Saturday, July 18, 2009

Is happy to report...

...that her friend is getting to meet her baby girl in Korea tomorrow!!! :-) Candice (a fellow Holt BB friend whom I've actually met!) is with her beautiful family in Korea as I type this!!!


(Candice, Amanda, and I waiting at the SFO airport for Amanda's baby girl to arrive from Korea on May 7, 2009!) You can view Candice's pictures of this event HERE

Candice has a blog and is blogging about her adventures every day... she is also putting up amazing pictures of her travels on the blog and I thought I would post the link so that in case any of you want to follow along on her journey you could! Her blog is called To Make Him Known and if you go back through her archives you can see what her and her family have been through the past few months while waiting for their chance to go and pick up their beautiful little girl that they have named Elliana... Candice is an amazing Woman after God's own heart and my heart couldn't be happier for her and her family right now!

Hope you get a chance to look at some of her pictures- she is an awesome photographer!

~M~

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Monterey/Camping/4th of July

***Warning- this is the world's longest post with a ton of pics attached! :-) ***

Hi Everyone,

I know I'm getting a little behind on blogging again- just so busy with the end of summer school this week and my two photography classes and my child :-) But, I'm definitly loving all of it- especially the end of summer school!!! I wanted to fill you in on our little trip that we took to the coast 4th of July weekend and give you lots of pictures too :-)

Our trip started out on Thursday afternoon when we headed to Monterey for a night. We had a pretty uneventful trip getting to our hotel and then we decided to get dinner on Cannery Row... bad idea. We got hit by a motorcycle when we were trying to park! Can you believe that? There was a big race at Laguna Seca that weekend and there were bikers EVERYWHERE! Well, we had our flashers on to get into a street spot and this stupid biker decided to be impatient and drive around us. Well he clearly wasn't very good at judging his distance and he scraped our bumper with his saddle bag. All this man did was turn around and stare at us as he drove by- UGH! Now our car has a HUGE black mark on it all because of someone's impatience!!! Obviously we weren't hit hard enough to hurt any of us- which of course is a praise- but still it was a bummer to start off our mini vacation in that manner... Anyhow, we did go get dinner at our favorite resturant, Fish Hoppers, and then I got some fun pictures of our surroundings. The bottom 2 pics in this section are from the Royal Presidio Chapel in Monterey and the Portola Cross in Carmel- I had to visit these sites for a class...









After we left Monterey/Carmel on Friday, we headed over to Watsonville to set up for camping for the next 3 nights. When we first got there we got to meet up with our friends who were just married... they had just got back from their honeymoon and we got to see them for a few short hours before they headed back to SoCal- it was great to get to see them after the wedding as they were so relaxed and happy! While camping, we had beautiful weather there all weekend- fog in the morning/early afternoon and then sun in the afternoon and evening. We got to see the sun set every night and had clear views all the way to santa cruz and monterey! It was wonderful!!! I was a little worried how C would do at night as he is a creature of habit, but he did GREAT! It was cold at night but we were able to have a fire in the fire pit and C listened to us about not going near it!!! I don't have a lot of pictures below from camping and unfortunatley I didn't get any pictures of C when he fell in the dirt... he did the funniest thing every time he fell though- he wouldn't allow his hands to touch the dirt to pick himself up! He would figure out another way to shimmy himself out of the dirt... he hates the feeling of dirt on his hands or feet right now... cracked us up every time he did it!!! :-) Below are just a few pictures. The old barn is actually on the road that leads to the campgrounds we stayed at- I love this old barn and just couldn't get enough shots of it!









When I set camping up for us I knew we would be gone 4th of July. I also knew that we would probably end up at Mission Springs for the afternoon that day as we had worked there when in college and we knew they had an awesome day for families set up. We were lucky enough to get to actually go to Mission Springs for the afternoon to meet up with our friend, Amy and a few other old camp friends. We got to swim in the pool, visit and watch a little parade that Amy marched in :-) It was wonderful to be there, as I love Mission Springs- it really is one of my absolute favorite places on earth to spend time at. After we left Mission Springs, we went back to our campsite to have dinner and then got to watch fireworks shows over the ocean! It was a beautiful clear night and we couldn't have had a better view if we had paid a ton of money for it!














We had a great trip and I can't wait to do it over and over again as our little family grows up together!

~M~

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Digital Photo class project

Hi Guys,

So, you will probably get to see a million and one pictures up here the next 7 weeks as I am taking some photo classes online. They are SOOOO fun and I am learning a ton already and this is only day 3 of the first class! :-) Thanks to Candice (a friend thru the Holt BB and a Terrific photographer herself!!!)for turning me on to this wonderful website! Right now I am in a free 2 week class learning new techniques on photoshop and next week I start a 6 week course learning how to use my camera that I just purchased... which is great because i really want to learn more about lighting and apeture and all that fun stuff- it will be nice to use the camera in the way I intended to and get off the "Auto" mode! ;-) SO here is my first project that I am pretty proud of, plus it's a little sneak peak into our 4th of July day pictures... SERIOUSLY, Lovin' this class! :-)

~M~

Original Photo I started with:


Photo cropped and then given a Vintage, Hand-tinted look:


Final Product!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Beach- Take 2!

We just got back from camping at Sunset State Beach in Watsonville, Ca- it was beautiful weather and a ton of fun. We only went to the beach once and I thought C might like the beach a bit more this time... No such luck! :-( He cried any time the sand touched him for an entire hour while we were at the beach. It made me sad because it was a BEAUTIFUL day and I just wanted to sit there and enjoy- but mommyhood called and I had to save my little booger from his fears! We got some great pictures this time and thought you could all use a good laugh too... I know it's mean, but these pictures will make me laugh forever :-)









*More to come on our camping trip/4th of July in a day or two!*

~M~