Weekend Getaway

This last weekend Jordan, Hallie, and I made the long voyage to Utah. A whole 3 1/2 hour drive. It seems like a voyage because Hallie does not enjoy being in her car seat. She loathes it. But we left during her nap time in hopes that she would sleep, and after 2 hours of screaming crying she did sleep. Well anyways...

The reason that we went to Utah was for a wedding! One of my very good friends from high school, Caleb, was getting married. I knew I couldn't make it to the reception in Colorado, so I figured that going to the wedding and reception in Utah would do:) His twin brother, Jon, is getting married this weekend in San Diego, and since we can't go to that either we figured we should go to at least one thing.

I cannot express the words or feeling that I get when I attend a temple sealing. I have seen people get married out of the temple, and the ceremony is always nice, but nothing compared to two people in the temple.  I always cry when I see the emotion of my good friends, and knowing Caleb as long as I have and seeing the look of happiness on his face and his wife's face was just amazing. To me, a sealing is one of the most sacred and beautiful things that happens in the temple. It is the whole point to life. Two people being together for time and all eternity and having all of their posterity sealed to them. I am glad that I got to go to the sealing and be reminded of the blessings that couples that choose to get married this way receive.

We also went to their outdoor reception, which was beautiful. Her dress was beautiful (which her mother made!! By far the prettiest home made gown I have ever seen. And probably one of the prettiest gowns I have seen a girl wear, and it complimented her so well!!) We got to meet up with all the old gang from high school. My favorite part was seeing Bonnie!!! Bonnie and I have been friends since 5th grade, and through her moving to Germany, going to different colleges, marriage, babies (on my end) her mission, we still have remained good friends. It was good to talk and catch up.

All of this wouldn't have been possible without my good friend Courtney. Whenever we go to Utah she puts us up. I feel like we use her... but I am so glad for the company. I would go to Utah and stay in a hotel and visit her anyways, but staying with them is just more fun. She cooks us food and is just the most wonderful hostess. I hope she knows how much we love and appreciate her and Jeff for always putting up with us:)

The trip was short and sweet, but so much fun. I am so glad I live so close to be able to share these memories with my good friends. I love them all very much!

 the dress! Sorry Cassi, I know you weren't paying attention... lol.

oh and while we were there Jordan and I found our future home. haha. 

Spencer & Lexie Sautter

I have been pretty crammed with pictures this summer! I feel like there is a trend, everyone wants Summer or winter pictures. Never Spring or Winter. So I have been crammed this summer. I can't complain though, my clients pay me. Extra money for summer activities is always a plus!

I have to apologize to Lexie because it took me forever to edit these and to get them to her (the disc is on its way to you now!). But I am pretty happy how they turned out. We had a teeny bit of a scheduling problem between the two of us, plus the weather was up and and down, so we ended up doing them when it was SUPER bright, but the family is so cute we would have done them anytime and they would have been just as cute.

I would just like to add, as a personal note to myself, that I am getting wayyy better at taking pictures with my camera. Even though my lens is possibly, probably broken it doesn't change the camera body and I have been doing little to no editing. Go me.

A special thanks goes out to my assistant, which if he wasn't there none of these pictures would have been possible. I love you Jords! 

And also a special thank you to the Sautter family for risking their lives on this freaking scary bridge. 

Here are the favorites:

 

Lincoln Smith

Babies are by FAR the hardest photoshoots. Well not babies.. newborns. You just feel like you are going to break them, and especially since they are not your baby I am extra careful. My good friend Jessica asked me to do pictures of her new baby Lincoln. He was actually a month old when we did them so he was a little more active than a brand new baby, but he is still brand new (hopefully that makes sense).

I am debuting these before she has even seen them, so Jessica I hope you like them! They are coming through town again in 2 weeks on their trek from Boise to Boston (Hopefully I am allowed to say that.. lol). I sure will miss her being so far away, but she was already far! All of my friends are leaving... across the country!! (Hopefully one day we will have a Margene's reunion:])

oh and a special thank you to my friend Amber who made this possible for me on such a short notice!! Love you girl!

Here are a couple of my favorites.

Meek/Smith Family

I have to say that I love taking pictures of this family. They are all so photogenic and are really up for anything. Plus it isn't bad that they are all extremely good looking. So, a good-looking/photogenic family who are returning customers... who wouldn't love that?

Plus it was a huge boost to my self-esteem to have the family ask me to do their pictures again. I don't know if you know this, but unless you ask me to do your pictures because you know that I enjoy taking them, or word of mouth, I don't go out there and do it. Don't ask me why. But one day, one day I will.

Anyways.

This shoot was super crazy! Hallie was having her first birthday party on Saturday the 23rd and my whole family was coming into town. Then my good friend Jessica texted me and asked if I could do their pictures the day before! Talk about stressed out! But it was the only day they could do it because not only has Jessica added her little Lincoln to the family, but they had not one, but TWO missionaries entering the MTC the same day that next week. I felt bad about leaving my family, but then when I got there and was able to do the pictures and be with this awesome family I didn't feel bad at all.

