Back to Maine

While Marcie was tromping through the woods, I was in Maine enjoying some great weather, hanging out with friends/family and attending Rob and Stephanie's wedding. I left at midnight Thursday, flew all night and got to Portland at noon on Friday. Saturday morning I met Katie, Jenny and little Bella at Fort Williams park to enjoy the sun and relax. Bella is truly an adorable little girl and provided the entertainment while we watched her run around and play with everything.

Rob's wedding was in the afternoon, it was a beautiful ceremony and reception. The band the had selected for the reception was particularly interesting as they were not your typical wedding band. It appears that the result of playing more Bon Jovi than Village people is that everyone dances, even while it's still light outside!

Sunday night, Derrick and Sarah hosted a great party at their new house. The night was almost complete with bocce ball, darts, beer and burgers but no horse-shoe pit was in sight. Derrick tried to explain that the pit had not been made because it was going to take an extraordinary effort and the result would be the best looking horse-shoe pit we've ever seen. The counter logic may suggest that a really nice horse-shoe pit that exists only in ones head may take a back seat to something mediocre that one can actually use. Derrick however, did not buy this method of thought so the party was without horse-shoes. Still fun though, I must say. And it was really great to see everyone again.

Hike to Mowich Lake (almost)

Since Mike was out of town I decided to have a little slumber party on Friday night. Brianne, Mary, Katie and Jim came over for bar-b-qued hamburgers and then Cold Stone. Brianne and Mary spent the night so Saturday morning we could leave early for Mt. Rainier. The 5 of us left the 70 degree weather and headed up to Mt. Rainer National Park. The goal was to hike 6 miles round trip to Mowich Lake. When we started out on the hike it was sunny, warm and not a sign of snow. So against Mary's better judgement we left the snowshoes in the car. After 20 minutes of hiking up hill we turned a corner and the road was covered with about 3-4 feet of snow! My first thought was what Mike was going to say when I tell him I let us hike to Mowich lake without snowshoes - he did not disappoint me! I was determined not to let our trip be ruined so Mary, Jim and I ran back the car to grab the snowshoes. So thirty minutes later we were on the road again. Things were going well until I realized that we were not going to find the trail to the lake since the sign was probably covered in snow. We kept heading up hill without hopes of seeing the lake. After about 2 hours of hiking straight uphill we all had enough and decided to turn around and head back to town for Panini's and beer. Once we got back home and rested up, we all met again to introduce Brianne and Mary to Sushi! After dinner I spent the night with Brianne and Mary and we spent Sunday hanging out around the apartment since it was cloudy and rainy.

First Hike of the Season!

First thing, Brianne and Mary moved to Seattle (well, Bellevue actually) about 2 weeks ago on a three month travel assignment!!! Brianne is working nights as a nurse on the Cardiac floor of a Seattle hospital (I can't remember which one), and Mary is doing home care physical therapy. Well, after the fiasco with Mia, we met Mary, Katie and Jim for a VERY late dinner and drinks at Bahama Breeze. (Brianne, unfortunately had to work last night and tonight). Today, Sunday, Mike, Katie, Jim, Mary, and I drove out to Mount Rainier National Park for a hike. The Carbon River park entrance was closed due to flood damage but we were able to park at the ranger station and hike right from there. The hike was a little more than we bargained for since it was straight up the mountain, but it was well worth it as an hour and a half later we ended up at a great waterfall!! After lunch we made our traditional stop in a cute town called Enumclaw at a bar called The Mint for pizza and beer!! It wasn't the same without Brianne and we can't wait to take her to the park next weekend!!

Are we Crazy?

Marcie and I were about ready to head out the door for a night on the town. We had noticed that Mia had been sleeping a lot and wasn't very playful for the past few hours. Before leaving we took another look at the sleeping beauty and to our surprise, discovered one of her paws to be three times the size of the others! Now what... it's probably nothing but then again, if one of my appendages more closely resembled a baseball glove than a hand I would probably go see the doctor. So, on the advice of the animal hospital, kitty got her first trip to the ER. They decided it's either broken or strained and gave her some medication and pain killers. The verdict is that she should be fine as long as the swelling subsides by Monday.

