Wake Me Up When September Ends

Change is in the air!  One thing I truly love about living in Utah is the changing of the seasons.  Each season has a distinct personality, and I love seeing nature's transformations.  It was a LONG, HOT summer, and it was a good one, but I'm very glad autumn is finally on it's way.  The colors of the trees are beautiful at the moment.  Spring is my favorite season, but Fall is a very close second.  I love it.

I do need to write about a few things, now that September is nearly over.  It has been a busy month, though now that "birthday season" is winding down, I feel less guilty about not documenting them.  I hope I didn't miss anyone, though I probably did.  Here are links to the albums for Noah's 5th birthday party ("Puss in Boots" theme), and for Tessa's 4th birthday party ("Barbie" theme).  Both were lots of fun, and Lexy and Rachael did phenomenal jobs putting them together, especially considering their extraordinary circumstances.  Mach had carpal tunnel release on her left (dominant) hand just a few days ago, and Lex just has a lot going on.  Bravo, ladies. 

I love this little tradition of the Niusulu family: we always take a picture of Rachael and Seuao giving the birthday girl kisses on the cheek.  It's so cute.  (Click on the picture for a link to the online album).

I helped out a little bit by making silhouettes (using GIMP) for each of the birthday guests.  It has been a learning process, but I really like the way Benji's turned out.

Kinda fun.  Anyway . . .

Back to Noah's party.  For months and months it was going to be an "Angry Birds" party, but a couple of weeks before, he decided he wanted to go with Puss in Boots.  More power to you, kiddo.  It was fun.  He may hate me someday for getting this picture, but I have so many fantastic ones of that photogenic child that one candle-blowing shot is okay.

Did I write about Dave's big 30th luau?  I don't think so.  He turned 30 on August 27th, and they had a big party on Labor Day weekend.  And boy--it decided to rain.  A LOT.  It was pretty epic.  In the album, there are a lot of pictures of people, but they are all interspersed with shots of the sky and the gathering clouds.  Kinda funny.  But there were some awesome rainbows to be seen afterward.  I love this picture of Dave, Lexy and Zeke.

Come to think of it, I don't think I wrote about Sabrina's birthday either.  We all went to Bear Lake that day, which was fun.  I don't know what it is; maybe it was getting over the "terrible twos," but Sabrina has just become the cutest stinking little fern.  Every time I see her she is just happy and hilarious and sweet.  This picture of Sabrina checking out the nailpolish she received for her birthday . . . it just cracks me up.  The look on her face is priceless.

And here's from the North Shore @ Bear Lake back in August.  The Sortor Girls are just amazing in the water--they went swimming almost every day this summer, and it shows!

Sabrina & Ella splashing in Bear Lake

Mia the Mermaid!

And here's one of all the kiddos.  I hope this will be a yearly tradition!  Yes, it shows my weakness as a photographer, because I don't know how to keep the background from becoming so overexposed.  Oh well--this one was the best of the pictures I took (Benji is actually looking up!).

L-R: Zeke (1), Lily (5), Noah (4), Benji (4), Tessa (3), Phoebe (3), Sabrina (3), Mia (4), Ella (8)

Oh, gads.  I still haven't blogged about the Bryant Family Reunion in Yosemite.  Or finished the Cruise, for that matter.  *sigh*  I don't know if I'll ever catch up.  Well, writing about it may or may not happen.  At least I have gotten this far (and at least I'm feeling well enough to do something)!

She Was Making Other Plans

I know I have been MIA for a while.  I also know that I should be catching up on life events, rather than writing about stuff that only matters to me.  I guess that if you are actually reading (all two of you . . .), then maybe you do care about what I think is important.  So I guess I will keep writing.

I will catch up eventually; we got back from my family reunion in Yosemite National Park about 10 days ago, and I have been working a ton and I have been super busy with birthdays and such.  Also, I have been designated a "Super-User" for the Kronos WorkForce Services implementation at work (it sounds much more glamorous than it is, believe me), so I have had to sit down with about 20 different people and teach them how to use this new system.  Each session with a co-worker takes 30-45 minutes, and they did not allow for any overtime to get it done.  It has been a major project, trying to do my normal job and this training stuff when there is time, and when I happen to be scheduled at the same time as all of the people on my list.  And no, I'm not getting any compensation for it; I wasn't even asked if I wanted to do it (though I probably would have said yes).  I was walking into work one day and I was told that I had to go to this training, so I could teach other people.  Whatever.  It has been fine, just more to load onto my plate . . . because it wasn't full enough already.

Another reason why I haven't done more event-based blogging is because of the picture situation.  I love taking pictures of family events and I love creating beautiful photographs.  But it is a double-edged sword.  I want all of my pictures to look nice.  I don't want to upload unedited photos, even if it's just cropping and fixing exposure.  It bugs me when I don't do it, and considering the sheer numbers of photos I take, sorting through them all, finding and editing the best of them, uploading them, writing about them . . . it's a little overwhelming.  With my nieces' and nephews' birthdays, it's pretty much all I can do to 1) take the pictures and 2) upload them onto my picasa albums.  It's especially difficult during the summer, because once I'm done with one event, the next one is just around the corner.  So, folks, I'm sorry you don't get more pictures and stories.  I will try.

Okay, fine.  Here's a list of album links, in case you are interested (and in case I forgot to e-mail the links to you).

Ella's Birthday (8th Birthday Party on May 17, 2012)
Zekey's Birthday (1st Birthday Party on May 26, 2012)
Phoebe's Birthday (3rd Birthday Party on June 23, 2012)
Lily's Birthday (5th Birthday Party on June 30, 2012)
Day @ Hogle Zoo with Mach & Lex (July 19, 2012)
Family Reunion* (July 2012) *Warning!  Mostly unedited album, also including random pictures from vaycay!

Oh, what the heck.  Here are the links to Easter 2012 and Mother's Day 2012.  These kids are growing up so fast!  Of course there are lots of Benji pictures in each album, 1) because the boy is so stinkin' cute, and 2) because you never know when you'll get a really good one.  I actually found some great ones from last April that I had totally forgotten about.  And yes, between typing this sentence and the previous one, I had to  take 10 minutes to locate and edit this picture.  I got ones with better smiles, but they were out of focus.  Even so, this was worth it.

FYI, the shirt he was wearing in this picture is now permanently covered in stains from who-knows-what.  I have washed it at least 20 times trying to get it wearable again, all to no avail.  Gah!

This post turned out nothing like what I expected, but I guess that's the way life goes.  "Well you were happy where you were, but that girl, she reeled you in."  (Keane, Neon River).