It took me forever to edit them becuase of Hallie's bday, family vacation, fourth of July, then Hallie getting shots/being sick, me getting sick and anything else that could be inserted into that time period. I hope they like them and I am so happy for all the cool things happening in their family.

Family Vacation: Bear Lake

Jordan's family does a family vacation every year. I think it started a couple years before we got married. But there are so many of us that it is one time during the year that we can all get together and just have fun. This year we went to Bear Lake. It was sad because Jordan's 2 sisters, Chalai and Hillary, and their families were missing. But all the boys were there.

We rent a cabin in Bear Lake and then do lots of fun activities. This year the activities included: nature hike, Paris Tabernacle, Beach Day, Jet ski, and Lava Hot Springs. I have to say my two favorites were the Paris Tabernacle and the jet ski.

If you have never been to the Paris Tabernacle, well you are missing out. They offer free tours all day, all summer long. The building has been there since 1889. Jordan and I really enjoy doing stuff like touring old historic buildings, especially when they are part of church history. There is so much church history that I don't even know about (one of these days I will be a church history scholar, mark my words...). The building is very cool and they let you go in every room. I love that. I hate when you take a tour of an old building and there are tons of rooms you are not allowed to look in. What is the point? Hey! I am just a curious being! I just want to look! But not here. You are allowed to look at everything. And pretty much touch everything too. It was awesome.

Also the jet ski. So fabulous. I haven't been since high school probably... and my early high school years at that. It is sad to grow up around boats and then not have any. You know exactly what you are missing out on. But I didn't let all that lost time take any of my skills away. I used to have my boating license! I pretty much ruled the jet ski. Jordan wasn't even as crazy as I was. I threw him off once too! I would have gone off with him if he didn't let go of me. I got a real good laugh out of that one. But the coolest things about Bear Lake is the water. It is the caribbean blue you go to Mexico just to see. So when we were way far out on the jet ski, we would just look at the water. It was so clear, so blue, and so beautiful!

The vacation is filled with lots of late nights, early mornings, crazy skits, screaming kids, sick kids, good food, munchies, sunburns, and so much more. It was so nice to get a vacation from everything and just be with the family. I'm really lucky to have such amazing in-laws, parents and siblings.

We can't wait until next year!!

Hallie's Real Birthday... June 27th

I know that I already wrote a post about Hallie's birthday party, but I had to write a post about her actual birthday. I cannot believe that my baby is one year old. I feel like I should not even be old enough to be mommy. But I do feel like I have started a trend with friends from far away.. haha just kidding. They probably wanted babies on their own. Anyways...

Hallie was such a trooper on her big day. Grandma Suzi and Aunt Kaylie were the last stragglers that hadn't left from the Saturday birthday bash. I am glad that they were still there for a little bit of the day (they had to go home because of the fire:/).

She started with her favorite breakfast: chocolate chip pancakes, fruit, and apple juice. I can always tell its going to be a good day when Hallie just devours her breakfast with a big smile on her face.

Jordan had to go to work after breakfast, but Grandma and Kaylie stuck around for a little while, and we got to play with all of the toys that Hallie got for her birthday. She is just in love with her coin pig (seriously the most awesome toy, thanks Erin & Jordan!) she can put the coins in all by herself. I have a genius child :), also her school bus (Thanks Christie!!) and the walk around stroller (from Jordan & I).

For lunch we had Hallie's favorite Chick-fil-A. She loves their chicken nuggets. I must say she has good taste. I have tried the ones that we give her, and the ones from Chick are much better. I can't remember what I gave her for dinner (sad right? sometimes I think I still have pregnancy brain) but we did light her candle and sing happy birthday to Hallie with her left over cake from her party.

After cake we went swimming! The 27th was so warm we decided to end the day in the pool. She had a lot of fun. She did not want me to hold her. She crawled along the top step and would grab the railings and walk around. It is a blast.

Of course I had to get some one year old pictures. I was so crazy busy (I have four photo shoots to edit right now) that I didn't want to have to take Hallie's too. So I just wanted one shot of her, so when my life calms down a little I could take some. So I went to JCPenney's again. But this time was not as successful as the last. The lady was a moron. Seriously. I am no professional, but she was stupid. I am going to end up taking Hallie's again. But there were a couple cute ones. Here are some screen shots.

 

Well that is all for my ONE YEAR OLD for now. Except that she is soooo close to walking. She will stand by herself and be thinking so hard about walking and.... sit down. But she basically runs with her walkers.

And she had her one year shots yesterday.. It was a sad day. I'm glad we waited until after her birthday/family vacation/ 4th of July to do them. Hallie has this new cry that she does when she gets hurt and it pretty much breaks my heart...

Ok so besides that, that is all I have for my one year old. I can't believe how fast it goes. Soon enough she will be 2!