365 Project | Day 70 - 80 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Hello!  Here are my 365 photos from March 10 - 20th.  You will see Spring is in the air and in my thoughts with these photos.  I see and hear more wildlife (aka birds), spring activities have begun, and our yard is coming out of a deep slumber.

Day 70 - robin in our front yard

Day 71 - Isaac practicing tee ball and working pretty hard at it!

Day 72 - rainy day - good day for a fort

Day 73 - the kids were looking out our large front window watching a quick snowfall that blew in and Ella was feeling quite silly

Day 74 - I love aloe vera.  We had a plant at my house growing up and my mom dabbed it quite often on my cuts.  That weird green-smelling goop actually worked pretty well!

Day 75 - playing Bey Blades (again) with Isaac.  This is currently his favorite past time.

Day 76 - forsythia blooming in the neighborhood

Day 77 - tailgating for lunch @ Snoqualmie Ski Resort.  It was a beautiful day with two new feet of snow, no lines, friends, and firsts.  Isaac and Ella both rode the chairlift for the first time and ended the day (at 4pm nonetheless) on a blue run!  Taken with the iPhone

Day 78 - Ella and her friend getting ready to go to an American Girl Fashion Show (yes, did you know they had these?!) to benefit the Star Guild Foundation who raises money for The Children's Hospital in Seattle.  Ella walked out of the show repeating: "That was awesome."

Day 79 - there's something about black birds.  Hitchcock made me scared of them, but the Beatles made me love the mystique of a black bird what it can represent.

Day 80 - First day of Spring!  Bring it on!  This was taken with my new Lensbaby lens with the macro attachment.  Very addicting to play with!

Happy Shooting!

365 Project | Day 60 - 69 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Good afternoon!  Still trying to catch up here!  Here are my photo-a-day images from February 30 - March 9th, the first week or so after we got back from our trips.

Day 60 - Ella getting ready to go to the bus stop.  She was excited to celebrate her 100th day of school today.

Day 61 - Ella was reading to Isaac this morning before school.  Love this little moment.

Day 62 - The sun was out this afternoon and the clouds looked so cool to me.  Doesn't it look like distressed leather with some other funky textures mixed in?

Day 63 - Ella enjoying the weekend sunshine by getting out the sidewalk chalk.

Day 64 - You may be getting tired of photos of branches but I'm enjoying peeking around at the signs of Spring in my neighborhood.

Day 65 - Beautiful late afternoon photo from my living room window of the moon peaking up over the East before the sun set.  I loved the pop of yellow of the large tree on the left.

Day 66 - Isaac was home with a cold and slight fever today.  I caved and gave him a popsicle since it always helps me when I don't feel good :)

Day 67 - I woke up with a terrible sore throat.  I could hardly swallow and also had a fever.  The doctor later verified that I had strep, which I guess is going around NE Seattle right now.  This photo sums up how I felt and what I would try anything to feel better.

Day 68 - Isaac is better!  He had a nice bubble bath to get all ready to go back to school.  In the middle of it, he had to go to the bathroom.  I was able to capture this as he got out :)

Day 69 - Taken with my iPhone.  Ella celebrated her 100th day of math today, and was so excited to make this sign and surprise her kindergarten teacher with it!  She was so proud of her work - it melted my heart.  I hope she continues to be this excited about school projects.

More catch-up coming soon!  Happy 1st day of Spring!

365 Project | Day 54 - 59 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Still playing catch up here!

Tim and I were fortunate enough to piggy back our Hawaii trip with a Club trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Although the turn around was a little crazy between flying home the night of the 22nd, unpacking, re-packing, getting the kids situated, and getting Tim's sister and brother-in-law up to speed on caring for the kids, we sailed through the transition without major complications.

So we took off Thursday morning, Feb. 23rd to San Juan by way of Dallas for a 9.5 hour journey through 4 time zones.  Luckily we encountered fantastic flight attendants in Dallas unlike a recent flight from there and had a very uneventful flight.

I decided not to take my "big girl" camera on this trip, so all photos are taken either with my iPhone or my Lumix point-and-shoot camera.

Day 54 - taken over 10,000ft. departing the Pacific Northwest.  You can see Mt. Adams in the foreground and Mt. Hood in the near background.  Taken with the iPhone.

Day 55 - taken again with the iPhone (see the low light graininess here?)  from our rooftop BBQ at El San Juan Hotel and Resort.  It's a beautiful 1950s mid-century modern hotel (which I'm a sucker for) with beautiful ornate mahogany ceilings and pillars, marble floors, and quite an expansive lobby with four (yes, four!) bars.  I highly recommend you check it out if you ever get a chance to go to San Juan.

Day 56 - we took a catamaran from the East side of the island out to this tiny uninhabited island for the morning.  The water really looked like that.  It was beautiful although the snorkeling wasn't nearly as good as Hawaii.

Day 57 - a Puerto Rican sunset taken from inside a suite at the hotel.

Day 58 - our last day here.  Tim went deep-sea fishing and I hitched a ride with some friends to check out Old San Juan.  San Juan is the second oldest city in America and the American territories.  There is so much history breathtaking views, and fantastic architecture to look at here.  As you can see by this photo, this is an old cemetery nestled between two historic forts, the ocean, and the 500+ year-old city walls.

I have 3 photos from Day 58 as I couldn't choose.  This second one is a beautiful little nondescript church in Old San Juan.  Ponce de Leon lies within these church walls.  I loved the colors and lighting in this photo.

There were many stained glass windows in the church.  I loved the detailing with the old plaster window casings and statue framing the window.

Day 59 - Cuba!  We saw Cuba on our long flight home at 40,000 ft.  Probably the closest I'll ever come to this country.  Taken also with the iPhone.

365 Project | Day 41 - 53 | Seattle Portrait Photographer

Hello again!  Sorry for the major lapse in posting on my end.  Our vacations proved to be too much for me to handle.  I had no time to keep up the blog posts although I made sure to keep my resolution of taking at least one photo a day.  Why no time, you ask?  Lets start with the fact that our Kauai group consisted of, besides adults, 7 kids between the ages of 2 - 7.  Can you say BUSY?  But nevertheless, we had a fantastic time with family and friends and Tim had a great 40th birthday.  The kids learned how to snorkel, they got to hold (real) macaw's, we spent a lot of time at the beach and pool, saw a ton of whales and turtles, went running, walking, shopping, golfing, whale watching, and paddle boarding and ate, drank, and were very very merry.

I had trouble picking one photo for each day but here goes:

Day 41 - packing for the trip

Day 42 - the view from our condo

Day 43 - another beautiful sunset with sailboat

Day 44 - whale watching before breakfast.  Our condo was sweet!  We stayed at the Makahuena and I can't say enough good things about this complex.  If you're looking to stay in Kauai I would highly recommend staying here.

Day 45 - the best day of whale watching.  We saw at least 15 breaches!

Day 46 - breakfast with Grandpa.  This never gets old.

Day 47 - a hibiscus in the morning - taken with my new Lensbaby Double Optic + macro kit

Day 48 - one of the many roosters at the "chicken (golf) course" - taken with point-and-shoot.  Chickens are free-range here so you will see them EVERYWHERE!

Day 49 - another fantastic day whale watching

Day 50 - our first and only rainbow

Day 51 - Tim's 40th birthday party - taken with point-and-shoot

Day 52 - The kidlets (-1) taken during a photo session on our last sunset together

Day 53 - the girls morning workout @ sunrise before we left.  Not a bad view, eh?