7.31.2009

A little taste...

As I'm getting to take off for a yet another fun-filled weekend (oh, summertime how I love you!) I just had to post this shot of a session from earlier this week. No worries, there will be more to come. But, for now, I present...

Emma!

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7.25.2009

Fun day

Yep, I had a fun day. Yesterday, was my last day in Oregon (as I am now blogging from my aunt and uncles back deck in Washington) and with the adults at work, Em and I decided to make the most of it. We packed up some lunch, strapped baby girl into the back seat (which, not seriously surprising for anyone really, was a bit complex for two very distinguished, childless ladies like ourselves), and took off for the day.

After a picnic in the park, complete with sandwiches, Goldfish crackers, lemonade and bits of grass plucked especially for us by baby girl, we walked over to A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village. It was honestly a toss up between the three of us as to who was really enjoying themselves more. We went from room to room exploring bubbles, the human stomach, dinosaur bones, lights, music, echos, slides...you name it, chances are quite high that we experienced it. One of the best children's museums I have been to; if you're ever in the Salem area with the kiddos, I highly recommend checking it out!

I'll be coming back next week and will have families to post, babies to show off and a slew of engagements on the agenda so stay tuned for 'life after vacation'. 


picnic in the park
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Em and I thought the bubbles were the best...
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Baby girl dressed up like a dino in the rainforest. Oooooooo, scary!!!
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Still not sure how this worked as we're pretty sure it wasn't a thermal sensor, but it was super cool! I'm on the right, baby girl is next to me with a hula hoop and Em...did not make the cut in this one. Whoops!
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Went outside and tangled ourselves in the 'spider web'.
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...and went for a little drive...
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Checked out the mini train
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She even crossed her legs, mimicking me. Stellar!
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Yep, it was a fun day.
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7.23.2009

Driving Miss Daisy

I love this beautiful, gorgeous, fire-burning, tree-topping, brown-grass-growing, bicycle-lane-observing state. Oregon.

Today, me and Sassy Pants got to hang out all day. We visited cousin Em and bf Greg about 60 miles south and basically had a fun, relaxing, good time. When Sassyfrass got up this morning, she was in her basic 'I love the day' clothing. We dropped her daddy off at work so the two of us could borrow the car for the day and that's when things turned interesting. We wondered back to the house to get things packed up for our afternoon adventure (plus I needed some breakfast and I had already promised her TOAST. Never met a child (let alone ANYONE) who enjoyed toast so much. Crazy.). 

Anywho, she was singing songs and dancing around as I packed a 'just in case' bag for the day and soon came prancing down the hall in a tutu. Her, not me. 

Fair enough. 

As I filled the juice cup with 1/2 water and 1/2 apple juice, she came sprinting in with a blue, feathery, wintertime-ish, cape thing. And tutu. Over the pink shirt and brown leggings. 

Alrighty. 

In rapid succession came the necklace, purse and singular mitten. Yes, singular mitten. In July.

Go figure.

All in all, I was super pumped that this is how we started the day.


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Oh, the shirt, pants, shoes, tutu and necklace were the only things that lasted the entire day. The purse, cape, and mitten were out the door as soon as we...were out the door. Of the car. In Eugene. Excellent road trip.

Just in case you were curious.
:-)

7.20.2009

I'm away from my desk right now...

...and loving every minute of it.

I think I have been out to Washington (state) over a dozen times. I have acquired a list of my usual favorites that I have to hit up at least once per visit like shopping at Safeway (yeah...don't ask me why, I think it's just so super cool), fish and chips at Lowell's (along with perusing the rest of Pike's Place Market), early morning (like 10 a.m.-ish) Starbucks runs, seeing the Ocean in some shape or form (Puget Sound also covers this category), hanging out with my favorite West Coast family (and their so super stellar neighbors)...the list goes on and on. Looking back on the past weekend, I do now have to add camping at Bumping Lake to my mental list of favorites. Sure we didn't actually see the stars like the tee-shirts say we do (oh, yeah. We have tee-shirts.), perhaps we didn't use quite as much sunscreen as we should have and maybe we never actually ate smore's or half of all the food we brought along, but whoa baby, we had fun! Five days and four nights of the most non-roughing it camping I have ever experienced (yes, we had tacos with all the fixings, eggs/bacon/sausage for breakfast, steaks with TONS of 'shrooms, I slept on a mattress with running water and a commode readily available. Okay, I guess you could say we were in a camper. First time for everything...It was good.).

