Labor Day Weekend - Allred Reunion

Good Monday morning. I'm determined to catch up on my blogging, both my own posts and everyone else's. So much blogging, so little time. I have so many things I want to blog about, I'm just going to slop a bunch of stuff on here... not that it isn't usually slopped on here, but I'll try to be less picky this time about how it turns out, so I can get several posts on here today. I took over 800 pictures during this Bear Lake-vacation/Allred-family-reunion! I finally weeded it down to 400, but still, that's a monkey-load of pictures. I got so sick of looking at them, I was beginning to feel sorry for all the photo editing Sue had to do for weddings, etc., and could see why she got tired of doing it and being the Mom, too. But it was fun, and I got a very nice compliment from Zen's sister, Jan, about how much she enjoyed the "slide show" I gave at the end of the vacation, with all the pictures I took. I'd probably do it anyway, but it was nice to be able to provide a service that other people enjoyed.

All my lovely couch potatoes, on the way to Bear Lake.

On our trip, the kids had their dvd's and I had my camera. I just couldn't resist being naughty and taking all kinds of dorky pictures, including some of Gil blowing his nose. I'll spare him the indignity here, but as you can see, he was not amused by my paparazzi instincts, and tried to get back at me by wiping a booger on the camera. Teenagers are sooooo sensative.

Lovely Wyoming scenery. No, seriously, I really do like its stark beauty. I could fix the little black spots on this picture, but I leave them here as a little tip for those who might find similar things on their pics, but can't solve the problem by just wiping the camera lense: clean the inside of the camera! I kept wiping and wiping the lense, blowing off the mirrors on the inside of the camera, to no avail. After hundreds of photos with annoying black spots, I finally dug out the manual, and found that I had to clean the filter on the image sensor (warning - according to the camera manual, it's easily damaged, so proceed with caution.) That's where the sneaky little bits of dust were hiding! Darn them! Fixing this pic in Photoshop is easy, but on more complex backgrounds, it's a pain to fix. Aaargh, I wish I'd known about this earlier. I could have saved myself so much unnecessary editing. So let this be a lesson to you to read your camera manual!

Sue, this reminds me of something I've been thinking of for a while. You should totally write a camera/photography book of some kind for the amateur photographer. I bet it would be great!

We made a brief stop in Cokeville to see Sue's new digs.

We stayed at a pretty nice resort, with a room that was a cross between a hotel room and a condo. This is the little living room, that also connected to a pretty decent little kitchen. There was one bedroom, and the sofa folded out into a bed. Zen and I slept in the bedroom, with baby under the table one night, and in the closet the other night. Connor and Gil slept on the sofa bed, and Dani took the big stuffed chair with the ottoman. It was a nice place, but we spent most of the time at Zen's parents condo apartment at their time-share resort.

It took eight shots, but I did get a halfway decent pic of the fam in the pool at Zen's parents' resort pool.

Rocks and water. What else do little boys need?

Who says you need a bikini to look good? Dani loves her new suit.

"Sweet!" "Totally!" Name the movie.

Dani loved being out on the water, willing to try just about anything.

Being too little to really ride the water toys, Connor was mostly bored and kept asking to go home. But he did like holding the "man down" flag.

Poor baby was swamped by her life jacket, and didn't like it much.

Insert your own comment.

Gil got to drive the boat. Watch out world! It's only a year and a half until he has a learner's permit.

Hey, I made it into a picture! Of course, I took it myself, thus the odd angle you see here.

Zen, having a great time.

Zen's made the funniest faces out on the water.

It rained cats and dogs Sunday night before Labor Day. The kids just had to go dip their toes in the big puddles out in the parking lot at Zen's parents' resort condo. And yes, the depth of the water is an optical illusion - some of the kids are kneeling in the puddle.

Our group shot had to be an impromptu picture indoors. It's not a great pic, but at least is helps us remember who was there. Zen's parents up front: Rose and Ron. Second row, left to right: Mickie's daughter, Megan, Jan's daughter Annie, Jan (Zen's sister) and her husband Bob, Mickie (Zen's sister) and her husband Steve, Zen, me and Connor. Up the stairs, bottom to top: Mickie's son Jared, Jan's daughter Katie, Mickie's daughter Alexa, Gil, Dani, and Mickie's daughter Erica.

Okay, this is totally random, but Zen and I are getting to a point in our lives where we are only about a year and half away from being out of our credit card debt (hallelujah!!!), and maybe a few years after that we will be in a place where we can start thinking about moving to Star Valley and building our "dream" home on the dry farm in Star Valley. So, I'm going to start collecting ideas for houses, both inside and out. Here is a picture of a barn around Bear Lake that I found appealing. I've always liked the big old barns renovated into houses. Something very old-fashioned and western about them, I think, that strikes a chord in me.