Seth's newborn pics

What a trooper this little guy was! He let us put him in all sorts of props and basically slept through the entire shoot! Congrats, Melinda and Steve! Seth is adorable!!

Declan's 1st birthday party

Talk about a perfect day! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and allowed us to spend most of the day outside on the deck. It was great to get together with old friends and spend the day celebrating Declan's 1st birthday. Happy Birthday, Declan!!

San Francisco and Napa Valley

What a fabulous trip! Doug has family that lives in San Jose (about 1 hour South of San Fran) and they were kind enough to invite us out to stay with them. So, we decided to try and fit in as much as possible. The first night that we flew in, we drove to San Francisco and had dinner at Gary Danko's What an amazing restaurant! After we ate more than 2 people should ever eat, we drove an hour north to Napa Valley. We stayed at this adorable little hotel and then woke up the next morning at 5:00 am for a balloon ride. One of my dreams has always been to go up in a hot air balloon. And what better place to do it than over Napa Valley?! We arrived at one of the wineries and were told that we had to go to an alternate location for the balloon because there was some fog at the 1st location. So, we drove about an hour west to the 2nd location. The balloon was being blown up when we arrived. We all got pictures and were so excited to go up. About 20 minutes after we had been waiting, the pilot told us that more fog was moving in and he had to cancel the flight. Talk about MAJOR disappointment! It took everything I had not to cry (I know, total baby!). Doug promised that we would do it some day.
So, after that crazy morning, we were ready to tour the vineyards. And boy did we ever. We went to some amazing places and got to sit outside on the most beautiful day and sip some of the best wine I have ever tasted! It was straight out of a movie!
The next day we spent exploring San Fran. We did all of the touristy things: Cable cars, Ghiradelli Square, Golden Gate Bridge...
It was so much fun and such a gorgeous city.
Saturday was spent exploring Sausalito and Muir Woods. As we were walking through the woods, we saw a trail that said "Ocean View Trail." Doug had on dress shoes and I had on my uggs. Neither of us were intending to take a long hike. After about 2 hours and a couple of foot blisters, we finally reached the top. The view was breathtaking and so worth the long hike! And the smell! Oh my! The entire forest smelled so sweet! It was like nothing I have ever smelled before. Pure and unpolluted. Absolutely divine! It is what I would imagine heaven smells like!
Next to our day in Napa, Sunday was probably my favorite day of the trip. After Church, we drove down the coast to Carmel and did the 17 mile drive. Talk about beautiful! I could totally see myself living here....if only I had more money! ;) Carmel was so adorable! Tiny little cottages right on the rocky beach. It might just have been the most romantic place I have ever been! If you have never done this drive or visited Carmel, it is definitely a must! You will not be disappointed! We finished our beautiful day in Carmel by eating at this quaint little restaurant called Casanova
We had such a great time and felt so blessed to be able to enjoy loving family, amazing food and some of God's most beautiful creation all in one trip.

Sipping wine, killing time, trying to solve life's mysteries

2 years being married to my best friend and no better way to celebrate than on the beach. This year we spent a week in beautiful Barbados and had a fabulous time! But who wouldn't in Barbados? Most days were spent lounging on our quiet beach reading a book and soaking up the sun. No worries, no plans...just pure relaxation. I read through the entire twilight series (awesome beach read, by the way!) and two other mindless books. Our resort was not all-inclusive so we went out every night and hung out with the locals. It was certainly an experience! Our last night in Barbados, we rented a catamaran with a few other couples and went on a sunset dinner cruise. They took us to a remote location and we were able to swim with the turtles before watching the most beautiful sunset ever. Such a great night!! Our anniversary dinner was at Pisces, which was amazing. Imagine sitting at an intimate, candlelit table listening to the waves crash onto the shore, sipping expensive wine and eating the kind of food that they write about in magazines. Yup...it was that good!

Miss Morgan's fall shoot

What a fun day hanging out with one of my closest friends and her adorable daughter. We got some fabulous shots and are already brainstorming ideas for baby #2's photo shoot in February.

Hillary's Graduation Photo Shoot

My baby sister is a SENIOR! I can hardly believe it! She asked me to do her senior pictures for her so we set out to do so on Sunday. We had planned to shoot them earlier in the summer when we were down the shore, but every time we planned on shooting them, the weather would not cooperate. We picked a park close to home that had a lot of interesting details. Not to mention, I had an amazingly gorgeous subject to shoot. We both had a lot of fun and below are just a few of my favorites (from the several hundred pictures!!!) of the day.

Summer time

Summer has come and gone and I can't believe how fast it went. It was the craziest summer of our lives, as I predicted, but it was so fun! We learned SO MUCH! The business has really taken off and Doug is rocking! I couldn't imagine blogging about the entire summer so I'll just post a few of our highlights and let your imagination fill in the rest. ;)

Weddings: We had several beautiful weddings that we attended this summer. Both were outdoor ceremonies and both had gorgeous days! It was so much fun to connect with old friends.

Vacations: We didn't really do much as far as a summer vacation is concerned, mostly due to the business. My Aunt had a house in Avalon so we went down a few times and hung out with the kids. We did a lot of weekend trips but that's about all. We plan on taking our vacation in December....somewhere warm! :)

Business: When I think about this summer, a few of the CRAZY times pop into my head. Here are just a few of the craziest:

1. Loading over 60 yards of mulch into Doug's truck BY HAND! (Obviously, this was mostly Doug doing the work but watching it being dumped and realizing we had to find clients for all of that mulch was INSANE!)

2. Being able to replace all of our homeowner grade equipment with professional (and much more efficient) equipment. I think we lasted all of 2 weeks with my Mom's mower. haha.

3. Watching Doug lose control of our brand new mower high up on a cliff and slamming into a retaining wall. It was like a clip from the movies where everything is in slow motion. Luckily, the retaining wall saved Doug from falling off of the 15 foot cliff. And, luckily, he was able to fix the retaining wall himself without spending too much money.

4. Having a rock get caught up in the weed whacker and breaking some old guys sliding glass door. Yay for liability insurance!

5. All of the contracts that Doug went out and sold himself, including multiple commercial accounts.

Us: This summer, Doug and I learned the meaning of "feast or famine." Some weeks we felt like we were on top of the world and other weeks we were counting the hours until the next paycheck arrived. Luckily for us, we grow together, rather than pull a part. Doug lost 30 lbs and seems stronger than ever. We came to the realization this summer, that we are not even CLOSE to being ready to have kids yet. There is a list that was created of places that we want to travel to before we start a family. We are also feeling like we are starting to outgrow our little place; however, since we do not have unlimited funds, we are focusing on traveling for the next year and then we'll focus on the house search. There is the possibility of buying my Grandparents house in the next several years so we, of course, have that in the back of our minds. I figure we have the rest of our lives to be tied down to kids and a mortgage so we should try and enjoy our time together and TRAVEL!!! We have a trip to Barbados already scheduled for December (our 2 year anniversary) and we have a trip to San Francisco/Napa Valley in the works for early March. This next year should be a great year of traveling and exploring places I have always wanted to go.