:: Congratulations ::

To my friends - Lauren and Rich on the arrival of their baby boy, Brayden on August 18 - he's perfect! This past week I got a chance to meet him and take a few photos. As most of you know, older brother Tristan has always been absolutely darling and now baby boy #2 is just as cute. Just like his mamma, Brayden has the most perfect lips. Is it bad to be jealous of a 2 week old baby boys lips?

past weekend and some catch up

This past weekend was great and the gray weather actually helped with my productivity. Perfect time spent with friends and with our group of friends, there is always something fun to celebrate.

Friday night - we had a great time celebrating these two lovebirds at Clever Bottle. Cutest little wine bar in Belltown - highly recommend it - charming atmosphere with excellent cocktails.  My favorites were the Candied Ginger Ale and the Lavender Current Cocktail.

Saturday - I had a maternity shoot with this awesome couple. Thankfully, they were willing to brave the nasty rain for some fun Georgetown photos.

Saturday night - edited lots of photos and went out to dinner with my man (who had spent most of the day drinking on a boat) to one of his very favorite meals - mongolian grill. Since they don't allow to-go plates, he likes to imagine that one day I'll "be so kind" and bring tupperware in my purse so he can take his leftovers...not gonna happen.

Sunday - met up with girlfriends at Swedish Hospital to celebrate Rothie and Mike's twins girls. Delane and Court did such an awesome job preparing for this party - fun party favors, great decorations, delicious food and excellent company.

mamma-to-be with her mamma

Monday night - dinner at Machiavelli on Capitol Hill for Michelle's {belated} 30th birthday dinner. The hour and a half wait for six of us, was 100% worth it. I had the birthday girls recommendation of Veal Saltimbocca and I can say with complete honesty that it was one of the best meals I've ever had in Seattle. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera...otherwise I would have taken a photo of my meal and a few of my friends oooo'ing and ah'ing over their meals.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated my adorable Grandpa's 94th Birthday - how cute is he?!? Father of 5, grandfather of 7 and great-grandfather of 3...still living on his own and loving life.

For all of you Seafair'ers...I'm sorry (for your sake) that this upcoming weekend forecast didn't happen last weekend. The weather is going to be spectacular! Lotsoftimewillbespentoutdoors. BTW - I have found that checking AccuWeather.com rather than Weather.com is much more precise.

3,000 Photos Later...

...And my weekend slowly came to an end...
Since my entire weekend was filled with photos, here is a bit of a photo montage of the past three days. If I were to keep a diary, this would have been my Sunday night entry...with just a few less details that probably need to remain a little less public.

Friday night was spent with these two hooligans (Brooke & Megs) in the town that Megs seems to think is the furthest point west in the state of Washington...a little place you may have heard of - Ballard.

This much anticipated night was a blast - lots of laughs, beers, wine and never once a moment of silence. Already looking forward to our next get together.

Dani - thanks for outing yourself as an official stalker - please stick around!




Steve was in the area with a buddy so he met up with us for a drink

Saturday was spent shooting the wedding of the gorgeous Allison & Bert Vigeland. These two along with their families, friends and 20 person bridal party were so much fun. Steve and I snapped photos for an entire 10 hour period and honestly loved every minute of it. There will be many, many more photos to post from this wedding, but here is one of my favorite shots of the day.

photo by Steve

After wrapping up at the wedding in Bellevue, we headed over to the Tap House and Rock Bottom for Rauh's 30th birthday bash. Despite the exhaustion (the bloodshot eyes show it all), we had a great time hanging out with the birthday girl. Happy 30th RAO Sleepwagon - so happy you were able to stay up for the entire nights festivities!

Sunday - Left the house at 10:30am and didn't return again until 10:30pm. First, I was off to Susy's house in Kirkland for Lauren's baby shower with our college girlfriends to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby boy #2. As always, Lo looked beautiful and it was great catching up with the Pi Phi girls. While at the party, I also took a few photos of Jess' new baby boy, Johnny - love his darling little face and his hair.

Susy's stunning girls - Addy and Eden

baby Johnny

After the shower, I stopped by my parents house to wish P.Coff a happy birthday and give her the rest of her birthday gift. Megs and I are sending P&J on a weekend away to Walla Walla to do some winetasting and check out one of the few WA towns they have yet to visit.

Yep, I really captured my entire weekend - even my parents in the kitchen getting ready for their friends to come over for a BBQ

Next up I was off to Seattle to take family and newborn photos of my friends, the Thielman's. Their baby girl, Saylor, was born on Tuesday and is darling! I knew she'd be beautiful because her older brother, Kaden, is one of the cutest boys I've ever seen. Loved catching up with this wonderful family.

