great shots of our family while they were in town.

You can see all of the individual shots and non-goofy shots here.

You can also find the pictures that Cami took of our family here. Thanks Cami, they turned out great!

Zoo Lights

2010-01-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

We went and saw the Zoo Lights again this year as part of our Holiday celebrations.

Of course it was cold and busy.

The animals were actually fairly active so that was fun.

I was hoping to see new lighted attractions this year.

If there were new ones, I missed them.

Oh well, maybe next year.

You can find a few more pictures here.

Christmas Adventure

2010-01-10T14:30:00.002-07:00

While Matt and Cami were in town we tried to get the whole family together to go downtown and enjoy all the lights on Temple Square. Several attempts had been unsuccessful but we finally were able to gather the troops the week of Christmas. Sorry Matt and Cami. Jill saw that it was also the Larry H Miller 25th Annual Sing-Along and thought that would be a lot of fun also.

The enticement of free Trax, free hot dogs, free drinks and free Jazz and Bees tickets was too much to resist.

We quickly discovered that it was also too much to resist for 20,000 other crazy Utahns!

Maya, Noah and I bundled up and headed to the 90th South Trax station where we were supposed to meet several others from the Family for our fun ride into to the big city on the train.

The station platform quickly filled up as we waited for our train. We did not see any one else but as the train was about to approach I got a report from Mom, Dad and Justin (who were on the arriving train) that it was standing room only.

I quickly removed Noah from his stroller, struggled to fold it up, assigned Maya to carry the diaper bag and camera bag and then we struggled to force our way onto the train. We made it, just barely, one car in back of Mom, Dad and Justin but still no sign of any others.

For the next 60 plus minutes, we stood shoulder to shoulder in the stairwell. As the train stopped at each over-crowded station, people just stared in amazement. Each stop, a few people would force their way into the train. There was no room for 'personal space' on this adventure.

Trying to keep track of a stroller that wanted to fall over constantly, an 8 (almost 9) year old struggling with two bags, and the increasingly heavy weight of a wiggling 11 month old was a whole lot of fun! I was sweating and my arms were going numb. Luckily everyone had pretty great attitudes about the situation.

Jeff, Kendra and the boys watched 4 completely stuffed trains go by before they walked back to the car and drove into town. A wise decision indeed. It only took them about 10 minutes to drive AND park then meet up with us as we waited in the huge line outside the arena.

Jill drove from work, waited in the long ling somewhere ahead of us, grabbed a whole bunch of hot dog vouchers and found us a spot to all sit together in the upper sections. Yay, Jill.

The Barbers and the Clarks all braved the train somewhere behind us. Chris met us at the Arena straight from his downtown job.

The sing-along was entertaining, although for me, not worth the hassle of the free Trax ride.

We left the sing-along a bit early and walked a couple of blocks to Temple Square to look at all the lights. Surprise, surprise...it was very crowded. Then the sing-along crowd caught up with us and it was VERY, VERY crowded. Then the wind picked up suddenly and it was VERY cold.

Everyone had split off, mostly heading for home before the real cold wind struck us.

The reports I received were that the Barbers and the Clarks made it home relatively quickly and uneventful but Mom, Dad and Justin did not make it home until after 10:30.

I think next year we will think long and hard before getting sucked into the enticement of free stuff.

The sharing of the Holiday Spirit with 20,000 other crazy people was definitely memorable but probably not going to be repeated any time soon for this clan.

You can find more pictures here.

Never-Ever Fail Fudge

2009-12-30T13:04:00.003-07:00

I found some great recipes to try on epicurious.com. One of them was titled "My Never-Ever Fail Fudge". Jill tried her hand at making a lovely batch of fudge but as we observed the very soft oozing nature of the batch we discovered that a step had been completely skipped. It was the apparently important step of "boil for EXACTLY 6 minutes". Oops!

We made milkshakes that night, topped with fudge goop! Unfortunately it is still grainy since the sugar was never melted. The fudge glop was lovingly bottled up for future use as a sugary topping.

