Soph's photo shoot at University of Utah

This past Thursday was Soph's photo shoot for Waterford Institute.  For those that don't know Waterford School is a private school here in Sandy, Utah.  It was a big project to promote their educational products on their website and entailed at least 5 days of shooting.  The photos below were taken with my iPhone, definitely not by the professional photographer.

Me: "Soph smile" Yep! This is what I get, a perfect forced smile.

In total there were 30 models/kids between the ages of 4 to 8 and several model/adults to represent the teachers. It was pretty interesting and fun, a little tiring until the right shot was finally achieved.

The photographer was hilarious, claiming that it was due to the fact he was functioning on 4 hours of sleep. However, one mother in particular did not appreciate his humor so much, as he made a negative comment about her daughter's choice of clothes.  Of course, assuming she received the same email like everyone else she would have known that the kids were not supposed to wear white, black or anything busy.  The mother later asked me "what does busy mean?" Oh, well, I guess that explains it.

Getting headphones adjusted and body positioned just so

Having to deal with so many kids, the photographer basically color coded all of them when giving out instructions. Soph was known as the "pink" girl.  Of course!!  And the "red" boy, oh boy! appeared to be suffering from Tourette's syndrome and ADHD shouting out "sh@t" and "they're gay!"

I can't imagine how they can coordinate all 5 kids in a classroom to do the same thing at the same time.  Well, it only happened for a split second. I believe the photographer was lucky enough to capture that shot with his fancy camera.  No kidding, this is snapshot of what it was like....  ["Red" boy needs to put his arms down. "Red" girl needs to stop looking as if she's reading the Wall Street Journal newspaper.  "Light blue" boy needs to stop squinting.  "Green" boy, perfect, don't move!  "Purple" girl needs to smile more and looks as if she's stuck in the moment.  "Pink" girl needs to lean forward more, etc.  Okay, "red" boy needs to turn around.  Everybody needs to place their hands on the keyboard. "Pink" girl needs to pretend she's writing/calculating...] and on and on for 3 hrs.  I was exhausted just listening to it all!

Sophie with her pretend teacher

One of the things Sophie was supposed to do was accept an award from her teacher with a big grin and with lots of excitement on her face.  Did that happen?  If you know Soph, you probably already know the outcome.  The photographer said, "NEXT, go get the "green" boy.....Thank goodness, there was one boy, yes the "green" boy (aka Vance), that took his cues spot-on.  I believe it also helped that he was the oldest in the bunch.

Pretending to be working on the computer

Another cute little girl began crying because she was shivering from being cold and just broke out in tears....So she was out of the picture, literally and figuratively, for awhile.

I actually have to give a lot of credit to the photographer and the crew.  They did an amazing job with all the kids.  I think working with babies, kids, and animals are probably the most challenging.

Once the pictures have been selected to go online on Waterford's website, I will leave a comment herein with the link.

Soph's pretend teacher and photographer

So the lesson I learned about this particular photo shoot....things like tears, unruly behavior, no smiles, people in the way, can be resolved by blurring things out.  I asked Soph if she enjoyed modeling; she said "it was very boring" but still liked it anyway because she made some money, which by the way is going into her savings account for college.

Meet Zuri

Knowing it was going to be a beautiful day Saturday, we decided to pass the afternoon at Utah Hogle Zoo.  I was particularly interested this time as I had been wanting to see Christie's (African elephant) new baby girl for quite awhile.  The last time we were at the zoo, Christie was about to give birth in 2 months.

So, Zuri, which is Swahili for "adorable or beautiful" was born August 10, 2009.  She made her public debut when she was 1 month old and weighed slightly over 300 lbs.  She now weighs over 750 lbs since mid-June and is absolutely the most adorable and cutest thing ever!  Her mother weighs in at about 7,000 lbs for comparison.  If you want to keep track of Zuri's adventures, you can click here Baby Zuri.

