super-quick Thanksgiving recap

Well Thanksgiving vacation came and went in a blur. I can't believe it's already almost time for Christmas!

Ben and I flew out to Kansas City for a couple of days to visit his family for the holiday. I didn't actually take my camera out for the Thanksgiving dinner portion of our trip... but here are a couple of my favorites from the rest of our vacation.

Our trip got off to an exciting start (again) as our original flight was canceled. The good news was we had advance notice the night before we were supposed to leave of the flight cancellation. the bad news was that the only flight we could get on that would get us in by Thanksgiving left in about 4 hours from the time we go the phone call, and we were not AT ALL ready to go! It was the most hurried packing and airport experience I've had in a long time... thank goodness we made it!

On Friday night we had "wiiza" night (wii + pizza = wiiza) which was a lot of fun. We got a chance to see a bunch of friends that we don't see all that often, and of course look completely ridiculous while playing wii. Lucky for me since I was the one holding the camera there are no incriminating photos of me :)

The other great thing about our wiiza night was that we got to hang out with Charlie, who is pretty much the cutest puppy ever

And of course Houdini as well, who as it turns out, loves any box, even if she's too big to fit in it

On Saturday we went on our little tourist outing of Kansas City, stopping by the plaza to see their annual holiday display. I LOVE Christmas lights!!

And since we were right next door we decided to check out the Nelson-Atkins museum's Bloch addition at night. This museum is definitely an amazing piece of architecture and if you're in the area you should go check it out! It lights up at night and when we visited there were tons of people checking out the sculpture garden at night and kids playing on the hill. Very cool.

Overall it was such a fun and fabulous trip, and it's always great to spend time with family! Yay for the holidays!!

Bridget & David - NYC

Bridget is one of my oldest and bestest friends from junior high. She is also one of the most talented people I know. Seriously. She's amazing. Ben and I went to New York a couple of weeks ago to watch her star in her Broadway debut in Mark Twain's Is He Dead? If you live anywhere in or near New York get your butt to this show. It's hilarious. Seriously. And I'm not just saying that because she's my friend :)

While we were in New York we had planned on me doing a little mini session of Bridget and her boyfriend David. What we didn't think about when scheduling the time for the shoot was that daylight savings time would take the otherwise beautiful afternoon/early evening light and transform it into total blackness. Which is what there was when we met up to shoot. Oops.

Well we made the best of a somewhat bad situation and took a couple of shots outdoors before going up to David's place for a few more. Here are a few of my favorites.

David has a LOT of pez dispensers... so of course we had to have a shot with them.

And his blue dog paintings, which I love!

Thanks Bridget & David for having me over... you two are the best. And I'm not kidding about the play... go and see it. Now :)

Baby Ella

Baby Ella is one of the sweetest and most gorgeous babies I've ever seen! Ok I admit, I love babies... I've never met one I didn't like :) and Ella was no exception. She has absolutely gorgeous bright blue eyes which were so full of wonder. I was feeling quite black-and-white-ish while editing this session so there are a lot of those... I think they make her look extra cute :)

Look at that bow. This is ridiculously adorable!

Her mom kept trying to get her to take a teddy bear to pose with but she was much more partial to the comb... yum.

Momma and daughter, so sweet!

And then it was time for a quick snack break...

before dessert of dad's glasses. Yum!

Look at those gorgeous blue eyes! Such a beautiful baby.

Thank you Brooke & Chris for inviting me into your home to photograph your beautiful daughter, Ella is such a sweetie!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving already! The holidays have really snuck up on me this year. It has been such an amazing and crazy year and I have so much to be thankful for. I have to give thanks to my family and especially my wonderful husband. He has been my main supporter and number one fan in my photography endeavors and I am so grateful to him!

As for the holiday, I will be celebrating this year with Ben's family out of state so I will be out of the office until Monday. Have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday and just because I can't post an entry without at least one photo... here are Ben and I on our recent trip to France. Aren't we cute? :)

Sarah & Tony engaged!

I met up with Sarah and Tony yesterday in downtown Encinitas for their engagement session. Our plan was to walk from a coffee shop to the beach stopping along the way to take some photos, and ending up at the beach right at the "magic hour" before sunset when the light is best. I was planning on spending about an hour with these two but I was having such a great time with them (and they are so photogenic!) that our session lasted almost two hours, we definitely didn't stop shooting until we ran out of light!

Thanks Sarah and Tony for letting me drag you all around (even into the cold water with your bare feet). I had a great time with you two... here are a couple of my favorite images from the afternoon.

Matching vans... how cute!

This one is definitely a favorite!

Tony's in a band and he was talking about how easy it is to get band pictures taken because they just make "scary band face". I couldn't resist having them show me a little bit of the scary face, I think Tony pulls it off a little better. Sarah's just too sweet to look scary :)

When we got down to the beach the light was absolutely gorgeous. There was a ton of fog, which was actually making the light even softer and dreamier than usual. How cute are these two?

And the serious face...

Because of all the fog the sunset didn't quite turn brilliant shades of red or purple, but the yellowy orange was quite nice on its own.

While we were taking this shot....

someone randomly walked up with a bird and insisted that it get to be in one of the photos. So here it is. This is officially my first engagement photo featuring a bird.

And one more image... just for fun...

Thanks Sarah and Tony for being such good sports during your session. I had a great time and I can't wait to photograph your wedding in the spring!

Baby Tessa turns one!

On Saturday baby Tessa celebrated her first birthday with a traditional Korean "dol" party and I was lucky enough to be in attendance to photograph the event. It was a small gathering with close friends and family and it was such a treat to spend time with such a warm and loving family! Tessa is definitely a well loved baby!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day:

As part of the traditional "dol" celebration, Tessa wore the "hanbok" which is the traditional Korean dress. She looked absolutely adorable!

Tessa with her proud mom!

The party was absolutely full of adorable children

How precious is this little girl? I love it!

Tessa kept running outside and doing laps and dancing around in the courtyard. It was absolutely adorable... check out her face in this one! So cute!

Time to blow out the birthday candles! Tessa was actually born on her daddy's birthday... she wasn't turning 37 but he was :)

Happy birthday Tessa! Thank you so much to the whole family for letting me come along and share in your joyful occasion. If you would like to see more photos from the party, click the play button below to watch a slideshow!