A night or two later, the fudge hankering was still unsatisfied. This time the cooking step was not forgotten. Jill enlisted me to try to salvage the melted mass that would not boil. As we waited for the goop to heat up slowly it turned into a nice toasted marshmallow color. There is a delicately thin line between 'enough medium heat to boil the goop' and 'too much heat, your scorching the sugar!'. This batch ended up very hard and still grainy completely unappetizing.

So yes, we failed TWICE on the Never-Ever Fail Fudge recipe.

Emily wrote down her favorite fudge recipe (from memory) but we were not brave enough to try a third batch. Instead we just enjoyed the pieces she gave to us.

Temple Square Photo Walk

2009-12-28T17:20:00.001-07:00

I attended a mini clinic put on by the Photowalking Utah group. They gave some great tips and tricks on how to improve your low-light, night, and Christmas light photos.

The group of about 130 photographers crammed onto a Trax train and proceeded to Temple Square to try out those tips on the holiday lights.

I actually waited another 15 minutes for the next train and missed out on being included in the group shot. We were turning the corner just as the speedlights were lighting up the group in front of the big red Christmas tree made of lights.

I had fun trying to get some good shots and recreating my favorite shot of the Salt Lake Temple with Christmas lights.

It was interesting to hear random comments from other people about all of the tripods and big cameras. I fought with my crappy, very low quality, tripod for awhile then just used my monopod. It is not easy trying to hold a monopod perfectly still for long exposure shots.

You can find more of my pictures here and pictures from the group on the Photowalking Flikr Group site.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-22T11:10:00.002-07:00

Merry Christmas everyone.
My brother-in-law Christopher shot another great video that sums up everything wonderfully.
May your Christmas be filled with love and happiness.

Lisa Falls

2009-11-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

Maya and I decided to go for a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon then go for a hike.

The first trail we were on was great for awhile but suddenly turned into a very steep bushwhacking adventure.

The ground was wet, muddy and slippery.

Pretty soon we lost all trace of the trail and we decided to head back to the car.

As we descended the canyon I realized that we had been on the wrong trail.

We found the correct trail and soon we were enjoying Lisa Falls.

It began to rain as we approached the falls then it quickly turned into hail so our visit was very short.

We ran down the trail trying not to get beat up too much by the hail.

Believe it or not, this pretty much constitutes all of the fall pictures I captured this year!

Before I knew it, autumn came and went. I missed the colors!

There are a few more pictures of the hike here.

LensBaby Photo Walk

2009-11-27T13:51:00.001-07:00

The PhotoWalkingUtah group had another photo walk this last month.

This one specifically focused on LensBaby lenses.

LensBaby lenses are speciality/novelty lenses in that they are a fixed focal length and fixed aperture.

The body of the lens is movable so you can change the focus point in the picture.

It creates some interesting effect with the out-of-focus areas.

Pictureline and Lensbaby provided lots of demo lenses so that everyone (about 60 people) could try out the unique lenses.

I tried a LensBaby Composer and had a lot fun trying to be creative.

Most of the pictures are of classic cars from a private collection located on the same block as PictureLine. Check out the Classic Car Museum website for more info, like the purchase price of some of these cars.

There are more pictures on SmugMug and a few that I submitted to the group on Flikr.

You can find other peoples' LensBaby Photo Walk pictures on Flikr.

More Random Pictures

2009-11-26T11:48:00.002-07:00

Real Salt Lake

2009-11-25T13:31:00.002-07:00

Maya's soccer coach gave her two vouchers for a Real Salt Lake game.

We had a lot fun watching the last game of the regular season.

RSL was struggling to make it into the post season and really needed to win this game against the Colorado Rapids.

RSL put on a great show for us by winning 3-0 then we caught a soccer ball at the end of the game.

RSL was able to advance to the post season and are actually in the Eastern Conference finals since there were not enough teams in the East that had good enough record to advance to the playoffs.

RSL played Columbus in two semi-final games with the team scoring the most aggregate goals would move on to the Eastern Conference final. Again they did awesome by wining both games and upsetting the best team in the League and the League Champions from last year.

On to Chicago. I don't think anyone thought they would get past Chicago. But RSL didn't listen. The score was tied 0-0 at the end of regulation, and tied 0-0 at the overtime then they had to go to a shoot-out.