Here's a video (uploaded by Deseret News) of Zuri, that captures her personality perfectly:





Here are my amateur photos:

Christie and Zuri

Hmmm...."that looks pretty good."

Zuri... "I think I want some too."

Very playful, wallowing in the mud and splashing.

The longest eyelashes I've seen on a girl....lol

Ohhh...that leaf really looks tasty!

Trying very hard to reach those leaves.  Unfortunately, this giraffe was not successful.

Finally, my hubby doesn't seem to realize that my biology degree consisted of only one semester of zoology.  And so, noooo, I was not aware that camels can go for 6 months without any water and can drink 30 gallons of water in 10 minutes.  Whoaa!

Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend and staying safe!

June (yes, I know a very insipid title)

I can't believe it's already July.  Oh, Yes!  Happy 4th of July everyone!

Just think Sophie starts 1st grade next month.  A gazillion of things have been going on the past month and I don't see things slowing down any time soon.  I'm so glad I've found a product like Asea that is a boon to my boundless energy and endurance; a requisite to accomplishing everything on my plate while staying sane and strong.

I now see why the "reactive molecules" found in Asea is very popular amongst professional athletes, as well as, for those looking to repair and replenish their cells for better health.  I'm so happy with the team I'm in.  It's so close to the top and includes some of the original founders like Dr. Gary Samuelson's wife.  For those that don't know, Dr. Gary Samuelson is the atomic physicist who discovered how to replicate reactive molecules (found in your healthy cells) stabilized outside of the body.  It only took 16 years for someone to accomplish this feat that is undeniably cutting edge and a medical breakthrough.  Click here for more information about Asea, the only Redox Signaling product available.

Sophie has her first paid assignment with Craze Agency the middle of July.  I'm working on trying to get one of Soph's friends, Charlie in on this project so that way she'll be working with someone she knows.  I'll have more information about this later.

We recently had friends come visit us from AZ, and had such a great time while they were here.  I originally met my dear, beautiful, friend (inside and out), Tanya when we lived in Mesa.  Tanya's little girl, Jaida and Sophie were both enrolled at The Little Gym when they were like two years old.  We're both introverts and so it took us about a year before we finally introduced ourselves to one another...lol.

They have three really amazing, cute kids.  I just love this family! Jaida is probably the most precocious child I've met. Sometimes I forget she's only 6 years old. Bryson, to be honest reminds me a lot of my hubby.  He's such a cute little boy with the most amazing blue eyes (just like his mother).  And Rylan, oh my goodness is the most adorable, sweet natured baby with a bubbly personality. He's irresistible and incredibly cute.

My other friend, Kathryn and her husband were here recently as well.  Kathryn and I used to work together when Fleet Mortgage Corp was around in Columbia, SC.  It's been like 10 years since we last saw each other.  She and her husband were here in Utah visiting, looking for their new home. Can you believe it!  Of all places for her husband to transfer, they chose Salt Lake City.  I'm really looking forward to hanging out with them.  They too have a new baby boy, Cooper.  I usually don't look at mouths right off the bat, but Cooper has got the prettiest lips and is definitely a cutie.

It's going to be so much fun having Kathryn and her family here....just like old times, when we all lived in Lexington, SC and worked together in Columbia, SC eons ago.

Soph is doing well in her swimming classes.  Initially, I thought she had forgotten everything she had learned the past 3 years, but now she's made drastic improvements and is enjoying it more than ever.

She's still enrolled in gymnastics and likes it a lot even though she's struggling with her backbends and climbing the rope.  On the bright side, she's a wiz when it comes to doing the hula hoop on the balance beam.

So now we're waiting to get everything finalized with the selling of our house.  And then the real work begins when we have to pack and move.  I certainly hope we can get all this sorted out and get settled into our new hibernaculum before school begins and winter sets in.

This is just a snapshot of what's been going on with us.  Hope you and your family have a great holiday weekend.  Be Safe and Be Well!