Light Study of Spanish Moss at Aunt Linda's

We spent an evening at Aunt Linda's house enjoying the scenery, canoeing, and eating fancy food.  Here are some of the shots I took at her house.  I love the way the Spanish Moss catches the light.

These lillypads are apparently protected by the state.  The lake behind Aunt Linda's house was filled with them.  There is lots of little animals flopping around under these things.  Here I am taking pictures because that's how I do. :)

Marisa and I went canoeing and it was really tranquil and relaxing.  Even through all the peace I was stratagizing how I would beat up an alligator with my paddle if the moment called for it.  You gotta be prepared right?

Hanging out at the house was fun.  I just stuffed my face full of tomato, basil, goat cheese dip with pine nuts on it amongst other things. yumm.

 Back to the picture taking (these are all in her back yard)

 Ooooooo! sunset!  It just goes to show you that God is the best artist of them all.

Tampa University

So you already heard I went to Florida to visit Grammy and Papa.   Since I was wearing my winter coat already in Maryland I highly underestimated how warm it would be when I went down there.  So I started to sweat in my leather boots and sweaters wishing I brought shorts and a swim suit.  Luckily Aunt Linda came to the rescue and got me a pair of flip flops.  I know, I know, rookie mistake.  Next time I go down I will be all the wiser.

So the first thing that we did when we went down there was go to Tampa University because they got some pretty sweet architecture going on, and that's where I took all of these pictures.  My Papa is a master photographer and he basically made the whole vacation a gigantic photo trip (which is sweet for me cuz I love that stuff) complete with his 1:1 advice.  I am going to engrain them into my skull forever.

 It is such a beautiful place!

My little morning dove

similar?

update & Maren's family

It has been so long since I have posted anything.  I have been procrastinating because I am overwhelmed thinking about (but am exited about) the thousands of pictures on my camera right now ( I have lots of cool ones from Florida) and the hours I will spend touching them up and organizing them on the computer that I haven't even started.  A couple years ago that would be no biggie but now that I am a mama who works PT, babysits a baby who is on the opposite sleep schedule of Ellie which makes no free nap time, and trying to maintain contact with friends and family so I have kinda left pictures on the back burner.  But I will do it, it's just a little intimidating.  So look forward to it but it may just be one photo at a time, spanning for many, many years.  haha!

What I haven't found intimidating is drowning my cares away via Assassin's Creed III.  There is something really stress relieving about killing Redcoats and being a stealthy bad-A at 2:00 in the morning (but don't tell McKay that's how late I stay up).  I'm pretty good at hanging them from the trees, shooting them from the bushes, landing on them from the top of a building, or starting an all out  blatant assault on them.  I love it.  

While I was in in Utah my sister in law asked me if I would take pictures of her family.  Here are her pics.  I really love to take family pictures outside.  The bright light  makes everything so crisp but in this case it was a little too bright.  Even though clouds covered the sky and snow was falling it was very hard to keep your eyes open.  

until next time...

Christmas card this year

Flourishing Holiday Holiday Card

Elegant holiday invitations for your friends and family.

View the entire collection of cards.

I'm really not trying to copy you

Sorry Stephanie C.  I'm really not trying to copy you, but guess where I went! Crazy huh we were probably there at the same time.  I was visiting my grandparents though.  More pictures to come in a few days!

Goodbye west

Here's a picture of our rental car.  Pretty sweet huh?  It was a free upgrade and I think they are just compensating for the amount of gas that you put into the car. It was really fun though and you can get up to speed very quickly.  I could get used to something like this. :)



We spend a couple days with Scott and Julianns family and here is Manee in my jacket.  I think it looks pretty good on her. She is so cool.  We loved spending time with them and the other brothers and sisters.  Our only regret is not having enough time.

Ellie hadn't been getting very much rest on our trip, probably due to the unfamiliar environment and her two front teeth coming in .  Luckily on the flight home the airplane carrier let us take her carseat on the plane b/c they had extra seats and she sat there and slept the whole trip.  What a miracle.

Goodbye Salt Lake Valley!