Kodachrome

It took me awhile to "get it" but I think I finally get what 'Instagram' is all about.  Basically it's a really really poor man's photo shop on your cell phone, where you can add filters and change the whole look of a picture, and then you share those pictures with whoever "follows you".

I got the basics, but it took awhile to get the "why".  Some body's husband summed it up  best on facebook, "Let me get this straight, Instagram is where you take perfectly good pictures and then make them look like they were pictures that were taken in the '70's and then left in a shoe box to rot in an attic somewhere only to be found decades later?" 

And in some cases, that is totally a true statement. In some cases, I think the picture looks better.

But then after playing around with it, I figured it out.  It's just fun.

So, I thought I would illustrate my point using pictures from some of the highlights from our summer that I have yet to share and that I have doctored with Instagram, and in some cases I shall provide 'befores and afters' for your enjoyment.  (Wow, that's a run on sentence. Got all that?)

Nick and John had a lot of fun on trek. He was worried, but clearly this smile says it all. Before Instagram-

And After-

Total improvement right?

Speaking of Nick- we sent him to cross country camp at BYU.  Supposedly his high school team had some kind of camp up in the mountains for several days, but the communication leaves a little to be desired, and it was way easier to drop him off at BYU than figure out a way to get him to Phoenix and back again, so we went with that route.  He loved it.  Even the day he had to run up to the Y, which I think was the day he ran 19 miles before breakfast. 

When I dropped him off at his dorm room, he kept commenting on how nice the dorm rooms were.  "Can't you see me living here?!?!"  Sadly, yes.  (I'm not in love with this filter, I just used it to illustrate my point that I have creative options)

Also, he'd kill me if I posted it on here for the world to see, but feel free to ask him about the award he won. Ü

We weren't able to go camping, so we settled for a picnic in the canyons.  Sadly, no fires allowed because of all the wildfires plaguing the area, so we ate subway sandwiches and the kids got dirty and threw rocks in the stream.

One thing we loved was the Alpine Coaster in Park City.  So Fun.  The line was long, and it was pretty warm out, (and it's not the cheapest thing we did) but it was worth it.

Even Christopher loved it.  He screamed the whole way down, (he rode on my lap) but I promise it wasn't the scream of a kid who is terrified out of his wits.  He only actually cried when we left.

Here's another "before and after" that I liked. 

This place has the best garlic burgers.  Plus, even though I only ordered a Pepsi to drink, they still ID'd me, which never hurts the old ego.

 Madison and I are really going to miss this stuff. Lime Rickey Sherbet.  Even Christopher loved it, and he ONLY eats white ice-cream. Sadly I don't think Farr's is available in Arizona.  At least I've never seen it.

I think that's about it, we did lots more of the usual stuff, like eating at all the same places (Bruges is ALWAYS a must).  And I am in love with this stuff called Speculoos from Belgium.  It's like graham cracker paste.  (That light brown stuff with the raspberries)

Other usual activities include school shopping at the outlets and visiting the Hansen Planetarium, which is really the Clarke Planetarium, but I refuse to call it that because I don't like change and loved the awesome old building that used to be home to the Hansen Planetarium.  And then of course no trip to the planetarium is complete without getting a good soaking playing in the giant fountain thing.  Only Maddie got really wet though.  She planned ahead and wore her swimsuit under her clothes.  The boys weren't that prepared and not at all interested in getting their clothes wet.

So that's about the rest of the highlights of our summer as seen through the Instagram app on my
phone.

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"I got a Nikon camera, love to take a photograph, so mama don't take my Kodachrome away."- Paul Simon