But she not a kid... just a cat. Are we crazy? Have we turned into those crazy people that talk about their pets as if they were children? Maybe we have, but whether this is a bad thing or not is yet to be seen. Perhaps it's a stepping stone to some inevitable time in the future when problems like this happen daily but with much higher consequence. Parents in training is one way to look at it I suppose. Needless to say, as long as the benefits outweigh the hindrance, life is still good.

We have new Posts!

Finally we have posted the long awaited Switzerland trip although it's a little long :) We also threw up the post on Tahoe that we missed from back in March. And... of course this past weekends adventure at Amber and Troy's Wedding in Kansas City. In an attempt to keep things chronological you'll have to scroll down pretty far to find some of the new ones (especially Tahoe). So for your convenience I'll index them here so you can just click on the link.

Here ya go...
Amber's Wedding
Amber's Bachelorette Party
Switzerland
Tahoe

Wedding Photography

This weekend we travelled to Kansas City (Lawrence actually), to attend Amber's wedding. The whole family was involved, Marcie was a bridesmaid, Kate played the piano, Anne sang, Mom and Dad (the other ones) helped decorate the reception hall, and I did the photography (with help from cousin Steve). It was the first time either of us had attempted a wedding so we were both pretty nervous.

We headed to the rehearsal on Friday to see the church, get to know the order of events and find the best angles for shooting the key moments. Like most churches it was dim, high ceilings, bright windows along the walls and many other things that make photography difficult for a novice like me. We walked around and found the best places to stand for portion of the ceremony. Then we met with the priest and wedding coordinator. "you can't go here, can't go there, that won't work, can't use flash, and I've stopped weddings because of photographers before"! Wow, we quickly realized this would be harder than anticipated. That night Steve and I re-planned where we would be during the ceremony and the next morning we prepared for a lot of improvisation. At least in my opinion, the ceremony pictures came out really well and Steve captured a great shot of the kiss. Anne and Kate nailed the music and the ceremony was really great!

After the ceremony, the pressure was off and we got to have a little fun. We set up for the formal shots of the Bride, Groom and family and once that was finished, headed off one the limo-bus. The next stop was KU where we took casual and group shots of the bridal party. It was about 85 degrees but Amber and Troy didn't mind me dragging them up down the hill to get to the bell tower for pictures. It was worth it though, I think their gonna like those shots :) Then it was back on the bus and off to the reception to celebrate for the rest of the night.

It was a fun day pretending to be a wedding photographer. It was definitely more work than I anticipated but fun nonetheless. Thank goodness for the help though, having another camera in the room really saved the day (thanks Steve!). Congratulations Amber and Troy, it sure turned out to be a great weekend ...And you'll get your pictures soon, I promise :)

Amber's Bachelorette Party

This weekend I flew to Kansas City for Amber's bachelorette party. Amongst all of Amber's friends, Amber's mom, her mom's friend, and my mom blended right into the group! (Kate was also there after just getting back from France the night before). Friday night my mom, Kate and I met Anne in Kansas City and ate dinner at Mi Cocina, my favorite Mexican restaurant. I ordered my favorite drink called the Limousine (which cost more than my dinner and caused me not to feel so well that night - or maybe it was the Cheesecake Factory cheesecake - i don't know - but I was happy!). Saturday afternoon we all met at Danielle's (Amber's matron of honor) for a "Personal Shower" We played a game where everyone put a pair of underwear in a brown bag that was most representative of ourselves and Amber had to guess who each pair belonged to. Mine said Ski Bum (Ski was written very small by the very big BUM. Amber saw the "Bum" and laughs and guesses me without even reading the ski part! Amber got tons of cute underwear and lingerie! Next we headed to Bambino's Italian restaurant for a great dinner and then to a small but fun bar called the Sandbar. It allows only 49 people in the bar so we had to wait about 10 minutes for all 17 of us to get in! To top off the night we went to a night club that featured a Live Salsa Band! At 2:00pm the club closed and they had to make several requests for us to leave! We had so much fun and the mom's (who didn't think they were going to stay out all night- but did) had a great time too!

Pictures