Invaluable Learnings

I've had the thought come to me quite frequently lately that Rob and I aren't posting enough "personal history" because we're always posting about our latest pictures. We have such a backlog that I get caught up in catching up instead of writing about more important things.

One thing I've been meaning to write about is some of the invaluable lessons I've learned from each of my parents. They've always tried their hardest to be great examples to their seven kids and I want them to know that I appreciate it.



From my dad I've learned:

• To find something, anything, that I love to do. He always wanted each of the kids to find a niche and explore our talents. Two of mine just happen to be two of his! Reading and photography. There were many nights growing up when I saw him reading in the living room. The room was dark except for one lamp on next to him. I don't know why, but that always gave me a good, peaceful feeling. My dad had a really old (by my standards) camera that I was fascinated with and always wanted to learn how to use, which I never did. He frequently gave tips on how to compose a nice shot and think about lighting.

• That it's okay to let someone get away with something (Translation: You don't always have to tell it like it is). There have been many times when I've asked him either out loud or to myself, "Why is he letting him/her get away with that?" or "Doesn't he know better than to believe him/her?" It's taken me a long time to understand that he is letting that person work things out on their own. It's not always our place to correct. Sometimes lectures don't work. Sometimes you just need to show love.

• To enjoy traveling and exploring new things, including different people and cultures. He was in the Navy and was stationed in Southeast Asia and I always liked hearing him talk about the funny people and his experiences. He has always had the urge to get up and move somewhere new. I have that same urge. He also got me my first job in travel when I was 13. When I was 16 he took me on a tour of the Travel Department at Church Headquarters and introduced me to people he knew. I ended up getting a job there two years later.

• To value the Priesthood. My dad was such a good example of a worthy Priesthood holder. Along with giving us a name and a blessing and baptizing us, he gave father's blessings whenever any of us felt we needed one. Without him, how would I know what to look for in an eternal companion? How can I ever thank him for that?

From my mom I've learned:

• That cooking for and eating dinner with your family is a really good thing. I was one of those really fortunate kids whose mom took the time to prepare good, healthy meals almost every night. Of course, I didn't fully appreciate this at the time, especially on Minestrone Soup night, but I've learned how valuable this is. When I got married I didn't know how to cook hardly at all. But the desire was there and I realized how much I wanted to provide that meal and time for my own husband and children to eat and talk together.

• How to keep good finances. She helped me open a checking account when I got my first job and taught me how to balance my checkbook. This skill has proven absolutely vital! I have no idea how people get along without knowing where and when the money goes. Money matters are still stressful, but mom's example: Priceless.

• That it's okay to not have a "Lightning Bolt" experience in order to have a strong testimony. She always told us "I don't know how I knew, but I just knew." If I hadn't known that, I may have gotten discouraged for never having a "born-again" moment when it all came together and my testimony was formed. Instead, I feel good that I always just knew.

• To be charitable with time and means. My mom has always done so much for her kids, grandkids, and parents. She spends so much of her time serving them! She's had several kids and parents move in and out of her home. She's always running errands for them, loaning or gifting money when needed, offering advice, praying for, and planning fun get-togethers. Whenever one of her kids asks how they can repay her for whatever she's done, she just says, "Show the same kindness to your kids when they need help." What a great example!

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post. I just felt it was very important to express my love and gratitude for my parents. They have gone through so many things that would have broken any novice in no time flat. But they are pros. They've seen and been through it all, with much more to come, I'm sure.

Mom and dad, keep up the amazing job that you're doing! I promise, it's not thankless!

I love you!!

New Wallpapers

I know it's been a while since we added anything to our "Free Desktop Wallpaper" set, but today your wait is finally over! Go ahead and browse our new backgrounds.

Some have had questions regarding exactly HOW to download a wallpaper. Flickr isn't always very intuitive, so here are the instructions:

1-Click on our "Free Desktop Wallpaper" link at the top of our webpage.
2-Click on the picture of choice.
3-Click on the "All Sizes" link above the photo.
4-Click "Original" above the photo.
5-Click the "Download Original Size" link above the photo.
6-Choose either "Open".
7-Right-click on the picture and choose "Set as Desktop Background".

There you go!

An Hour in the Afternoon and a Walk in the Dark

I find it interesting that children seem to have very specific needs from each parent on a one-on-one basis at such a young age.  I spent some fun time with each of my kids today and I just wanted to write it down and share. 

This afternoon while Julie was at a meeting for scouts and Nate was sleeping (the poor guy was pretty sleepy) I spent an incredibly rewarding hour with Madeleine.  After feeding Mad a bottle she wanted to play with my face for a while (this was really fun).  Then I helped her stand up (she really loves standing up these days) to face me and we engaged in a laughing and giggling competition.  Then we both got down on the floor to crawl around, push books around, put things in our mouths (this was mostly Mad), laughing, giggling, smiling, and just goofing off.  We had a fabulous time.  I think she really enjoyed spending time with her dad without competing with her brother.  Madeleine has been mobile for a couple of weeks now and she has already moved past the crawling stage and started pulling herself up on things and is most happy when we are helping her walk.  What a cute and ambitions little girl.

After playing with Madeleine we (Mad and I) went upstairs to wake up Nate from his afternoon nap.  Nate was groggy and just wanted us to go outside and play.  Well, it was pretty cold and wet outside and I didn’t really want to take Mad out either.  I explained to Nate that Mom would be home soon, that we would make and eat dinner, it would get dark, then he and I would take a walk outside in the dark with a flashlight!  He thought that was a pretty cool idea and was excited about it for the rest of the afternoon/evening.  Finally dinner was over and it was time to go out.  Nate wore miss-matched shoes, I wore socks with sandals (terrible I know), we both wore long sleeve shirts and sweaters, and we were armed with one maglight. 

