Perfect landscape

It isn't hard to take a good photograph when you have a great place to shoot. I don't want to make you all jealous, but the midwest is full of inspiring locations and beautiful light. Okay, I'm jealous too, because I don't live in the midwest. But I went there. And I took these.

This is a hill in Iowa. Is that the cutest thing ever? Art Girl thought she couldn't be photographed in a field without a piece of grass in her mouth.

Married kids found a cute little barn and some golden sunset light. Aren't they sweet?

This is a little creek on the farm. It doesn't look like it but it is about 7 feet deep. All this cool atmosphere makes monkeys pose all artsy. I think they should be Ralph Lauren models or something, don't you think? I actually took some pictures even better than these but I deleted them on accident. Of course, they were the best ones I took the whole trip. Isn't that the rule?

Even fallen leaves make a great backdrop. My kids went crazy in the leaves after this shot. We don't have deciduous trees where we live. The heartland is where it's at, baby.

Nauvoo in a Nutshell

Here we are at the Nauvoo Temple. I thought I would be clever and bring a tripod and shoot ourselves with the timer button. But, what I didn't know was my new camera doesn't have a timer button so My Man got a temple worker to come out and take our family pictures. No lie. He's a smart one, he is. Since I am in bed with a bad cold I am too tired to go into the kitchen where my PS is to edit these. Sorry for the bad pics.

This is one of the reasons I call my offspring monkeys. She did this in our house, too.

While the older people went into the temple I watched the little ones and took some lovely shots. This is a replica log home where you wait for your carriage ride. So sweet.

We went into this place called the family living center where they show you how the settlers lived and made stuff. Here is a demo on how they made candles. I know, you are thinking they are just wax but they are really made from animal fat. EEWwwww, gross. Think how their houses would have smelled.

After we went to dinner at a little local diner, we saw a darling play put on by the senior missionaries. It was so cute and funny. Rex didn't want to go see it, being a 16 year old boy and all but I think he laughed the most. Here we are with some of the actors/missionaries. (Yeah, it was cold- like 27 degrees.)

Sorry this photo is unedited but I thought it would be cute to see our little married couple by an old stable. I believe this is an original structure.

We don't have leaves on the ground where we live. This is quite a phenomenon to my monkeys and they proceeded to do the natural thing when one sees leaves on the ground... scoop them up and throw them at each other. Even cute little Fifi is getting in on the action. Where is Mini Me? She is doing what I would be doing and she is video taping the scene off to the side. How very smart of her.

Here we are at a real oxen ride. The wagon is a replica of the wagons they used to cross the plains in. You can tell how narrow the wagon is compared to the Holstein oxen. These oxen were HUGE, about 2500 pounds. The pioneer's oxen were only about 1200 pounds. Which is about how much I weigh. Shhh... don't tell anyone I said that.

After the oxen ride we went over to old Brigham Young's barn and took some more pictures. That is his original house behind us. It was really small. Low ceilings and about 900 square feet. I absolutely love Nauvoo. It was so romantic and picturesque. The missionaries told us that a lot of couples travel to get married here. I can see why.