Sneak peek for the J family....

This session was so fun. I've known this senior since she was my own childrens' ages.
Scary. I really enjoyed shooting you H! I hope that you like your photos. Lots more to come!

This weekend we decided not to go North to our property. It was the weekend before school started and I had tons to do that I had put off until the very last minute (shocker to people who know me, I'm sure).
Saturday we canned dills with Russ' mom and sister. It was a blast and Sunday we hung pretty close to home.
Now Monday we took our small fishing boat out on the Flathead River and fished for......actually we didn't know what we were fishing for exactly. Until, that is, Russ caught this monster (by my standards, anyways) Northern Pike. It was dang exciting.
Picture both kids screaming jumping up and down in the *little* aluminum boat...the dog is barking, we're trying to get this huge thing in the net and then in the boat. Good grief. It was chaos, but it was so fun.
We filleted (that can't be right, can it?) the white meat and we are beer batter frying it on Thurs. Can't wait. She looks like some sort of lake monster, doesn't she?
Without further adieu........the photos. (I know that you're hanging on the edge of your office chairs, lol).


The pike.....






And the pickles.....

Beaches and spiders and fish, oh my.........

It's been too long.
Here's a little update. Business is picking up, my website is done (whew), we spent the weekend at the cabin at Tag Beach, and caught some fish (just guess who caught the BIGGEST and the PRETTIEST fish of all? yup).
My apologies in advance for the spider pics (see the FANGS????).........it's the mom-of-an-8-year-old-boy in me, I guess. Although my four year old daughter was in on every bit of the action and she is Girly (yeah, with a capital G).
Enjoy.

Glacier

Last Saturday we took the kids to Glacier Nat'l Park.
We make it up there once a year which is ridiculous considering it's only 45 minutes away.
It's so beautiful up there, although because of the horrible forest fires in our area, there was a lot of smoke, but I managed to capture some photos anyways.
And look......I'm actually IN some of these photos instead of behind the camera like usual.
We hiked into Avalanche Lake and were SO proud of the kids for making the 4.6 mile trek. It doesn't sound like a lot but to little people, it is.
Enjoy the photos.
A run down:
The red flower is Indian Paintbrush, quite likely my favorite wildflower. It totally reminds me of my childhood.
The purple field of flowers is fireweed and you'll notice the charred trees in the background.
I like these photos because it gives me hope. That after the ravaging wildfire from a few years ago, there is new life. Renewal.... I like.
:o)

Lots to share from the weekend

Some from the boat, but most of these photos were from our Saturday Beach Hunt.
We have relatives coming into town in August and wanted the perfect beach to spend the day while they are here, we may even invite them along, hee hee.
The perfect beach......Tag Beach....just look at this place.....sigh.
The kids had a blast and so did my wonderful Grandma Betty, stylin' in her fishing getup.
Love her.
Hailey with Body Art tattoos that Nana bought her, thanks Mom.
Nick barely tolerating the camera after threats of privilege removal for lack of cooperation, poor kid (his Dad) hmmmpf (me).
Wish we were there right now.
Enjoy!
J.

Polyphylla decemlineata..........aka Long haired June beetle.............eeeeww.....

I'm posting twice in one day because, well, it was an exciting bug day at our house and because I have an 8 year old little boy and he LOVES to hunt for wild, crazy looking bugs. When I saw this one in the swimming pool I couldn't resist prying my son away from Ben 10 or some other stimulating time filler (mmmhmmmm).
It was much more fun for him to poke this beetle (dinosaur?) than to finish his television program anyways.

Warning: The following creature may give you nightmares.
I posed the thing on my lens cap for reference.
At any rate, this bug was over 2.5" long. Not anything I would smash with my shoe. No No.
Oh, and we did not smash this beetle. It was studied for the better part of an hour and released unharmed into the bark cover in my backyard.
:p

Some bugs..........

There were hundreds of these dragonflies out yesterday and they were so patient with me as I shot photos of them for an embarrassingly long time.
I thought these turned out pretty cool.
TFL............real people next week, I promise.
I'm coming out of my creative slump and that's final.
Have a marvelous weekend everyone.
Stay cool.
:)