the fam gathered at the lodge last weekend to celebrate

chris and adria's birthdays and all the hunters slapped

on their camo and headed to the woods in the wee morning hours

to begin the bow hunt.

driving up fri. night there was the most amazing sunset~

omgoodness! i know i say that a lot, but this was the most amazing one... 

the gold medal of sunsets!

i begged eric to pull over and take a few pictures with 

my camera~ not just cell phone shots.

the picture below has not been edited~ at all.

can i get an AMEN?

when we got there, dad broke out the jerky he made and not just the humans wanted to try it.

sat. morning i was tickled pink to discover flowers blooming

in my very neglected garden. i got a clippers and filled a big bucket to take

in the cabin and arrange. : )

this large screen door (wall) that lars made is

a favorite place to sit and soak up the goodness of the north woods.

the strawberries are still setting on a few last berries for the year.

(the pellets are fertilizer not animal droppings).

the family that built our buildings did hand prints in the wet cement and

i'm glad they did. isn't this fun?

i have NO recollection of planting these chenille flowers~ fairies must have done it.

antlers woven in a chandelier

i found one precious poppy~

mismatched chairs around our table make me happy.

hmmmm....which one do i want to sit on tonight? 

a shot from outside, looking in thru the screen.

big round bales in the field

saturday nite's sunset

the birthday kids~ adria's dad made them a lemon chiffon, angel food cake

it was yummy.

according to lars, if you don't have a dog to snuggle up to,

you're totally missin' out~ just sayin.

if you squint hard you don't even see all the dog hair on your sheets!

 it is unseasonably warm here in mn.

and i'm looking forward to sweater weather.

next weekend i'll be on the north shore of lake superior with

girlfriends and i bet it will be crisp!

i hope it will be anyway~ i want to bundle up and dig for sea glass

while the waves lap at my feet.

 hugs and happy sunday,

 b.

#38

i started dating this boy when i was

a toddler.

well not much more than that anyway. he was in eighth grade

and i in sixth when he laid eyes on me on a bus headed to Montevideo mn,

 and the rest, (as they say) is history.

i don't remember much about those early years when

he was all googly eyed about me other than the fact that

i had a major crush on a boy in my class and

dale- (pictured below) was an upper classman.

way too old for me,  however i may have thought

i was more mature than him even as a 7th grader.

(heyyyyyy, stop! ~ i did mature early).

his one awful pair of polyester plaid pants nearly cost him

a chance with me, (& the fact that he once-and i do mean ONCE- made a comment about

my "stash"), but then there was the fact that he was a gentleman and quite romantic.

he always offered to carry the heavy stuff and bought me cards.

oh the cards! hundreds of them by now, he's a sentimental guy.

many dozens of roses came my way and he always opened car doors for

me and wanted me to pick the movie or the restaurant. he was a

great listener too- (which is important cause i'm a talker) and he was ok with

the fact that my sister spent a lot of time with us too.

(and sang, loudly and slightly off-key from the back seat).

somewhere in the middle of the shrimp baskets from A &W and the

movies we saw at the paramont theatre, my feelings for this boy

begin to change and even though he told me he loved me way

before i was ready to say it back,

i begin to realize that i felt that way about him too.

he graduated two years before me and went off to college, but he raced home

to see me on weekends and we kept on dating

and by the time i graduated high school, everyone was asking

"when are you two going to get married"?

i was in......i was in love and it sounded like a good idea to me.

: )

he proposed to me on dec. 12, 1976 and we got married the following fall and

today is our 38th wedding anniversary. 

we were so young, only 19 and 21 and what did we know?

i guess we just knew that we'd been in love so long that there really

wasn't any reason to wait.

he finished his degree during the first year of our marriage and i was done with

community college and working as a floral designer.

 now 38 years, three great kids, a bunch of dogs
and a few moves later here we are, still in love, still together &

he's still that gentle guy i fell in love with. he's my soft place to fall.

i wish i had some pictures of the early years of our marriage to put on here, but there

wasn't digital photography then. so i just grabbed some photos of lars that

really show who he is.

this picture makes me laugh, not sure if it was a body part or

my necklace that poked him in the eye.

here we are in arizona

 here he is in arizona, delivering a glass of wine to me

while i watched a gorgeous sunset, in a ravine, with my sister.

he loves dogs~almost more than most people.

here he is visiting his Dad, for what would turn out to be the last time.

(he is a lot like his kind, soft spoken Dad).