Real Salt Lake won the game with 5 PKs to Chicago's 4!!!

Way to go RSL! Eastern Conference Champs!

One week later RSL played LA Galaxy in the Major League Soccer Finals!

The DVR was set to record the game since our schedules did not synch up. At 10PM I began to watch a pretty great game. RSL and LA have been closely matched in the regular season and they again battled back and forth during this game.

LA scored first then during the second half RSL tied it up and remained tied through end of regulation time. Thirty minutes of overtime began and then the DVR stopped.

CRAP!!!!

I had to search to find out what happened.
Another shoot out!
And another 5-4 WIN!

O-le . . . Ole, Ole, Ole . . . Re-al Salt Lake!

Way to go RSL!

Zoo Babies

2009-11-21T12:28:00.001-07:00

A couple of months ago we went to the Hogle Zoo to see all the recent additions.

Zuri the baby elephant was a lot fun to watch playing.

The Snow leopard cub and mother were active and wandering around the enclosure.

The 3 tiger cubs were sleeping in the shade

The baby giraffe was enjoying some lunch

The baby howler monkey was being held tight in her mother's arms

There were several babies we did not see.

For the full list of new arrivals check out Hogle Zoo's website.

There are more pictures here.

Maya Plays Soccer

2009-11-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

Maya played on a soccer team this past fall.

It was her first time kicking the ball around and learning the game.

She improved a lot over her short season and she really enjoyed playing.

Her favorite positions were defender and goalie.

It was a lot fun watching her learn the game and have a lot of fun out on the field.

I helped out with the coaching which was fun too.

Great job Maya!

We are proud of you.

You can find more Soccer pictures here.

September Sunset

2009-11-17T22:40:00.002-07:00

Here are a couple of shots I took of the sunset while we were at my relatives place west of Layton.

They are not very good due to hand holding the long(ish) exposure but I still like the colors and the blurred wings of the geese.

You can find a few more pictures of the sunset here.

The Circus

2009-11-16T12:25:00.002-07:00

Yay for the Circus!

It was quite a circus just getting to the circus.

One by one, the original people going to the circus were not able to make it.

I ended up calling around at the last minute (in the car, on our way...) to find available circus go-ers.

Jill had to work late and was going to meet us at the arena which meant I had to fit everyone into the Acura.

Maya, Noah, Isabelle and Parker were lucky ones.

The security staff did not want to let me into the arena with my camera.

Some how I smooth talked my way in.

Although it was pretty tough getting any usable pictures with my old camera.

New point-and-shoot cameras are much better than my old trusty D70s.

We had a great time watching all of the amazing acts.

Jill spoiled them with a $12 bag of popcorn to share!

OK, I don't know what the actual cost of the popcorn was...it was propably $15!

Here are some more pictures.

Halloween

2009-11-14T23:32:00.000-07:00

OK, I have finally had a chance to go through the Halloween pictures and it has only been a couple of weeks!

The other 10 posts I have not completed yet will have to wait...again!

The family had a great costume party hosted by Curtis and Brittany.

We had great Halloween inspired food and everyone had great costumes.

Unfortunately it took me a few tries to get my costume accessories to work properly so they were not done for the family party.

That made me the only party pooper without a costume which is just not like me!

Jill and Noah were on the plane coming home from Philly during the party.

(Jill is still working on the Philly trip post....right Jill?)

You can find more Family Halloween Party pics here.

This year we went as the Oz Gang for the ward Autumn Fest (they avoided calling it a Halloween party).

We were a hit, but we didn't win any prizes.

At least we don't think we won.

They were very disorganized and their judging system did not work too well since there was a lot of confusion about who the prize winners really were.

There were about 30-40 different types of soup and chili for dinner and we found some really tasty ones.

Halloween night we ventured to Maya's Grandma's place.

Maya likes to Trick-or-Treat in that neighbourhood.

Although in years past, it has typically been a struggle to get her to go to the three houses that she knows.

This year we actually did about 3 blocks!

We were the best Trick-or-Treaters in the neighbourhood that night.

None of the other parents were dressed up let alone all in a matching theme.

Halloween is always a fun holiday.

Maya and Noah did pretty well with their loot of sugar.

