Jared {Class of 2014}
Fall
Tonight Practically Canada is expected to get mixed precipitation. As in rain…mixed with snow. It’s only a matter of time now and winter will be upon us again.
I love fall and I hate to see it come to a close. I’m a fan of sweater weather and the smell of dry leaves. I like the eerie feeling in the air as things begin to close up, grow dark and quiet for a long winter season. I like cemetaries and the way they look with deer peeking out from behind grave stones and crow circling overhead. I love the colors and the flavors and the spooky side of this time of year.
So I thought I’d take this opportunity to put together a little image essay. These are a few things that caught my eye as I walked around my block. The beautiful thing about photographs is that you can savor a moment forever. This way, even if snow falls tonight, we’ll still have the color of the leaves, the smell or fresh apples, and the sound of crunchy leaves lingering in our minds.
Hannah: Class of 2014
This is Hannah. She’s a senior and she is especially dear to me. Last year she approached me and asked if I could begin mentoring her. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of encouraging this fine gal along her spiritual walk. I’m so blessed to call her a friend.
Hannah is incredibly, musically talented. She plays the violin and the piano, and sings. She plays in the youth worship band at church. And she is a hot tea connoisseur. Which I totally dig, because I love chatting over a good, hot drink.
Hannah has ambitions of traveling far and wide. Dreams of seeing Norway and Ireland and all kinds of other places. I know this one is going to grow some major wings. I know this girl will {indeed} go places and do great things.
Savanna {Class of 2014}
Savanna lives in the country. Shade dapples the property. Classic cars peek out from behind the barn…projects to be done. The grass is green, bunnies hop through tall weeds, the sun makes the color of the world vibrant.
In this rustically idyllic setting, Savanna fits in perfectly. She’s fun and tough, and the kind of girl who walks around outside without shoes.
Like all the seniors I’ve book so far this year, I know Savanna through the youth group I volunteer with at church. So I offered her the same discount that Gretchen took advantage of. Throughout the rest of the post you’ll find the verses she chose to memorize and recite at her session.
“They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.” Acts 16:31
She and her dad restored this 1960’s truck together. I’m simply crazy about the color. She calls it the “Turtle” because it’s green and slow.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
“In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22
“For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” Luke 19:10
Be on the lookout for more from this session on the Facebook page later this week. And don’t forget to come over to the Facebook page every night for a new costume idea throughout the month of October.
Amy
Gretchen: Class of 2014
It’s no secret that I love high-schoolers. Especially the girls. But not in a creepy way. They are living such an exciting time in their lives and there is still so much more to come. The energy, beauty and possibility found in soon-to-be graduates is infectious. Which is why I love senior portrait sessions.
Meet Gretchen. She was my first senior session of the year. I know you will like her as much as I do.
This year for teens involved in the youth group that I volunteer with I offered a special discount. For every Bible verse they could quote to me {up to 5, excluding “Jesus wept” and John 3:16} I’d knock $10 off their session cost. Gretchen nailed all five. Throughout the rest of the post I’ll be writing the verses she chose to quote to me.
Jesus answered, I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1
“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John 1:1
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8
Because Three People Fell in Love {Sneak Peek}
You know the phrase, “All because 2 people fell in love…” I’m sure you’ve seen it on picture frames, wall decals, signage above a gallery wall of family photos. A few weeks ago I had the great privilege of photographing one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever attended. It was like walking into an issue of Wedding by Martha. One thing that stuck out to me during my day with this lovely couple was a sign that read:
“All because 2 3 people fell in love.”
That’s the truth. This wedding is the story of how Erika, Elly, and Matt officially became a family. It’s not simply the story of two adults getting married, it’s the story of a family being formed.
Just look at this beautiful family, and prepare to be amazed. This day was Erika’s vision and she carried it out in amazing, affordable, DIY fashion. Every detail of their big day was thoughtful and beautifully carried out. (more…)
Glacier Day #2 {Rafting and Relaxing}
At the end of our first day at Glacier National Park I was so tired I dreaded even standing for the 15 minutes it would take me to shower. {You know how I get about showering sometimes…} So, needless to say, we were glad to spend our second day at a much more relaxed pace.
We started with a morning visit to Lake McDonald at Apgar Village, just inside the west entrance to the park. It was a beautifully gloomy fall morning.
We really wanted to rent a canoe or kayaks and paddle around the lake a bit…but for some reason there were none to be had. All the rental places were closed for the season, or opened after noon. It was hard for us, but we managed to just hang out without much activity. We checked the souvineer shops, we watched the clouds roll over the lake, we walked {but not much} by the edge of the water. Derek even bought me a fancy coffee to drink while the chill dissipated from the air.
Chilly mornings aren’t half bad when you have a good coffee, the best sweater in the world, and your best friend in the world with you.
Later we saw some Jammers leaving from Apgar Village. Aren’t they cute? They got the name “Jammer” because when the were first put into use the drivers were called “Gear Jammers” in jest.
After lunch we headed to the Glacier Raft Company for an afternoon of white water fun. Now, you may be surprised by this…but I am afraid of white water rafting. I don’t like it. It’s too scary. I know, none of us are perfect. But Derek really loves it. So the trip we took was a perfect compromise. It was an eight mile trip. The first four miles were a scenic float. The last four miles were rapids. And at this point in the season the rapids were really low and tame, so that really worked out in my favor.
