Oh how I love Paris

Wow... I just realized that in all of the hustle and bustle of getting my recent portrait sessions up on my blog I never had a chance to post photos from our trip to Paris this fall. Paris is hands down my absolute favorite city! I love love love everything about it and I was so happy to get to spend several days there at the end of our Normandy trip this fall.

Here are just a couple of my favorites... oh how I wish I could go back again :)

Paris is so gorgeous at night.

My favorite museum in the city is the Musee d'Orsay. I love the art in the museum but even better is the architecture. It's a fabulous place to stroll around in.

And of course the obligatory stop at the Louvre.

The funny thing we noticed on this trip was how few people actually look at the artwork itself. Most people are either watching it through their cameras... or like these people... reading about it in their book instead of forming their own opinions about it.

Some of the paintings in the Louvre amaze me simply for their enormous scale. These ones are even bigger than life size.

We can't go to Paris without stopping by our old neighborhood. Oh the memories :) This is the street Ben and I lived on back when we we got engaged. It's gone quite upscale since we left.

And since we were in our old neighborhood we HAD to stop by our favorite bakery which makes these delicious mini breads filled with tasty treats like olives or goat cheese. Mmmmm.

If there's one thing Parisians know how to do it's enjoy a park. We spent much of our trip relaxing in the various gardens and enjoying the sunshine. Some of our favorite parks are not the big tourist ones but a bit off the beaten path. This is the parc des buttes-chaumont.

We also happened to stumble across a fantastic exposition going on called photo-quai which (not surprisingly) was installed along the quai near the new Musee Quai Branly (which on a side note is absolutely horrendous.... although I'm the first to admit that I can't stand Jean Nouvel)

On this trip Ben and I formally decided that our suspicions were true and that yes, France is the future. Tiny fuel efficient cars, smart chip credit cards, and now this... digital tags in the grocery stores. Very very futuristic :)

One last shot... gorgeous candles in the Notre Dame cathedral.

What an amazing trip and even though we just returned I can't wait until I get another chance to go back. Destination wedding anyone?

Raquel & Eddie engaged!

On Saturday I met up with Raquel and Eddie for their engagement session in Encinitas. The first thing that Eddie wanted to do when we started taking photos was to climb up in a tree... so I knew it was going to be an interesting session! We started out ... well... up a tree, and then wandered around for a while before making our way over to the beach where we finished by waiting for the sunset. It was a great time and I absolutely cannot wait for their wedding this summer in Costa Rica!

Here are a couple of my favorites from their session.... starting with one from the tree :)

Eddie likes to surf so I couldn't resist a photo with this sign!

Sorry Eddie, had to post this one... I just love it!

When we got down to the beach the lighting was quite delightful.

This is one of my favorites!

Thanks Rocky & Eddie for coming out to the beach with me. I can't wait for July!

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!!