Family Pictures

A few months ago I bought a tripod have only used it a handful of times since I got it. I decided yesterday I needed to get more use out of it and thought I would practice taking our own family pictures.  I also wanted to get some pictures with Rory while she was still a puppy.  She is growing way too fast! 

It was an interesting challenge.  Let's just say I need a LOT of practice before I will be at the level I'm completely happy with.  They still turned out decent though and we even got Rory to look at the camera in two shots (out of probably fifteen) which I'm deeming a success!  It was ridiculous trying to get her to look in the direction of the camera.

We had so much fun taking pictures together!  I know most people dread getting their picture taken, but Bryce is such a good sport.  He is always so sweet and supportive of me in anything I am pursuing, in this case photography, and he always does whatever he can to help me.  While I was looking through the photos after I uploaded them to my computer it made me happy knowing I'd have them to remember this time in our lives. Our lives are pretty simple right now with me just working and Bryce going to school.  I guess we got a little crazy when we decided to add a puppy into the mix, but even still we have a pretty simple life. I know that as we get older and progress life will get much more challenging. I will gladly be able to look at these pictures and reflect back on our time as newlyweds living in our little basement with our new puppy. 

-Kami

April Showers bring...Puppies!

Bryce and I have been wanting a dog for a loooong time and over the last couple months we got more and more serious about it.  I started researching a few breeds, but I was pretty set on what I wanted.  I have wanted a goldendoodle (golden retriever poodle cross) since I was probably 16.  I get allergies from most dogs but anything with poodle doesn't ever bother me.  

Two weeks ago we decided we were ready to take the plunge and get a dog.  I went my usual route whenever I am preparing for a new endeavor and brought home a stack of books from the library.  We started looking at puppies on KSL and finally found one for a reasonable price we were pretty interested in.  We decided we would just go "look" and also make sure that I didn't get any allergies or anything.  We immediately fell in love with the sweetest puppy and the next thing we knew we were driving home with her seated in my lap.

We named her Rory.

She loves to chew on everything (we're working on it), she is very cuddly when she gets tired and will crawl right up on your lap when she is ready to sleep, and she is super smart.  She has already learned to sit on command.  

She is darling but don't let that face fool you, she is still quite a handful!  We have been every bit as busy as we expected waking up every few hours to take her outside to go to the bathroom, feeding her, training her, and making sure she gets enough exercise.  Bryce and I joke that she will be a good practice baby before the real thing (we realize its not quite the same thing as a baby but it's definitely in the ballpark).  Enjoy the picture overload.  I'm sure I'll be back with plenty of stories about our new puppy raising adventure.  

-Kami

General Conference Weekend

I look forward to General Conference so much every April & October.  This particular General Conference was filled with a lot incredible experiences for me.  On Thursday I attended the General Young Women Auxiliary Training at the conference center with the young women presidency I serve with in my ward.  We were asked to help hold up a visual aid during one of the talks and after the meeting we had the opportunity to meet the entire presidency: Sister Elaine S. Dalton, Sister Mary Cook, and Sister Ann Dibb.  They are such great leaders and have so much love for the young women of the church.  I was truly inspired and touched by the words of their talks.

On Friday Bryce and I attended his mission reunion where we were able to hear Elder Ballard speak.  There were at least 100 missionaries at the reunion and we were sitting on the second to last row so we didn't get to actually meet him but it is still always a special experience to be in the presence of an apostle.

Saturday and Sunday Bryce and I just spent the whole day together in our own home listening to conference.  It was simple and perfect.  I felt so spiritually fed, I didn't want the weekend to end.  I have been re-listening to all of the talks online (here) ever since.  I can't wait for the conference edition of the ensigns to come out so I can study my little heart out.  The church is true. :)

-Kami

Easter 2013

This Easter was our second while being married.  It feels weird that we've reached the point where we are on the second round of holidays being married.  Time goes too fast.  On Saturday we spent the day at Bryce's parents.  There was an Easter egg hunt for the grand kids, then the men shot bow & arrows while the girls painted nails, and after we had a big dinner together. 

On Sunday we went to my parents and had dinner with my family.  The girls did lots of chatting and visiting and my brother took Bryce and my sister's husband outside to shoot "exploding targets."  I've noticed our families seem to navigate boy & girl roles very similarly.  

My mom is so great, she still surprised us all with Easter baskets. 

Then we came home and Bryce and I took turns hiding Easter eggs for each other in our living room just like we did last year.  I guess that has become our official Easter tradition. 

-Kami

One Year. Ain't No Mountain High Enough Baby

Our one year anniversary was this past Sunday, March 10th.  (How is that even possible?!)  We celebrated it all weekend long.  Friday I only worked a half day and when I got off work we headed down to Salt Lake.  We saw the new movie "Oz the Great and Powerful", did a little shopping at City Creek, and then went to our favorite Thai Restaurant, Sawadee, for dinner.