We were encouraged not to bring our cameras. However, I’m not one for rules. So I took it anyway. I just put it in a Zip-Loc baggie and put that securely inside my life vest. It survived just fine.
It was incredible to see the park from this angle. {Especially incredible since we got to sit down and our arms did the work instead of our legs.} Oh, and you know me and movie trivia…here’s a good one for you. This section of the river and this exact company worked with the cast and crew or The River Wild to film the river scenes in the movie. Pretty cool, right? If you haven’t seen it, you should. Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon…how could you hate it with a cast like that?!
Okay, so I’m getting off topic. After we got past the rapids our guide told us we were at the deepest point in the river and that if we wanted to jump in this was our chance. I don’t know if she was being sincere or not, but Derek and I took advantage. We would never pass up the opportunity to swim in a river of glacier run off. I jumped off the side of the raft before thinking too hard about the choice. I knew if I did, I would rationalize just how cold that water would be. So I just hopped off. And yes, it was cold. Very, very cold. Like take your breath away, can’t move your arms and legs–cold. After resurfacing I tried to make some lame joke about demonstrating the proper rescue form for when you fall out of the boat. But my lips didn’t work, so it just came out in gibberish. My fellow rafters laughed, but I’m sure it wasn’t at my wit.
Derek jumped in too. He agreed, I wasn’t crazy, it was cold. After he’d had enough I hauled him back into the boat. See, the camera was a good idea after all.
After the rafting trip it was well into the afternoon, so we went back to our motel room for a very hot shower {to dethaw after our polar swim}. Then we went out for dinner at the Belton Chalet. I didn’t take the photo below. That’s from their website.
It’s fancy. Maybe too fancy for us. But the food was delightful and the view was fantastic.
We rounded our relaxing day out with a few hands of rummy by the fire place at our motel and a cozy effort to try and dry our shoes out before our final day of hiking…
Amy
Glacier National Park {Day One}
I’ve come to realize that there are two basic types of hikers. Those that find a trail and hike it…when they are done, they are content to do something else, maybe something a little more lax. And…those that make a list of trails. They set out to do as much as possible, and as long as the sun is still up and they still have feet, they will continue hiking until they literally cannot take another step.
Derek and I are the latter.
We get a rush when we are out hiking, exploring, seeing beautiful, rugged places. As long as we are feeling “pretty good” we will keep trucking…because we are awful at relaxing and taking it easy. So we will push it to the limit until the sun goes down. Really, we don’t know what to do if we aren’t moving with intention.
That’s pretty much the story of our first day at Glacier National Park. We started with a single trail that we wanted to hike. Then we just kept adding things on to it. It’s easy to do here. The trails are all well marked and the whole park is just gorgeous. So we kept going. Kept exploring. Kept walking, and climbing, and descending, and hiking. I’ll just go ahead and admit that we over did it.
But boy, oh boy, was it a lovely over do. Here’s what our first day looked like.
We started by driving to Siyeh Bend via Going-to-the-Sun Road. {Fun fact…GTTS Road was featured in The Shining.}
Once there we started out on the Siyeh Pass Trail. The trail takes you, well…to Siyeh Pass. But it’s touch getting there. There’s just about 2100 feet of elevation gained along the way, and a lot of it comes up very quickly on you at the end. Really up until the rocky climb at the end, the trail ascends steadily and isn’t too bad. Along the way we had a close encounter with some lovely femail Mule Deer…which was just magical. We stopped at the top and had some lunch while taking in the view. Round trip this hike is just over 9 miles {from where we parked.}
After lunch we headed back out. When we got to a split in the trail we decided we were still feeling “pretty good” so we took the fork toward Piegan Pass. This one was less strenuous. Only about 1900 feet gained, 4 miles round trip. Unlike Siyeh, the Piegan trail ascends very gradually. The payout at the top is big. We got our fist glimpse at one of the turquoise glacial lakes in the park as well as an up close encounter with a group of lady big-horn sheep.
After we got back to our car our feet were tired, but we still had some solid daylight. So we decided to power through a few short hikes to see some waterfalls. If you are keeping track…we are up to 13 miles so far.
First stop: St. Mary’s Falls. This is an easy hike. Just shy of 2 miles round trip, it’s very well traveled by all levels of hikers. But there is good reason for that…it’s beautiful. Just look at the color of the water! So, stinking awesome!
After St. Mary’s we made the short drive to Sunrift Gorge. That’s a short hike up a series of stone steps, about 0.5 miles in all. Then we hiked downhill to see Baring Falls {that’s the bottom right photo above.} It’s another very easy hike, only about a mile round trip…but by the time we got to the waterfall, we knew we’d done a bit too much. By the time we got off the trail and walked back down the road to where we had parked we totaled a 17 mile day. Now, I’ve done more…but this was some hard hiking. {Or I’m a whimp. Or maybe a bit of both.}
By the time we got back to the park entrance it was way past dinner time and we were both pretty slap happy. But for me, that’s a good thing, because it makes all my jokes even funnier. Let’s just say we downed a pretty massive amount of food and topped it off with huckleberry cobbler a la mode. The kind of eating that would make Ron Burgundy “…not even mad. I’m impressed!” {If you don’t get the reference, you should probably go rent Anchorman stat.}
I’ll be posting more from our trip as the photos get edited. Hopefully more tomorrow. But it’s Sunday, the day of rest, so we’ll see.
Amy