Maybe next year we will actually be organized enough to decorate and have the party at our house.

You can find more Halloween pictures here.

Resemblance?

2009-10-27T13:04:00.000-06:00

Noah's First Rice Cereal

2009-10-26T11:20:00.000-06:00

Here are some funny pictures of the first time Noah tried some rice cereal back in July.

Albion Basin Photoshoot

2009-10-25T11:45:00.001-06:00

On the first of August we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon, past Alta, to Albion Basin to see the wild flowers and take some snapshots.

The Indian Paintbrush was spread across the mountain side adding lots of brilliant color.

Jill has really been wanting some decent pictures of Maya and Noah so the pressure was on.

There were lots of other people with same idea.

We found a few spots and took lots of pictures.

You can see some more pictures here.

Lexi's First Birthday

2009-10-24T11:44:00.001-06:00

Lexi celebrated her birthday (in August) at the East Millcreek Rec Center park.

It was also Justin's 21st birthday.

All the cousins had a blast running around on the playground.

Lexi was not shy at all about digging right into her cake.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

Family Backyard Camp Out

2009-10-23T11:02:00.000-06:00

Our Second Annual Family Backyard Camp Out was a great success.

Lots of great dutch oven cooking, disc golf and socializing around the campfire.

I made my Dutch Oven Jambalaya again.

This time I went a bit crazy on the spices.

It definitely had some serious heat that most of the kids (a couple of adults) did not enjoy.

We set off lots of fireworks.

Noah decided he had had enough of the tent around 2AM.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast then got wet with some fun water toys.

Matt and Justin were competing for the distance record on the slip & slide.

They both ended up with some serious scratches on their bodies from sliding past the plastic onto the lawn.

Great fun for everyone.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

Front Room Photo Shoot

2009-10-14T17:52:00.002-06:00

While Cami was in town from Richmond, (back in July) we set up a make-sift studio in Mom's front room in order to take pictures of Mindy's new born girl, Saley.

Of course Jill wanted some pictures of Noah too,

and Porter was visiting,

and Jake was there too.

So we took quite a few pictures of the kids and some of them turned out really quite good.

I have not seen Cami's pictures, but I am sure they are much better than mine.

She is amazing at taking great portraits of kids and babies.

You can see some of her stuff here.

There are more of my pictures of the Front Room Photo Shoot here.

Backpacking in to Duck Lake

2009-10-13T11:51:00.001-06:00

For the second year in a row, a group of us backpacked into Duck Lake in the high Uinta Mountiains.

We started by Trial Lake then hiked about 4-1/2 miles into Duck Lake.

This time, my dad and I decided to try walking poles.

I had purchased some poles for snowshoeing and all the reviews mentioned how great they are for backpacking.

I would have to agree.

They helped out a lot more than I thought they ever would.

Once we figured out the right movements it was really quite beneficial, both for forward propulsion and a stabilization.

Dad once again documented every nuance of the trip in his trusty journal and took a few pictures (he almost left his camera at home!)

I, of course, took a few pictures.

And the rest of the group just fished, fished, fished.

This year the total number of fish caught was considerably less than last year.

Once again I brought my hammock to sleep in and I also brought a bivy to try out.

The bivy was quite a bit tighter and more constraining than I like, but it worked pretty well.

Marv was pretty excited that He was able to sucker Dad and I into two games of Fruit Salad. The rest of the boys knew better and adamantly refused to play. It wasn't that bad of card game even though we lost quite terribly.

Dad found himself a walking stick that that carved some rings and other designs.

This years trip was one day shorter than last year but it was still a blast.

I really enjoy being out amongst the nature and soaking it all in.

There are plenty more pictures to be found here.

World Wide Photo Walk

2009-10-12T13:56:00.000-06:00

In July I participated in the Second Annual Worldwide Photo Walk hosted by Scott Kelby.

Actually, there were about 900 photo walks around the world with more than 32,600 photographers.

The group I went with was lead by two great local photographers, Rich Legg and Nicole Young.

It was very hot and there was not a whole lot interesting subjects, but the impromptu lighting clinic was great and the walk was needed.

You can find a few more pictures here.

