We're gonna rock, we're gonna roll, we're gonna bop, we're gonna bowl! Yes, Grease 2, that's exactly the kind of geek that I am. And now that I have outed myself, if I can find a way to work Cool Rider into a post later on you know that I will!
The lighting in the bowling alley was terrible and I didn't have a flash so I just took a few snaps. The main thing that everyone needs to know is that I wiped the floor clean with all 3 of the guys and emerged victorious!!
The lighting in the bowling alley was terrible and I didn't have a flash so I just took a few snaps. The main thing that everyone needs to know is that I wiped the floor clean with all 3 of the guys and emerged victorious!!
and at the end of our lovely days here, we see this from our living room. This is one of those moments when I wish I had a tripod.
It's official, July has begun and we're on vacation! I would have
blogged sooner but I have been busy decompressing...and it has been
great! I always work like a fiend in June getting myself ready to leave
for the month of July and this past June was no exception. So, here we
are on July 6th and I just now took my camera out of the bag.
We are spending the month of July in central California near Santa Barbara. The weather is amazing and I can see the Pacific Ocean out of all of the windows of the house. Today we spent the morning at Santa Barbara's botanical gardens. We were here the summer before last and loved it.
We weren't sure what to expect after the fires that ravaged the area recently (claimed 80 houses!). Nature is amazing though, everywhere where we saw fire damage we also saw new life sprouting up.
On some of the trees you could see where the fire just singed the edges.
I loved this little cactus. It looked like a little man with a hat on.
As
we were heading out, Finnian found a little snail crawling across the
path. I told him that he should rescue him and take him over by the
pond. He carried him carefully in his hands and then watched him for
about a half an hour, even kissing him goodbye when it was time to
leave.
For dinner we decided to put together a little picnic and head down to
the beach. Steven and Sayer boogie boarded and jumped the waves.
Finnian isn't so sure of the waves so he hung back with me. He wouldn't
even let go of my hand for the first half hour but slowly started to
ease in and warm up to it all. I showed him that we were on dry sand
and that meant that the waves weren't coming close. We were far away
from the waves really but he will still freaked. Before we left though
he was running around and even went into the water with Steven.
It was a great evening. The kids buried Steven in the sand, Sayer
buried Finn in the sand and they built a beach city out of driftwood.
The kids indulged me and let me take crazy pictures of them.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.
and then it got even better...
and then, as it always goes with these kinds of moments, it quickly
deteriorated into wrestling. What is it with boys and wrestling?!
happy family
Today we're headed to the playground and then bowling! Vacation rocks.
We are spending the month of July in central California near Santa Barbara. The weather is amazing and I can see the Pacific Ocean out of all of the windows of the house. Today we spent the morning at Santa Barbara's botanical gardens. We were here the summer before last and loved it.
We weren't sure what to expect after the fires that ravaged the area recently (claimed 80 houses!). Nature is amazing though, everywhere where we saw fire damage we also saw new life sprouting up.
On some of the trees you could see where the fire just singed the edges.I loved this little cactus. It looked like a little man with a hat on.As
we were heading out, Finnian found a little snail crawling across the
path. I told him that he should rescue him and take him over by the
pond. He carried him carefully in his hands and then watched him for
about a half an hour, even kissing him goodbye when it was time to
leave.
For dinner we decided to put together a little picnic and head down to
the beach. Steven and Sayer boogie boarded and jumped the waves.
Finnian isn't so sure of the waves so he hung back with me. He wouldn't
even let go of my hand for the first half hour but slowly started to
ease in and warm up to it all. I showed him that we were on dry sand
and that meant that the waves weren't coming close. We were far away
from the waves really but he will still freaked. Before we left though
he was running around and even went into the water with Steven.
It was a great evening. The kids buried Steven in the sand, Sayer
buried Finn in the sand and they built a beach city out of driftwood.
The kids indulged me and let me take crazy pictures of them.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.
and then it got even better...
and then, as it always goes with these kinds of moments, it quickly
deteriorated into wrestling. What is it with boys and wrestling?!
happy family
Julie says:
It looks like you guys are having fun. You take the best vaca pictures
(07.07.09 @ 12:29 PM)
Late last year Steven surprised me with a little mini vacation to San Francisco, which is one of my all time favorite cities. I blogged a few pictures of the trip while we were there. Once we got back into town I got caught up in the holiday rush madness and never managed to blog the others. So, today, we'll take a walk down memory lane to December of 2008...
We had an amazing view. It looked great both during the day and at night and was especially amazing this one afternoon after a rain. Isn't that rainbow incredible?
