Phew!

Hi Everyone,

I'm in the thick of the busy summer shooting schedule! I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for their patience in my SLOW return of emails and phone calls this summer! :) It's after 1am and I just got a bunch of emails returned, phew!!

My calendar is booked through October now (that doesn't apply to all of you I just returned emails to about bookings) and I'm not going to be booking anything for Nov/Dec this year since I'll be in the last trimester of this pregnancy and needing to just rest and soak up the holiday down time with family. This little baby is due Jan 3rd and what a special Christmas gift baby will be! We actually know the gender of the baby already! We found out a week and a half ago, at our 16 week appt. The ultrasound tech said she was 95% sure of the gender (and while watching the screen we were 95% sure of gender too) :) but we figured we'd wait to make any big announcements until our 20 week ultrasound just to be prudent. So, I'll be sure to spill the beans in two weeks. We're really excited and already talking about names, which is fun. Any guesses on gender? :)

Ok, lots of blog photos coming soon!

And here's just one little cutie's face in the meantime from a recent session:

Odell Lake Family Camping Trip

Josh and I took the kids on a short camping trip this week. Just two days (one night) but it was a lot of fun! We joined Josh's family (Josh's dad and a family friend... Grandma couldn't make it this year) at Odell Lake and Grandpa Mike took us out fishing twice. I LOVE being out there on that lake. It is SO gorgeous! The 360 degree view is spectacular of the mountains and trees, cabins, beautiful water, and boats. Ahhhh, I always forget just how much I love Odell Lake until I'm out there again. Josh and I camped there each year before we had kids, then took 2 years off when they were babies (I figured it would be more work than enjoyment during those "put everything in your mouth" baby stages.) Now that they're 2 & 4 it was just so fun to watch them soak up everything around them! :)

We arrived Monday, ate lunch, then went for a walk along the lake. What breathtaking scenery just walking the small paths along the lake, full of wild flowers and beautiful ground cover! Jude loved every time there was a fork in the path. He would stand there and say, "hmmm, which way should we go?" then we'd move forward again. :) The kids enjoyed throwing tiny rocks in the lake, riding Jude's bike, counting the camp site numbers, making smores (Whole Foods managed to have gluten-free everything for that), fishing, jumping in the tent (they thought it was a jump house), telling tent stories at night before bed, listening to the thunder, playing with Grandpa, blowing bubbles, going through Grandpa's tackle box ("toy box"), building fires, and eating meals at the picnic table in camp. It was a great experience and I'm already looking forward to going again next year!

I didn't take my Canon 5D Mark II camera since I wasn't sure how dusty/dirty it would get, and I didn't know how cold it would get at night, and I didn't want to feel like I had to carry it with me everywhere I went. So just before we left the house Josh found our old point-n-shoot Sony camera. I still remember the day we bought that cute camera 7 years ago. We had only been married a year and were on a super tight budget and saved to buy a camera that was 5 megapixels, and we paid $400 for it, which had felt like a small fortune/investment. What's so funny about that camera is that it "re-surfaces" every so often. We lost it for over a year once and then it re-surfaced again. Anyway, I hadn't used it in a really long time and we were on the road to camp when I realized the batteries were dead and there was no memory card in the old camera! Rats! :) So we stopped at the store and I hoped they still made memory cards for it... and much to my amazement they did! And a 2 gig card was only $20. Made us laugh since 7 years ago we paid a lot to have a 512mb card, haha. Anyway, I had forgotten how much I love our little camera and had a great time using it at camp!
I hope you had had a wonderful weekend!

Rood Bridge Park Family Shoot

I really enjoyed photographing this family! We met up at Rood Bridge Park, and it was a beautiful, warm evening out there. I'd been there once before a year ago to shoot some wedding portraits, but hadn't really explored much of the place. It has a gazillion spots you could shoot at, and looks really pretty in the summertime.

Here are a few of my favorites of this really fun family! I love how connected they all are, complete with inside jokes. And you can see that mom and dad are best friends who love each other deeply.

