Winter Birds

Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma, for having a bird feeder right outside your window.

And thank you, zoom lens, for your zoom-ability! You made this fun!

Weddings Through the Years event

A week ago, I had the pleasure of attending a ladies' brunch

at my grandma's church, with the theme: 

It was a wonderful event. The basement of the church was decorated very elegantly, they served

a great brunch, with wedding cake for dessert. 

All around the room they had old pictures, wedding gifts, and lots of dresses!

 The dresses there were absolutely fantastic! They had a Fashion Parade featuring dresses from as old as the early 1900's to modern day. Almost every dress had an interesting story with it, either of the wedding itself, or the acquisition of the dress itself. There were dresses purchased for $69.00, $60.00, and one obtained for a mere $11.75 back in the 1920's! Several dresses were made by hand, one of which the bride designed... let me say that again: Designed! her own wedding dress, and her mother sewed it for just $50.00. Three cheers for creativity and inventiveness!

This is the only wedding dress I got a good picture of, since our seats were a bit too far from the "runway" to get some decent shots.

We heard lots of rather unusual descriptors for the dresses, such as sheath gown, cathedral length with a detachable train, sculptured lace, fingertip veil, Peter Pan collar with beading accents, covered buttons, herringbone sleeves, Cumberbund, Empire, and v-shaped waistlines. 

The sides of the basement featured a few wedding dresses - including one from 1880 - and several bridesmaid dresses.

At one table they had old wedding photos and memoirs, along with...

...pictures of my parents' and my grandparents' weddings. 

It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but my mother wore my grandmother's dress for her wedding!

My grandma's note card with the pictures:

A fantastic, beautiful morning with some fantastic, beautiful ladies:

(l to r) my mom, grandma, me, and aunt.

Island Park

Island Park is one of my favorite places in the FM area,

and the fall colors are absolutely gorgeous!

Medora, ND

 (I'll spare you all the typical "oh my, I haven't blogged in over two months!!!" stuff...)

Our family vacation to Medora, ND, was so much fun! It was neat to get out of the flatlands and actually have hills all over the place!

 Our first night we got to see the Medora Musical. A fantastic show!

Drive through Theodore Roosevelt National Park:

Got to see several buffalo on the drive! This was the closest we ever got, much to the relief of my mother!

 North Dakota Sunsets!

Fireworks

Happy Independence Day!

My 4th of July was the awesome stereotypical 4th of July.

I ate hot dogs and ice cream, wore Red, White, and Blue,

and got to watch a great fireworks display!

Taking pictures of fireworks is an adventure for sure! :)

What did you do for your 4th of July?