Thursday, November 5, 2009

Halloween photos

Here's the cutest part of our Halloween.  And thanks, again, Lindsay for the outfit!









She was mad, but makes for great/cute photos!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Blue Steel

Luck is with us today.  We captured Sage's modeling poses on camera.  She's the next Derek Zoolander.






Thursday, October 15, 2009

Photo updates of Sage





So, Steve and I took some pictures yesterday of Sage.  Steve posted them on facebook already, but for those of you who actually read our blog, here they are.














Saturday, October 10, 2009

Little Sage


Welcome with us little Miss Sage into the world! She first made her appearance on October 8th around 8 pm. She decided to come a bit early, like 2 weeks, but we're not complaining! I'm just glad we'd already bought the car seat.

Ok, more details forthcoming for sure. But, the main thing is she's here, she's super cute, she's little (born at 6 lbs. 3 oz., 20 inches long), and she's healthy. We've got a few pics of her, but not a ton. Steve put together this little announcement with some of the cute pics.

We're excited to be parents (and totally oblivious to what that really means) and glad to have this new little creature with us. Yeah Sage!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

More prego photos


Here's some pics Steve took a couple of weeks ago. The freaked out picture wasn't supposed to be, I was just making faces while he was messing with the lights. I'm never safe. :)

Anyway, for pregnancy details (Tara, for you): I'm due on October 26th, although most women in my family go a bit early, so we'll see. I've been feeling pretty good overall. It's awkward getting bigger, but I haven't been real sick or anything, so I feel I'm pretty lucky.

Other news/updates. We're living in Salt Lake now, which is good. We really like it here and enjoy the neighborhood. I'm working for New Haven again, but only on an on-call basis. That's nice because I get to pick my schedule for the most part and I like that flexibility/control. Oh, we got a new couch for my birthday (I really am getting old... I am even excited about it). We got it on a great deal from a yard sale. Yeah. I'd post a picture, but that might just be too much... ya know. Must be these nesting hormones or something.

Well, I suppose that's the latest. I wish I could post about cool trips or something like that. Alas, my coolest trip lately is walking down to the dog park with Keene. All in good time, right? Anyway, enjoy the new pics (now you don't have to look on facebook, Lindsay).

Sunday, June 7, 2009

steve's work on the web

Steve got some photos published at Climbing.com, Climbing Magazine's online version. Here's the link to check out the galleries: click here. Just scroll down the page a bit and it's the gallery about Hampi, India.

so many changes, so little time

Lots to update about. Let's start.

Steve is back from India! I'm so glad. While I seemed to function fine without him, having him back is a bazillion times better.

We moved to Salt Lake. We live right across from Liberty Park. We're still unpacking boxes and bringing up loads from storage, but we're getting there. We're pretty excited about the place. It's a great apartment, in an old house that's been renovated. We're in the upstairs. It's nicer than any apartment I've lived in before. Yehaw! Bethany, Steve's little sis, is also living here with us. We've been having fun exploring Salt Lake. It's been a long time since I've spent a good amount of time here. Our ward is really great, too, which is nice. It's great to have a group of people be excited you're around and make efforts to be our friends. I dig it.

I've been doing some work for New Haven, again. I'm filling in for one of their therapists who had her baby a couple of months early (never fear, mom and baby are fine). It's been good to be back at New Haven. I've been working at the one in Saratoga Springs, so it's not quite as bad as driving all the way to Spanish Fork, but it is 62 miles round trip. Anyway, it's just temporary, so I'm still looking for some work.

What about photography? We're still running the business, but since we've got a little expensive creature coming to live with us for eternity, we need some more cash. So both Steve and I are looking for additional work. If you know anyone that is hiring, pass it along.

Speaking of our forthcoming creature. We went to the radiologist this week and found out... it's a SHE! We're gonna have a little girl. We're both pretty excited. Not sure what we'll do when pink is her favorite color and she wants to have her hair french braided, but we'll manage, I'm sure. Also, my due date is now October 26, a week or so earlier than before. Yeah!