We walked slowly around our area, examining leaves, dead bugs, trees (Nate really liked illuminating the (pokey) trees and declaring their existence to me), water, storm-water grates, the sidewalk, and occasional basket ball hoops.  The world looks very different in the dark and Nate had a blast discovering anything and everything from that point of view.  We got cold after a while so we came home to sit on the couch under a blanket to get warm and watched the rest of a dinosaur movie to relax.  Nate is so creative and interested in everything around him.  At one point he identified a bush as a tree and we went back and forth a few times trying to decide if it was really a tree or a bush.  LOL, I really love that kid.

I have two great kids and I love them both so much.

Foto Friday - Red Bridge

Creative name...I know.

I took this picture a couple of months ago at the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake. We were there with the Williams' side of the family for a picnic. Those pictures are forthcoming.

I really liked the contrast of the red bridge against the greenery. I just punched up the colors a little bit and added a slight vignette.

Happy Halloween!!!

The Dark Side of the Moon

How many of you have heard the Dark Side of the Moon live? A few weeks ago my brother Kelly and I went up to our family's italian restaurant LeNonne (their food is absolutely amazing) in Logan to hear precisely that. The evening was complete with awesome food, friends, family, and of course awesome music. My cousin’s husband PierAntonio is the owner and executive chef of LeNonne and the bass player of the jazz band Hot Karl and the 3rd Street Band – no web page. :(

A few times a year they get together with a few extra musicians and perform the entire dark side album. They are all extremely talented musicians and their combined skills along with projected graphics and sound effects combined to created a great performance and experience. Kelly and I had a great time.

While enjoying the music I snapped several pictures of all the cool musicians – if I qualify musicians with the adjective cool, does that imply that some of them were not cool and that I don’t have any pictures of them? I hope I got them all! While shooting these photos I envisioned a very dark and grainy representation so I took a bunch of slightly to somewhat underexposed images at a high ISO and I think I was pretty successful at complimenting that feel with my post processing edits (let me know what you think). You can find the pictures here and a slideshow here; please enjoy them. Well done to the band!

High School Yearbook

Hope you enjoy these as much as we did! We basically couldn't stop laughing!

Untitled

This is my favorite shot that I took from our photowalk yesterday. I've left it untitled because I think it's a picture that induces a little bit of thought and can reflect a few different ideas.

I'm curious, what does this picture say to you???

More Hymas Family

Since babies grow up so fast, we did more portraits for my sister. It wasn't an easy shoot because we lost the sunlight really fast. Note to self: Schedule fall and winter outdoor photoshoots earlier in the day.

I do have to say that Jake and Karen are so easy to take pictures of. They have really good chemistry and are so easygoing that it makes posing them really fun. Plus, Jake is such a jokester and makes us all laugh the whole time, so it's easy to get natural smiles from them.

Jordin is 3 months in this picture and always wears the cutest outfits. Her little diamond earrings are so adorable.

Below are links to our favorite picture from the other shoots we've done of them.

Engagement
Wedding
New Baby

Post Photowalk Instructions

We all had a great time on the photowalk this morning!  It is so much fun to take pictures with friends.  You can find the official Flickr group here.  If you participated in the photowalk and are not a member of Flickr or one of my contacts, then we need to fix that before you can participate in the group. 

How to get in the group!

• Go to www.flickr.com and sign up (why not, it’s free!).
• Upload some pictures, set everything up, and get used to Flickr. There is really good help information at the bottom of every page.
• Go to my profile page here.
• In the upper right corner you see blue text that says, “Add Engineering Nerd as a contact.”
• Then wait for me to invite you to the group.  You’ll get an email asking you to confirm.  
• To access the group, click on the “Groups” button at the top of every page on Flickr where you’ll see a list of groups that you participate in. Click on “Main Street Photowalk – Salt Lake City” and you’re there.

How to add photos to the group!

• After uploading your picture to Flickr, click on the picture in your photostream (here is ours).
• Just above your photo you should see several buttons.  Click “Add to group” and choose the “Main Street Photowalk – Salt Lake City” and then click “add” when prompted. 

In the group you can share your photos, make comments on the photos of others, and participate in the discussions.  My hope is that we’ll all learn a lot as we post-process the photos and discuss the results together. 

Have Fun!

Foto Friday - Salient

 Taken with Nikon D40 in Zion National Park, Utah on October 18, 2008. Aperture Priority Mode, 22mm, 1/160 sec f/11, ISO 200, Nikon Raw Format. Edited in Lightroom 2.1. 

We are finally back from Southern Utah and we have a ton of sweet pictures to share.  To wet your appétit, I decided to use one of those shots for Foto Friday!  I don’t have much time tonight so I’ll keep it very brief!  In the words of Nate, “HOLY COW!”  Zion National Park is freaking amazing and if you haven’t been there you just have no idea what I am talking about.  Bottom line here is that we have an amazing world with some of the most amazing scenery right here in our state!  We are so lucky.

This shot of a foot bridge over the Virgin River was taken at the trailhead for the Emerald Pools (great hike by the way).  Nate and Mad both did really well on this hike!

To recreate the singularity of the scene I increased the contrast, increased the saturation (I did this selectively for each color), and added a little mid tone sharpening.  That’s it!   Hope you enjoy this image and remember to enjoy yourself behind the lens!

Note to the photowalkers!  Tomorrow’s lunch location has been changed to Pier 49 Pizza because the sandwich shop is closed on Saturday.  See you tomorrow!!