Richie YouDA Man

High School Soccer season is over and I wanted to post some of my favorite images of Richie.  It is a real thrill to watch Richie play soccer.  The physicality of the game is scary for parents to watch and we always pray for all the boys that they will not become injured.  I was proud he practiced hard and gave all he had during games.  I watch and reminisce about the days I had playing basketball and wonder what it would be like to move like that again (maybe in the next life, if I lose 50 pounds).  I have told all my kids that you have a small window of time playing sports, give it all you have while it lasts.  Don't just enjoy the ride, create it. 

As you read this it does not take long to figure we are Richie's number one fans. 

Richie has a good header.  Soccer players use their head in more than one way.  He scored on a header at least once this season.  

Nice balancing act.... all that hair provides a little protection.

Strength and speed help a striker to get around their opponent.  Richie likes to play attacking midfield and striker. 

Up up and away above the Orem tigers.  Orem has not been victorious against the Bruins in a very long time.  They have a very good team so there will continue to be hard fought games between these two rivals.

 

Richie out in front and on the attach. He had a nice cross on this run.

Check out his hair in this photo.  You can see where the ball was on his head.  Cool !

Richie scored the game winning header against this team (Provo) at home. 

After Richie scored on his header the team chased him down to celebrate.

Staying low on  the ball around his outside helps maintain ones speed.

Richie juked the defender, ran around him and up the middle of the field.

Richie and the defender when up for a header on a free kick.  He has the defenders shirt and looks like he is about to punch him.  No harm was done.  Richie was fouled many times in the box this year as he came within striking distance.

Tapping the ball on the outside of  his foot Richie prepares for a cross.

 Helping out on the defensive end with a slide tackle.

High flying header pass down field.

Looking cool with his big quads. 

It got a little physical a few times.  The kid on the bottom has his hand around Richie's shoulder and would not let him up.  So to encourage him to let go, Richie was just about ready to give him a pop in the leg. Luckily he didn't because he would have been carded.

Sneaking in behind to pick off the ball.  Good old fashion double team.

Richie gets to the ball first and heads out a cross.  Nice technique shown with hooking his opponents arm.  Richie runs from the striker position and plays defense during corner kicks.  They need his height and hops to clear the ball.  With his speed he can get back into offensive position .Thanks for a great season Richie.  

Don't forget:  Train, Train, Train,  Love Dad

Little Glucose Monsters

Our little migratory friends have started to feed in with gusto.  We have seen three different species with most individuals being male.  Some have serious attitudes and stake their sugary claim in hopes to chase of all competitors.   

We have four different feeding stations and are planning on putting up a few more.  Lynne has been attracting the hummers for about 5 years.  It seems like every year we get more coming to our humble synthetic flower station. Lynne used a 2:1 water/sugar solution. 

  
Once you get them coming you will need to budget for granulated sugar.  They are ferocious glucose monsters.

Watching the birds is memorizing and stress reducing.  Give it a try.

A Morning with Stephanie and Justin

Today we spent the morning with our niece Stephanie and her fiance Justin. Here are a few of the images we took for her wedding announcements. We all had a great time, it is so fun to see these two together, happy, laughing, and having a great time with each other. They are very natural together and exude happiness.

They were very easy to photograph with their bright smiles and googoo eyes.

An intimate moment shared with the camera. Justin and Stephanie gaze into each others eyes.

Cheers to the new little couple! Hip Hip Hurray!
They really are such a cute couple... here are a few more images of the two of them.

Standing in front of a Jonagold apple tree Stephanie and Justin are lost in the moment.

Alright you guys stop playing around. No more hide and seek.

I bought the flower baskets for Lynne and they came in handy today.

Great smile Stephanie, I noticed it was hard for you to look at Justin without smiling or laughing.

Here Justin is looking cool while Stephanie looks on.

I don't know if Justin looks cooler with his arms folded or to his side, both worked well.

At first we were bummed about the shadow but after looking at this shot I think it is interesting with the contrast of light.

I love this one of Justin jumping over Stephanie-- and she just stood there as he flew over her!
Trust is all I have to say about this image.

Nice form

Without any practice Justin pulled off this 9.5 triple toe salchow. Sweet !

Up the street from our house are some extensive stands of scrub oak. I love the contrast of color texture and lines in this image.

We sent Heather back home to get the tulips for this shot.

Gnarly trees and a very happy girl.

Hand and hand off we go together image.

This is one of my favorites.

Tender moment depicted in this image.

These two have natural chemistry together

The next couple of images are in front of the Utah State Tree.

Nice ring....

A little sugar please. You can't take announcement images without it.

We found a weeping cherry with a few blossoms and cool lines.

We found this along the Provo River walkway.

They could not stop laughing on this rock. This is not the most comfortable position. The are sitting along a sharp edge.

Little snuggle action.

The next images were taken along the Provo river near one of my favorite fishing spots. I had to focus knowing that just below me were some big ones with my name on it.

Stephanie gave us some great facial expressions.

A little kiss was followed by a ....

BIG SMILE

Congratulations kids-- the wedding is scheduled for July 16th!

The Ukon Express

Freeze warnings have been given a few times the last few weeks. It has been a very interesting spring. Richie's soccer games have been very cold, snowy and windy. Freeze warnings strike fear in gardeners trying to get an early jump on the rest of the competition (anyone anywhere that plants the same kinds of plants). We have used some interesting ways to protect our little plants.

Grandpa Hawkins gave me the little cold frame seen in the image above. We have had this for about 18 years. Lynne and Richie are attaching some plastic because the plants have grown so fast under the cold frame. We propped up one side to give the the needed room and attached some plastic on the raised side. We also put a about 5 gallons of water to help warm the space. The gallon jugs warmed by the sun give off heat throughout the night. This was Richie's idea so I give him props for this strategy.

After wrapping up the cold frame, we secured it with a heavy brick. All the tomato plants in this structure survived the cold. A few had some damage but they have grown back and look unscathed.

In the next design, we surround the plant with some jugs (the Richie method) and cover with plastic. Worked great, no damage was seen on the plants. We also had a few walla-water's that worked great on a few of the plants.

A closer look at the Richie method you can see the protected tomato plant from freezing temperatures. We outfitted these plants in the early evening with hot water in the jugs.

These tomatoes were planted inside large (6 feet high) tomato cages, so we had to try to cover and insulate them. This method did not work as well as the others, and unfortunately we lost a couple tomato plants. On the bright side, Rich and Grandpa G. has bought SO many tomato plants, that I think we will survive. (I believe they have actually purchased over 80 plants!!!)

Blossoms Galore

We have had a great bloom this year. These images were taken about 10 days ago in the midst of the pollinating efforts of many bees, wasp and flies. We had a short window for pollination before the weather turned bad. Luckily the temperature have not fallen to destructive levels (cross your fingers and toes).

Our two plum trees should be heavily laden with tasty fruits this Aug. Both are Japanese plum varieties. We planted our little orchard about 15 years ago.

In the foreground is one of my tastiest fruit tree varieties. I think it is called Alberta Queen. Very sweet like the July Alberta but larger and stays attached to the tree longer while ripening. The yellow bush in the background is a Forsythia.

Spring in Utah can give you flowers in the valley and winter in the mountains. In fact our mountains just got clobbered with a couple of feet of snow. Well enjoy your gardening