Saturday we made a convoy of five vehicles (there were 29 of us, after all...oh, and two dogs) and went to Boulder Cave to check out the beautiful scenery. After walking through the cave we grouped up again and wandered up the mountain to Raven's Roost. I was promised great scenery and knew it really was something to see from my cousins who have talked it up for years.

Ok. I'm not a super-over-emotional-OMG type of person, but words cannot accurately express the view from the top of the twisty, winding, dirty 16 mile drive up. So worth all the dust, nausea, ear-popping and blazing sun to see what awaited us. The photos barely do justice, but here are a few from the weekend anyway!

Baby girl really liked the Glo Sticks
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Yeah. How often have you gone camping with a projected screen to play movies? Yep, that was a first for me, too! Sure kept the wee-ones occupied...
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This was the view of the river that ran right by our 'campsite'. Very cool to fall asleep to the constant hum of the rushing water.
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Zach and Kyle at the base of the cave. These two were so cute, I just want to fold them up and keep them in my pocket!
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Dusty road leading up to Raven's Roost...
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Mt. Rainer
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Ahhhh....Washington. My home away from home.

7.13.2009

Juvenile Diabetes Fundraiser

The cookbooks are in!!!!

Help support the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and 2-year-old Nadia as she learns to deal with this life altering disease. The books are filled with over 300 recipes and are only $15 (plus shipping and handling).

Call Amy to get yours today!!!




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7.11.2009

cheeks mcgee

Ok, I have a problem. As they say, the first step is admitting it so here goes nothing. I love cheeks. The squishier and the puffier the better. I want to poke them and squeeze them and just put 'em in my pocket. 

But I won't.

Chloe and Mazie have the bestest cheeks...as do their cousins, Nadia and Oliviah. And Chloe's personality is positively hysterical. Pair that with Mazie's stellar ability to rock  the toothless grin and this is what you get. 

And I get to be related to these people. It's so the best of both worlds.


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Oh...and I really like feet, too. Photographing, not touching. Ish.
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7.09.2009

Shay love

Everywhere she looked, I wasn't. She ran left, I was already too far right. She looked down, I was standing above. Tricky business, photographing kids, but so rewarding. The funny faces, irreplaceable expressions and catching 'that moment' that captures true personality and energy. So worth it.

Shaylan was a bundle of everything childlike and we soaked up as much as we could. Smiles, frowns, furrowed eyebrows, tiny giggles, curious nature, attitude and feelings all clearly expressed on an ever-angelic little face, complete with adorable huge brown eyes. I just wanted to squish her little puffy cheeks (why is that always a jerk reaction around full-faced kids? I have no idea and sincerely apologize if I go Billy Madison on your child). Oh, Shay, thanks for a fabulous hour of your time-what a priceless little gem.

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Ohhh, mommy, looking good and sassy!!! :-)
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7.07.2009

other people’s children...

Rock my socks off.

I actually wrote this blog entry last night. I needed to go to bed so badly, but sleep was nowhere to be found. Low and behold, I found myself cross-legged in my pj’s at the kitchen table with a large wooden spoon in one hand, steaming pot of spiral mac’n’cheese in the other (yes, I said ‘pot and large wooden spoon’), so thrilled at the opportunity to boast such fabulous news. I didn’t post until today for two reasons; 1) I don’t have Internet at my house. Yes, a drawback in my line of work, but I love stalking local coffeehouses and friends’ homes, and 2) posts are SO much better with a photog, so I just had to get my grubby, baby cheek-loving hands on a few before I even thought about throwing this out there for all to savor in all it’s cheesy glory.