Saturday we spent the day snowboarding at Park City Mountain Resort.  The weather was perfect and the resort even had 6 inches of fresh powder.  It was the kind of day when you get home happily exhausted.  

On Sunday night to finish off our celebratory weekend we finally got around to watching Skyfall and ate lots of popcorn and Trader Joe's Maple Cookies.

In honor of our one year anniversary we thought we'd leave you with a little song in the video below. The sound quality isn't the best since we recorded it on our mac, and we just learned the song tonight so be patient with us. Hope you enjoy!

-Kami (& Bryce)

Do You Hear the People Sing

Last week while driving home from work I heard an ad on the radio about a concert the Utah Symphony & Chorus were performing.  The concert was "Do You Hear the People Sing: From Les Mis to Miss Saigon" and was going to be performed by the Utah Symphony & Chorus (obviously) as well as six Broadway guest artists.  It was playing at Abravenel Hall March 1 & 2. 

I LOVE Les Mis, it is by far my favorite musical and I really like the score from Miss Saigon as well.  Bryce and I saw the movie version of Les Mis when it came out and although I thought it was good I was disappointed with a lot of the musical performance.  I saw Les Mis when Broadway across America toured in Salt Lake and grew up singing all of the songs in voice lessons, but Bryce has never seen it live.  Ever since the movie I have wanted him to hear how much better the music is in the actual live Broadway performance (I made him watch a million youtube videos of the original London cast but it just wasn't the same).  And while this wasn't the full Broadway performance, it was as close as we were going to get in Utah for a while.  I checked online as soon as I got home and found they still had some of their cheapest seats available for $29 a ticket.  I didn't think the price was too bad and thought we could just count it as an early anniversary date since our actual anniversary was the next weekend on March 10th.  I told Bryce about it when he got home and he thought it sounded like a really fun idea too.

AND THEN OUR INTERNET WENT OUT ALL WEEKEND.

Monday when we finally had internet access again the first thing I did was go online to order our tickets.  The only seats left were $90 tickets.  I was so sad!  $180 was a bit out of our budget especially when I knew we were still going to do dinner and a movie or something on our real anniversary weekend.  Before giving up I thought I would search the KSL classifieds and see if I could get lucky and find someone selling their tickets.  I found an ad where someone had posted $25 tickets to the performance on Thursday February 29th at Weber State.  My heart stopped.  The Utah symphony website didn't say anything about a Thursday performance.  My fingers flew on my keyboard as I navigated my way around the Weber State website and found it was true.  There was  a Thursday night performance of the exact same concert at the Browning Art Center at Weber State University.  There was a phone number for students to call and get tickets at a discounted rate.  I sent Bryce a text and told him to drop everything RIGHT NOW AND CALL.  He wrote me back and said he was able to get us two $10 tickets.  $10!!! 

Finally, having a husband who is still a student had a financial benefit.

(I'm documenting it because so far it is solitary in its existence)

This is the best I could get out of Bryce for an obligatory date night photo-op.  

Why do boys hate being in pictures so badly?

The concert was so good!  We both loved it so much.  The symphony, orchestra, and guest artists were all incredible.  The guest broadway artists included:

--Jennifer Paz, who played Kim in the original America Broadway tour of Miss Saigon  
--Sarah Uriarte Berry who has starred as Eponine  & Belle in Beauty and the Beast on New York Broadway
--Marie Zamora, who played Cosette in the original Paris Broadway production of Les Mis 
--Eric Kunze who starred as Marius in the London production of Les Mis & also starred as Chris in the American tour of Miss Saigon 
--Terrence Mann who held the role of Inspector Javert in the original London Broadway cast of Les Mis

I didn't realize the guests would be so many of the original performers, it was an amazing surprise.  I love a good live performance.  The music is just so powerful.  It hits you like an actual force and you can feel it in your whole body.  It's difficult to describe and maybe not everyone feels the same way about it as me, but I really really love it.  I didn't want the concert to end.  I wanted them to keep singing every song over and over.  So if you are not a student and you can fork out $90 you should really go see it tonight or tomorrow! 

-Kami

Photography Homework Week 2

I finished up week 2 of my photography class, and I am loving it so much!  I by no means ever plan on being a professional photographer, but it is a hobby I enjoy and have always wanted to improve.  This class is perfect for that.  It is a one month online course through nicolesclasses.com.  The class has weekly video tutorials and weekly reading assignments that have tons of information for learning the basics of digital and film photography.  You also submit homework once a week and Nicole Gerulat, the teacher, critiques it for you.  She is an awesome teacher and is wonderful at helping you learn how you can improve your photos.  These are all the shots I submitted for week two.

 -Kami