Personal
May was so much fun around here! We were finally able to really enjoy being outside! We started exploring even more. We found some really fun places to go! My mom came to visit and we had our first outings to the lake where the girls could actually go swimming!
May:
April started while we were still in Tucson. We finished up our trip and headed back to Colorado. Lilian had her Girl Scout Ceremony, her birthday and TONS of birthday visitors from out of state! April was a pretty wonderful month!
March was a really fun month. I think we really started to find our groove here in Colorado. We really started to make some friends and the weather was nice on some days so we could even leave the house and begin exploring! Towards the end of the month the girls and I went to Tucson so Lu could spend spring break with her father.
March:
So I am beyond behind in blogging my 366 images! So here I am playing catch up! I haven't been posting consistently to my Facebook so here you can see all go my images! Shooting this for myself has been the best thing I have ever done. It has really opened my eyes and made me change my perspective so I don't have the same image day by day! Are you working on a 366? I actually have no plans of ever stopping shooting daily.. I am really excited to see how long I document daily!
Here is February in pictures!
Just a small recap of our year so far. This month I decided to just blog my favorite images of the month. I think from here on out though I will be blogging my entire month :)
Like I said, September was a really busy month. We had this crazy idea that we would go to Disneyland THREE days after Luke got home from his month long trip. We all had 1 day left on our 3 day tickets so we decided not to waste them! We sent Lilian to school on Monday morning, packed up the car and picked her up from school. Then we just left. We told her not to ask questions about where we were going or how long it was going to take. About 3 hours into our trip the girls were hungry and our food choices were limited so we stopped at McDonalds and prayed no ones stomach would get upset on the way (no issues thankfully). We somehow convinced Lilian that McDonalds was her special treat.. and oddly enough she was totally ok with that.. shows you how frequently she gets McDonalds... haha. She did ask why we had to drive for 3 hours just to go to McDonalds because we have one less than a mile from our house, we just told her this one tasted better. We hopped back in the car and continued West. We arrived in Anaheim around 10:30pm, we told her we got lost and had to stop at a hotel cause we were tired. In the morning we all got up, got dressed and went for a walk. She did notice that all the buses said 'Disneyland' but it didn't even phase her. We walk in the entrance and were walking to the gate where they check bags/strollers and we had her read a sign.. her response.. "This does NOT look like Disneyland..." It wasn't the the super excited reaction we were hoping for but when she got to the main gate she really got excited.
We spent our day doing whatever she wanted, we utilized fast passes and stroller passes (this is super awesome for those with little ones that can't ride the rides and a parent has to stay behind!! When you go on a ride ask for a stroller pass and they let you return at another time with up to 3 people and use the fast pass lane. Lilian got to ride all of the big rides twice, once with me and once with Luke). We had a mid-morning Character Breakfast with Minnie and Friends (SUPER AMAZING) The food was great, and it was a buffet so we ate enough for breakfast and lunch. Lilian declared the Matterhorn her favorite ride this time! Last time it was a tie between Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. It seems like she has a thing for Mountains. Ultimately we had a blast, there was zero stress and it was a just overall an amazing day! I also didn't strive to document our entire day like last time, I took roughly 200 shots on our entire trip. Most were with characters too.
September was busy! We started the month off without Luke, and were counting down the days until he was home again. You can tell in this blog that we had a reoccurring theme in our summer this year. WATER!! Seriously, water was involved whenever it was possible. Pools, Splash pads, Sprinklers.. you name it we used it and it was such a blast! Sorry for the huge share this month. We also snuck in another trip to Disneyland but that will be a blog on it's own.
At the beginning of the month we has a BBQ at my step-sisters house. The girls loved playing and swimming with their cousins. The next day we went to my aunt and uncles house and swam there. A few day's later, Lilian's sister Charlotte came over for a visit and we played in the splash pad. So much water!! It seemed like it rained all the time.. I played with some long exposures and got some "ghost" Arias. I also found out that I love taking photos of Aria's little tiny feet... All in all it was a good month. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me when we picked Luke up from the airport, it was a bit anticlimactic anyway. But they sure were glad to have him home. Aria didn't leave his side for days. So here are my images, enough with my rambling.. :)
Wow!! It's been a long time since I have edited my own personal images. I just knocked out August and September!! August was a pretty rough month for me, personally. Luke was scheduled to leave for work [again] at the end of the month, and I had some personal things going on with our move and custody stuff with my oldest. Thank goodness everything worked out great! Lilian started SECOND GRADE!! HOLY MOLY! The first two sets of images are from her first week of school. Her dad had her on the first day and I drove across town to be there with her as she joined second grade, but sadly she arrived right before the bell rand (and she got to ring it too!!!) so I only had time to snap a few photos. The 2nd set of images is on her first day of school with me (actually 2nd day of literal school) and we did our standard 'first day' photos.
The girls and I stayed busy busy busy. We went to the pool as often as we possible could and also made a trip to the Childrens Museum Tucson. We always have such a blast there... but I will admit this was the very first time I have taken them to the Children's museum together, on my own. It was alright.. It could have been worse. The problem is they both want to do different things and I don't trust Lilian (or other people) to go off on her own yet. The trip ended with a huge tantrum.. and not by Aria, which resulted in us skipping Ice Cream at the HUB and heading straight home. Luke left at the end of the month and we started counting down the days [weeks] until he was home with us again.
“The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies.” - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Last week my husband went away for work for a week so the day he left we went and cooled off with my aunt and uncle and took advantage of the pool in their neighborhood. Lilian was working on diving, Aria was working on well... being a toddler in a pool. We have been working with her on flipping to her back in the water and this day she finally did it! I was super proud of her! I really love documenting my family and finding beauty in the everyday things in our lives. It wasn’t until relatively recently where I discovered how much I love documentary photography, and by recently I mean in the past year or so. I rarely picked up my camera in our home because it was always cluttered or a little bit of a mess and then one day I just did it. Who care if my house is a mess or I have a pile of laundry on my couch.. this is my life and it is so beautiful! Now there is rarely a day where I don’t pick up my camera. I take it everywhere with me. My kids will definitely have a wonderful story to share with their kids when they grow up.. Speaking of that, do yourself a favor and take some time and print your images from the past year. I am really excited for our move to Denver Colorado later this year and I will be changing my business to a Full Service, Print and Product based business model.
If you're interested in a Documentary Family Session I have some availability before we make our big move!
Last week we went on a small vacation with Luke's parents and Sister to Disneyland. We had a pretty magical time and we can't wait to go back again. Here is a very small glimpse into our time over in The Most Magical Place on Earth.
