It was so great to see Peit Mondrian’s work in person, his Composition C (no. iii) with Red, Yellow and Blue from 1935 in person. I loved being able to get the close up of his signature. I’ve studied many of the pieces that I saw in person over my years in college, I’ve seen them all in books before. But to see their signature, where it’s written in imperfect writing was pretty cool to me. I loved seeing that the lines of the art weren’t perfect, that there were areas of imperfection in this art that seems so perfect to me. I saw Monet’s Water Lilies that was painted sometime after 1916 and it was beautiful and I was surprised at how large the piece was. I was able to see the striking work of Ellsworth Kelly’s Mediterannee from 1952, a large impressive color blocked piece (2 images up). Josef Albers works (seen directly above) from 1964 were pieces that I had studied in my Color Theory classes and it was so cool to turn the corner into a gallery and see these works that I remembered. The white on white sculpture from Ben Nicholson from 1936 was one that I wasn’t familiar with, but I loved the simplicity of it. The large sculpture from Henri Laurens (second image) from 1948 was also quite impressive and one that I hadn’t seen before. Seeing the Cage series from Gerhard Richter from 2006 was very cool. I loved the massive size of the paintings and the texture of his work and the colors he chose were some of my favorites (the large square painting able with the close up image below of the brushstrokes).

Overall, it was a great visit to the museum and after I finished walking through the rain was coming down so hard that I decided to eat a late lunch in the cafe to wait out the storm. After I finished eating I headed out across the Millenium pedestrian bridge to St. Paul’s Cathedral where I picked up the bus tour again and headed back towards our hotel.

I loved seeing all the Royal Parks, I can’t remember which park this one is but I thought the couple walking away on the path was so cute. The weather wasn’t great for our trip – a lot like Seattle weather, really – so I didn’t wander through many parks on my own.

This image below shows the security along the top of the walls at the Queen’s private gardens. It was fun to ride along side the walls and get little glimpses into her gardens. I know we aren’t seeing anything that she doesn’t want us to see, but it’s fun to get a little peek. The building behind the wall is where some of her garden staff lives, I believe.

Once I saw the stop for St. Paul’s I got off the bus and started wandering inside. I explored the main floor, so wishing that photos were allowed inside, and took in all of the beautiful architecture. It’s still amazing to me to be able to be inside these buildings that I studied in school. I then decided it was time to climb the steps up to the Whispering Gallery which is inside at the base of the dome some 257 steps from the Cathedral floor. Once there I could look down to the floor below (again, wishing I could take a photo) and since I was alone, I didn’t have someone to go across the dome to whisper at me, but I could hear others doing so and it was pretty cool. Another 119 steps up…and not so relaxing steps as the previous ones…and I was at the stone gallery which is outside at the base of the exterior dome. Here it was a bit windy and rainy, but I was able to get some great images of the view. Then it was time for the next set of stairs. These were not my favorite at all. These were steep iron spiral stairs with treads smaller than my feet and open risers. There were 152 of these steps and I was clutching the railing every step of the way. Once at the top I was at the Golden Gallery which is again outside and here it was quite windy and rainy and the space was quite small. Here I decided to keep my big camera in my bag and just use my phone. The images below are from my big camera at the Stone Gallery level.

After the long way back down all of the steps (some areas of the descent were some very steep stone steps where I was actually shoulder to shoulder in the narrow stairwell) I decided to head down to the crypt and see some of the tombs, including Christopher Wren’s tomb (the architect of St. Paul’s). After I had visited all of the tombs that I wanted to see, I headed up and out of the Crypt and went out to take some photos of the outside of the cathedral. You can see from these images below that the weather was still pretty stormy, but it wasn’t to bad as I went to get myself a sandwich and sat on the benches near the green rectangle that can be seen in the above image to eat my lunch and watch the little school children play after their parents had picked them up from school.

After St. Paul’s I hopped back on the bus and headed towards Big Ben and Parliment to meet Jarrod after work. We got on the river cruise (part of our hop-on-hop-off bus tour ticket) and toured the River Thames until the Tower of London stop. We have both toured that site before, so we hopped on the bus to Trafalgar Square and then took a walk to find a great place to eat near Covent Gardens.