We spent most of our time walking. I love walking cities probably because Houston is NOT a walking city at all. In Houston, we spend all of our time in cars so strolling the streets of SF is a real treat. We did a bunch of shopping too. One of my favorite little shopping finds was in a little doggie boutique in the marina. Do you think I should have gotten these for our dogs, Phoebe and Milo? We could have even have a ceremony!
On our last day in town we took the trolley down to the marina and walked around. I was so excited to round a corner and find...an In N Out Burger!! I always look for In N Out burger when we go west and make a point to eat there at least once. I used to live in San Francisco and, when I lived there, they didn't have one. So, I made Steven stop and eat a double-double with me at 10:45 am. Yum!
You might think that we'd be alone at that hour at In N Out but no! Have you ever heard of Santa Con? It is one of the most hilarious and creative gatherings that I have heard of. There is also one called Santarchy. Just the word, Santarchy, makes me laugh out loud. The basic idea is that thousands of people gather together, dressed in their various interpretations of Santa-esque things, and walk through the city partying and drinking. They start early in the morning and end up all at one central spot where they party until the wee hours. Check out the links and you can witness the madness.
So, that fine morning in SF, the Santacon crew (or one group of them) had gathered at the In N Out for some sustenance to go with their "spirits". These guys were the "agents". I guess they helped keep everyone in line?
More Santacon highlights...
I'm hoping that Santacon has a gathering in Houston this year. If so, I'll be there with, um, I guess sleighbells on!
We just got back from a week in Phoenix at the Professional Photographers of America convention. It was great! I met a ton of new people and saw friends from all over the US. My head is filled with new ideas and inspiration and now I just have to sort it all out.
I received a national award this year for my marketing materials, which was a big honor. Every year the PPA puts on a marketing contest called the AN-NE awards. Last year I won for best website and this year the category that I won was called Image Marketing. Image marketing basically means how you market your entire studio image so it was a bunch of items that were all entered together. I was also a finalist for Best Individual Marketing Piece.It was my cute onesies that won that so if you have one, you have an award winning shirt! :)
I also got to see Anne Geddes speak about her life and work and get a book signed by her. Her talk was hugely inspirational for me as an artist. I'm not quite sure what I expected when I saw that she was speaking but I did not expect to be so moved, awed and inspired. She was humble, soft spoken and very eloquent. It was wonderful.
We were gone for 5 days and I was sick with missing my boys. The night that I got home we went to bed early, watched a movie and slept all snuggled up the whole night. It was perfect.
Thursday I was back at work bright and early. One of my long time clients, Karen, brought in her precious newborn twin boys. I have been really looking forward to meeting them. What a great way to start! Aren't they so sweet?
And one of my favorites from the session before I left for the convention...
Hope you all are having a good week and heading into an even better weekend!
One of my very favorite beaches in the world is Ocean Beach in San Francisco. It's foggy, often overcast and chilly. I know...not the things most people love about a beach. I used to live one block off that beach so I really came to love it. It helps that I am not the beach bunny type. My Irish roots make it so that I burn to a crisp really fast on most beaches. I always wanted to be tan in junior high. It was in vogue then but I couldn't ever pull it off, oh well...my skin is happier now for it.
Ocean Beach is fierce. The water is really cold and has lots of great white sharks swimming around in it. The rocks are jagged and the sand is dark. You can light fires on the beach in certain places too so you often see bits of burned wood in the sand. I'm reading what I just wrote and realize it may sound kind of scary to some people. It's not really. It's beautiful and powerful.
So, on day two of our trip to San Francisco, I woke up really early because of the time change. It was still dark outside and my very first thought was, let's go have coffee and watch the sun rise on Ocean Beach! Steven is an early riser so it didn't take too much convincing.
We sipped coffee and walked on the nearly empty beach for a while. It was so nice.
we stumbled on this...ah l'amour!
We weren't the only ones with the idea of enjoying the morning on the beach.
I shot these all with my new 90 mm tilt-shift lens. I love the lens! Looking for a new way to get creative with your photography? This lens is a fun way to do that.
Hope you guys are enjoying the new blog and the bigger images. Post a comment and let me know what you think!
Bren says:
Love, love, love the new blog. It's beautiful and so you! Really - it's awesome. Congrats!
(12.16.08 @ 10:21 PM)
Hay says:
Stunning! What a great layout, a beautiful place to showcase your art.
(12.17.08 @ 02:16 AM)
Julie Schultz says:
Love the new blog, the bigger pictures, the colors. It's so you.
(12.17.08 @ 07:02 AM)