Photography blog!

I decided to start a photography blog so I could have a place to post all of the random pictures I've been taking and also it will be for any pictures I take for other people. I've been threatening to go private on my personal blog for a long time now so it will be nice to have just an everything blog that won't be private. It's still a work in progress but here is the link: http://roxylongphotography.blogspot.com

Rainy Birthdays

I ended up having a really great birthday. We went back down to white canyon for a little campout. The morning of my birthday we were driving out there and Sam gave me my present on the way. He got me a ipod nano! Very big surprise and I absolutely love it! He also had a ton of music already on it. As far as the day went, we ended up getting washed out and all our plans changed. Surprisingly enough, it ended up being one of my favorite days. Everything looked so beautiful in the rain that I had a blast just playing around with my camera. We took drives and just played around with the flash floods. Very relaxing and needed day.

(just a disclaimer, i was experimenting with a new way of putting pictures up with this post and it did not go well, so all of the spacing and placements are funny and i gave up trying to fix it)

From white canyon

This is Lily coming in for a landing on the Lake Powell runway.

From white canyon

Jeremy went to kill a tree so we could have a fire. I tried to get some 'man' shots while he was throwing the ax around.

From white canyon

Poor tree!!

From white canyon

The next three pictures are actually jeremy orginals. i let him play with my camera and he was really getting into it. I thought he really took some very artistic, 'well composed' pictures.

From white canyon

a jeremy photo

From white canyon

a jeremy photo

From white canyon

a jeremy photo

From white canyon

Be careful mom....

From white canyon

....she wasn't careful.

From white canyon

My dad was just commenting on how brave marah was to be venturing into this slot canyon on her own, when suddenly she started flipping out and if you look closely, you'll see a frog in the water.

From white canyon

Grandpa had to save her. Wish I had video of it.

From white canyon

The innocent little frog.

From white canyon

I shot a bunch of pictures of the flood coming down. I actually submitted this one to the san juan record for the photo of the week contest and sure enough, the next week, this photo was on the front page of the san juan record and now i'm $10 richer. Now if i could just get 100+ more i would have my camera paid for! It was cool to see my name and picture on the front page. The caption said 'Willy Wonka's factory or a flash flood in White Canyon?'


blowing candles from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

Lily had the roughest time blowing out the candles on my cake. Some one made the comment that she was going to burn her lips, so i guess she was doing all she could do to blow them out without burning anything but was getting no where fast. With all of us laughing, i'm surprised she didn't start bawling, but she just kept trying. I was feeling bad for her so I am the one that actually blew them out at the end. It could have gone on forever. Thanks everyone for a fabulous birthday!!


flash flood from Roxy Long on Vimeo.


diggin from Roxy Long on Vimeo.


arch from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

a lot of catch up...

I'm way behind so I just decided to do one big slideshow and a few videos from the last couple months all in one post. There are captions on a few to kinda explain what they are. If the captions don't show up you just have to push the caption icon at the bottom left of the slide show and then just pause it and use the arrows to go through the pics since there isn't time to read the captions when it is just running through. There are also a lot of random pictures as well with no explanation.

boxing from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

swirlies from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

used to be from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

shower from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

Season Premier and Sinking Bogs

I have a lot to catch up on. It has been a crazy couple of months, so I guess I'll start where I left off. I hate to admit this but we had our season premier camping trip just one week after Sam's accident. (You can't let a silly thing like a head on collision interrupt plans) To make things worse, the day we were leaving to go camping was the day we found out he had a fracture in his knee beside the fracture in his skull. We decided we would just go and Sam would just have to take it easy. I felt guilty about wanting to go and him not being able to have fun, but then again there have been more than one camping trips where I haven't been able participate because of early contractions while being pregnant, so that was just my thinking process to help myself feel better. I knew deep down that he wouldn't be taking it easy but I also felt that he would be okay. You can't make a guy sit at camp, and honestly I didn't want him to sit at camp. He decided he wouldn't get on the four wheelers but he did drive the durango where ever it could follow with all the kids. Just in case anyone is wondering, the docs did give him the okay to drive.