Wakeboarding and Tubing

2009-10-11T14:02:00.002-06:00

Curtis and Brittany have entertained us a couple of times this summer with their boat.

Curtis took us out for an evening wakeboarding excursion on Utah Lake.

You find more pictures here.

Brittany (and her dad) got us all wet at Pineview on the tubes.

It was way too rough for anything but the tubes.

Everyone had blast.

Thanks guys.

Here are more tubing pictures.

Florida Trip

2009-10-10T08:01:00.003-06:00

Our Fourth of July holiday was spent having a ton of fun in the sun (and humidity) on the Florida Pan Handle.

Jill, Maya, Noah and I flew to Pensacola, FL where Bruce (Jill's dad) picked us up and drove us about an hour to Destin.

We had a great rental house a few blocks from the beach that served as our home base for the week.

There was lots time spent in the water both at the beach and in the pool.

The sand was very fine and white.

The ocean was warm and clear.

Grandma Kneeland brought craft projects for the kids each day.

They looked forward to craft time every day.

Other activities included the Water Park, Miniature Golfing, Souvenir Shopping, and Fireworks Watching.

Thanks to all the Kneelands for a great summer vacation.

You can find more pictures here.

Jake's Pool Party

2009-10-09T11:36:00.000-06:00

Jake had a big pool party at his Grandma's to celebrate his birthday.

All the kids had a great time in the pool.

The parents had a challenge wrangling the little ones.

Good old summertime fun.

More pictures here.

Beat the Sun Workshop

2009-10-08T11:09:00.000-06:00

Way back in May...

The Utah Strobist Flikr Group organized a demo session/workshop using various lighting configurations.

It was supposed to be demonstrating lighting techniques during strong sunlight conditions but some dark clouds decided to roll in and shower on us for a bit.

I am always amazed at the new things that I learn.

Sometimes it really pays off to still have 6+ year old camera.

My Nikon D70s can do things that the newer flashier cameras can not.

For instance, I can sync my flash at much high sync speeds than the other cameras.

For the beauty dish setup, everyone was setting their shutter speed to a maximum of 1/250.

But with my D70s I was able to use 1/320 and 1/500.

This allowed some greater flexibility although I am still trying to figure out how to utilize it!

You can find the rest of my shots on SmugMug and a few favorites on Flickr.

You can also find the other photographers shots here on Flickr

High Octane Fix

2009-10-07T14:15:00.000-06:00

Jill surprised me with an early birthday present:

A ticket to the HANNSpree FIM SuperBike race out at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT.

I spent a Saturday back in May watching the best motorcycle racers in the world at the only United States stop of FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) the racing season.

Soaking in the sun (and the rain)

Breathing in the high-octane racing fuel exhaust

Snapping several hundred pictures (OK, over 950!)

Brushing shoulders with other photogs with really big lenses

Photographers have to get media credentials with the race organizers months in advance and it is closely controlled.

A lot of professional and freelance photographers from the US were shooting from behind the fences (like me) because they could not get credentials.

Thanks Jill for the great birthday present.

There are plenty more pictures here.

By the way, the American, #19 Ben Spies, won both races.

Neff's Canyon

2009-10-06T17:59:00.000-06:00

Back in May Jill, Noah and myself went for hike up Neff's Canyon above Olympus Hills.

The weather was great.

Everything was very green and the stream was flowing quit quickly.

Jill managed to find a rattlesnake along the path which was exciting.

We didn't really make it very far up the trail but it was still a great hike.

You can find more pictures here.

Random Noah Pictures

2009-10-06T10:02:00.001-06:00

Here are a few of pictures from May

You can find more pictures Here and Here

We are still alive!

2009-10-05T09:49:00.001-06:00

So...obviously we are WAY behind in our updating.
We have accomplished a lot things in the last few of months which have kept us very busy.
We will try to devote some time to getting caught up.
Stay tuned for some rapid fire blogging!

Things to look forward to:

Noah Updates
Family Parties
Photo Shoots
Noah Updates
Trip Reports
Summertime Fun
House Hunting, Buying, Fixing-Up, Moving and UnPacking
and more Noah Updates
Etc.