Finally, I was off (just five blocks away) to the Kocher's house, to enjoy a delicious dinner prepared by Mike and to take some maternity photos. These two are expecting their twin girls in the next couple of months and I can not wait to meet them - they're going to be beautiful and spoiled to pieces by all of their friends and family.

One of my favorite things about the past 10 days was having two of my bff's in town, Stacie and Megs - if I had it my way, all my girls would live in Seattle...preferably in the same neighborhood, but that may be a bit far-fetched. However, I don't mind that they both live in wonderful travel destinations...we can't get enough of Stacie and Kevin so we're off to Boston in Sept and I'm sure there will be another trip to Bend sometime in the near future. Loved having you girls in town!

Kevin, Stacie, Peanut & Tucker - please come back to Seattle again soon...we already miss you.

photo from the Mullin family mini-photoshoot last week

Welcome to Our World...

Taylor Mae Johnson
Born on Friday, July 9 at 9:19am, weighing 8lbs 10oz and 20 1/2 inches long

Congratulations to Nick, Jenny and Maddy on the arrival of their beautiful baby girl. I was lucky enough to meet Taylor (along with Nicole) on Friday afternoon and snapped just a few photos. Unfortunately, I didn't get any shots of Taylor with her parents and big sister, but you can see more of them on their blog, here. Her chubby cheeks and adorable little face are perfect. I can't wait to see Maddy with Taylor - I'm sure she'll be an amazing big sister.

Perfect { Summer } Weekend - Bend, OR

Last spring/summer my destination of choice was Lake Chelan...this year it's Bend, Oregon - I love this place and can't get enough of it. If the City of Bend is looking for a spokesperson, other than Matthew Fox, I'd love to submit my application. With so much love for this city and the people that live there, how could I resist running a half marathon in Sunriver, with one of my best friends? I couldn't...so we did it!

Few things about this half-marathon that was different than any of my previous races...

1) Training for a half (at least for me) requires a bit more than running a five miler here and there and taking an entire week OFF from running the week before the race.

2) Practice what you preach - NEVER and I mean NEVER wear something to a race that you've haven't run in before. I tell most running friends this and wish so badly that I had taken my own advice. I bought a new sports bra at the Nike outlet in Bend the night before and thought I was going to suffocate from how tight it was. Immediately after crossing the finish line, that thing came right off and most likely will never be put back on.

3) Running in the Seattle area at 300 - 500 ft elevation is COMPLETELY different than running in the high desert at 4,000 ft - WOW! I was perfect until about mile 8 and then the altitude hit me like a ton of bricks - tight lungs (way.too.small.sports.bra.did.not.help), headache, nauseous, etc. I hate excuses, but this was my run for that.

Megs and I had hoped to finish the race together, but for the first time ever I had to stop and walk so I told her to go ahead - she was on FIRE and I didn't want to hold her back anymore than I already had. The course was the most beautiful and flattest I've ever run and I will definitely be back to do it again. Another plus side - there were only 1,600 runners in the half and 250 - 300 in the full! I highly recommend this race if you're looking for something with less crowde. Congratulations to all of my friends that ran the Rock N Roll races this past Saturday - we were talking about you and cheering you on from Sunriver - Spry and Becki (each of their first - they did AWESOME), Karli, Brad, and Brooke (I would have traded you my sports bra for your cabbage).

Steve and I drove down Friday morning and had the best weekend ever (to date) in Bend. On Friday, we picked up our packets, ran errands, carbo-loaded on a an excellent pasta dinner and Greek salad, enjoyed some beers on the deck and relaxed. Saturday, we ran the half, considered going to a bar to watch the World Cup, but decided against the crowds and hung out at home instead. We love spending as much time as possible with Miles and Ava so we figured staying home and playing the yard would be easier than hanging out in a bar. That afternoon, Steve and I ran out and surprised Ava with a slip and slide and a tutu bathing suit - we can't help but spoil these two kids when we're with them. That night, Galen and Ava had a party to go to so me, Steve, Megs and Miles went and walked around downtown to check out the Bite of Bend, ate a delicious Thai dinner and of course...drank some more beers. Sunday morning, Steve and Miles got their first summer buzz cuts...courtesy of their barber, Galen. On our way out of town, we had a photoshoot some of Megs and Galen's friends and then headed out for our long and gorgeous drive home.

The highlight of the car ride home was stopping in Longview and meeting our friends, Lindsay and Ryan's, newborn baby boy, Gunnar - isn't he precious?? He was born on Father's Day (2 weeks early!) and currently weighs 5 lbs 9 oz. He is the tiniest baby I've ever held and already looks exactly like his daddy. Congratulations Linds and Ryan!