Gonna See It In Color: 2020 Review, Part 5

In case you missed them...here's 2020 Part 1, 2020 Part 2, 2020 Part 3, and 2020 Part 4.

Here goes an update for the rest of 2020's adventures!

Wedding bells - My cousin Emily and Caleb were married in September in Idaho. It was fun to be able to road trip with Mom and Dad (we convinced Dad to take a couple of extra days in order to visit with family!), and of course see everyone. Everything is much more relaxed in Idaho, and I feel like we were still responsible in our interactions with people. Cousin Stephanie and I were attendants in the wedding and so I had a great time spending extra time with the girls. Visiting with family from across the country was great, and I can't wait until it's safe to do again. The wedding was beautiful, despite the smoke in the air from fires nearby. Caleb's family has property near McCall and it was the perfect spot to celebrate their day together with friends and family.

Salty air - I was fortunate enough to still be able to make a trip to the beach this summer. It's one of those places that I love going and am making it my mission to visit every year if possible! This year I found a spot in Long Beach with a private entrance to the beach that was away from the downtown area. I ventured into the main part of town, but definitely enjoyed the ability to walk to a spot with fewer people. I'm not sure where (or when) I'll go next year, but it's gonna have to get on the calendar soon.....

Know Your Government - Because I don't think it was mentioned previously in posts, KYG was one of the last large in-person events I attend.....almost a year ago now. We had a large enough delegation in conjunction with Yakima (we call it Yakitas) to have a total of five cars go over to Olympia. Overall I think the kids had a great time!

Graduation of new teachers - We had another group of students graduate, even virtually. It took some quick thinking but we managed to have a relatively nice celebration. Huge kudos to our interns who helped create a video and really make things happen. 2021 is virtual too, so we'll do it all over again....

Red Top Mountain - I don't do much in the way of hiking or exploring our local mountain ranges...odd because you'd think it'd be a natural thing for a photographer nestled in the middle of a mountain range....well, thanks to my friend Brad for an adventure up to Red Top Lookout in May. It was a tough trip for this out of shape girl, but I had fun watching the energy of Brad's kiddo while he raced ahead to make it to the top first. The views of course were breathtaking!

Piggle wiggles - We raised four pigs this year for butchering. We get them from a local family and have had good luck with them for the last couple of years. You wouldn't believe it but these guys dressed out at between 200-250. That means they weighed 300-350 easily in September! I'm not sure I've ever had pigs get that big before....

Tractoring - I spent a number of hours on the tractor for Dad this summer....I would fluff for a couple of hours in the morning and help the crew get a head start, then clean up and work my real job. When he complained about me not being able to help more I reminded him 1) how lucky he was I was working from home for the summer and 2) how much he likes it when I pay rent 😂I was able to snap some fun photos though (yes, while driving....not illegal because it's on private property....right??). Bonus was listening to audiobooks! It's how I finished a couple of books actually.

Socially distanced coffee hours - At a certain point a couple of my friends from work said "let's have a socially distanced coffee date!" So we did! I'm so thankful too because I needed interaction with my people by the time late summer came. As always with us we talked everything from work to personal and back to work again. So grateful to have amazing people in my corner.

Virtual Fair - Well, as with everything else, Fair was virtual in every way aside from "turning in" the kids' animals. It was strange to essentially have what would normally be a 7-10 day process over in the span of about four hours. I didn't really have to do anything other than show up to weigh in the animals, and luckily I have a great relationship with the sheep superintendent, Nana, so between the two of us we wrangled up a crew and things went super smooth. It only took about three hours to weigh all the animals in, and then they were trucked off after that. Super strange, especially as the sale was virtual too, but I am thankful we were still able to make something happen for our youth because so many others had to miss out on those opportunities this last year.

4th of July - I traveled to Vancouver for the 4th of July! My friends there, the Anderson family, traditionally have a large culdesac BBQ/fireworks display and I've loved going before. When I decided I needed to get out of town for a couple of days, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. We were safe, and the celebrations were much smaller than they have been in the past, but it was still great to be able to visit and hang out. Heather is like an older sister and I am so thankful to have her in my life.

Heather and I both looked at our FB memories on the 3rd when I drove down and realized that going to Mod's for dinner on the 3rd is a tradition with us too....I think a Vancouver 4th is one tradition that needs to keep on living!

Photography - Oooohhhhhh photography.....it was actually pretty slow through the spring and summer just because of Covid. I launched my "pay the price of the temperature" sessions for October though, and in the span of one month I had 19 sessions! It was crazy, and luckily with all the updates I've done in the last couple of years I was able to (mostly) keep up. Here are a couple of my favorites (and look for a 2021 post about photography too):