Ski day

The fellow on the lift from Seattle was surprised that January 15 was the first day this winter that we'd been skiing. Us Utah people should be up more often than that, surely. But alas, life and colds and work and weather limits even those of us who live within an hour of seven or eight resorts. These shots are from our first outing.

It was a day that looked gray at the start, but that in fact had a mix of sunshine as the clouds danced in and out and about the mountains.

The trees at the base were green, those further up had dobs of snow, those at the top were encrusted with frost. I tried not to stop too much for photos, but here's a feel for the atmosphere.

Anyone who can guess the resort from these photos wins ... my respect.

You can do it

"Where are my scientists?" came the question to a room full of second graders.

Every hand went up. All 60 of them.

"Where are my mathematicians?" Same hands. All enthusiastically raised.

"Where are my artists, singers, painters and and dancers?"

It was Dr. Jackie Thompson, educational equity coordinator in Davis School District, who raised the questions and who got the unreserved response again -- all hands went up saying they could do art and music and whatever else she suggested.

"Who has dreams?" she asked at the end. And there were those same hands.

I watched, astounded. Every last child in that room believed they could be anything and do anything. They had total confidence in themselves in every area of their lives and their interests. They knew whatever needed doing, they could do it. Whatever options were open, they would take them. And succeed.

Ah, to be in second grade.

Second grade comes, you recall, before junior high and high school, when those interests and that confidence are sorely tested.

I remember one great disappointment from high school that rocked my world. It showed me that some things just plain were out of my control and sometimes I was just going to fail.

I recovered. But something was lost. Something that a lot of people have in second grade but don't have 10 or even five years later. Confidence, maybe. Perhaps faith. Surely hope.

I greatly admire people who still believe they can reach any goal.

Our country's president had that aura about him as he headed into the most difficult assignment anyone could take on. When this November's elections sent the message that he'd failed, I feared he would lose hope.

He's only worked harder.

That's my hope for all of us as we begin a new year.

Don't tell yourself you can't set a resolution because you've set one in the past and failed. Just make up your mind that it's something you want to do and do it. Don't think that because someone didn't give you what you'd hoped to get that you should give up all together. Just look for a different way to make that something happen. Don't tell youself you can't do something because it's too difficult or otherwise impossible. Just work harder and watch yourself succeed.

Believe in yourself. Become what you want to become.

In other words, be like a second grader.

Dueling cameras

Photographers and reporters were everywhere a few weeks ago when sixth graders from Hill Field Elementary in Layton were invited to decorate a the tree in the Governor's mansion.

While I caught the photographer across the room in this shot, he caught me too -- and his shot ended up on the front page of the Deseret News on December 2.

The Governor's at the right, in between addressing the kids and holding the ladder for those who decorated the upper branches and giving them a tour of the mansion -- a very gracious host.

Forgive the gap between entries. A new grandbaby and a son's wedding have been getting priority.

Merry Holidays!

A week in the life

Someone asked me last weekend if I was enjoying my job.
My answer -- a yes -- was woefully inadequate.
In the week prior (OK -- let me include 10 days for effect) I'd followed bison around while visiting with people who'd come out from Pennsylvania for the action. I'd photographed people voting and people counting votes and people protecting votes and people celebrating the votes they'd received -- in a day where work started at 9 a.m. and ended at midnight. I'd learned about school district programs and successes. I'd photographed beautiful fall colors, I'd listened to the gory details of the job of forensics specialist. I'd wept with a Vietnam veteran while he told me what it meant to be honored after all these years. And then I wrote about it all.
Yes, I'm enjoying my job.
Here's a taste of my October 29 to November 6:

More pictures that I've taken from Davis County events I've attended in the course of my work, can be seen at http://daviscountyextra.blogspot.com/.

Knowing it's there

I know some very dear people who have some very dark clouds in their lives right now.

For some, it's been stormy all day. For others, a perfectly blue-sky day turned into a dark, dismal storm without much warning.

I took this picture just a few weeks ago just a mile or so from my home.

It tells me that even when there are dark clouds -- really dark, threatening, dismal clouds -- there is sunshine just behind them.

And whether that sunshine comes out now or tomorrow. Whether the sunshine comes to you or you go to it, whether you have to wait or whether you are surprised when the sky suddenly opens up, it will bring you warmth. And beauty. And peace.

Just know it's there.

NY's finest

We got to see New York's finest in action when we visited last month. First, the men of the NYFD when they showed up at our daughter's apartment building to check out the smell of gas.

They made quick work of the problem -- a stove left on in a main floor apartment, and after watching me watch them run in and out with their picks and shovels while my husband and daughter ran up and down with boxes and suitcases, one was so observant as to figure out what I was thinking.

"Your daughter will be fine," he said reassuringly.

Second, the men of the NYPD, as they blocked all passage from anywhere too near the UN during a summit of 20 nations that included an appearance and remarks from the President of our very own nation. The police very effectively, though politely, kept us riffraff away from the limosines with the motorcycle escort and guest vehicles and ambulance as it hustled into the UN complex.

Effective and polite are the words that come to mind in both cases.

Thanks guys.

Where in the world?

The fun thing about these pictures is that they were not taken in Europe. They were taken in a city settled by Europeans, however, and you can tell. It is a great heritage and it is great to have benefited from their architectural and cultural traditions as we've developed our own.

Any guessses on where these sights were seen?