It was cool because we started the camping season in the same place we ended last years season because we wanted to see if we could get everyone to the hot springs that we found on the first trip. We had quite the adventure and I want to tell this one story but fair warning, its a long one. The trail that went to the hot springs was only for fourwheelers, so Sam couldn't go that way and it was way too long for the kids. We came up with a plan. Not the smartest plan but it was a plan. There was another road that made it all the way to lake powell where the canyon with the hot springs empties and it was a durango worthy road. Last year we marked the hot springs on our GPS so we knew we could get about a mile from the springs as the crow flys by going on this other road. We decided that my dad, Sam, me and the 3 kids would pack a lunch up in the durango, pull a four wheeler on a trailer and attempt to meet up with everyone else around eatin' time. We thought it was 'probably' possible to hike about a mile and all have a pic nic at the springs. We also thought we may never meet up, but it was our only option.

We reached the end of the road for the durango. Sam and I decided to scout it out with the four wheeler. (I know, Sam wasn't suppose to be on the four wheeler but we all knew it was the inevitable) There was a canyon in the way and the trail wrapped up and around forever. We finally reached the canyon that the springs were in and the four wheeler couldn't go any further. The GPS was saying .8 miles and we felt we could see right were the springs might be, but there were a lot of obstacles in the way. I decided to hike my way back to where my dad was to see if the kids could even do it because we all couldn't fit on the four wheeler. Sam drove back around the long way. I ran and ran, and it kinda felt good, felt like the good ole days when I use to run. I kinda gave my dad a heart attack though because I came running back all by myself. Sam was way behind me trying to make it around the canyon. You could only imagine what was running through his head when we had been gone so long and I came running back by myself. Not nice, but we made it back and made our plans from there. We all decided to take a risk and try to make it. Poor kids didn't have a say in the matter. We knew we couldn't get a whole cooler and another box of food across the terrain we were facing, so we hurried and packed only the essentials into a back pack we had. We bused ourselves in a couple trips to the first canyon that needed to be hiked, from there Sam and Lily went around on the fourwheeler and the rest of us started hiking. We made it through the first part fine and met up with Sam and Lily, only to stand at the edge of a shear cliff that overlooked about 30 yards of the gooiest, muddiest river ever. The GPS said it was only .8 miles and we could see where we thought we needed to be. We couldn't really make a decision so we figured we might as well just face one obstacle at a time and stop if there was no other option.

We found an easy way to the bottom of the cliff and then we faced the 30yd. bog. We knew areas like this can act like quick sand but we were running low on time, so I took my shoes off and jumped in. Sam likes to make fun of the funny prance that I did to try to prevent from sinking. The whole middle part really was solid. It was the edges where you sank, but I thought it was do-able and the water felt pretty good, so I pranced back over to the other side to get Marah and my shoes. I crossed it without a problem but I didn't take into account the extra wt. I was carrying and when I hit the edges, I immediately began to sink. Everytime I tried to take a step I just sank further. By this point Marah is starting to scream her head off and I'm beginning to panic. I threw Marah as far up the bank as I could. I know that sounds bad but she was fine and she was safe. My dad and Sam watched pretty helplessly as I sunk deeper and deeper. I would put my hand down to push myself out and it would sink to my armpit. My saving grace was the shoes I was carrying because they had enough surface area to push down on them and wiggle myself out. I never really felt in danger, it was more of just a 'how am I going to get myself out of this' feeling. I still had to go back and get Nathan since I was the lightest one. I tried going by the trees this time and still got stuck. I about dragged my dad down with nathan and me as he was trying to help pull us out. Definitely a very helpless feeling, but we all made it to the other side. I was the only one who took off my shoes to cross and I was regretting it. My feet and legs were caked in mud with no chance of getting it off. I scraped off what I could, hiked as far as I could with out shoes and then was forced to put shoes on over muddy feet.