I’m not sure if you know this about me or not…but I take a lot of photos. My mom takes a lot of photos, my dad is a big camera and photo guy, so it’s pretty much in my genes. I take a bunch of photos. When I was going through my photos from this trip, I broke my images down into days and events (it seems like I did more full day outings this trip) and will post accordingly…we were there for a week, so that’s a lot of photos

We arrived Sunday morning in London and took a taxi to our hotel. We were exhausted after flying all night, but knew that we needed to get out and see some sights and not sleep if we wanted to beat jet lag. I had heard about Camden Markets from a friend who had just been to London a week or so earlier, so we made that our first stop. We decided to walk and headed out from out hotel near Marble Arch through Regents Park and on to Camden Town and first came upon the Camden Locks…one of my must see spots on my list.

We then wandered into Camden Markets and got lost in the people and the booths and the shops. We had a great time people watching and checking things out and when we realized that we probably needed to head out and try and find our way back to the hotel we couldn’t find a way back out of the winding pathways lined with shops. We eventually made it out and began walking back towards our hotel in search of a bus tour stop. We finally found one and headed back to the hotel for a quick dinner before heading to sleep.

Yesterday was a great day – I made red velvet chocolate chip pancakes for the kiddos (and didn’t eat any!) in the morning and then sent the kiddos off to school. My younger two had the typical Valentine’s Day parties in their classrooms, but as a sixth grader my oldest got to go to the 6th grade Valentine’s Day dance. And so did I (as a photographer for the teachers/parents…with the ok from my son). Ouch. I wasn’t ready for that even a little bit. I knew that the gym would be decorated. But I didn’t know what a great job the committee would do. I knew the kids would be dressed up. But I didn’t realize how grown up they would all look. I knew I might be a bit emotional about the whole thing. But I really didn’t know he’d grown up so much. When did that happen? Where has the time gone? How did my sweet son get to be a sixth grader dancing with girls? I am so glad I was able to be there and so glad that he didn’t have a problem with his mom being there Sometimes you just love your kids so much it hurts. Yesterday was one of those days.

A quick photo from my instagram stream from the dance before the room was invaded by sixth graders.

As for me and healthy eating…last night’s dinner and the peanut m&ms didn’t qualify, but that’s ok. I wanted to share some of my resources that I go to for my healthy eating ideas and recipes. I struggle a lot with eating clean some of the time vs all of the time (I tend to be an all or nothing girl, so finding a happy medium is pretty tricky for me) The more I read about keeping chemicals out of the mouths of my kids and loved ones, the more I feel that eating clean is the only way to be…but after a long 2 day swim meet I struggle saying no to a quick stop at McDonalds or something along those lines. Here are my top 5 resources for trying to get this Owens home on the healthy track.

1 | I found this blog very early in my journey into clean eating. The Gracious Pantry is a fabulous blog with tons of great recipes and so many wonderful tips and ideas. I make her Banana Muffins quite a bit and the kids (even the picky little one) loves them!

2 | Another great blog with great images and really yummy recipes is the Skinnytaste blog.

3 | This blog is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I think she has some great articles and some awesome tips (and check out her kids lunch posts, too!) 100 Days of Real Food.

4 | Another great blog – especially for moms with school kids – is This Lunch Rox.  I’m a sucker for pretty pictures (the author is a photographer) and great packaging/presentation, so this blog really speaks to me. I have my kids make their own lunches, so they aren’t as pretty as hers, but I do use many of the ideas and tips in the checklists that I give my kids for making their own lunches. I also sit down with my kids and some of the lunch images from this blog and the blog above to get their feedback on what they might want to pack in their lunches.

5 | Pinterest is an amazing resource. If you aren’t already on Pinterest, you need to be. I have a board dedicated to healthy eating on my pinterest account and I pin to it regularly. One of the great things about pinterest is that you can follow a person and all of their boards or just follow one or two of a person’s boards. I will often do a search for clean or healthy eating on pinterest and find additional boards that are very follow-worthy.

Since I posted my health challenge last month (man, time flies) I’ve been plugging along. I’m doing what I can to eliminate processed foods from the home (that one is fairly easy) but struggling on the weekends and those days that are exceptionally busy around this house. I’ve been keeping a journal and each Sunday as I do my menu planning and grocery list I write up a few things that I need to concentrate on for the week ahead.

This week’s goals:

Those first five steps in my health challenge are really where I need to buckle down.

1 | We really are pretty good compared to where we started, but there are some things that are tough for us to let go of in the whole processed foods department. My bagels. My pita bread. Taco shells. Taco seasoning. Yogurt (the yogurt I eat). We do have lunchmeat (but it’s the least scary one that I could find). My laughing cow cheese wheels I’m not sure are as healthy as they could be. My bagels are a staple in my everyday meal selection but I’m looking at staying with my recent switching out of that bagel for a piece of my very favorite bread that is really rather healthy (utah locals, if you aren’t eating this bread, you should try it!)…so far so good, the calories are a bit lower and it is actually more filling.

