Taylor's Second White Dress

White is a symbol of purity.  And traditionally, in the Church, girls wear white dresses on three special occasions.  The Three White Dresses.  

The first white dress is at her blessing.  This is Taylor on her blessing day, when she was seven weeks old. 

The second white dress is worn at her baptism, after she turns 8-years-old.  Taylor recently turned 8 and she received her second white dress.  

One sunny day, I took her out to get pictures in her new, white dress.

Here are some of my favorites. 

 I love this one!

 And this one!

 I love this one too!  I love them all because that's my little girl. 

  

 And a couple of pictures in Sepia.  

I just love this amazing girl.  She's beautiful, inside and out.  She couldn't wait to get baptized.  She wanted to follow the Savior's example.  She wanted the gift of the Holy Ghost, with her all the time.  

She has such a love and zest for life.  She's already looking ahead to when she'll wear her third white dress.  We've talked about it several times.  It will be after her mission, when she gets married in the temple.  

But we're just going to enjoy her second white dress for now. 

Taylor's 8th Birthday

Taylor celebrated a special birthday a few weeks ago.  She turned 8-years-old.  She was so excited.  Of course.  

Her big present was a new bike, which we gave her in August, so she'd have a chance to enjoy it before the rains came.  

In fact, James took Taylor on a birthday bike ride, the day before her birthday.  

It was a beautiful, sunny day.  

It was a good thing they went out when they did, the next day (Taylor's actual birthday) was the first heavy rain of Autumn.

Taylor got her very own set of scriptures from Grandma & Grandpa, an 8th birthday tradition for their grandchildren.  Taylor was thrilled to have her own scriptures.  They have her name on them and everything!  

She's been borrowing an old set of scriptures, but was more than happy to return them to me as soon as she had her own.

She also had flowers delivered to her, from Nana & Papa.  

We spent the day doing indoor activities, like building with Legos,

 hanging out at the library, 

doing a puzzle,

and watching it rain cats and dogs outside. 

After pizza for dinner, we came home for birthday cake.

I surprised her with a dress "cake."  

So our sweet girl is 8-years-old now.  She the greatest blessing to her family.  We love her with all our hearts.  We don't know what we'd do without her.  

She's energetic, fun-loving, creative, smart, vibrant and brave, in a word, Amazing!  She's an angel, with a little bit of feisty in her, but she's ours and we are so grateful for her!   

Cranberry Festival

Our new town is famous for it's cranberries.  Many of them go to a little company called, Ocean Spray.  

There are acres and acres of cranberry bogs.  They even have an annual Cranberry Festival.  This year was their 68th year.  

It's a huge event.  They have a parade, a cruise-in car show, booths, baking contests, cranberry eating contest, a Cranberry Court of a queen and princesses, etc.  

This year, James' office decided to enter a float in the parade.  So, James & Taylor got to walk in the parade.  Taylor handed out chocolate "eyeballs" and James handed out sunglasses.  I think James had fun.  I know Taylor did.  

Logan didn't want anything to do with walking in a parade.  Too many people would be looking at him.  No, thank you!  So he and I watched from the sidelines.

I took tons of pictures with the nice, big camera, then got home and realized I didn't have a card in the camera.  So I didn't really take any pictures at all!  I was so mad at myself.  I'm still very disappointed.  

I only have a couple of pictures that I took before the parade, with my phone.  

The entire festival had a country theme this year, "The Cranberry Round-Up."  So the parade float had western decor.  

Taylor got to wear her cowboy outfit, boots and hat.  She was the cutest little cowgirl!   

Then we walked around and looked at all the neat cars.  Logan was amazed at how small the original Mini's were.  "I'm taller than it!" he shouted. 

He has always liked Corvettes.  I remember when he was 4 or 5 years old, he couldn't quite tell a Corvette from several other types of cars out there.  He'd get all excited because a Corvette passed us, but it turned out to be a Pontiac or something else.  He's much better now. 

This truck reminded me of what the "Silver Bullet" might look like someday, if it ever gets restored.  The "Silver Bullet" is my Grandpa's old Chevy truck.  My dad has it now.  

Doc Hudson was even there, from the movie, "Cars."  The Hudson Hornet.

Here are a few of the cars Taylor enjoyed.  This one was unique, with pipes on the outside of the car.

 A roadster with a flame paint job and enormous rear wheels. 

And Taylor found the rumble seat in this antique.  

This old truck's license plates says, "Jhnboy."  Just like The Walton's truck, I guess.  

 My favorite car was this Shelby Cobra.  Beautiful. 

And it looks like a lot of fun to drive.  

We had a good time, walking around as a family.  I just wish I had pictures of Taylor in the parade to show you.  Maybe next time.  

Crater Lake Hike

Our hike up Garfield Peak, at Crater Lake, in pictures:

 Great views, even from the bottom.

 It was steep and dusty.

 We also got a view of one of the forest fires nearby.

 Views from the top.  Wizard Island too.

And Phantom Ship down there as well.

Crater Lake with Mt. Thielsen in the distance.  That lake is just amazingly blue.  

The hike was "strenuous."  It was a long, steep climb to the top, but we all made it! 

At the top we enjoyed panoramic views of the deep blue lake, a welcome rest,  fruit snacks and energy bars.  Then we trudged back down.  

It made for a long day, between the drive and the hike, but it was a great day, spent together as a family.  We haven't done as much hiking this summer as we did the last few years.  We were trying to get one more hike in before weather and our schedule makes it difficult to get out.  

It was one year ago, almost exactly, since we'd been to Crater Lake.  That time it was windy and cold, plus there was snow on the ground.  This year, it was warm and dry.  We got it right this time!