South Dakota, Friends, and My Hometown

In August I flew to South Dakota to visit my childhood friend. I had a blast seeing the sights with Heidi and her family. I even managed to talk Heidi into driving me to Truman, MN where we grew up. I was able to get photo's of the silo with my Great-Grandfather's name. Below are a few of my favorite photo's.

 The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD    All the murals are made with CORN!

                                                  Sioux Falls

Brianna

I first met Brianna a few weeks ago when I took photo's of her, her siblings and her cousins. It was a fun shoot, so I was excited when I was asked to take Brianna's senior photos.

Brianna is a wonderful young lady . . . . and a busy one! Besides starting her senior year she's playing soccer and participating in drama. In fact she'll be directing her school's production of Thumbelina this year.

Brianna, I enjoyed working with you. You can sure bring the attitude when needed. Take some time this year to relax. :)

                                   My absolute favorite photo!!!

My BFF, Her Family and A Dog

She's one of those rare friends. The kind of friend you can say anything to and she understands. The kind of friend who knows you better than anyone outside of family . . . . shoot she is family! Heidi and I have been friends since grade school. Our friendship has stood the test of time and distance. I'm so very thankful to have been blessed with such and amazing friend.

While I was in South Dakota hanging out with Heidi and her family I had the opportunity to take their family pictures. I had a lot of fun goofing around with her two boys. They have a cute dog named Sampson. But since I'm not really an animal person I called him "Dog" all week. He really is a sweet dog . . . even if he does get a little hyper sometimes. :)

Thanks so much Heidi for taking such good care of me these past few months :)

       I absolutely LOVE this picture!! It makes me want to giggle!  :)

Cousins, Oregon Scenery & Pajamas

I don't know how people go through tough times in their lives without family. The way I see it, your family are some of the only people who will always be there for you . . . . no matter what! No matter how long its been, no matter what's happened in the past, just no matter what. But then again, maybe I'm just lucky. Maybe I've been lucky enough to be blessed with the most amazing family members ever! In the past 8 months my family - immediate and extended - has pulled in around me to support and protect me. They've listened to me, visited me, emailed me, called me, cried with me or even for me. My family members are one of the reasons I'm able to keep going.

That being said, I'd like to introduce you to my cousin Rona Kay. She came out to spend some time with us last week. And I truly enjoyed getting to know her as an adult. I think the last time we saw Rona was  Christmas in 1987 when the entire Virgil family was together.

We had a lot of fun showing my Iowa cousin around the Willamette Valley. We even took her to the coast. We spent a lot of time reminiscing about our Grandparents and our visits to Grandma's house. And Rona brought flowers for the boys. If you make it to the end of this very LONG blog post, you'll see the personalized flowers she brought for my boys.

Rona, thank you so much for coming to visit. The time went way to fast!

If you make it through all the photo's you'll see some of my favorite pictures from the places we took Rona :)

 From left to right: Me, Rona, my sisters Elizabeth and Milne

 The story behind the pajamas: There is an old 1980's photo of the 4 of us in our new Christmas pajamas. So we thought it would be fun to get matching pajamas and take a new picture. :)

 My neice's Beth and Daisy - Cousin's whom I hope can keep the family togetherness going as they grow up

 Silver Falls

 Rona & I at Cannon Beach

 Multnomah Falls and the Columbia River Gorge

 I love this picture, because we're laughing . . . not just smiling for the camera!

 Our trip to Mt. St. Helen's was by far my favorite destination. It's really cool to see the re-growth going on. Yet you can still see the devastation from the 1980 eruption.

 Devin loved small stuffed animals, silly bands and spent all his free time drawing

 Dawson loved legos, building things and airplanes (there is a bumbleebee transformer on the back)