Camping

Friday some amazing people watched the boys so that Rob and I could go camping (with his friend Andy). April, Lyn, and the Rays were wonderful and took care of the boys. We drove out to Stansbury Island (on the two islands in the Great Salt Lake) and camped there overnight. It was FREEZING cold, but it was nice to be outside and in nature. I spent a fair amount of time alone which was much needed because I don't get much time alone. It was great. I took photographs and studied the scriptures. Later I went and sat by the big bonfire Rob and Andy made and we told our most embarrassing experiences and other random stories. We then left first thing in the morning to head back to Provo.

 

Anyway, I sat on the side of the mountain and watched the sun set and it was beautiful. The sky changed color several times as well as the color of the lake.

8 months

It is so hard for me to believe sometimes that the boys are 8 months old. We are approaching one year very rapidly. However, I can definitely say that this is my favorite age so far. They interact so much! They are lots of fun! They can sit and most importantly, they can entertain themselves! They love being together and are happy to sit in their room playing with their toys. We also just acquired a portable CD player for them and so I play music for them all the time (Thanks mom for the CDs!!!). Occasionally they like me to play with them and a lot of the time I will sit in the room with them while they are playing so we can all be together. But, for the first time in 8 months I feel somewhat free because I am able to do things now and not have them cry because they want me to entertain them. It is a fantastic feeling!

It is so interesting watching them play together. They always seem to want the toy that the other has. So, they are constantly taking toys from each other. Today during Relief Society some of the other sisters got to witness that. I had the boys sitting in front of me with their toys on the ground and they just tried to snatch the toy that the other had. If a toy was in the other's hands, it was what they wanted!

I have been slack recently in taking pictures of the boys. I am going to be better about that again. Thomas loves being photographed. He is always trying to get in the way of the camera and then smiles. He is so funny. Luke cares less about it. Here are some pictures I took today: 

Is that a camera I see?

Thomas sees the camera and knows he needs to smile!

Finally a smile from Luke!

So I've been reading about photography - Mom got me a book about taking portraits and I'm now halfway through. (I've struggled to read anything other than the scriptures for the past 8 months!) Speaking of photography, I had my first real photoshoot - for money! I'm so excited about that! I'm really happy with the way the pictures turned out. I added just a few on my photography blog and my website. I'm going to advertise soon at BYU and really try make some bucks. I need to pay off the lenses we bought and then I have a bunch of things I want to buy so I can take better pictures.