So, I've told my younger siblings basically all of their lives that we are getting married in order in our family. Cade has decided to disobey me and run off to the temple with the love of his life. After locking myself in my room and crying for days, I have come to terms that life will not end. Just kidding. I'm actually really happy for him and a little surprised that this hasn't been as hard for me as I feared it would be. Just because I'm not blissfully happy in a marriage to the man of my dreams doesn't mean that I don't want that for everyone else, so I'm super excited for Cade and his bride. I don't know Krystal all that well (Actually, neither does he. They met about 30 days ago...no comment) but she seems fantastic and I know we'll be great friends. I guess when you know, you know, right?

The coolest part of this whole production so far is that I got to take their engagements on Saturday. We had so much fun and laughed like crazy. Here are a couple of pictures and I'll post more on my photo blog. We took over 700 and there are so many good ones (it's not hard to take great pictures of beautiful people) so there might be a struggle picking which one(s) they want to use. Plus, the lighting was absolutely perfect. There are about 2 days of perfect light a year and this was one of those days, as luck would have it. I guess this means they're meant to be together!

I am taking a photography class and this week's project was to spend a few minutes in a small area and just go crazy - take 100's of pictures and see what I get (I love, love digital photography). I chose a little garden off the side of the road by my office. From my car, all the flowers looked beautiful, but as I got closer, I saw that most of them had started wilting and their color fading. Oh well. I still had a great time and am pretty pleased with the above shot. I got a few good ones, mostly because the lighting was fantastic, but this one is my favorite.

I think I'm in love...

A few years ago, I spent some time in Spain - 1.5 years to be exact. One of the many things I found and fell in love with during my time there was Orange Fanta (none of the other things were Spanish men, I promise). I know what you're thinking, "Uh, hello? They have that in the states too Cal." Very true. However, the U.S. version of Orange Fanta does not even come close to the liquid heaven found in Spain (The same nectar of the gods can be found in Mexico and probably every other organized country in the world). I have very recently found out why soda ('pop' for you Idaho folks) is very much inferior - for the most part - in the U.S. of A. Apparently, it has to do with some fantastic legislation that placed tariffs on cane sugar to encourage the growth and sale of corn and all corn products, including high fructose corn syrup which, I think is pure evil. So, what makes Orange Fanta and other delicious soda born and raised outside of the U.S. so great is that it is sweetened with cane sugar instead of HFCS. And, even though soda is never, ever good for anyone, Mtn Dew Throwback is a little less bad than the normal stuff because it doesn't contain HFCS and has less sodium and other preservatives. Anyhoo, it helps me feel better when I choose to drink it (which is still only on occasion). Today definitely called for a 'stiff' drink of Dew about 11 a.m. It doesn't take much to make me happy.