Porter's 1st B-Day

2009-06-15T13:37:00.003-06:00

We celebrated Porter's first birthday back in May.

(Yay, we are caught up to May now!)

Jeff (Porter's dad) made Porter his own frog birthday cake to destroy.

He was pretty timid at first but that did not last very long.

Soon he was diving in head first - literally!

His aggressive tactics worked well for a while.

But before long the cake ended up on the floor!

Happy Birthday Porter!

You can find more pictures here.

Curt's Triathlon

2009-06-14T07:19:00.002-06:00

On a chilly morning in April, Curt decided to try his hand once again on a Triathlon.

This time it was a Mountain Bike course and race was for the benefit of the Fourth Street Clinic and their efforts to end homelessness.

The race was held at the University of Utah.

Curt had to borrow one of my mountain bikes since he does not have one.

The morning was cold and wet with the threat of more rain.

That made the mountain bike course quite muddy.

You can find more information about the race on their triathlon blog.

You can also see all of the results here.

And of course...there are more pictures of the race here.

Bell Canyon Hike

2009-06-12T13:29:00.000-06:00

On Easter Sunday we decided to go for a walk to enjoy the great weather.

We ended up at the Bell Canyon trail head and decided to go for it since we had never hiked this trail.

The trail does not waste anytime gaining some serious elevation has we climb out of the subdivision where the trail begins.

We had our heart rates up to a screaming pace before we passed the last house along the trail head.

The views were great as we traversed around the reservoir, opting for a leisure stroll back down instead of continuing up the canyon. Maybe next time we will adventure past the lake.

You can find more pictures of our hike here.

Easter Eggs

2009-06-10T13:37:00.001-06:00

Here are some shots from our Easter Egg decorating party.

(Yes, we are still trying to catch-up).

You can find more Easter Egg pictures here.

Springtime at the Zoo

2009-06-08T13:14:00.002-06:00

Here are few pictures from our first trip of the season to the Hogle Zoo.

You can find more zoo pictures here.

Nightshots

2009-06-07T13:14:00.004-06:00

Here are a few nighttime shots taken during a recent field trip with the Photographix club.

Grandma and Grandpa Kneeland Visit Noah

2009-06-06T21:12:00.000-06:00

We were blessed to have 8 fun filled days with Grandma and Grandpa Kneeland in town (back in March!). I am so sad they are far away and that we don't get to see them more often. We loved having them here.

Their trip started out a little rough. They arrived at the airport gate and learned they had missed the "check in 45 minutes early" rule by 3 minutes. So they lost out on their non-stop flight and needed to rebook a later flight with a connection, costing more money and more time spent in airports. Luckily when they arrived, cute Noah made them forget all their traveling woes.

We spent Saturday catching up and trying to organize some space for two extra people and their luggage in our humble abode. We enjoyed the evening playing with Noah and Maya and prepared food for Noah's blessing the next day.

Sunday was Noah's blessing and it was a wonderful day. His blessing was short and sweet as Corey is his father. I remember Corey mentioned that Noah will love to learn including learning the gospel and that he will share what he learns with others. I am so excited to watch this little guy grow up.

We had an open house at Cecil and Kathy's house with the whole family and a bunch of friends. It was wonderful having everyone come together.

Noah looked adorable in his little bow tie. (Thanks Emily B. for letting me borrow the blessing outfit). We were blessed to visit with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Kent who were in town from California. We haven't seen them since our wedding. The food and conversation were great.
Monday we packed the car and drove down to Cedar City to visit family. My uncle Gary was in the hospital with a serious infection and we wanted to visit with him. Faith, Judy and Erin drove us to the hospital in St. George. That evening my cousin Carrie and her husband Rob organized a great dinner at Faith's house back in Cedar City. Carrie's two daughters, Annie and Kathy came with their cute kids and Bryce and Caroline came with two of their boys Matt and Tommy.

