Belinda Olsen Photography » Utah Wedding & Portrait Photographer | Logan, Utah | 435-881-2184

Last week I had the sweetest experience and ran into one of the adorable children I photographed at Camp Hobe this past summer.  This cute little boy pointed out to his mom that I was the volunteer photographer that took pictures of his ‘awesome temporary tattoos’ while at summer camp.  His mom gave me a giant hug and we cried for a little while in the grocery store.  She talked about how he was doing.  She talked about the gift and priceless value photography is to her.

 

Camp Hobe is a special place where children who have cancer and their siblings can go for a little time during the summer.  This camp is for kids from the Intermountain West and those going to Primary Children’s Hospital.  It’s a place where kids freely talk about what they are experiencing and it is something they can all relate to. Mostly, it’s an opportunity for kids to simply be kids and leave the stress of medical concerns behind.  Sometimes it’s visually obvious which children have physical ailments but most of the time it is not.  It is a wonderful and humbling experience to be able to give back to families that have gone through so much.PINIMAGEPINIMAGEPINIMAGEPINIMAGEPINIMAGEPINIMAGE

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This weekend our friends and their 5 month old son were in this Cache Valley airplane crash and everyone walked away with only minor injuries.  It’s incredibly humbling to hear their story and know that they were definitely encircled by angels. Love you Fielding family!

 

My take away message: take a break from the business of the day and spend time with your friends and family…tell them that you love them.

 

photo credit 

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I know the holidays were ions ago…we had a wonderful time, so I want to share!   It was Craig’s parents year for Thanksgiving and we headed to Fillmore.  The meal itself was lovely and it was great to have everyone together. I spent the morning painting my nieces finger nails. We loved being twinners!utah wedding photographerPINIMAGE

Right after Thanksgiving dinner was over, we hopped in the car and drove to Southern California!  We visited San Diego, LA, Newport and Anaheim.  While we were there we went whale watching and saw three varieties of whales and hundreds of dolphins right by our boat.utah birth photographerPINIMAGE

We went to the tide pools in both San Diego and Newport.  It was fun to see Craig get really excited about pointing out different varieties of fish and plants.  I’m pretty clueless when it comes to that stuff…I just know it looks pretty 🙂utah family photographerPINIMAGE

Of course while we were there we had to go to DISNEYLAND!!!  Disneyland is one of my favorite places in the world!  My very favorite and Craig’s least favorite ride is the Tower of Terror.  We went on it very first!  The only ride that was closed that I was really disappointed about was India Jones.  We went on every other ride we wanted…even the Madderhorn was open.  I can’t wait to one day go back with my own little kids.  This was my selfish trip to go for me 🙂cache valley wedding photographerPINIMAGEcache valley birth photographerPINIMAGEI loved going in the haunted house and seeing it all ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ style.  As weird as it sounds, it really made me be in the Christmas mood!cache valley family photographerPINIMAGEOur drive home was beautiful!  This photo on the right was taken on my iphone and this is literally what the sunset looked like…no enhancements or special effects.  It was stunning!birth, wedding and family photographerPINIMAGEFor Christmas this year I tried to make as many homemade gifts as possible.  This meant I spent a lot of time at my sewing machine.  (one of my favorite relaxing places in my house.  I could fall asleep to the hum of the sewing machine)

Each year at my parents house we do the nativity.  I love seeing my nieces and nephews dress up.  My dad always gets the special assignment of being the donkey 🙂

logan utah birth photographerPINIMAGEOur Christmas tree this year was cream, gold and blush.  My sister in law was really sweet and picked out a real tree for us from Fillmore.  I LOVED having a real tree!  I hope we have one each year.

Winter in Cache Valley has been incredibly cold.  This week be got a winter ‘heat wave’ with temperatures in the high 30s!  I have been on a quest to try to find beauty in a season I really dislike….logan utah wedding photographerPINIMAGElogan utah family photographerPINIMAGE

I hope your holidays were wonderful as well!

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  • Ryan Olsen - SOOOO you left out shooting with your best BIL. Not to mention Christmas morning waffles. 🙂ReplyCancel

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The Wellsvilles can be seen from anywhere in Cache Valley and I am often in awe of their beauty.  Several years ago I had the opportunity to hike the Wellsvilles.  I knew it would be an all day event but I didn’t know how hard a 15 mile (roundtrip) hike would be…

We started at a moderate pace, admiring the flowers, trees and playing games within our group to keep ourselves entertained.  Somewhere past the halfway point, I tripped over a tree root and cut my knees and hands pretty badly.  I was in a lot of pain but didn’t want to be left behind waiting for hours for my group to pick me up on the way back down.  I decided to keep going.

After we’d been hiking for hours, we were in a thick area of vegetation.  The air was cold and damp and the wind pierced through all layers of my clothing.  My legs were sore and covered in blood from my previous fall.   I didn’t know how much longer I could keep going.  I didn’t want to be there anymore.

I stopped on the trail and tried to see how far I’d hiked.  I couldn’t see anything.  I tried to look up the mountain and see how much more I had to go.  Again, I couldn’t see anything.  I completely felt despair settle in with no sense of perspective for where I was.  I really wanted to give up.  My friend’s dad encouraged me to keep going.  He said that if I stopped, it would just make it harder to make the climb.

I picked myself up and kept going.

After what seemed like an eternity (but in reality was less than an hour) we made it through the thick vegetation and the warmth of the sun could be felt again.  I could see that we didn’t have much higher to climb.

I developed an appreciation for how far I’d come.

The view was spectacular!  I could see the entire valley.   I could see for miles and miles.  My parent’s home was a small speck out in the distance.  For me, no other location in Cache Valley compares.  I felt like such a small speck in a big universe, but I had an appreciation for the universe I was a part of.

Often in life, I face a similar battle.  I lose perspective of how far I’ve traveled.  The moment I’m in seems too hard to get through.  I lose perspective of where I’m going.  I often have to remind myself…

Don’t stop.  Push a little harder.  Getting through this will be worth it.

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