little red's last photos

the last time i got to use my red nikon was during my first trip to the ivins' ranch in colorado. then i lost little red in a giant field.



a few days later, when whitnie found it, it no longer worked. probably because it was surrounded by really nasty cow poop.



luckily, the memory card was still fine, so here are a few of the final photos from that very chaotic day.

come with me on a little journey into the not-so-distant past.....

about three weeks ago my friend, crystal, called and invited me to go to colorado with her. she was going to drop ridge off at the ivins' cabin for a few days. we were just planning on driving out there, eating dinner, and driving home. it should have taken about 7 hours of our afternoon. well, the minute we got there, it started raining.



steph warned crystal that her new car would get stuck down the eternally long drive if she didn't drive out to where the gravel road was. so, we hopped back into the car and super-driver-crystal slipped and slided for miles down the icky clay road.

just when we were within about a hundred yards of the gravel road, the car slid off the rutted road and got stuck in a ditch. luckily the airbags didn't deploy. i was so scared.



once the guys with their big trucks got it pulled out of the muddy ditch,



we went out to help (and by help, i mean watch) them build a new fence in a giant field. justin told everyone what needed to be done, and i took some photos of everyone working hard.



steph took a few of me pretending to work hard.



then i made crystal go on a four-wheeler ride with me through the giant field. on that ride, her cell phone fell out of her pocket and we spent about an hour looking for it before someone could get to another phone to call it. dayton heard it ringing. i was glad i didn't have a cell phone to lose.

it wasn't until we arrived back at the cabin that crystal pointed out the empty camera case hanging from my back pocket. dang. and you can't really call a camera. it was a sad day.



and to top it off, the fall into the ditch caused the car to shimmy and shake all the way home. that was not a fun trip to the mechanic's for crystal. needless to say, the trip took a bit more than 7 hours.

three weeks later, crystal, her two sons, and i piled into their dad's truck and headed back out to the ranch. his truck must have brought us good luck, because as far as i know, we didn't lose anything. well, except for self-confidence...i got yelled out a lot because i know NOTHING about being a cowboy or playing mormon rummy or eating with dirty hands and justin liked to remind me of that as often as he could. i guess he's just paying me back for holding him down while someone else poured kool-aid powder down his throat in the second grade. geez justin, hold a grudge long?



* these last two photos were not taken by little red, they are of justin and me when we were in 2nd grade. at this age i didn't care if my hands were dirty when i ate, i knew how to play all the important games, and i would have loved to chase cows all day. now i'm a wimp.