We had a wonderful time eating and celebrating family. I am happy to report that Gary is home from the hospital and his health continues to improve. He is a strong and amazing man. Although Faith has since had her own share of health issues. Our prayers go out to them. We were able to stay the night in Cedar City and drive home on Tuesday. It was a quick but rewarding trip.
Tuesday night we enjoyed being home and playing more with Noah and Maya.
Wednesday, dad and Corey worked a bit while Mom and I enjoyed a day of shopping. I took her to my favorite home decor store and then to the mall. Mom spoiled me by buying me some new after pregnancy clothes. Thanks mom! I have received many compliments on them.
Thursday dad took our car and visited with some pharmacists, Corey worked from home, I went to the office for a meeting and mom hemmed my new pants. Thanks mom again.

Thursday night my parents, Corey's parents and us went out to dinner for Chinese food. yum yum. Corey and I feel so blessed to have our parents happy, healthy and so much fun.

Friday we took my parents to a session at the Jordan River Temple. Thanks Cecil and Kathy for babysitting Noah so we could go. It is always a blessing being inside the temple.

It was a wonderful week. I know mom and dad were ready to return to their own home but we sure miss them.

You can find more pictures over here and here.

Shelley and Katie Visit Noah

2009-06-05T13:12:00.001-06:00

Aunt Shelley and Aunt Katie came into town in the middle of March for a long weekend to play with Noah. I like to believe they wanted to see me as well but I know that really it was for Noah. We had a FANTASTIC weekend. Almost two months have past and I still can't believe they made the effort to come visit. Such good friends I have.

The weeks excitement started early as Shelley overslept. She woke up to a text message from Katie saying "where are you". They planned for Shelley to drive them to the airport. So Shelley curses a little, washes her face, lets the dog pee and off she goes. She was looking mighty fine upon arrival to Salt Lake. I am so glad they made it safe and sound with no other problems.

We spent the first day chatting and chatting and chatting. We also opened gifts, and gifts and gifts. They went way overboard on the gift giving but we love them all. We also had the exciting task of going grocery shopping since I hadn't had time beforehand.

The next morning we decided to go for a walk along the Jordan River. It was a beautiful morning and nice to be outside. That afternoon I took them to Gardner Village which is a really cute shopping area. We had lunch (lots of yummy fried appetizers my favorite being avocado), shopping, and then pedicures. Our feet looked beautiful. I think the spa was a little nervous when I came in with a 2 month old but Noah being the perfect baby was quiet and adorable. They couldn't be mad at us.

That night Corey babysat (father'd) while we went to the movies to see "Bride Wars". I recommend it, it was funny. The next day we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon and saw the weather change from comfortable at our house to windy and cold in the mountain. We watched the skiers going down the mountain and visited the souvenir shop. Katie needed to get a snowbird t-shirt because she thought the logo was pretty. She has now been to that resort twice, skied not at all and bought the shirt. Fun Katie.

That night we had game night with Emily Brannelly, Shelley and my high school friend. We had fun eating dinner and playing doodle dice. I think Maya won, she always wins at that game. Emily did not. She was not happy. :-)

On Sunday we drove up to Park City for shopping at the outlets, walking down main street and going to lunch. We found some fantastic deals at the outlets. I was worried the girls wouldn't be able to fit all their treasures in their suitcases but they did good. Probably a blessing as there was no more room for Noah. They kept threatening to pack him in and take him home.

I really enjoyed annoying Katie with not putting my new purchases away. She hated that they were still in the bags sitting next to the front door for a whole 12 hours. Silly girl. That night we attempted to watch a movie but fell asleep about 15 minutes into it. Monday morning they were up, packed and headed out the door by 8 am. So sad.

If I had to describe the trip in just a few words it would be:

Refreshing - i cant tell you how good it felt to be with my friends. I have missed them soooooo much and I just loved having them around

Food - well is that any surprise? we ate and ate and ate.

Laughs - who would have thought a $1.00 in the grocery store toy machine could bring such joy.

Spoiling Noah - he loved all the attention and is loved by his aunts.

and

Gas- you would think it was us with the gas issues with all the food we ate but Noah wins that award. There were plenty of laughs associated with some fine music coming from my baby's bum. He is pretty talented. I have to share that as I write this post six weeks later his gas has decreased. Thank goodness.

Two Months Flew By!

2009-05-15T13:28:00.003-06:00

It's been two months without a post!

Here are some random pictures of Noah to hold you over while we work on the update posts.