2 | I have meal idea lists that I have posted for my kids for when they make their breakfasts and lunches. The lists are posted above their daily checklists so that when they come running to me asking for a snack I can just direct them to the lists. In general I think we are all pretty good at following those guidelines.

3 | The water issue, however, is hard for me. I’ve been able to eliminate that dreaded cherry coke that I adore so much but have replaced it with coke zero and am definitely not getting in my recommended amounts of water in each day. My older two kids are great about this, but I need to get my youngest son to cool it with the Crystal Light and for me to nix the soda.

4 | Enlist my family and friends…I’m actually pretty good there, just need to make better weekend choices on eating out. I’m also on myfitnesspal if anyone else is as well, and I use a fitbit.

5 | Checking the sugar content in foods should be almost a non issue once the overly processed foods are out of the house. I’m really pretty good about the groceries that we buy for this task, it’s the eating out that really hurts me with this one.

I’m also being very diligent about my menu planning and my grocery list. I use a planner from Crystal Wilkerson that I love, it’s been a huge help!

The Big Owens Peanut Butter Debate

Peanut butter is something that we go through pretty quickly at our house. It used to be something that I hated and therefore didn’t eat, but the kids and the hubby loved and ate it by the jarful. I didn’t really know any better and just would buy whichever of those 2 big brands was on sale for the week in both creamy and crunchy and they would be devoured. Then I started eating peanut butter when I started following certain meal plans and once I started looking closer at the labels (I wasn’t a label reader before I decided to try and eat clean) I decided to go back the the good old peanut butter standard that I used to eat when I was little. Adams Natural Peanut Butter. But that’s where the debate started. Right there on the label it says to refrigerate the peanut butter. So I did. Hubby told me not to, but I can be a bit of a rule followers, so hubby would have to microwave it to warm it up to eat it. He hated it. Kids stopped eating peanut butter. So then I saw the so called Natural versions of those big two brands and saw that they didn’t contain any ingredients that I couldn’t pronounce, so I went that route and everyone was happy again. Then I started paying more attention to the sugar content in the foods we were eating and told hubby we needed to go back to the refrigerated kind. He said that was just fine, but that we could not refrigerate it. What??? And not follow the rules? He said that was crazy, so when we got home I got out the jar to show him where it said that it must be refrigerated. It wasn’t there. But I couldn’t just not refrigerate it. He wouldn’t give in, I wouldn’t give in. I tried looking on their website and couldn’t really get a concrete answer. So I decided to call Adams and present them with our debate. And the woman that answered the phone laughed at me. And then comforted me in telling me that she has to answer this question daily. And then proceeded to tell me that my husband was correct. So it’s a win win – I get my healthier peanut butter and he get’s peanut butter that isn’t ice cold.

And for those of you in Utah that might be up for a fun event: I decided to sign up for my third sprint tri for this spring: Women of Steel. I did the event last year and I’m not sure I’m looking forward to it yet, but I’m glad that I bit the bullet and just did it. Anyone else?

2 | happy is my one little word for 2013 (see above)

3 | this weight loss and healthy eating and exercising thing isn’t as fun as I’d hoped…look for a post on monday about that nonsense

4 | no more cable television in the house is confusing to the little ones…takes some getting used to, but it’s surprisingly freeing

5 | just keep swimming…the little is getting some time at the big meets these days and he’s having so much fun getting to join in with his older brother and sister

The photo below reminds me of my mom and the trips we would take up to her sister’s cabin and walk through the woods…she would always comment on all of the moss that was growing on the trees and all around the paths. So, mom…here’s some moss for you

This last shot above is one of my favorites from the morning. If you’re still needing to get your fall portraits done, don’t hesitate to get on the schedule. There is limited availability in mini sessions and there are also some weekday slots open, but they are filling up fast!

A new option for sessions with carrieowens|photography has arrived. Studio minis here in my home studio by appointment provide clients with an opportunity to capture milestones and other great times that may not otherwise call for a full session. The sessions last anywhere from 20-30 minutes and are available for children over 6 months only (it is best of they are able to sit up on their own). Your private online gallery will contain 10-30 of the best images we get during our session and then you simply choose your favorite 10 images and you will receive a disc to print at your leisure. These sessions are only available for 1 to 3 people. Please email or call for availability.

I just love this first image of my little one…those big brown eyes and eyelashes…love him so much.