{Missing my Mother}

I have a really bad procrastination habit... and for some reason my mother always reaps the consequences. She never receives my gifts on time. Although she has a gift currently in the mail for Mother's Day... I decided to create something for her to receive instantaneously tomorrow!  Thank god for the internet! :)

When I love someone SO much… I often times find myself at a loss for words of how to “describe” my love. Tonight, I’ll be honest and let you know that I actually Googled “Mother’s Day Letter Examples”…

When I read the miniscule examples on the internet, I realized that I was trying way TOO hard for my wording or grammar to sound perfect… and started thinking about the REAL reasons that I love my mother…

It starts back when I was a toddler & we moved to Huntington Beach, California. She moved us to this amazing beach town (knowing that it would be a fabulous growing up experience for us – and she was 100% right!!) However, she still worked  SO far away … and she dealt with the commute. On her way to work everyday… she would always stop to get me an Apple Juice in a glass jar & a Nutter Butter. Perhaps she contributed to my FAT tendencies, but, in the long run – she always taught me how to be healthy!

On weekends…. She would throw me onto the back seat of her bicycle… and we would ride along the beach. She stopped every time I asked… as, I was on a mission to collect as many beautiful sea shells that I could find. She never failed to save every single sea shell that I collected… she kept them all in buckets until I was an adult and could make the choice to get rid of them on my own. Unfortunately…. I did.; but only for circumstantial purposes.

My mother made it a priority to keep me active in things like dance lessons, horse riding and Junior Life Guards. I will never forget the experiences that I was given as a child… and I think all of those experiences molded me into the fabulous person that I am today. Yes, I think I am fabulous… I’m not afraid to say it… and it’s all Thanks to my fabulous mother!

As far as the modern day goes, she has become one of my best friends. She listens to all of my rants and raves. She helps me out with any problems. And, she is simply, the one person that I know who is always there for me. She backs up all of  the choices I make with respect, while still giving me her honest opinion about specific situations. I’m not really sure how I would function without her honest support & advice…

I could go on forever about this amazing women & what she's done for me;  but, I’d prefer to keep this short and sweet (just like my mom!) There are times when she knows I desperately need something… and she gives it to me. Yet, there are times when she knows when I need some things taken away from me in order to learn a lesson – and she’s always right.

She is the queen of my world…. I would give my life for her…. And I love her to death. …. I feel so unfortunate to not be able to spend the day with her… but I know that I am so fortunate to still have her in this world.  Not everyone has that luxury… And, I just pray that everyone has a positive, loving, happy, Mother’s Day!

LOVE YOU MOM!!! … and missing you!

High School Graduation!

The Little Woman You Created <3

I will never forget... My 1st Swimming Pool!

My 8th Grade (Middle School) Graudation!

We Thank You for All of your support to help provide for a spectacular day! 

I will never forget the endless day at Fashion Square to find these shoes! Thank you for dealing with me! 

Thank You for our Beautiful & Fabulous Honeymoon!!

I love you guys! <3

Happy Family. 

The beach we were blessed with. 

One of my favorite photographs of my beautiful mother. 

The woman you created me to be... 

I love all of us. 

I will never forget the day you bought me my first Roger Waters concert tickets!!!! :)

{Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona}

While up north this weekend... I also stumbled upon this cute little historical town called "Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona"...

Sweet Surprises! {Lynx Lake}

In the midst of my solo adventure through Prescott this past Friday... I was driving along and just stumbled upon a lake! I did not even know there was a lake in Prescott, so this really increased my excitement for my photography adventure day.
This lake was so quiet... so peaceful... and there's a trail that goes all the way around! This is definitely somewhere I would camp. And, it was a perfect and *beautiful* start to our weekend getaway!

{Prescott Valley}

Ty took a defensive hand gun training class, in Prescott Valley all day this past Friday. I decided to drive up with him and roam around a new location to practice some photography. There's really not much in Prescott Valley, but I still had such a rejuvenating weekend - being away from Phoenix!

Here's a few randoms:

{River @ the Japanese Friendship Garden}

This was a really fun day for me... primarily because I felt comfortable with my subjects. I had the opportunity to shoot candidly, which is my favorite way to shoot. Posing always feels so unnatural to me.

This was my first time visiting the Japanese Friendship Garden, and it's Gorgeous! This is the type of place I would go on a lazy day, to have a picnic & read a book. It's incredibly peaceful! AND -- it's super close to our house, which is an added bonus. It's unusual to find such a Zen-like place in such an Urban part of town!

River's mommy Becca is an old friend of mine. We used to work at an Irish Pub together "back in the day"... when life was more free... and a tad bit more "fun." I'm not saying I wish to be back there again... but, I can definitely say we had some real fun times! Sometimes... I do miss being "young." I know we're still technically "young"... but we're reaching that borderline where these strange things called "responsibilities" sort of interfere with our used-to-be lifestyle...

For as long as I've known Becca, she's always been a fun, loving, free-spirit... and I love that her personality reflects through her beautiful daughter! River is such a pleasure to be around! (Just like her Mommy!)

Thank you to Becca, Wes & River for sharing your time and gorgeous faces with me! I really appreciate all the practice I can get... Plus, the added bonus of getting to spend some time with you!

All My Love!

Here's a few handfuls of my favs:

my miniscule attempt to {Transform} my World.

I've been struggling with some battles lately -- mainly my technology sucking. Partially, the lack of energy and motivation.

I have 3 blogs-worth of images that are crying to be uploaded... but, instead of patiently dealing with my external hard-drive, flash drives, and the annoying amount of time it takes to move photos from one place to the other because our MAC is simply too old to handle this amount of chaos; I will sit here and dream of {The Thunderbolt MacBook Pro} while I transform one tiny image at a time.

*Fingers Crossed* that I gain some more motivation soon! ... And, maybe {The Thunderbot MacBook Pro} ... And hell, lets throw in a trip to Hawaii since we're talking about "wants & needs." ;p

Here's my photo of the day:

{Annual Picnic at the Phoenix Zoo}

Annually around March, the law firm we work for holds a picnic at the Phoenix Zoo. This was our 2nd time attending, and the number of guests increased by almost 100 people since last year! There were over 300 guests... and with that in mind, we have to have a huge appreciation for our party planning committee! *Clapping!*

This was a bittersweet day for me... I'll tell you why shortly.
The picnic was complete with beautiful weather, happy smiles, an amazing barbeque buffet, and it was really fun to see everyone in their "everyday" clothes, with their families and children. I'll be bluntly honest, I am typically not a fan of children... but these ones were actually a pleasure to be around... there was one in particular that I may have kidnapped if her parents had turned their head for just one millisecond! ... Okay, I am totally joking - but Hannah was one smart and a totally enjoyable child. She liked me too... which is totally rare for a child. Most tend to scream as soon as I enter a room.

Back to the "bittersweet" thing I mentioned... more like just *bitter* -- my iPhone was stolen / lost towards the end of the day. That iPhone is not *just* a phone to me... It is a mini storage unit of my entire life. Whoever has it, has the capability to invade my privacy in major ways -- not to mention steal my identity. So the end of yesterday was quite tragic for me. I am still recovering...

Anyway... back to the photography stuff. Ty shot all of these photos yesterday... and I am continually impressed by his capabilities and improvement. I edited the photos... but, like I have said before -- when Ty shoots... there's not much to edit. So, sometimes I just toy around with photoshop just for fun...

I'll stop blabbering now... Enjoy!!