My Favorite Fish

Our summer vacation was spent in Cozumel, Mexico. I learned to snorkel and really enjoyed the peek at life that lies beneath the surface of the Caribbean Sea. We saw so many colorful coral reef fish, an eel and a sting ray. The eel and sting ray made me a bit nervous (more in another post)! My favorite "fish" however, was my husband! I loved watching him dive far below the water's surface for a closer look or photograph of a fish. My clumsy husband actually looked GRACEFUL in the water! I was in awe, for I can not dive nor can I swim underwater. I've never learned how...and the thought of learning how makes me a tad bit nervous. I convinced him to let me have the underwater camera while he dived down so I could try to capture photos. He's not a fan of having his photo taken, but he agreed to relinquish the camera to me. Although I take tons of photos, have a side business of photography, and operate an advanced dslr camera....the point and shoot underwater camera was tricky for me!

My favorite "fish":




















Other Fascinating Fish: A starfish we found while snorkeling at the Hotel Barracuda:











These are just a few of the many photos we took while snorkeling. Check back for there are more to come!!!

Awe-Inspiring

I tend to use the word "awesome" pretty frequently, then when I'm faced with something that is truly awesome, incredible and awe-inspiring I don't seem to have an adequate word to describe it. That was the case throughout our vacation in Cozumel. I am completely drawn to the sea, inspired by it, even though at the same time afraid of it. There's something about the rise and fall of the waves, the pull of the moon on the tides, the sound of the water crashing, the feel of sand on my feet, the taste of salt in the air. It mesmerizes me. My senses were completely captivated when in Cozumel and all the things about the sea that I already knew to be enchanting were present. But added to that was a blue like I've never seen before in so many shades and hues the farther out in the Caribbean I gazed.

No More "R" Word!

 

 

 

 

I know there are many who see the posts encouraging us all to remove the "R" word from our vocabulary who think "I don't mean anything bad by it." What we mean by it when we say the word isn't the point. The point is simply that the word cuts straight into the heart of parents who dread the day that word is used in reference to their own child. Honestly I never gave it a lot of thought, until Charli, and even then realized most people don't mean anything by it. We have friends whose entire family are working to delete the word from their vocabulary simply because it hurts them to think someone might use the word in reference to Charli and that makes them sad. So even though I know you don't mean anything bad when you say the word, think about the Mom or Dad who hear the word and cringe. Then stop using the word for that reason and for all the "Charlis" who are so much more than what that word signifies.

 

Heather N Charli

My two favorite girls came to go shopping with me last weekend. Before we headed out I snapped a few pictures. I take lots of photos of my granddaughter Charli but don't get as much opportunity to snap them of her mommy too.



Pretty Girls!


Charli sure loves her Mommy!


Got your nose!


Charli Kisses!


Pretty Baby Girl

Brandon and Sam

We recently traveled to Missouri to attend my nephew Brandon's wedding. It was beautiful! Fancy trimmings had nothing to do with the beauty of the ceremony. A friend stated the wedding was...spiritual. I believe her description nailed it. From vows the couple wrote themselves, to the groom's display of love for Jesus and for his fiancee by washing her feet, the ceremony left few dry eyes in the congregation.





Even the bride's eyes were teary

Santa!!!

I scheduled a photo shoot recently for families to bring their children to meet Santa and have photos made. Above is my granddaughter Charli. She was infatuated with Santa's beard and kept turning around to see Santa.









Has someone been naughty???



I caught Santa snoozing between sessions!



A big THANK YOU to Sister Suzie's Chocolates and Gifts for offering their store location for Santa Portraits! What a beautiful setting!

Downtown at Night

My daughter works evenings so I told her last week on her next night off we should go downtown and take some night time photos. A group of friends/photo enthusiasts are planning a trip to a nearby town to take photos of Christmas lights at night and we wanted to practice some night photography before then.
It's been cold this week so we didn't stay long but I thought I'd share some of the photos I got.







The gazebo and fountain in Central Park:




The fountain in Central Park:





Gift and Gourment looks beautiful in its new store!





Sister Suzie's new storefront is amazing as well!

Election Day 2012

Election Day brought something new to our family this week: a new voter, at least in the Presidential Election. Our daughter Heather voted her in very first Presidential election Tuesday. Although she thought it was silly that I wanted a photo she did allow me to photograph her sticker with my phone.







We stayed up late watching the results together. No matter whether we agree with how things turned out or not, it was a special day in the history of our family and for Heather.

Orange

This week over at I ♥ Faces the theme/challenge is "orange." My entry for the challenge is a photo I took of my granddaughter Charli at the local Pumpkin Patch:








Head over to I Heart Faces to check out and enter the challenge:

A Glimpse of Fall

Friday evening my husband and I took off for an overnight camping trip. I was hoping when we planned our venture that the timing would be perfect to view some fall colors. South Texas doesn't have a great deal of color in the fall typically, but I was anxious to see if there would be some at Garner State Park.
Lost Maples State Park is notorious for being the best Texas location for fall colors, but from past experience we knew the line to even drive into the park would take hours.
We opted for Garner State Park. We spent a week camping there for vacation in September and fell in love with it. We planned then to return later to hike another trail and see if there would be fall colors.
It was dark by the time we got to our campsite and set up camp. We had breakfast of coffee, scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits while we looked at the various hiking trails on the map. We chose a trail we had not hiked and filled water bottles and headed out.
Before getting to the trail I requested a walk along the river bank for photos first.






I think this one is my favorite of the day: My hunny looking at the water:



Although the colors are not yet plentiful and vibrant they were still beautiful:



We hiked to the White Cave then on to the Foshee Trail and over to the Painted Rock Trail.



Our view from the top of one of the hiking trails:

Lily's Newborn Portraits

My friend Dana recently had a baby girl. As a gift to her at her shower I promised her a newborn photo shoot. When Lily was 12 days old my daughter and I took a road trip to go meet Lily and take her photos. She's absolutely beautiful and we loved capturing her! Here are a few of my favorites!

Lily and her big brother Cole:
 
























The Whole Family:



Cole reading his favorite book to his baby sister: