A Graduation and a Birthday

Yes the photo above is of my nephew Cameron.  He graduated HIGH SCHOOL this year!  I honestly still can't believe it.  I remember when he was just tiny.  The whole experience makes me feel really old. 

 I'm standing pretty much straight up in the photo above.  Need I say, he's a giant!?

 Here he is with his youngest brother Jace

My parent's and I drove to Idaho on Tuesday to see the ceremony yesterday.  Houston had to work :(   The whole shindig was held at the BYU-Idaho center.  It was pretty huge actually. Ha ha!  Here are photos of the event...

 His photo on the huge screen(s) they have in there

 Him and his friend (not shown) are the tallest in his graduating class.  Can ya tell..?

 His lovely pose  while they read off his name.  Classic Cam!

It was pretty awesome event.  Cameron was so glad to be done.  Ha ha! (weren't we all)  The speakers were pretty dang good.  The only sad, but inspiring, moment was when the parent's of one of his class mates accepted his diploma for him.  2 months ago, the boy committed suicide.  Pretty sad.  He had a full ride scholarship to BYU-I .  It was awesome that his parent's could do that for him though. :)

As for the Birthday!  It comes from the same family....

That would be Jace!  He turned 7.  I really remember when he was born.  So yes I feel old.  ;)  His cake is How to Train Your Dragon, which he LOVES.  He was really good about celebrating Cam's Graduation all day and then the evening was his.  Can I say, that cake tasted Awesome! He was so cute when he blew out his candles!  View below...

 That would be Cam's arm. (12 feet long)

As for blowing out the candles, he's a professional.

Now for the presents....

 Jace loves Mancala. (Present from my parent's)  He plays multiple times when he comes to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  So why not have his own at home.

 Present from Julie and Family.  It's a soccer ball and somehow hooks to the hose.  Ha ha!  (That should make no mess at all, I'm sure) 

 Houston and I's gift.  It's an animatronic Big Foot.  He wanted it to work right away, but the battery needed to be charged.  I hope he enjoys it. 

Present from Mom and Dad.  A Hot Wheels dragon, that floats in the tub.  He wanted to jump in the tub right away with this! :)

I think he had fun on his birthday.  It's was definitely a big celebration day at the Hadlock household.  I was happy that I could go.  I haven't been up to Idaho in a long while and it was about time I got back up there again.   I wish it was longer, I feel like I ran up and ran home.  

Next time = spend some time!

The Framing of Life... More Frames

So, I went into Rod Works again.  I was after a specific frame that I knew the perfect picture for.  Well... I ended up getting a few more frames...

This is the frame I originally went in there for. I think it fits this picture so perfectly!  My Grandpa Pehrson

I wanted pictures of both of sets of my grandparents.  This is my grandma and grandpa Hatch

This frame was totally hidden behind stuff, but I dug it out. This is my dad on his mission in France

Another photo of my Grandpa Pehrson.  I love this picture!

I've had this picture for awhile.  It's in one of the black frames we used at our wedding.  This is my Grandpa Hatch with one of his very favorite Arabian horses.

I just had to show this picture.  It has no frame yet but it's definitely got one coming.  This is my Great Great Grandpa Hatch.  Lorenzo Hill Hatch.  This picture is kinda creepy.  This will be one of those ones that people take a second look. ;)

And, of course, my extra find.  I have a slight obsession with clocks so this was right up my alley.  There are 3 little gold hooks in the center of the clocks, as well as 2 double hooks under the shelf.  Who knows where it will go now, but it has a spot somewhere in our future home.

There are so many pictures I want to put into the  future "picture wall".  This is just the very tip of the iceberg.  Lucky me that my dad so insanely into genealogy.  He has loads of old pictures, on his computer, of both sides of the family.  This will be a project of the ages, but I'm pretty excited to get it started. :)

The Framing of Life has Officially Begun!

The one thing I want to have in a house, when we get one, is a photo wall.  I love the idea!  I want it to be chuck full of new photos, old photos, and even crazy ones.  To create such a thing I would obviously need frames.  I didn't want a bunch of generic frames, that were all the same.  I wanted a group of frames of all kinds.

The search for such frames has yielded nothing until today!  I was going to get my hair done and left WAY too early.  So to kill time, I stepped into Rodworks, which has a store right by the salon I go to.  As for the frame hunt, I scored!  Ah yeah!

Since I don't have a wall to put them on yet, I tried to get some that sort of matched in a quirky way.  Here's what I was able to find.  (granted I could have got more, but thought it wouldn't be smart to spend too much)

This was the first frame I picked up, and my favorite from the bunch

(The picture is of my Grandma and Grandpa Pehrson on their wedding day)

The really strange one, but I liked it. No photo in it yet. ;)

I like the frames that hold square photos. No photo yet.

Here is the 8X10 in the group.  Very ornate but they will not all be like that so a few are good

Since there were 4 frames I had to get something else to make it an odd number again, here's what I picked...  That's a rod iron jack!  Totally cool!

I have the frames that we used at our wedding that are very plain and black.  Those will definitely be apart of the grouping, but I hope I can find more frames to add to the collection.  I can't wait to get them into a permanent home.

Thanksgiving Point's Tulip Festival

Houston loved these pink ones

Houston and I finally got to the Tulip Festival.  We have always wanted to go but this was the first year that we really made a serious effort to get there.  It was the perfect day for it too.  Good weather, not too many people.  We have both been to the Thanksgiving Point Garden before, and it is huge!  Now imagine that with Tulips everywhere.  They have all colors and kinds.  Be prepared.... there are bunch of pictures in this post.

Hope you like flowers... Tulips in particular. ;)

Purple!  I love these!

 We were pretty impressed by these beds and the color combo's in them

 Houston with the first bed he ever loved

Can I have these... Please!

These are some pretty crazy Tulips.  They look so much better in person

My photography moment

The top half of a very large fountain.  So pretty!

I love the dark pink ones.  Matched with orange, even better

We decided to call these Radish Tulips

Me, in a sea of yellow!

The mix of orange and yellow is a perfect combo!

A hidden carousel

Many a kid rolled down this hill while we were there.  I don't know how I got this shot.

I like the contrast from the rounded petals to the pointy!

Doesn't it look like they go forever!?

Red... How I love thee.

Yes, these are Tulips

Yay Us!

Saw these on the way out.  I couldn't resist!

Oh yes, and some really little Daffodils.  I like little things.

We had so much fun.  I can't wait to have my own yard to fill with all sorts of crazy plants!  There is one Tulip and I absolutely LOVE that they didn't have there.  Maybe I should put in a request for next year!

There called Queen of the Night.

Here's a picture.  It should be pretty obvious that it's something I would choose. ;)

Black/purple  Ah yeah!