189: self defense training

The local Jiu-Jitsu Academy did some self defense training for our ambulance crew this evening.

90: still getting new presents

I realized today Zayda now perfectly fits her present from Lou. Oh, how I love handmade things like this. By the time I have grandkids I need to develop some crocheting skills.

85: There is so much I love about this picture

A whole line up of 9-10 year old girls outside in the sunshine working at something new--focused on a task that requires them to be strong and smart.

Last year's hometown, all-state pitcher, showing up and volunteering to help out a group a decade younger than herself– not the way every college student spends spring break.

All these little girls with their older siblings' mitts...already a handful of years of experience with the game even through they are just beginning to play themselves.

49: Going up...

We've known it was coming for awhile, but today they actually starting putting this thing together. So unhappy about this. Who wants a cell phone tower in their backyard?

Baby Garden Party: September 2013

Zayda. . . this is actually an after party picture. I guess all the excitement wore her out. 

A few more pictures from our baby photo shoot last week. . .

Arial view of the collection of baskets of babies. (I think Zoran took this one from the apple tree.)

Newtown, Josie, Mylee, Carter, Monte and Lillian

Zayda

The mamas with their babies (photo by my mama):

Amanda & Newton, Kirsten & Carter, Janelle & Monte, Christa & Zayda, Staci & Mylee, Christy & Josie, Jen & Lillian

249: Class of 2031

Gathered some of the local babies for a little photoshoot this afternoon. We're having quite the little baby boom in Mission these days. All of these little people were born within a seven-month span.

But right now they're all a little boring. Zayda invited all her friends over to her Papa's garden and everyone fell asleep but her! (She fell asleep too immediately after they all left.)

202: Fly In

Sunday morning of Good Old Days they have a free community pancake breakfast out at the airport (our airport is one little runway & some hangers for private planes) which includes a very cool program that where local pilots give the kids free airplane rides.

Of course my kids decided they like huckleberry pancakes more than airplane rides. Fire trucks who agree to cool them down are also pretty good.

*Of course Azia did clarify for me that she does actually like flying but just on those planes where you can watch movies and sometimes they bring you snacks.

201: Good Old Days

Roman, Zoran, Iyezk, Lex, Rhain, & Bryce

One of the kids' favorite activities at Good Old Days is the tug-o-war. In the last few years they didn't actually participate (since it's mostly an adult/ older kid activity) but they always enjoy the mud.

This year all these little guys had a team--three pairs of brothers. They only won a couple times but I think that's pretty good since they had to be in the (youngest available) 10-year-old age bracket.  They are 5-8, and all small for their ages,  but they're all pretty tough. If they could compete against similar ages or weights they'd be hard to beat. 

177: summmer evenings. . . when roads around here are used for things more important than driving

158: Smoker!

Israel was pretty excited about the smoker this year, but he didn't end up having much of a match. The kid was actually a little bigger than him, but not much of a boxer. Every time Israel started hitting him the ref would immediately jump in between them and stop the fight. This happened twice and then the third time he ended the fight completely because the kid was so dazed he couldn't really stand. This all happened in under 30 seconds in the first round. It was the shortest fight of the evening.

155: St. Ignatius

136: teamwork

127: Bitterroot Dig

121: Ice Cream!

a little after-practice ice cream at the Malt Shop

114: Team.

102: remembering

I get asked often to photographic people's celebrations; everyone loves having pictures to of their happy moments to look back on.

This was a sort of celebration, too, of course. It was a celebration of a full life, many career accomplishments, of the creation of a great family and years of holding all those things together, a recognition and remembrance of dignity in the face of decades-long fight against a horrible and debilitating illness.

I was really honored to have been asked to capture this day for this family, but it was a much harder task than a reunion or birthday party.

49: Bingo for Books

40: Senior Night

Tonight was senior night for the basketball teams. Les has been coaching for probably close to 30 years, and despite his health issues, has finished out another season. After recognizing this year's senior girls, three of his players asked him to cut off their braids so they could donate them to Locks of Love in his name. Then those in the stands, who had also had Les as a coach, all came out onto the floor to say thank you.

38: Mason

The whole reservation just continues to show amazing support for Mason & his family. Tonight our teams played Ronan in Ronan for their senior night and in addition to more gifts and financial support, each member of Ronan's starting team came over and gave Mason a blue rose on the way out to the court.

37: "pizza with a purpose"

That's the motto of our little pizza shop in town and although I don't really know the specifics of how their business is set up, they really do a great job of giving back to our community. Earlier this year when the school provided a pep bus to one of the high school girls' games in Missoula, they paid for all the students to get into the game. A few days ago they provided all the food and door prizes (including a rifle) for the firemen during their weekend training.

Today they donated all their profits or the entire day to Mason & his family. I thought this meant they'd figure out salaries and supplies and all that & subtract it out to figure out just the actual profits for the day like most businesses do when they do those sorts of donations, but they wrote them a $3,400 check that night as they were closing, so I think they just gave them the entire day's gross income. And this is a huge day for a little shop in our town. (We don't even have 1,000 people here--most restaurants don't even survive more than a year or so because I would guess that's closer to a month's income for businesses like this here rather than a day's.) Pretty amazing. I didn't even mind waiting the two hours to get our pizza! :)