35th anniversary trip to the north shore.

lars loves the outdoors. the outdoors and dogs. amen

here his is doing manly, dangerous things.

he's a hunter and has provided a lot of fish and wild game for us.
(whether i like to eat it or not). lol

and this summer, 38 years after we said "i do", here his is getting ready to walk his 

daughter down the aisle.

oh, it hasn't all been wine and roses, and there have been a few times when i would have liked to give him back his class ring (and he mine), 

but we made promises to each other and i'm glad we did.

he is my rock and there's no one i would rather spend the rest of my days with,

Lars~ I love you to the moon 

happy anniversary to us.

xo

*OH MY GOSH... I JUST WAS GOING TO HIT PUBLISH, AND MY DOORBELL RANG.

LARS IS UP NORTH AND HERE IT WAS A DELIVERY MAN WITH 

A DOZEN RED ROSES FOR ME.

FROM HIM!

#feeling loved. 

yesterday was the first day of school for the

kids in chanhassen mn.

i was making my coffee when i heard the familiar roar

of the school bus lumbering up canyon curve.

my phone (of course) was right on the table so

i snapped a photo as it drove by... i saw a couple 

faces peeking through the windows~

probably little tikes with a stomach full of 

nerves.

i kiddingly said that i opened up the patio door though and

am pretty sure i heard a big, collective sigh of joy

from the moms and dads about town.

: )

one of my very best friends delivered her little girl to kindergarten 

yesterday and told me she had to sprint back to her car cause

she was crying so hard. all these firsts- so hard on most mamma's hearts.

so i got on with my day, but then in the early evening i went for a walk and
boy oh boy had the town come alive. i walked by the elementary school that two 
of my three attended and the playground and ball fields were buzzing
with kids practicing soccer and lacrosse for their fall leagues.

it brought back a flood of memories~ and i started thinking about
how fast those days of my life flew by... when you're in the thick of them
you have no idea that in the blink of an eye you'll be where i am.
your kids will be grown and you won't need to drive anyone
anywhere,
and you'll miss it.
i stood and watched the kids practicing lacrosse and
was just really bewildered that that seemed like another lifetime ago
for me.

cell phone pics don't upload well~

now my nights are pretty much my own, and i really do like this season of life. 
*i guess the melancholy just came from knowing that so much of my
life has flown on by~.

but for the record, can i just list some of the activities that i drove my 3 children to
in the 20 years i was actively parenting????

in no particular order, here's what i can remember:
soccer, t-ball, wrestling, karate, piano lessons, softball, football, hockey (oh the hockey!),
girl scouts, bike safety, swimming lessons, bible camps and sports camps, confirmation, tennis, 
golf caddying, lacrosse, baseball, and all their first jobs~

those were good times spent in the car.
you learn a lot about your kids from the front seat of the car.

so here's a shout out to fall and all the busy, leaf strewn ball fields around town~
 teaming with excited kids and their parents.
i had my turn, now it's
another generation's.

"tall oaks from tiny acorns grow."

happy fall y'all!
xo, beth

summer photo album

hi guys!

how are you surviving the red hot days of september so far?

"thank you Jesus" for air conditioning!

i've been so busy take photos for clients lately that

i haven't had time to take many just for fun~ just

for my blog, so how bout today if i share some of my 

latest favorites from my clients sessions?

(can i just tell you that i am feeling so absolutely blessed

at how brown sparrow studio photography is growing)?

*to have work that makes you excited to jump out of bed in the

morning is truly a huge blessing. 

life is short guys, i have recreated my "job title" many times

in my adult life. i've had the opportunity to try

so many different career paths, including being a florist,

a para professional, an artist, a house cleaner, doing daycare for

3 precious little people, owning a store, working for

a phenomenal photographer and now...

doing photography myself.

(thanks Lars for working at a reg. job and giving us the benefits that

being self employed doesn't offer)

: )

if you're stuck in a job that makes you want to hit the snooze

button

over 

and over

and over,

take a step back and see what you can do to create the life

you have imagined, will you?

life is just so short~and oh so precious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

here then, is some of what i think is my best work from the summer~

                                                                                                                            twins

                                                                                                                        please do not use these photos without permission.

hope your long holiday weekend is great~ if you don't have plans, why not

~pick flowers, buy a new magazine, eat food on a stick, try paddle boarding,

take a nap, take a photo, call a friend, sit in front of a fan, 

pet a dog, go out for ice cream, plan a weekend away, rock in a rocking chair,

go to a farmers market, whistle, make a bucket list,

go for a bike ride, or just do nothing ~

love ya, beth