Photo Shoot

In July, we enjoyed a photo shoot with our creative photographer friend, Kami! She took hundreds of shots in three different outfits at two locations in about five hours! It was incredible that we had any smiles left at the end of the day! Now Whispering Roses has a plethora of updated press photos and they are gorgeous! Thank you Kami!

You can click on the photos to view them larger.

Be sure to look at the best photos, which are on Kami's Crooked Stream Photography Blog. Also, don't hesitate looking into having Crooked Stream take care of your photography needs!

To view Kami's blog post, click here.

Piano, Strings, Woodwinds...oh my!

Last Sunday we enjoyed having the D. family over to our house for an afternoon of music and fellowship. Somehow we crammed eighteen people into our narrow livingroom and enjoyed hearing the sounds of fifteen instruments playing together. Now just to be clear, folks, I am convinced this is a record breaking number for our household! If anyone knows a time when more than fifteen instruments were on our property, please let me know!

The more the merrier! Here is the D. String quartet plus back up!

Preston and Jason D. do not share their siblings partiality for strings, I gather. They played pennywhistle and woodwinds. The parents were singing hymns while we children accompanied. At least, I think they were singing, not just mouthing. I'm afraid all our instruments totally drowned out the voices!


Jason is also an excellent pianist. So I happily handed over the piano to him on a couple of occasions!

Despite intense games of football, a trek to the river, and a couple hours of music, all the young people ended the day in one piece! Thanks, D's for sharing the afternoon! Let's do it again soon!

~The First Rose

Musical Spasm

These guys put a smile on my face every time I watch them! Have fun with it and show it to the kids in your life! Now you know why we had so much fun jamming with these guys!

Enumclaw Highland Games: All things scottish and lots of harps

After only one full day at home, we packed up the van again and headed to Enumclaw, Washington for the Northwest's largest Scottish Highland Games and Clan Gathering.

We rented a cute, A-frame cabin in the Mt. Rainier foothills.


The evening we arrived, we went for a walk and saw lots of wildlife including a raccoon family and several herds of elk. One elk seemed very friendly and came right up to Noah, nosing his hand. It was exciting to see a wild elk so close until it started lifting its front foot as if to kick! Noah quickly got out of there! We decided someone in the neighborhood must be hand-feeding the elk something more tasty than the grass Noah had!

At the Highland Games, we enjoyed being spectators as well as participators. There were four stages featuring Celtic musicians, all manner of athletics competitions and piping competitions, more vendors than you could count, and plenty of food and ice cream! One of the best shows was the Seattle Knights. Their sword choreography was rather impressive and they were quite funny too!

The opening and closing ceremonies featured the massing of all the pipe bands present at the games. There must have been several hundred bagpipers and drummers all marching and playing together in perfect time. It gave me tingles!

There was an open-to-all talent night on Saturday. Of course, Mom and Dad pressed us to enter. So we sang Mairi's Wedding, a cappella.

Some members of the audience volunteered to be judges. They had to pick the winners based on the applause of the audience. We won fourth place out of a dozen or so performers. We even got medals! The host for the talent show was impressed with our singing and offered to get us in contact with the booking agents for the Highland Games. So, who knows? We may be on one of the featured stages next year!

For the harp competition, Janna played a required piece, Nancy Clough's March, and a choice piece she arranged herself, Hector the Hero. The judge was very impressed with her musicality and technical skill. He have her a raving review and first place!

There was a harp circle after the competition. Have you ever seen so many harps at once? Each harper played a solo or two and they played a couple things together.

Here is Janna with all the trophies she collected! Way to go! What a successful Highland Games!

After two hot days at the fairgrounds, we enjoyed wading in a nearby creek and taking time to relax! This is life!

On the way home, we made a super quick stop to visit our friends Jeff and Ashley B. and meet Kenwyn for the first time! What a delightful finale to our summer vacation!

We came home to record-breaking heat in the Willamette Valley, which unfortunately, quickly drained all the refreshed feelings out of us! But we still have memories and photos!

La Pine: Relaxation and Mountain Lakes

After Camp Dwight, we headed to LaPine for some R & R with Uncle Bill and Aunt Paula! It is always delightful to stay with them tucked among the fragrant pine trees.

Aunt Paula recently converted one of the outbuildings into a charming guesthouse! Much to our delight, there is no more need for sleeping in the shop! (No offence, Uncle Bill, your shop is wonderful...that is, if you are looking at an upholstery job, not trying to sleep!)

We spent one afternoon at Twin Lakes, enjoying swimming and practicing our canoeing skills!


We also rented a couple kayaks. Here Noah is out on his own in the middle of the lake. He seems to be totally in control!


Well, so it wasn't all R & R! We spent a day helping Uncle Bill and Aunt Paula do yard work. You'd think that with only a small lawn there wouldn't be much to do. Wrong! With all the pines around, the maintenance is at least as bad as a yard full of oak trees! We raked needles, picked up sticks and helped stack firewood. Noah was thrilled to get a chance to drive the John Deere. And the girls don't seem to be too terrified!

Despite the heat, we enjoyed a walk into the National Forest with Aunt Paula. We even spotted a herd of elk!

~

Best of all, Uncle Bill helped Dad find one of the problems with our van so the drive home was much better! Thank you for your hospitality, Bill and Paula! Oh, I didn't even mention Aunt Paula's cooking! Well, suffice it to say, if you go hungry it's your own fault!