A Mountain Aventure

My dad recently told me about a hidden waterfall up in the mountains between Crouch and Boiling Springs. That whole area up there is full of memories from my childhood......my grandparents on my dad's side built a cabin up above Crouch. I remember plenty of summers up there, watching them build this cabin with their own hands. I also spent a lot of my childhood back in Boiling Springs, camping with my family at the Forest Service cabin that sat right between the hot springs and the river. I could spend the next 14 paragraphs reliving those memories for you all, but I did that today with my brother on the ride up and back. He's moving to Montana for a job and words cannot describe how much I'm going to miss him. Today was such a great experience, to ride along with him to not only get pictures of this waterfall, but to revisit a place I know holds many, many fond memories for us both.

After we turned off at Banks, we came to The Staircase....a portion of the Payette river that is sought out by many rafters and kayakers (is that right?). We just happened to pull over right as three kayakers were making their way towards The Staircase. I wish I had time to put on the big lens, but I grabbed my camera and ran for the bank of the river just in time. The pictures aren't the great simply because I didn't have time to stop and adjust my settings, but still pretty cool to watch these guys in such a brave moment.

The waterfall......I feel like my pictures don't even do this thing justice. We were clear at the top of a summit, so I bet this water fell for a couple hundred feet, and the roar was just deafening. The pictures make it look like a little stream, but that's far from accurate. This water was just pounding down the mountain.

The cabin, back in at Boiling Springs. It's a Forest Service cabin - I checked out the pricing last night and I'm pretty sure we will be taking the kids here for many vacations. It's dirt cheap to rent these cabins, and with it being so close to Boise, it's a win-win. There were people up in the hot springs, so we didn't get to go over and check those out. But we did scout out the cabin. It's furnished now, has propane for a fridge and stove/oven, and has a brand new fence around a big chunk of the property.  They also moved the fire pit away from the river and closer to the cabin.

 With my brother moving to Montana in a matter of days, it was so nice to take this little day trip with him. We had great conversation the entire time, with lots of laughs and old stories.

The Sanchez {Family Maternity}

I met up with this family at Kathryn Albertson Park last weekend......what an incredibly FUN family. I was very taken with them and look forward to future shoots with the newest addition to their family!  Here are some samples from our shoot:

The Ear Piercing Video

Yes, we recorded it. It was a big deal!

http://youtu.be/0kvD67mvg0o

Kendall's New Bling

So we had a big yard sale on Saturday, which was pretty successful. We got rid of a lot of things that were taking up room around the house, in the shed, and in the garage. I love a good cleansing of the house - I can't stand hoarders or pack-rats. After the sale, I had a family maternity shoot that was just awesome (pics coming soon!) and then I met Eric and the kids at the mall.  We were basically there for shoes for Eric, but as we walked by Claire's, we agreed that it was time to pierce Kendall's ears.  I honestly hadn't planned on doing this until she was 7-8 years old, simply because that's how old I was when I got my first ear piercings. And to be honest, I hated it. So I figured it made sense to get Kendall's ears done while she was too young to even remember the process. Of course, she screamed bloody murder and I'm sure everyone in the entire mall knew what had just happened, but damn her ears are so adorable!  Eric has the video on his phone, so I'm working on getting that transferred to the computer and will possibly do another post with that video.  In the meantime, here is a photo I snapped of her on Sunday.

Project 52: Week Seventeen {white}

This week includes more than one photo.  I took Kendall up for a little adventure to see the Rooster Tail up at Luck Peak. The Rooster Tail is something that used to be on display daily, up until 1986 when the construction of the Lucky Peak Power Plant began.  Now, the Rooster Tail is on display to the public for a limited time, generally in late April/early May during the spring runoff season.  This limited display is to reduce the wear and tear to the original release structures.  The Rooster Tail itself results from the discharge of water through the original release structures of the dam under high pressure from the lake above the dam. The Army Corps of Engineers uses a "flip bucket" to direct the spray high into the air. Doing this greatly reduces the erosive, scouring nature of the water - shooting the water extremely high so that it dissipates as it rises, rests, and then slowly falls back to the stream channel.

Here are the photos I was able to take today.

Project 52: Week Sixteen {Perspective}

I struggled with this week's theme simply because I had a lot going on at work and at home, especially with Kendall's birthday party.  This little fella is growing outside in one of my pots. One day, it will be a lily.....