So, last night…

I got a phone call from my cousin, whom I still very affectionately call Dute (even though I’m not entirely sure where the nickname came from…). Derek and I go way back; we even made up our own club with a secret handshake. We were the only members. Guess it was a complicated handshake. Anywho, he was calling to inform me that after spending all day (and part of the night) in the hospital, my cousin (his older brother) and his wife welcomed their first born into the world. Perhaps you remember Aaron and Melissa from one of my first blog posts last August…

Oh, Internet, what a glorious day! After he told me all the details, I hung up the phone and was just all a-twitter. I was staring down the long end of an hour drive coming home from a photo shoot in Mankato (post on that later) and just had to talk to someone! Of course I called Nick who was equally as pumped as I was (in a manly, ‘cool, a baby!’ way), but I needed to really share my excitement…so, obviously, I called Dute back for some serious lowdown of the situation. I peppered him with more questions, he Dute-ifully (haha) answered, we laughed, we cried…it certainly was the best of times.

I got to meet the little man just a few hours ago and he is just a little peanut. His cry is so soft and needy, his skin silky smooth (newborn skin is the absolute coolest texture), with eyes so big and beautifully dark blue. Aaron was obviously thrilled to be a father and Mel looked wonderful-can’t believe she just went through 18+ hours of labor!!!

A huge congrats and shout out to Aaron and Melissa; may Brody be healthy and good, may you get some well-deserved rest and good luck and God bless the beginning of your beautiful family. Love you guys.

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7.06.2009

heinricy

After coming down from such a superb three-day weekend it's hard to get back into the swing of things. However, after spending the last three nights sleeping in a tent or elsewhere, getting into a real actual bed was like a tiny little slice of heaven on earth last night. As I sit in the usual coffee hangout this morning, skim-latte within reach, fingers poised for some serious keyboard action, I'm coming up with a bit of a blank. Writer's block, I despise you. Thoughts are swirling in my head, but I fear too much is bouncing around up there to actual spit out and conduce normal sounding sentences bound by a common purpose. Normally, I write for entertainment; yours and mine. Every once and I while I sit down and have to type out anything, something, just to shake the dust of the gears and oil up the thought process. Gotta start somewhere. Here goes nothing, Internet!

In high school, the Heinricy's were like my second family. I had no problem digging in the fridge to pull out a Mt. Dew or snag myself a fudgy from the freezer. Kandra and I have known each other since kindergarten (aahhhhh, the fateful meeting over a box of crayons. I had the 12 pack. She had the box of 64 delicious colors, complete with sharpener. It was friendship at first draw). As a mother's day gift, Kandra gave her mom a family session--ahem, great idea, people! :-) We hung out around Nfld and got some good posed shots and some even better ones of 'real life' family love.



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7.03.2009

Kool-Aid Smiles

For many years when I was younger, my grandparents invited all their potty-trained grandkids to stay over at their house for a few days before the 4th of July. We'd do crafts, play in the lake, make up 'after dark' games and generally have a great time. Meals were fit for a king and were more an experiment in social Darwinism than anything else (only the strong survive). Our beverage options were usually split between milk, water or sugar-free cherry Kool-Aid (Papa was diabetic) and did we ever soak up the sweet stuff. To this day, I remain faithful to cherry Kool-Aid.

The first time my grandparents decided to test out this now tradition, there were about 10 of us and we stayed for just a night or two. The last time, there were over 20 and we stayed for nearly a week. This tradition slowly tapered off after Papa died in 2003, but the memories will forever be imprinted in my mind, especially around this time of year.

To all the families out there cherishing their three-days weekend and celebrating one of the greatest moments in our nations' history, I say cheers and have a great Independence Day.

As for me, psssh, this lady is headed lakeside for a glorious weekend. Catch you on the flip side!


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