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What a gorgeous day, wouldn’t you agree? Especially after the cold, rainy and snowy week that we had. Today, Jamie and I, mostly I, colored eggs with her cousin Cheyanne and Gramma. What a wonderful mess we made, and we only managed to crack a few of the four dozen eggs that were awaiting new colors. That’s a plus with a twenty-one month old that wants to help dunk the eggs, slurp up the colored water and really just make a mess. We had a blast, although it is possible that I had more fun than the kids, but hey, that’s all right.

Rob, Jamie and I celebrated Easter dinner a day early with my mom and siblings out at the farm. So, I had to dress Jamie up in a super cute dress. What mom doesn’t love to dress her little girls? She loved the dress and kept pulling up the skirt to play with the tulle underneath.

So, with these images of my own cuteness, may you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

I am just getting to our vacation pictures! And what a vacation it was. We had our first destination wedding, out in Vegas if you didn’t guess by now, so we decided to make a little mini vacation and see some of the sights since neither Rob or myself had ever been out to Vegas.

We may have exhausted ourselves, but it was totally worth it. Our first day was a trip to see the Hoover Dam. It is amazing. The dam is way bigger than I had imagined, I’ll admit that I was a tiny bit freaked out that the only thing between us and the torrent of the Colorado River was concrete. Of course, I’m just a big sissy and there is nothing to be afraid of. The view was amazing, there is nothing like this in Wisconsin. The land is so barren, just full of scrubby bushes, cactus and the mountains that just jut out of the earth. It is an artist’s dream and I was itching to paint, but of course I had only brought my camera and a sketchbook. One of the hardest things was choosing which cameras to bring since we only had so much space in our luggage. I’m so happy that we decided to bring a fisheye lens with us, it really helped to capture the whole vista.

Our first day started out with a stop in Boulder City at the Coffee Cup Cafe, which has the most amazing food. They have limited hours, but I would definitely stop in again for breakfast and the atmosphere, which totally rocks! Next door was an antique store with some amazing sidewalk displays, check for yourself, I had to break out the fisheye and take some shots.

After these shots, it was a straight shot out to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. Can you tell that I am loving the mountains and the scenery?

This bridge is huge and spans the Colorado River, I was not a fan of driving on it, but then we couldn’t even tell that we were on a bridge until we were safely on the other side. I have a weird fear that bridges will collapse when I’m driving on them. I know, it’s a bit crazy.

Apparently, you rub this guy’s toes for luck. I made Rob do it, and look what, it brought us some good luck. Perfect weather and a great time!

Okay, Rob’s going to hate me for posting this shot of him, but I couldn’t resist. Here he is in front of the Hoover Dam, what a view, right?

You may have noticed our lack of posts this last week and a half, well Rob and I went out to Vegas leaving the office manager in charge, would you believe that she didn’t do a thing? We shot a fabulous wedding on Saturday, did some sightseeing, because neither of us have been out west before and it is amazing how different Nevada and Wisconsin are. We also attended the 11th annual WPPI Convention at the MGM. It’s this huge, fantastic trade show for photographers, we got to meet several of our vendors, and even find some new products that we want to test out. We can’t wait to implement some new changes.

I’ve got tons of posts in mind, a handsome little newborn from this morning, a couple engagement shoots to blog and, of course, some of our amazing trip! So, stay tuned later this week for more exciting news.

This post is a personal post, if you don’t want to read, scroll down, I’ve included a black and white flower shot for you. I promise that tomorrow we will resume our scheduled programming with something much more exciting, but for today, I need to get this off my chest.

I have been doing some soul searching lately. And I am not sure of anything right now. I still have a roof over my head and food on the table. I have a loving husband that will support me. In whatever I choose to do. I have a beautiful baby girl who I can only hope will one day realize how much my heart overflows with love for her.

I feel lost right now. I feel scared. And I don’t know what my next step will be. Behind me lays the road I have traveled and before me yawns a chasm. I am standing at the precipice with no idea how far the drop will be, the winds of change are beating at my back and I am afraid to jump. And I am afraid to stay. I cannot stay because things have already changed and will continue to change.

Rob and I have had some monumental changes this winter. Rumors of him being laid off were whispered in our ears at Thanksgiving and we have been living with this threat hanging over our heads. It has been a very stressful couple of months. I am a worrier. My brain never stops, and if you ask Rob, he will tell you that this is true. I lie awake at night with these thoughts racing through my head, what if’s turning circles through my brain. I’ve tried to make it stop. The worries only get worse. It wasn’t Rob who needed to worry. I no longer have the same job as before. I am finding it hard to adjust, I’ve done this for six years and now, well now someone else does what I do, what I did.