So we set out, I was in charge of Marah, dad had Nathan, and Sam had Lily, who was on his shoulders most of the time and the bag full of food and drinks. So much for doctors orders of light duty. Hope insurance companies never see this if he has problems in the future. We would go over a hill or around a bend just sure we would be there but all we would see was another hill or bend. Marah and Nathan had to be carried but would fight it and want to get down and then wouldn't follow us plus we were in a hurry. Discouragement was definitely setting in. We finally rounded a bend and heard Whitney's voice at the bottom of the canyon but at the same time this was a breaking point, both Nathan and Marah refused to be carried, fell down, and started bawling. I think I was holding back the tears as well. We sat and rested for a minute even though we were so close but still had another ridge to climb over. The kids calmed down and were ready to go again. We climbed over the rim and saw the most beautiful sight ever....our destination. It was a beautiful green oasis in the middle of the canyon desert, surrounded by beautiful red rock. All we had to do was climb down to it. We put the girls' swimsuits on, I threw my shoes down and we jumped into the water. It was heaven.

Lily just loved swimming in the warm water. It was like her own little outdoor hot tub. Seeing her beautiful smile made that whole journey worth while.

This little oasis literally is the only green spot in the whole country at this time. So amazing!

Marah, unfortunately, did not appreciate the water and was actually quite scared of it. I think she was just worn out. We started a fire and the 13 of us scarfed down everything we could fit in that back pack. Someone thought they were pretty funny and complained that we didn't bring the pop! It was going to get dark and I had no clue how we were going to make it back. I was pretty sure I had nothing left and would not make it. Justin was missing at this time because he had gone on one of the four wheelers to try to find us. It was getting late and he still wasn't back. We were getting a little worried but he did eventually make it back and turns out he did have a wreck. He hit a rock going at fast speeds which stopped the quad short and he flew over the handle bars. The next thing he knew was he was lying on his back staring up at the four wheeler. He made it back with minimal injuries, which is a huge blessing. He could have been hurt very badly and he would've been all a lone. I hate to think about what could have happened. He came back bearing great news. He had found the trail that led back to the durango and it wasn't very far! Everybody was relieved. None of us wanted to go back from where we came. It had taken the other crew 4hrs on four wheelers to get to the springs and did not want to make that trip back in the dark and its obvious why I didn't want to go back the way we came. We still had the problem that there weren't enough four wheelers to get us out but we had no other choice. We had to put 3 per 4 wheeler and the big one had 4 people. I promise we were very careful and had all passengers get off on any questionable spots. The trail Justin found was beautiful and we were able to see the sun set over Lake Powell as we finally reached the durango. It was only about 45 min trail and we had another hour on the good road to make it back to camp, still way better than the other 4hr trail or trying to make our treacherous hike in the dark. Justin definitely saved the day by finding that trail and now we know the best way to get to the springs. Long story but it was a long adventure and I actually can't wait to go back! The following are just more pictures from the trip and some videos of a slot canyon we explored.

canyon from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

chicken from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

love it!!!

I got my camera yesterday and haven't gotten anything productive done since. I absolutely love it!!! Lily and I went to the temple and the field next to it and had our first little photo shoot with it. Lily didn't want to leave. She just kept wanting to take pictures and that camera makes it so easy to catch perfect little moments. I can't believe how much fun I'm having with it. Marah didn't get to come along because she is pretty sick but there will be lots of her to come. Here are only a few of the hundred I took. The pictures add up fast when you can take 6 per second!

i did it...

