Mountains, Memories and Butterflies

One time I dressed up in my wedding dress, brought along my awesome wedding high heels, got in the car with my mom (who had just undergone port surgery for chemo) and my fiancé, and met up with our awesome photographer to take bridal/groomal photos on basically the last day of beautiful autumn leaves in 2010.  The next day it snowed, and all  the beautiful leaves started falling off of the trees. But we hiked up the beautiful canyon behind the Bountiful Temple in our wedding best, posed on dirty logs, dragged my dress through the dirty ground, and even stood in the middle of a waterfall.  We were brave.  And we got some truly gorgeous pictures.

Even though my mom was pretty fussy about making sure that my dress was laying the right way, or that my veil looked just right, or that I was smiling like a normal human- and her incessant fussiness was obviously bothering the photographer- I'm glad that she came.  It's hard for me to believe, in hind sight, that she was willing to hike through the mountains the day after surgery just to be there for my bridal photos.  

Fast forward two and a half years...

I found this cute idea on pintrest and sort of fell in love with it. 

 And since Nathan just got a new fancy camera for Fathers Day, he was excited for us to go back to our picture spot and reenact our favorite engagement photo.  

So yesterday afternoon, we drove back up to the spot, hiked my practically 6 month pregnant self back up the mountain in the hot hot sun, set up the new camera on a music stand that I conveniently had in the back of the car, and DIY'd some photos.  

It's not quite the right angle, and definitely not the same season, but we had a good time trying to make this shot work. For as long as I can remember, any time my mom described what she thought life would be like after death, she described us all signing up for committees in heaven- like the committee to design beautiful sunsets, or the committee to inspire beautiful music.  She said the committee she was excited to join in heaven would be the committee to keep butterflies beautiful.  Ever since she has been gone, every time a butterfly flits around nearby, I can't help but think of my mom fulfilling her committee duties in heaven, keeping the butterflies here on earth beautiful for us.  As Nathan and I were messing around, trying to align the trees in the frame just right or get posed before the self timer went off, a beautiful orange butterfly spent some time hanging out close to us.  

And it seemed appropriate that she would be near by.