My adorable niece Courtney is getting so big. We decided to do some portraits of her (and her best friends Ariel and Rosie) in the studio.
Wearing Auntie’s shoes
Faces….
July 29, 2009
October 24, 2008
Honeymoon in Death Valley…
After our annual Vegas trip with Michael’s company, we started out our honeymoon with a day trip heading out onto a back road in the mountains of Big Bear. Our dogs Odie & Kona came along for the ride – having somewhat deluxe accommodations in the back of my Xterra. We all had a great time exploring the Big Pine Flat Trail & the surrounding woods.
After a brief stop at home we packed our gear into Michael’s Tacoma and headed out to Death Valley and BLM land. We traveled through and camped for 3 days seeing the Trona Pinnacles (Star Trek and the Planet of the Apes were filmed here), the Ibex Dunes, Saratoga Springs, the Harry Wade Exit Trail & the Owlshead Mountains Trail. I’ve camped before but never in areas this remote before.
The stars in the night sky were amazing – you could actually see the Milky Way and the sunrise every morning took our breathe away. Breakfast cooked in a beat up skillet on a Coleman camping stove, sandwiches for lunch and soup cooked right in the can for dinner…. it was nice for things to be so simple and basic. My sweet husband even thought to get a pop up tent and shower pump for me. After warming water on the Coleman stove, I got a warm shower every morning.
So… we’re back at home – relaxed, inspired and ready for holiday portrait time. Thank you everyone for being so patient while we took this much needed vacation. Here are a few photos from our trip. 
Odie and Kona ready to hit the road
Kona walks herself down a trail
A little creek in the Big Bear Mountains
Michael with Odie & Kona
Sunrise in Death Valley
Abandoned car
Saratoga Springs – yup… it’s in the middle of the desert
Wild Donkeys – they even stopped to pose for us 
Ibex Dunes
Us
Yup – even photographers do the one armed self portrait at times.
March 18, 2008
New Orleans…
My best friend Traci asked me when Michael and I got engaged what I wanted to do for my ‘bachelorette’ party. Since I’m not too big into parties I told her that I wanted to spend a weekend hanging out with her in New Orleans. I’ve been dying to go for years and finally we did it. Mmmmm – I miss the beignets already.
Bourbon Street
Street Performers
Musicians – Steamboat Willie
The Royal Street Jug Band
Cool Old Cemeteries
And of course our one splurge… brunch at Commander’s Palace. Not only did the food look fantastic but it tasted amazing!
Traci bought this funky pair of ’sunglasses’ made from forks from a shop on Royal Street. She’s going to use it has a head band instead but was kind enough to model them for me as sunglasses first. LOL
February 27, 2008
Another Great Tease…
Amy & JP of AJs Studio in Vancouver Washington have given us yet another tease of images from our wedding – this time in the form of a slide show. Check it out on their blog – www.theshuttermonkey.com. It’s an amazing look at our big day.
Amy & JP hard at work getting those fab pics of us in the Elvis Tribute Cadillac
February 22, 2008
Our Wedding…
Being a photographer it’s such an odd thing to be on the other end of the camera but our friends Amy & JP Prutch of AJs Studio in Vancouver Washington came out to take on ‘tog’ duty for our big day and made it oh so easy for us. Having trust in your photographer on the most important day of your life is SO important and believe me, Amy & JP had ours.
Although we planned the location of the ceremony as well as a couple of photo opportunity locations, we left the rest of the details to them. We also gave them plenty of time with just us. As a result we have some seriously kick butt photos. I’m going to post a few photos (with their permission of course) but if you’d like to see more, please check out their blog for more.
A little horse time with my boy Shadow…
Lunch at Dale’s Diner…
Fashion style shoot at Boyd Coddington’s showroom and shop…
The Elvis tribute car as seen on American Hotrod
Ceremony time…
Did I mention that JP of AJs Studio is an ordained minister? He had double duty of officiating AND photographing the wedding. In a very personal ceremony JP was happy to take a close up photo of our first kiss as husband and wife while Amy covered the other angle. Very cool!!!
Special Thanks to Boyd, Jo & Chris of Boyd’s for making it possible for us to have some kick butt cars to ‘play’ with! We appreciate it more than you know. MUAH!!!