I just want to thank everyone for their generous comments and encouragements towards my attempts at photography. I'm really grateful that a couple of you let me do these other two photo shoots. I had a lot of fun doing them but also found myself pretty discouraged at the quality of the pictures, which ended up pushing me even one step closer to biting the bullet and getting a digital SLR camera. The justification process is complete and my new camera is on it's way! I can't believe how excited I am. I really have to thank Sam for not letting me give up on this. I have to tease him though. I keep telling him that the only reason he kept pushing me to spend this kind of money on myself was so that I wouldn't have anything on him the next time he wanted a big toy. I am definitely only teasing, he has genuinely wanted me to do this for a long time. I ended up getting a canon 50d SLR camera. It's definitely way more than I can handle at this point, especially since the only thing I know about cameras is how to push the button that takes the picture. It's intimidating how much there is to learn, but i'm actually finding myself to be very excited about learning about this camera. Being a mom of toddlers is amazing and a challenge everyday but this is a whole different challenge that I'm ready to take on. I'm already learning a little about ISO's, apertures, different lenses, f/, sensor sizes, and whatever else... Anyway, if you can't tell, I'm just way excited about it all and now I need to make another offer for anyone who wants to let me try out my new camera on them. Hopefully I'll be getting it sometime this week.... man, it feels like i'm 10 again waiting for Christmas. Didn't realize how much I missed that feeling. I just want to thank everyone again for all the support. Your comments really have helped.

These pictures are some 'just-for-fun' prom pictures. She is so gorgeous and I can't believe the dess she found!

The following are some pictures of one of my friends two darling kids. I don't usually go crazy over babies, but this little guy is irresistable.

lucky stars!

So, we just got back from camping and Sam and I got to sleep out under the stars. One night the stars were more brilliant and bright then I had ever seen. I guess becuase it has been winter and I'm always rushing to get out of the cold, I hadn't really seen the stars in months. It was wonderful just taking them in. There are so many, and I remembered being a little girl and being sure that if I had enough ambition I could count them all, but that night as I lay there looking at them I knew there was no way I could count them all. I began thinking of the events of just a week before. For those of you who don't know, Sam was in a serious accident just over a week ago. The stars definitely seem a little brighter after something like that. We've all heard the saying, 'I thank my lucky stars', and that is all we've been saying this past week is how lucky we are. (when i say lucky, i most definitely mean blessed) Looking at the stars that night and thinking of the lucky ones in my life especially the most recent ones, really made me want to at least try to count them. Like the stars I saw the other night, sometimes in your life it really seems like there are way too many to count, but like any little kid, it's some how important to try.

Lucky star #1: Sam, the number one most important person in my life, is alive!

Lucky star #2: Sam was wearing his seatbelt, he saw the car lose control on a curve ahead of him and gave him time to slow down and move to the side of the road before they lost control again and slammed into him head on.

Lucky star #3: He was in the middle of no where, but he was taking a couple guys out to a job in Navajo Mtn. so they were following him. They came up on the wreck and were able to be there for him when other help was an hour away. Most people that stopped just wanted to find a way around the wreckage without 'hurting their new tires' as they were looking at my husband trapped in the truck, or that that they were just going to a buddy's house and couldn't turn around and try to find a way to call 911. It gave me so much comfort to know that Josh, my cousin's husband, and his friend were there for Sam, when there was literally no one else.

Lucky star #4: Sam was driving his work truck and so he had tools and Josh was able to cut Sam out of the truck. He was stuck in there an hour as it was. If it weren't for Josh and those tools he would have been stuck for another hour at the very least.