I kept thinking, I want to be as beautiful as Cindy when my kids are teenagers. She seriously looks like one of her girls, not the mom! You're an inspiration Cindy. :)





























Thanks for being so fun to photograph you guys!

Birthday Dinner...

Ok, so I stayed up super late last night getting a bunch of things marked off of my work list in order to feel ok about taking a few minutes to gather some photos from our 4th of July/My 30th Birthday Dinner with family. I knew that if I didn't look at them soon they'd get buried in a hard drive, not to be seen for a long, long time. :)

My mom & Wayne always host 4th of July every year and it's one of my all time favorite holidays! I just love the relaxing, family & friend atmosphere with great food and I've always loved fireworks since I was a little girl. As a child our family would take our Jeep downtown Corvallis and park along the river (with the rest of Corvallis) and open the back end of the suv. We'd roll out sleeping bags, eat red ropes (my dad's favorite candy and for sure one of mine too) and listen to the music while we watched the fireworks in the sky. I just LOVED it!! (Thank you Dad and Mom for always making that tradition so much fun! Because of those memories it's a favorite holiday today.)

Since it's always tricky to get all family together in the summertime I figured the 4th would be a good time to celebrate my 30th with them since most of us would already be gathering anyway. Mom and Wayne offered to host a birthday dinner and let me pick the menu and I got to pick out the table settings, dishes, napkins, flowers, etc. too and put it all together (thank you for that gift Mom & Wayne). It was a lot of fun!! I loved it! I wish I had some photos of us actually enjoying dinner, of all my sweet family, and of all the fabulous food Wayne cooked (all gluten free!). It was sooo delicious! But once we sat down to eat, my camera was put away. :(

One of the greatest treasures in my life is my family. I couldn't love or adore them all more. I love every minute I get to spend with them and always wish I lived closer to them (they're only an hour or so south, but still). :)

That night we watched Wayne's firework show there on the ranch too, cuddled up in our blankets and chairs. It was a great time.

Thank you family and friends for making it such a fun holiday celebration!! :) I love you all to pieces!















I'm 16 weeks on Monday... I've got a little baby bump goin' on. :)

Thank you Mom for making it all happen!

This photo of Jude & Selah cracks me up...

Getting cozy watching fireworks...

Fun night! :)

Just life...

Oh, my list of to-do's just keeps on growing these days... I got my second trimester "burst of energy" this past week, but hit the ground running a little too fast trying to catch up on soooooo much work, and just wiped myself out!

I have so many things I want to blog or get done, or try... but I just know my limitations these days, so I'll wait.

I keep meaning to post about our 4th of July... We celebrated at my mom's place and it was also my slash 30th Birthday Dinner with family. It was a really special evening. I'm looking forward to someday sharing those photos with you! :) If I can ever get to them. They are pretty far down my to-do list right now. But at that dinner I received a couple of really, really special gifts. One was a book/journal that Josh presented to me from so many family/friends in my life! Everyone submitted photos from the past and a letter/memory and Josh put it all together in this beautiful (fat) book. I was so overwhelmed by the treasured gift! Thank you to all of you who shared such sweet & fun words!! I laughed and cried as I read through the book! :) I love you all! I so badly want to email each and every one of you to say THANK YOU!

I also was given a new Vitamix blender from all my family! I know, so many of you are thinking, "Huh?" Google it. It's amazing! Take my word for it. :) I'm LOVING it! :)

Here's a photo from that special evening:

Ok, I've got to go to bed! I'm so exhausted! :)

Ben & Liya: Portland Engagement Photographer

I loved meeting Ben & Liya for coffee this past winter to talk about shooting their wedding. They're fun, engaging, and easy to be around. That definitely came through when I was shooting their engagement photos! They have this natural humor in all they do and simply just enjoy life together! I love their photos and how much their personalities shine through.

Thanks Ben & Liya for being so enjoyable to be around and easy to photograph!

... here are a "few"... :)


























I love these two...































These guys have this down!









I just had to end with these fun ones as they wrapped up our shoot! Oh man, I was laughing so much!
I'm honored to get to capture your wedding day this summer Liya & Ben!