Category: Just For Fun

Salt Lake Trip

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So, I work with the young women (ages 12-18) in my church, and for a midweek activity we went up to Salt Lake to tour a couple places, including an “underground” tour of the LDS Conference Center! (Yup. We have connections.) Long story short, I took some fun architectural shots I wanted to share. Plus some pictures of most of my young women! Aren’t they all gorgeous!? We had an activity previous to our trip at which I taught some photography basics, and as part of it, we practiced taking portraits–of EVERYONE! 🙂 So… just for fun!

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I am so obsessed with the inside of the conference center. The architect was a genius.

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This is where our inside contact works. 🙂

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The view from the top of the Church Office Building…

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A view from backstage. Sweet.

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I think the bubble mirrored cameras are so fun. Thought I’d try a self-portrait. Not the greatest, but you can see my growing belly! Technically this is the first real pregnancy belly shot! It looks like I have a small volleyball under my shirt! PAH!

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Yup. They’re all gorgeous. And I love my calling. 🙂

The Reunion

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Every two years my dad’s side of the family has a huge reunion. This year I was designated to take pictures of the family groups, and it was a lot of fun! Relatively painless… 🙂 (Pun not intended, but since I left it in, I suppose it kind of is!) Rather than post them all individually I’m doing it gallery-style so that those who want to look through them all can! Just click on the thumbnails to view them full size! The captions refer to the picture located above them.

The reunion was a lot of fun! We went to Reid Ranch in Fruitland, Utah. Fun fact: The food inspection certificate in the cafeteria listed the address of Reid Ranch as “15 miles east of the Fruitland store.” Did anyone else notice? There were lots of activities for the families–paddle boats, archery, horseback riding, pony rides for the kids, volleyball, horseshoes, etc. And I rather enjoyed their snow cones. 🙂 Here are some shots I got of the activities. They are pretty much limited to volleyball and pony rides, so sorry to those of you who were off doing other activities!

Reunion Activity Pictures::Volleyball and Pony Rides

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My dad’s family is notorious for their volleyball skills. 🙂 I like to watch. Oh yeah. And take pictures.

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This shot (below) is worthy of an explanation. That’s my brother-in-law spiking the ball, and the blocker in the yellow shirt is my little brother. My little brother blocked this spike with his face–and scored a point for his team in doing so. Holla. If I saw Mike getting ready to spike a volleyball in my direction looking that angry I would curl up in a little ball and cry! 🙂 Zach must be fearless.

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Here’s Gregory wishing he was playing volleyball. He kept Grandpa’s hat safe, though–a very important job!

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Some of the equipment was a little large…

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This last image is one of my favorites from the whole reunion–THE STAREDOWN.

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For all you Blackhams looking at these, if you would like your family picture(s) emailed to you, please comment and leave an email address, and let me know what you would like. (aka, just your smaller family, the big group picture, large family picture, horse pictures of your kids, etc.) I have tons of volleyball pictures that I didn’t put up here, but I put at least one shot of each of the kids I got on the pony rides. Just let me know what you’d like! If any of you want ALL the pictures, my mom is getting a disc ready to mail to Aunt Pam with all the pictures I took, and the ones that she took. I’m not exactly sure where it goes from there…

Year Two

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It’s hard to believe my nephew is already two! I snapped a couple shots from his birthday party and couldn’t help putting some up!

It took a bit of coaching to get G to swing at his pinata. He absolutely loves volleyball (he can set, bump, and spike), and hitting a giant volleyball with a plastic bat somehow wasn’t instinctual to him. Huh. 🙂

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The incredible football cake! He may not look it, but he was crazy excited about this…

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I figured a birthday party is a perfect time to introduce a two-year-old to the wonders of candy necklaces. It took him a bit to figure out how to get the candies off, but he loved it!

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What better way to end a birthday than by sitting on the deck eating “can-ny” (aka fresh peas) with Grandma!? I absolutely love this picture!

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Say Hello…

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…to the 4A High Jump State Champion! But oh yeah… he’s also my little brother. “Little” brother. Don’t worry. He’s 6’5″. He jumped 6’8″ to take the title. Here are some shots of him working his magic!

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Yup. That last one was a clean jump. No wiggling of the bar there. You think I sound proud? You should have seen how my dad’s chest swelled when he took state. 🙂 These last two don’t do it justice, but I love them anyways.

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A Day with Goober-stink Chubby-calves

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Yup. You read right. That is what we lovingly call my nephew. We figure that way, if he ever becomes a general authority he can be called Elder G. Stink Chubby-calves, Elder G.S. Chubby-calves, Goober S. Chubby-calves…. I mean seriously. The possibilities are endless. 🙂 Kirby and I got to spend a couple hours with G.S. while his parents went out to Ruby River Steakhouse for his mom’s birthday! YUM. During the course of our time with him, we ate cheetos, drank kool-aid, strut our stuff in super-swank sunglasses, and took pictures of each other. Well, his taking pictures of me consisted of me taking a picture of myself so he could see it in the LCD screen when it popped up afterwards… But here are some of my favorites! I used my new lens, and I love the depth of field!

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When I first pulled out the camera G.S. decided to smile for me… This was the closest it actually got to looking happy… It originally looked somewhat-tortured. Yup. I busted up laughing.

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Did I mention we played with all-things-electronic? 🙂

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A little black and white–just to shake things up… 🙂

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And yes. Couldn’t pass up the gorgeous day! Doesn’t he look so inspiring/inspired here? Insert Chariots of Fire theme song…

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Well hey–thanks for looking! Keep an eye out! I’m working on three different sessions right now, with two more to come next week! Phew! Open the floodgates!