Got My Wings!

This year my birthday weekend was FULL of excitement! Starting bright and early, I headed over to the Black Diamond area for the bi-annual triathalon (which for those that dont know, it is half an iron-man) to take some photos as a freelance photographer. Yes, it was for free, but I have a feeling with some of the photos I took, I will deffinately get published and get my name out there! So starting at 8 with all the pre-race stuff, then the race began at 9 with 3 'waves' of swimming, then off to the 56 miles of biking, and last the running. Sadly I had to leave before the leader of the race began his run, as Eric had a surprise for me!!! But I got some AWESOME photos!

So, I went home, freshened up for my big surprise! PARASAILING! I have wanted to do this for years but something always came up when I was ready to do it... mainly being prego... and every year I wanted to go on my birthday... since the last weekend of September is always perfect weather! And as always, Saturday was more than beautiful and up I went.

The first mate straps you into a harness, puts you in a platform on the end of the boat, hooks your harness onto the parasail, then the captain pushes on the gas and up Up UP I went! I didnt bring my camera... I didnt want to drop it!! But next time I will bring the small one and hook it on to my life jacket and get some photos. The ones below are from the first mate... the only 4 that were not blurry out of about 15 total photos.

Toe Dip... Water wasn't as cold as I expected.

If you have never doen this before, DO IT!! It is a great first step to flying...
what shall I try next?? Hmmmm...

After my high flying adventure, we had a nice family dinner out and came home, to a message that a friend of mine would be there, at our house about 45 minutes later, to take me out on a fun girls night out! What an amazing and fun and tiring day! I got my wings!! YAY!!

Needless to say, I was so tired on Sunday that I did not make it out to take photos on day two of the triathalon, the sprints and olympic size competitions.

It was the second best birthday ever! Thank you honey!

So Excited!

Tomorrow I get to experience my FIRST triathalon!!! Yup, you guessed it... there will be swimming, cycling and running!!!

And if you know me well enough, then you know that I am not physically participating either, but I have been invited to be a freelance photographer for the event. This is a super great opportunity... yes, I know it is free, again, and I am not getting paid, but my thoughts are if the photos get published, then that is more word of mouth. I get to work on action shots and cool angles of photos and be creative.

It will be a long day, get there about 8am the race starts at 9 and most will be getting to the finish line about 1 or 2pm. Super Excited!!!

Da Kids!

William's 6th month birthday photo!

Lovin' the hair!

Two future rugby stars!

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Isabelle's 3rd year birthday portraits,

we used the dress that she wore as a flower girl earlier in the summe.

2 Seniors and a Wedding!

So YAY me! I have been getting a bunch of calls for doing senior portraits! It helps when two girls (and their families) I have known forever ask me to do their photos and the post them on facebook! The two girls below I had as 3rd graders, my very first year teaching! I can't believe how beautiful they are, how much they have grown up.... they are not cute little girls anymore, but young women. Scarier thought, Isabelle will someday (yes far future, but still someday) be having her senir photo done too and be a young woman and no longer a cute 3 year old.

I did Allie's photos at Pt. Defiance Park in Tacoma and Jordan's photos up in Seattle at GasWorks Park. I had never been to the latter, it is quite a place for picture opportunities.

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Quick Review of the wedding I photographed in July out in Roslyn, near Cle Elum. Isabelle was one of the flower girls. So cute! It was a wonderful ceremony out in the middle of a pasture and the reception was in the original school house. Perfect setting for this wonderful couple.

'Ahhh, we did it!'

Congratulations,
Venise and Ross!

Portland

We all had a great trip to Portland in August!!!

We spent 2 wonderufl nights at our Aunt's house, which is remodeled and the most gorgeous place I have ever seen!! We all had an excellent tim in the pool, which was my first time in the pool in the 10 years I have known Eric... crazy!!! Isabelle had a blast, riding on all teh floaty toys and showing off soem of her new swimming skills she learned this summer.

Daddy showed off some of his diving skills!

I also got to spend some time with one of my closest ever friend, from High School!! She and I got so family time where the kids got to play and get to know eachother... and some much needed girl time with coffee and walks! There are 10 years that we are still catching up on, and we seem to be doing great at that and making new memories as well!

Us girls!

(L to R) Patty, Me, Karen

All the girls!!

And the boys!

Can't wait for our next trip down... I promise that it will be more then once every two years!!

Swim AND Tennis

This summer my parents helped out and got Isabelle some swim lessons which she absolutely LOVED! Below are just a few of the many photos... there are also some short videos but they are not uploading, but they are fun too.

Isabelle with her teachers and other kids in her class

She starts out with good jumping form and then ...

... falls in

There are some things that we need to continue working on.

Jumping, going under water... maybe next year.

We had to walk past the tennis courts every day to get to swimming lessons and everytime, Isabelle said she wanted to do that too. So... we put her in 4 tennis lessons, just to start and see how she would like. She did!

Tennis we can practice against the garage doors.

More lessons next summer!

2nd Annual Pig Roast

It was again, maybe even more fun this year, but a wonderful time with friends, family and amazing food. Dave and his bro brought in a 90 lbs sow (last years was 60 lbs) and prepped it the night before, got up about 6am and began cooking. People started arriving about 2 and we were 'pigging-out' about 3:30pm.

We have learned that a 90lbs sow is probably the largest

that our grill can hold and successfully cook.


A view of our backyard: our new deck, tents up for shade, a hamock for lounging in the sun... a place for everyone!

Anton brought his 'professional' volleyball net and set it up for some adult volleyball fun, a 'true' tournament. So after slip-n-slide, they all dried off playing V-Ball.

The new sandbox and painting station (not pictured) got SO much use. If a parent could not find their child, that is where they went. :)

LOVING our new deck!

The most amazing pork chef ever!

Thanks to Tracie, we have now a AWESOME 100 foot slip-n-slide!

Adults and kids the same loved it... nothing a little baby oil wont do to make slipping more fun!

Once the adults were finished sliding as far as they could go, Mat here almost got to the end...

The kids all went on, splashing and sliding and falling and who knows what...

but they had FUN!

We concluded our evening with a fire and the best stories in the hamock. We would of had smores' too, but the cat ate the marshmellows... so lessoned learned for next year!

Mark your calendars for July 2011
3rd Annual pig Roast is set!