Parade Debut!

Bob did it, he finally completed his tractor and just in time for the Pioneer Day's Parade in Ogden. The current president, Marty, of Great Basin Antique Machinery has been a tremendous help to Bob while he was restoring his tractor and invited Bob to participate in the parade with their group. He was a little hesitant at first, I'm not sure why since that has always been his goal, but after a little encouragement he was determined to make the deadline. A few late nights later this is what I saw driving up our driveway. Quite an improvement over the above photo taken in September 2009.

Here's your official warning that this post is a little on the picture heavy side, but I just didn't know which pictures to exclude, so you have a sampling of them all. Bob debated whether to haul his tractor into downtown or just drive it, well you know Bob is always up for a challenge so here he is at the beginning of the trek to downtown.

Next up is a sequence of pictures from his debut at a parade.

His reaction after finding my cheering section.

So long Tractor Bob! see you after the parade.

Since you all know that I couldn't sit idle while waiting for the tractors to come on by, here are some pictures of my family, otherwise known as the cheering section. A huge thank you for your support!

And just a couple extra shots of Payton, because she's so darn cute to take pictures of!

Yummy! look at that Tootsie Roll in my hand.

And finally, no parade would be complete without "Smokey the Bear."

Twin Photo Shoot

I was asked by a friend to take pictures of her newborn twin nieces. I said of course I'd love too! Somehow I totally forgot how exhausting it was to take pictures of my nieces newborn 1 1/2 years ago. Let's just say that it was a good thing I had lots of help with these twins. Four hours and a few wet shirts, towels and blankets later, I managed to get a few good shots. I'm not totally finished editing these pictures, but needed to share just a few that I really like. Shhhh, their family hasn't seen them yet!

Concert and other happenings

Tuesday night we headed to the Paul McCartney concert at Rio Tinto Stadium. The concert was sold out and as you can tell by the people in the background of this picture the majority of the crowd was just a little bit older than you generally see at concerts. I'm guessing the median age was 50'ish. Paul came on stage at 8:20 and performed straight through until 11:00. Simply amazing when you consider his age. His voice is still the same, in fact Bob thought it sounded better than it did 15 years ago when he saw him in Memphis. Here's a few glimpses of the concert.

Anybody know this guy? Well neither did we, but that didn't stop Bob from talking music trivia to this guy throughout the concert. In fact they talked so much a lady in front of us actually turned around once and told them to stop talking! She must have had sensitive ears, I've never been able to hear the person next to me during a concert!

During Live and Let Die they had a little pyrotechnic show with a few fireworks behind the stage.

I know you are all curious as to how the tractor is coming along this week. Well here is how it looked Thursday.

I definitely get the good wife award for time well spent yesterday. Bob was anxious to get the frame moved out of the paint booth so he could continue painting the last batch of parts and needed some help putting on the front end and wheels. Well we don't have a bunch of strangers lined up at our doorstep anxious to help out so I went back there to help him, knowing that if I didn't he was going to figure out a way to do it all by himself that would probably cripple him even more! I have to admit there is a little bit of personal satisfaction knowing the small part that you helped with. Here's the front end that I helped put on.

And here's how it looks from the side with the front end and back wheels on. And yes, those back wheels are massive and heavy!

This weeks photography assignment was to compose a shot that told a story by your depth of field and focus. I think this shot captured the moment.

Here are a couple more shots practicing depth of field and focus (otherwise known as aperture). Love, love, love taking shots of my flowers!

Bob's back at it!

Bob spent the past week in Oregon helping his grandmother with all the things that needed to be dealt with after his grandfather passed away. Spending a week 24/7 with his 96 year old grandmother in her assisted living apartment left my poor husband a mentally and physically exhausted boy. What better way to try to recover than to spend the entire weekend (and I mean entire weekend) working on his passion, of course it's the Tractor! I think I can actually start seeing things coming together.


Here's a before picture of this big stationary part of the tractor, sure wish I knew the correct terminology right now, but we're safe because Bob will never know I couldn't remember.

and after the primer

Now let's start working on the wheels and rims.

Didn't they turn out bright and shiny!

Now this shot really makes me smile because I had him pose for this shot. But instead of posing and looking at the camera he started talking to me about the wheels and pointing out what he fixed, the little blems he could see, but really I caught him in this instant admiring his own work. I have to admit they turned out pretty darn nice, as far as tractor wheels go.

The weekend couldn't be complete without me working on my latest photography assignment. I did manage to pry Bob away from his work for a little bit to help me with this assignment on action, so what better way to show action than to take pictures of the dogs playing. I love how these turned out. This first picture is actually the one I decided to turn in for my critique.

But these pictures of Harley running with his tongue hanging out are such a close 2nd to the first picture of Shadow.

I'm off to try my first Zumba class in a few minutes, wish me luck!

4th of July Weekend

I hope everyone was able to enjoy their holiday weekend, while still remembering those that have fought for our Independence. My friend Lesa and her family were in town for the week, so I decided what better time to have our annual barbecue with the whole gang. It is so good to see everyone and their families. We always manage to have a great time. Bob got called out of town for a family emergency so I was on my own playing host. I really rely on Bob as my social coordinator, I managed okay, although no tractor rebuilding stories were told! Here's a layout I put together as a recap of the evening.

Credits: Template: Carina Gardner Design365 Month Masks; Paper&Elements: Kristin Cronan-Barrow Happy Go Lucky; Alpha: IKari Going Green; Font: Pea Jay

I am currently enrolled in an online photography class by Karen Russell. My first photo assignment was to find a willing participate to sit while I walked around them and took pictures at different view angles. I've got such a great husband that let me torture him for about 10 minutes. Here are the pictures I decided to submit, but what makes me laugh the most about these pictures is the book that he decided to look at while he was my subject. Take note of the title of the book in the first picture.

And since we are all about "Farmall" tractors at our house lately I surprised him with this garden spinner this week. He was thrilled!