hurricane isaac.

well, dusty and i are camped out at our friends' house in prattville - a nice three hours away from the coast.

 

school was cancelled for monday, tuesday, and wednesday, which was enough to make me a little bit scared and think that we needed to get the heck out of dodge.

also, some people were boarding up their houses, as were a few businesses, boats were being taken out of the water, some boats were being anchored in bays and tied to stationary items on land, 'hurricane supplies' (water, batteries, food, flashlights, etc.) were being bought and sold out of at certain stores...

 

so, here we are, having a bit of a vacation together...hoping that the hurricane subsides and doesn't cause any damage.

we are thinking tomorrow we will head back to orange beach and then back to work on thursday.

 

in the meantime, we are going to enjoy ourselves.

this morning, we walked around target with coffees in hand, came home and watched a movie, took the dogs for a walk, had lunch, and now dusty and the dogs are taking a nap while i write this post.

i couldn't help myself and i interrupted the dogs' nap time...

 abby singer does not like having her picture taken...at all.

i can just feel her frustration with me every time.
my theory is that the more photos i take of her, the more she'll get used to it.

i think sophia likes it even less. she walks away from the camera...quickly.

meet sophia (our friends' dog):

 

do you see the evil eye sophia is giving me?

that's the look she gives when she sees the camera...right before she walks away.

 

alright, enough about the dogs, i'm off to shower and get ready for our double date tonight.

 

and a big thank you to travis and kristin - for taking us into their home on such short notice and making us feel so welcome.

abby singer likes it here too. she has a new friend and there are more puppy treats at the zimbelman household...what dog doesn't like that?

my favorite photo i've ever taken.

i have a lot of catching up to do as far as posts go, but i was just so stinking excited to share that i had my first paying photography job this weekend, that i've decided to skip ahead.

 

i was hired to shoot an event on the beach called the SEC beachfest.

i'm not getting paid much for this shoot, and the reason i was even hired is because it's for the company dusty works for, and it's possible these photos will not be seen by anyone else but myself, dusty, and the person i turn them into...but nonetheless, this girl is excited.

 

i wanted to share a photo i took today - my favorite photo i've ever taken:

now, my job was to capture the festival for all it's worth, but i just couldn't get away from my love of portraits.

 

also, i have this thing for photos of adults/older people.

i love the character in their faces, the wisdom behind their eyes, the age, the lines, the texture of the skin - the feeling of everything they've been through and everything they've learned...i love all of it.

 

 i'm grateful for the coaches who stopped everything they were doing, looked at the camera, gave me a smirk, and waited until they heard the click before returning to their autograph signing duties.

 

this man in particular - gene stallings - even gave me a wink when i mouthed the words 'thank you' to him after he gave me the time to capture a photo.

 

today was a challenge, but i'm thankful for the new creative opportunities coming my way.



a weekend to remember.

the weekend after lake metigoshe, we were able to muster up the troops again, but this time we were at upper bottle lake in minnesota. and dusty was able to join us :)

the lake was gorgeous, so quiet and peaceful.

i could definitely handle that kind of living.

my favorite part of being at the lake was being with everyone...and that dusty was able to spend more time with everyone. it makes me happy.

in addition to being together, we did lots of anchoring and group swimming/floating (dusty's favorite), wakeboarding, skiing, pushing people out of their comfort zones to try the previous two things mentioned, porch sitting while watching the rain, smiling/laughing, pinata breaking, pizza eating (zorbaz - yum), picture modeling, and birthday celebrating.

 

we had one little storm while we were there, so we spent some time inside relaxing and gearing up for our next boat ride...

don't worry, i saved charlie from the rain/thunder.

she ended up falling asleep in my arms...love.

while at the lake, i discovered what a little model emery is...she loves having her picture taken and dusty and i love taking it.

we had some other models on hand, also known as my brother-in-laws...

 i couldn't decide between the two collages...which do you prefer?

i mentioned earlier that we did a little birthday celebrating...that celebration would be for ms. emery.

she turned the big 3!

how stinking cute is she?!

once again, thank you to everyone for everything.
we had such a wonderful weekend with all of you...a weekend we will always remember.



lake metigoshe

whew...i'm back.
i've been a bit out of commission for a while.

^dusty arrived home with this stash one day and i couldn't have been more excited to see him.

okay, back to the recap of my trip home in july...
my first weekend home the whole family was able to meet up at the lake.

it was perfect - everyone in the same place, at the same time.

it doesn't get much better than that.

good news: i got the flu this night and it lasted a while - made me lose ten pounds...much needed.

a while back, i did a post about two of my nieces, ruby and emery, and how they were darn close to being opposites.
well, 17 months later and i think it still rings true.

^ ruby = dunking her face in the water over and over again...anything to get a laugh out of someone.

^ emery = keeping her distance from the water and perfectly content with it.

^ the big kids = water sports...totally up their alley.

i honestly had so much fun while at the lake.
AND i was able to spend a lot of quality time with my bestie, kara.
of course, i didn't take any pictures of us together - i really need to work on that.

thanks to everyone for making the weekend possible...i loved all of it.



north dakota

i have returned home from a month long stay in north dakota.
hmmm...not even sure where to start...

lets start with when i walked off of the plane.
my sister, sarah, and her girls drove up from fargo and surprised me at the airport.
i was so freaking excited. 
thanks again for doing that - it really meant the world to me.

we stayed up well past bedtimes that first night and i loved every second of it.

the next morning, a pj walk to the park was in order...

pj walks are always fun.
always.
even when the final destination isn't a park.

after our stroll, we spent lots of time playing in the backyard.


we even had some visitors :)
unfortnately, i don't have photos of all of them...

boy, was it great to see everyone.

palmer (nephew)

Charlie (niece)

More to come from my trip back home!