We drove from California to Utah in twelve hours. That is neither legal, nor does it set any records, as others have made it faster. Chris drove the first three hours. At this point my stomach woke up enough to realize that I was being driven somewhere, and we had to pull over so I could throw up at a McDonald’s. I was blessed with a public restroom that had just been cleaned, so it wasn’t that bad. You must understand, I have an overactive nausea center. I get carsick, airsick, seasick, front porch swing sick. It takes very little to upset my tummy, and although I would usually take some Dramamine, being pregnant, it isn’t allowed.

Once we ate breakfast, I got behind the wheel of the car where I stayed from Reno to Sandy, Utah. I will admit that my average speed was 90 miles an hour. My international readers with their lack of speed limit are thinking, “whatever” at this fact; my father is apoplectic. The fact is, I drove through Nevada. There is nothing to run into in Nevada. NOTHING. I go off the road between Reno and Salt Lake City and the worst thing I’m going to hit is sagebrush. Now, I grew up in North Dakota, so I know flat. However, if you run off the road in North Dakota you’re going to at least have a Holstein or a hay bale or a crop of sunflowers and a ticked off farmer to contend with. In Nevada, your best shot is maybe bumping a roadside casino every hundred miles, and even that is a gamble at best.

There is nothing to see or hit on Interstate-80, including other vehicles, so you may as well just put the pedal down and get there. After five years of California driving, where the average speed is 85, 90 mph wasn’t that big of a deal.

We arrived in Sandy and got to stay at my sister in law’s house. Cindy and Allan are some seriously super cool relatives, some of my top favorite’s on the Killian side, and we very much enjoyed hanging out at their place and recovering from the really long drive. I love their house. It is sparsely decorated and set up to be very functional, as they are both very busy people. The kids can run around like wild horses and be free. Then they can sit down and play Sonic Heroes until their little brains rot right out of their heads. Jonas was in heaven. He only gets to play educational games at our house, so this was forbidden fruit.

My favorite thing about their house is the back office. It is a long room with windows set from the ground to about my shoulder. It lets in some of the most gorgeous light I have ever seen. Every time I walk in there I start setting up a photography studio in my head. For those of you not acquainted with light as it pertains to photography, let me explain. There is adequate light, inadequate light, harsh light, florescent light, these are all common, and can work to take a decent shot if you know what you’re doing. But natural, beautiful, filtered perfect light is rare, and it makes for exquisite conditions capturing real colors without fading or overexposing your subject.

I didn’t have much time, but I had to play at least a little bit before we continued our trip the next morning and these are what I got. No tweaking on these photos at all. That is what gorgeous natural light does. People look so real.