Oh, the only sad thing that's happened recently. I shattered my iphone a few days ago. It still works, but the screen is all cracked and I'm pretty sure if I accidently move it the wrong way, it'll stop working. Do I really need it? No, but it is a pretty handy little tool. Especially because we don't currently have internet at our house, so being able to check a few things from home is nice. Oh well.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

eyes


here's the latest photo i received from steve. this was taken while he was visiting some villages in tamil nadu, the southern most state in india.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

surprise!!!


yes, our fate has forever changed... indicated by these two little strips. positive they say, positive. :) yep, we're having a baby! a little creature has overtaken my body and will emerge around November 1, 2009. So, what does this do to your adventures, you may ask? Well, we found out right before we left. So we did some frantic visits to the doctors and decided it was still a go. While in India, actually just a couple of days ago, we decided the risks of me getting malaria were too great, so I'm back in the states. I'm actually here in New York City for a bit, visiting my great friend Lindsay. I'll be back in Utah sometime soon. Steve's still in India and will keep taking pictures and working for a while. I have no idea what I'll be doing for the next few months. I'm open to suggestions!

Anyway, enjoy our good news! I'll post my thoughts on international travel and pregnancy (aka how to survive an overnight bus ride in India with morning sickness) in a future post.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

another post

April 9, 2009

Yesterday we headed northeast to a nearby city called Warangal, with our friends, Heather and Spence and our kickin hosts, Vijaya (sister in law), Chaitanya (brother in law) and Revi (Vijaya's brother). We hopped on a train for about 2 hours. After arriving in Warangal we got a taxi that could hold us all (some weird sort of Chevy SUV with sideways seats in the back). We then headed up to these old Hindu temple ruins about an hour away. They were hidden up in some hills next to a big lake. The ruins dated back to around 1200 AD. They're somewhat falling apart, but not seemingly from age, but perhaps a mild earthquake or something. Don't worry, there are a few priests and pilgrims that maintain some life at the ruins. Unfortunately, though, no one seems concerned with keeping the ruins free from graffiti, as it seems like e ery visitor feels the need to inscribe their name somewhere on these 800 year old relics.

We then went to another temple, much better maintained, that is bigger and older than the others, it was from around 1100 AD. The highlight for me was the tribe of monkeys that lived off of the mango trees surrounding the area. I dig how monkeys are so much like us, but different.

Then off to a fort, but when we got there they were charging a ton to see the ruins that you could already see from the road, so we decided to pass on that. We then went to some awesome rocks up on a hill. Somewhat like slickrock down in Moab, but more granite like rock. Anyway, we explored those for an hour or so, then headed out to one more temple. This one was called the Temple of a Thousand Pillars. It was even older than the others, build around 1000 AD. And still operational, with a Brahma priest sitting inside making offerings for visitors.

It was at this temple that Spence became an international star. There was a huge group of guys, all dressed in orange (which means they're like fasting or something like that) and they all wanted to take pictures of Spence (being 6 foot 5 or whatever he is). It happens everywhere we go, but there it was awesome... it really was like he was a celebrity.

Ok, for photos, check out the updates on Steve's photo blog at here. I'll try to post some soon.

Ok, we are alive.

Here are some things I wrote when we first got here.

March 29, 2009. 6am in Mumbai. I'm listening to new birds squawk outside in the quietness. it's still dark out.

I wonder about a lot of things...are the mosquitoes in our room malaria infected; does India have a religious day of the week; how long will it take me to adjust to the time change; will the 4 of us remain friends throughout all our adventures; what is that bird that sounds kinda like a pack of coyotes; what will today bring; will we ever learn all the ins and outs of travel, like tipping, etc?

I'm very excited for this adventure. We already started some of the fun that will be ours for the next year, like washing our clothes in the shower, power outages and lost luggage. I'm curious to see Mumbai in the daylight. Driving in I recognized those unforgetable smells of a big city and open markets. You know, the smell that is like dead fish and drying meat on top of old fruit and sewage. But, I must be growing up, it didn't make me gag like it did when I was a kid.

