Vegas

We had such a great time in Las Vegas this past weekend.
Julie and I spent most of our time doing our favorite thing,
which is laughing and being ridiculous.
Tim became a pro at guitar hero and got to play some poker one night on
the strip.
Our kids got along beautifully and Kayla cried for a half hour after we left
because she missed Alyssa so much. Alyssa enjoyed painting Kayla's nails, washing her hair and braiding it and dressing her up. Kayla ate it up!
We even had a short fashion show one afternoon.
It was so nice for Collin to have a little boy to play with for 3 straight days.
They have so many common interests.
Here are a few pictures of the kids.

Casa Grande

Collin is on Fall Break from preschool.
So last week we took him to Casa Grande on Thursday to check out some
very old and very amazing Hohokam Indian Ruins.
We had a nice morning looking at the ruins and the little museum.
Papa and Collin looked for "hoodoos" and Collin loved the game.
Nana found an interesting tree branch that looked like a monster or an eel.
Then we had lunch at a little local diner and it was fantastic, as local
diners usually end up being.

wedding slideshow

Well, after a couple of weeks of hard work, the pictures of the San Diego wedding are up in two slideshow on my website.
robindphotography.com
Proofs page and then "weddingslideshow" and "receptionslideshow".
Here are a couple of my fav's.

a couple of pictures

I found Kayla and Collin last night, heads together, while Kayla read to Collin.
I love moments like those, because as anyone with more than one child knows,
there are lots of the not so nice moments between them!
I took a quick picture of Kayla before school today. Picture day at school!
She looked so cute I had to get a picture myself.

Our little Aqua Star

Today was very exciting.
Collin moved up from "Aqua Gliders" to "Aqua Star" in swim class!
I was so proud of him.
All of skills were observed by the pool deck manager and she came over
and told me he's now a "star". :)
So even though he is just 3, he is now working on the backstroke and freestyle.
Now THAT was something funny to see.
Miss Stacey was teaching him the freestyle and so he tried it alone, and there are his little arms, scooping forward... while the rest of his body slowly sunk down, down, down.
But his arms just kept going.
We would all have a good laugh and then straighten our faces when he came to the top so he didn't think we were laughing at him.
He'll get it... it's just something new.
The backstroke came much easier and he is doing well with it.
Collin told me today that he wants to start back up in gymnastics too, so Tim and I will figure out whether he wants to do soccer or gymnastics and add that next month.

Meanwhile, Kayla begins her drama class tonight at the Valley Youth Theater in Phoenix. I hate that she missed the first class last week while ill, but oh well.
Hopefully she'll get comfortable quickly.

I am shooting my first engagement session this Friday at the Royal Palms, so that will be a new experience for me. Then we have our family pictures this Saturday morning. We have not had our family picture done in 6 years. How lame!
I'm fortunate that Jen, at O'Grace Photography gives this picture session to all of her employees for their holiday gift. Otherwise, we'd be going another year without a family portrait! LOL

Lucy in the sky with.... wings

Well we almost lost Lucy tonight. And I mean that in the permanent sense, not in the can't find her sense.
I will always remember the way she looked.
It was one of the most comical and awful things all at the same time.
I was in the kid's bathroom... door to the hall open, Kayla in the shower and me trying to condition her hair.
So the shower curtain was open half way, and Kayla starts laughing hysterically and pointing to the hall, "ha ha ha... he he he look at Lucy!"
Frustrated, I ask her to please stand still so that I can put the leave-in conditioner in her hair.
More hysterical laughter and then, "Mom she is walking really funny"!
So I turn around and then... "AHHHHHHH"! I scream.
There is Lucy with her head fully and tightly in a plastic bag which is filled with steam from her trying to breathe. She was starting to tip and wobble as she walked from lack of oxygen (or maybe she couldn't see with all that steam).
I ripped the bag from her head and she gratefully took a huge breath and ran off.
I examined the bag, wondering how in the world she did it. I realized that she had stuck her head in to an open cracker box to eat the last few crackers.
Upon pulling her head out of the box, the bag stayed on and I guess she came to find us to help her.
Another reason not to leave her out in the house when we're not here.
That bag was so tight around her head I honestly do not know what would have happened if no one helped her.

photographing the band

Last night I met up with my brother and his band at Crabby Don's bar.
I was there to take some pictures of the band, but it was also so fun watch
them perform. The whole band is great... love their lead singer, Katie.
Chris sang one song as well and he was awesome.
It was fun to bring home the pictures and start editing them.
I got to use lots of my new fun actions on them from Totally Rad Actions.
Check out their website and be amazed at:
http://totallyradactions.com/#rockin-actions-for-adobe-photoshop-7a1d9
There is a great example of what an action can do for an image on their homepage.
I had such fun using some crazier actions that you can't really use on wedding pictures or portraits.
This weekend was a blast, with a potluck dinner at Chris and Kelsey's place,
and a fun grand opening party of a great outdoor mall near us.
It is going to be hard to get back in to the swing of things tomorrow. Monday! Ugh.