So here I am, at a new crossroads in life and there is the question hanging in the air.

Where do I go from here?

Where?

What do I want to do with my life?

That is the question, and unlike Scarlett I cannot wait until tomorrow to think about the answer. I need to figure things out now. This is where I stand, a well trod path behind me and nothing solid in front of me. I know that Rob will support me.

So, where do I go from here?

Do I leave everything behind and forge this new path? Our photography is pulling me, drawing me ever farther off the beaten path. I’ve dreamed of building up the photography to a point where one of us can take it on full time. There is no time like the present. I am young, I am determined and I am dreaming big. I have so many new plans for this coming year. I want to break into new markets. I’ve got newborns lined up, okay they may be waiting their turns, and I have dreams of showing women how beautiful they are, every curve and line holds beauty. I want to share my dreams with you.

I will dream. I will grow. I will choose happy.

Some of you may know that our little office manager has been feeling a bit ill this past week. Poor thing, I’m hoping that she will soon return to sleeping through the night and feeling much, much better. On the upside, we are getting many more cuddles from her. So, since I didn’t have time to find anything else, you get to see my little office manager as she takes advantage of the best seat in the house.

We love Halloween. Dressing up, finding the perfect costume, dressing Jamie up so she’s the cutest little pumpkin or fairy, or both this year as the case may be, and then getting the house decorated for trick or treaters! We don’t get a lot of kids coming to our door as we are kind of off the beaten path, and perhaps the corpse handing out candy this year scared most of them away so I still have a cauldron full of candy, which is a bad bad thing at our house, but we do have fun getting things set up.

This year, we stole a couple of coffins, had a string of skulls lining the walk, and the creepiest monster/corpse to hand out candy. All right, perhaps Rob really was hiding under that ugly mask, and perhaps Jamie liked to kiss the mask, I know weird kid, right? So while Rob was dressed all creepy with his dad, scaring the kids that came to the house, Jamie and I dressed up as fairies. Yeah, we had awesome wings. I do believe that Jamie was the cutest little fairy in the house. I may be biased, but hey, she’s all mine and I’m allowed to be a little biased, don’t ya think? We did a little walking around ourselves, but really, a fifteen month old does not need any candy in my opinion, so we didn’t go too far before getting cold and coming home to make some awesome nachos and watch the kids come up to our own house.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! Here is just a bit of what went on at our house this evening.

What a gorgeous day! Who knew that October in Wisconsin would be in the upper eighties temperature wise and utterly gorgeous?! We’ve been blessed, that’s all I can say.

We shot our last wedding of the season yesterday and while I haven’t had a change to go through the hundreds of shots to pick my favs yet, we went out today with a photographer friend of mine, Erin from Melissa Grace Gallery, and swapped family shots! I’ve been wanting to get family shots done for a while now, and this was the perfect chance. We met up out at South Shore and took a little walk. Little miss E was hilarious! She’s used to being the perfect model, and definitely let me know when pictures were done, lol.

I had so much fun, and had to share some of my favs from today, including a few of Jamie, notice the poor little eye. Of course she would get attacked by a mosqito the day before our family shoot! Those mosquitos love her, and she ends up looking just a bit like Quasimodo, poor baby.

I’ve got a ton to share, so expect more this week!

I love this time of year, the orchard’s are open, the leaves are changing and the smell, there’s just this smell in the autumn that you can’t find any other time of year, I love it all! We finally made it out to Ski Hi this weekend for caramel apples and turnovers. Silly me, I had gotten turnovers for Jamie and I, which she ate with me, but I do believe that she like Rob’s caramel apple even more!  She’d take huge bites from him, I thought she would choke, but she is a really good eater, if any of you have had the chance of eating with us and our little piglet, you know I’m telling the truth, I’m often afraid she’ll eat us out of house and home, but we’re okay for now.

After Ski Hi, we decided to head out to Devil’s Lake’s South Shore and do a little hiking, no small feat with a giant stroller and Jamie trying to get us to go faster! We had so much fun walking around, and trying not to get dive bombed by acorns, and I found some paths that I had never even gone on. So, be excited next group to head out to the lake, we are going to have some fun with you!

What’s a blog post without pictures? Nothing, that’s what I say, so take a look at the caramel eating baby and my favourite shot from out at the lake.

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