Getting here was an adventure, too. I've never flown stand-by before. After rushing to try to make a midnight flight in Salt Lake, only then to sleep on the floor, freezing, hoping to get on the 7 am flight, although not really daring to hope. Miracles happen, though, so we got on that flight and then waiting in Atlanta. Steve, Spencer and I made it on Thursday afternoon, but Heather got stuck in Salt Lake too long, so she didn't get to Atlanta until after the Mumbai flight. So, we hung out in the airport all night, trying to sleep as the janitors vacummed around us. We had all day in Atlanta and wanted to explore, but all the sites we wanted to see were either too expensive (read $26 per person for the aquarium) or outside (ready raining buckets all day, so much that our luggage was still wet when we got it in India). So, we kept ourselves entertained by people watching, a worthy hobby in any airport. We got on the flight to Mumbai at 8 am and were lucky enough to fly business class (read super swanky). The free movies and 5 course meals didn't even compare to the wonder of being able to lie down and sleep for 11 hours straight.

And so here I am, plinking away on my iphone (now ipod) in the dark, while the others are catching up on sleep. Listening to the birds squawking outside.

March 29. Writing from a bus heading from Mumbai to Hyderabad. We tried to get a train, but they were all booked. So we're on the overnight bus instead.

Highlights so far:
The horn on the bus sounds like a really loud clown trick horn. And we get to hear it about every 60 seconds, give or take.
The really loud Bollywood movie playing, that has all the drama of a Mexican soap opera, but with the singing and dancing of Rogers and Hammerstein. And the only parts in English are exclamations of fear, love or sassiness.
Spencer is pinned in his seat and can't move when the people in front put their seat back.

Only 8 more hours.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

shooting the winders

yes, we're supposed to be in india right now. but we're not, yet. so, yesterday we went for a photo shoot up on the bonneville shoreline trail with our friends, tiffany and greg winder.

we had a great time. it was nice to be out. weather was perfect. company fabulous. pictures fun. here are a few of mine that i liked. they're not as good as steve's, but it's fun anyway. i haven't learned how to edit them on photoshop to not wash out the colors when i put them on the web, so the colors are a bit off, but otherwise....





and the night ended well with some good eats at zupas. just a note, zupas does have free wireless. go there, it's great (even though they don't make that yummy paninni with the strawberries and nutella anymore).

keep an eye out for some of steve's shots to show up on his photo blog.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Who is your boss?

Okay, I liked this so much, I had to post when I should be working. If you think your boss is bad, check this out here.

This is the Tiny Art Director. If you didn't click the link above, I'll put in a picture here, so then you will. This is just one example.




The Brief: A giraffe and a kangaroo fighting over an apple
The Critique: Where's the dinosaur?! Draw me a dinosaur right now Daddy!
Job Status: Rejected
Artists Comments: After completing the project I documented the art director's instructions and reaction. She took offense at this and tried to erase my notes.
When I took away my eraser, she yelled "I don't like your notes!", and scribbled all over them with my pencil. She then ran to the bathroom and ran water over the piece of paper. "Look at them now Daddy!"

If we weren't leaving the country so soon, I would buy this for everyone for Christmas or something. You should buy this book. Erin Davis, you will love this.

I got the tip about this blog from the Burns Auto Parts blog.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

a photo i like

i subscribe to lots of blogs and specifically many photo related blogs. this guy, david nightingale, daily uploads some amazing images. this one, from his blog a couple of days ago, really hit the beauty button inside of me. so, i share. enjoy.

note, erin, i tried to add the picture directly to the page, but it won't work. anyway, this is the link again, click right here.


Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Saturday, January 17, 2009

camera fun



So, my camera is fun to play with. Here is a slideshow of Keene playing in the snow. It's really just a good chance for me to test out the drive speed of the camera.