Lucky star#5: I was out running around town with the girls in the bike trailer and didn't know anything that was going on. My cousin Ronnie is the boss of the 2 who were with Sam and so he heard about it right away. His wife Tammie had seen me running earlier and began to worry that I didn't know, so my cousin and his wife set out to find me. When they found me, Ronnie got out of the car and came over to me. They both looked pretty concerned and then Ronnie preceeded to tell me what had happened. He knew all the important details that I needed to know. If I had made it home and found out over the phone while I was alone, I would've definitely lost control. Something about the way he told me was very calming and reassuring. He told me he had been in an accident, but that he was walking and talking and that Josh was with him. He told me that he was going to be life flighted to Tuba City. My world definetly began to spin, but I still felt very grounded and comforted. They helped me get back home and did not leave me. Because of them and an unseen hand, I was able to stay stong and not lose it in front of the girls. It was so important to not scare the girls. I could not leave them like that.
Lucky star #6: Sam never takes the cell phone to work because there is no cell service in no mans land, but that day he had taken it. The minute I stepped in the door I called the cell phone. He didn't answer, but he called me right back. He sounded so good and strong. His voice wasn't shaky. That one phone call saved me. He told me a couple days later that it was all he could do to not lose it on the phone. I was so grateful that he was strong for me when I needed it the most. I had a four hour drive ahead of me just to get to the hospital they took him to. What was already going to be the longest 4 hrs of my life would have been even longer had he lost it on the phone.
Lucky star#7: Ronnie and Tammie's daughter Shayla, who is Josh's wife, absolutely saved the day. She stayed with my girls the whole time we were gone. I didn't have to juggle the girls from person to person. I tell you, that family was meant to be there for us. No body else could have just come to my house and stayed with them that long and she was so wonderful with them.
Lucky star#8: No hesitation what so ever, my mom got off work, picked me up and took me to Tuba City and we picked up my dad on the way. I'm so grateful my parents were there for me.

Lucky star#9: I am so lucky that Sam is so tough and was able to walk away after such an awful impact. I also know that he was protected by many. We always tease him about having such a hard head and it is that very hard head that saved him. On the way to Tuba City, I got a msg from Sam, telling us that they had found a skull fracture and wanted to transfer him to Flagstaff to be seen by a neurosurgeon. I was reassured that he was fine and that it was just a precaution. I was scared but was once again comforted that everything would be okay. This added another 75 miles to our journey but I was going to be able to make it to Tuba City before they transfered him.
Lucky star#10: Made it to Sam. Gave him a big hug and then we laughed and cried together.
Lucky star#11: A friend from Monticello just happened to be traveling through there, stopped at the hospital, and was able to help my dad give Sam a blessing. He also had a camera, so the hospital pictures are from him. I was really bummed that I had forgotten my camera.
Lucky star#12: Sam was taken care of by great doctors, nurses and EMT's. Sam had a lot of fun joking around with them all. I'm very grateful for the neurosurgeon who took care of him in Flagstaff. He was a lot of fun and I trusted him. It was really nice to have a surgeon sew up his head because he really knew what he was doing and it was a big comfort to me. The gash in his head was to the skull and required many different layers of different types of stiching. They kept him just for one night to make sure he was okay. He was diagnosed with an open skull fracture that runs from the top of his head down into the orbit of his eye. You can see why the word lucky has been used so many times in the last week and a half. I bought him a little white bear that we call the good luck bear and he sits on our bed as our little reminder.
Lucky star#13: Either he is just being tough or he's been blessed not to have significant pain. From the time of the wreck until now he has only taken a little motrin.
Lucky Star #14: Living in this community with so many close friends and family is very lucky! We received so many concerned phone calls and people offering meals left and right. We were well looked after. Sam also got an extremely thoughtful gift basket delivered to him by all of his family up north.
Lucky star #15: A week after the wreck we found out Sam had fracture in his knee. To me that is lucky because after seeing the truck and seeing how the dash was squished all the way into the seat, I was amazed that his legs weren't more seriously hurt.

I could truly, go on and on, but I'm sure I've gone on way too much already. I just feel overwhelmed with gratitude and really did want to 'thank my lucky stars'. It has been a very rough week for me but I too have been blessed with so many people looking after me. For the first few days everything scared me and worried me. Everytime I looked at him, it brought horrible flashes of an awful reality that could have been. I knew everything would be okay but I still struggled. Then there were little things like I was petrified for the first time he sneezed, worried that he'd crack his head open more. He is not suppose to blow his nose for a month, so a sneeze can't be good. I was afraid of every car on the road, thinking they would come in our lane. But through all that, I also knew that I couldn't live in fear. I already feel so much better thanks to the support of Sam and so many others. We learn and grow so much through every little and huge thing we go through. Thank you every one for letting me share!