I like my camera. And my dog. And the snow. Overall, it's a good day.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

my first kinda cool photo

now i know you've all been holding your breath to see the first real photo from my new camera. well, exhale and inhale, because here it is. in canon color!
now, i have to admit, steve helped out with the photoshop adjustments. we just did some sharpening, contrast adjustments, etc. anyway, that's steve working his magic on the ice of bridal veil up provo canyon.

i'll try to get one photo up a day. we'll see how well that goes. it takes me forever to do all the post production stuff, but i'm hoping i'll get quicker soon. anyway, enjoy. and always feel free to give critiques or advice on my shots. i have a lot to learn still, so i'm open to instruction for sure.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Steve working

We were at Costco, in the parking lot, sunset was good. iPhone pic.

Posted via Pixelpipe.

business website and photo blog

It's time to start pushing you all towards our business site at Walters Creative. Also, Steve has a photo blog that he is posting to almost daily, you can check it out here.

I'm also trying to post more regularly here and on my Facebook page . Or you can follow me on Twitter, too.

Friday, January 9, 2009

it's here!


Canon 50D, in my house! This is it. This is what I've been waiting for. I'm so excited, I'm even capitalizing. The UPS guy even put chains on his truck and came up to the house. Yeah.

So, I stuck Steve's wide angle lens on it and played around in the living room. But, I don't have the software up, yet to show my first shots (they're not that great, don't get excited). Anyway, I'll put on the other photos I took from my phone. So, here's to me learning to be a real photog.





Steve ready to climb

Steve ready to lead his first multi-pitch. iPhone pic.

View from pitch 1

ignore the finger in the picture. iPhone pic.

3 bags, like always

and I only have one bag. iPhone pic.

Posted via Pixelpipe.

fatburger

my favorite burger, I think. iphone pic.

Posted via Pixelpipe.

after my whining

so after my post whining about ups (united postal service) (not the opposite of downs), they did actually add some information for me to know when it's coming.

it was in hodgkins, illinois on the 6th. and in orem, utah this morning. it should be here today.

the funny/annoying thing about ups is their automated systems. we got two calls yesterday, from the really nice sounding computer. but all the computer can say is, we're going to deliver a package. the second call, so informative, said that they would be delivering a package that requires a signature, but they couldn't confirm a delivery time, so it would arrive between 7am and 8pm.

have you ever actually tried to talk to a real person at ups? it is impossible. we ran into this issue a year ago with another delivery requiring a signature. we were both at work all day and couldn't be there. they said they would return the package to the sender. hello! so, i spent at least an hour trying to locate a real human to set up a delivery time. nope, didn't happen. so, we did the very high tech and safe thing, we left a note for the driver. we needed to talk to a human, a real person that understands work schedules and complications. the note worked.

the best part of our situation now (besides ups thinking that most people can sit at home on any given day for 13 hours) is that during the winter, ups does not deliver to our house. the trucks literally cannot get here because of the snow. so, they have a locked drop box system. but the nice sounding computer doesn't know that.

anyway, it's coming today. i'll post again when it arrives.

giddy with excitement. it comes!

Monday, January 5, 2009

picture of the day


the view of my eyes this morning. yes, we are in vegas.

ups is lame

over and over i have come to the conclusion that i don't like ups (the package people). for different reasons each time (it's really annoying that you can't actually talk to a real person if you call their 800 number).

today, the reason is because i was so excited to create an awesome blog update of a cool package i have coming. so each day i was going to update on where the package was, etc. well, "awesome" ups hasn't updated the tracking info... so it still just says maspeth, ny. lame.

anyway, on the 9th (the scheduled date of arrival) i'll unveil my exciting package that's coming. and it is coming (if ups isn't too lame).

it's still coming.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

it's coming...

...slowly making it's way across the United States. First stop was Maspeth, New York; it stayed the night there. I assume it got up early this morning and continued it's journey to Utah. They say it'll be here next Friday. I can hardly wait! Part of me wants it to come early, but I also don't want to get my hopes up too quickly.

It's coming.