colorado

after utah i flew to denver, colorado. i spent the night & the next day with our good
friends ted & sarah. they are trying to convince us to move to boulder & it is definitely tempting...

sarah had to work that next day so ted took me on the grand tour.


he showed me (meaning we didn't hike much of it, because I was sore from playing in a tournament) a beautiful hike right on the edge of town. isn't it amazing?


the town plants these amazing tulips- they're huge!


we went for some chai tea (my absolute favorite) at this fantastic tea house. everything
is hand painted or hand carved.


yum!


then teddy dropped me off at the greyhound bus station! which was a
very interesting experience. i'd never ridden on a greyhound & was up
for the 4 hour adventure. everything was going well until it started smelling badly
of burnt rubber. then the guy across from me who was sitting backwards
in his seat talking to the woman behind him saw sparks & flames coming
from the back of the bus. he told the driver who then made a non-
challant paige that our bus may be on fire but to stay calm. he drives about
10 minutes to the next exit & we pull off at a gas station to quickly learn
that our belts had burnt off?????!!! luckily we were only an hour away from our
final destination & my friend ashley & himali came to get me.

so, while i waited for them i sat in the gas station charging my computer.


a guy from the bus sits down next to me charging his phone & tells me that there are 3 cop
cars surrounding our bus. they are arresting a guy because he has 3 warrants out for
drugs & weapons. NICE. it turns out the culprit was the guy across from me!

so travelers beware! sheesh.

lisa & joe

& joe's adorable daughter's kaycee & ashley met me at asu this past sunday
for a little engagement shoot! i'd never shot there before & it was really neat
to walk around & pay attention to the details & architecture. it's a beautiful
campus.

lisa gave us the grand tour & told us lots of stories of how special this campus
is to her since it's the reason she moved here to arizona & where she met joe!

we're pulled in a direction for some divine reason & these two finally know why :)

here are a few of my favorite images:
we started off climbing some trees, which is apparently my favorite thing to do on shoots!


& then we stumbled on the secret garden!


some laying on our backs looking at clouds time.


she was totally missing the flower in her hair!


sweet simple portrait.


this is my favorite one. i love how gentle they are!


i love what happens when i say 'okay pretend i'm not here'


i think it's adorable how the girls are watching the yucky love moment.


lisa telling joe a funny story.


when i stopped shooting i noticed how cute the girls were! entertaining themselves.


a lil reflectione'


and a little family love on the palm walk!


thanks guys, i had so much fun! i can't wait for your wedding in august!!

#20 check!

i have visited 3 new places since i made this goal!

stillwater, mn.
hudson, wi.
& salt lake city/ogden utah.

woohoo. i'm also going to be adding ann arbor michigan come
july 19th with a wedding reception there!

why was i in utah you ask? for an ultimate tournament, of course.
i've joined a competetive women's team ultimate phxation & we were
going to our first real tournament together. bryan's team sprawl
was also there so i drove up with some of his teammates. the drive was
amazing. we drove through all these amazing places like bryce canyon
& lake powell & it was so hard not to stop because they're all
beautiful & i wanted to see em!

but here are some pics from the weekend. i definitely want to go back
to utah... it was sooo beautiful.



the ladies in our swanky new jerseys & our coach tricky.


me & my girl em. yeah, we're wearing some jewels.


a few action shots. what a backdrop, huh?


bryan took this one of me failing miserably at jumping. if you look closely- you'll
see that my left foot didn't even leave the ground. shu. michael jordan i need some
lessons, pronto.


so pretty!




bryan's team, sprawl. their cheer is 'sprawl, pave the world!' isn't that awful?


bryan & the rest of the original van left after the tournament because they had a nice
10-12 hour drive home :) i luckily was heading to the airport! so i got to go eat
at this awesome little dive joint called the red iguana.... sooo yummy.


waiting patiently for our fixes, even though we'd all played at least 6 games in the last
24 hours & were starving!


meanwhile inside the restaurant the food network was doing a piece on them for their
show -dives, diners & something or another. kinda cool huh? i've never eaten at such
a famous place, at least not while it's in the process of becoming famous.


& i'll leave you with one more purty picture. ahhhh.

the grand canyon.

i was only back in phx for 3 days before bryan & i headed north for
the grand canyon. we've never hiked the canyon only witnessed it's
beauty from the top when we picked our amazing-adventure-seeking
-friends theresa & jeff (they are leaving for their year around the world
trip in a few months!!! you can follow their journey at that link!) up
from rafting it a year or so ago. it was on both of our lists of things to
do before we moved & now 3 years later we finally did it & it was friggin
hard work! i think next time i'm riding a mule down :)

we stayed the night at indian gardens so we had everything with us,
minus the tent (since bryan was there for work, testing air quality control
equipment they've got setup down there -we were able to stay in the state
employee cabin!) i had maybe 25 lbs & bryan had probably 35 lbs in our packs.
our shoulders hurt for 2 weeks after the trip & my legs were in a constant
state of clinching for at least the next 5 days. i looked ridiculous walking around!

here's some of my favorites!

three mile marker :)




i call this one 'oh holy switch backs'


the flowers were gorgeous!


pretty mule!


while bryan & his co-worker, andy, were testing the equipment i found a little tree to
sit under. i shared it with two baby deer & their mama. they let me sit 15 feet away
from them, like it was no big deal.


some of the other critters.


more flowers :) it amazes me that cacti have blooms let alone beautiful ones like this.




bryan has always wanted to figure out how to take a picture when the water turns
foamy-sh from dragging the shutter. so we messed around with it until we got some
decent shots. i could get all technical with you, but eh. boring.




after we put our things in the cabin we hiked the next 2.5 miles to the river. hiking
towards water is so much more exciting for me than just hiking. we were really tired
& sore but i'm so glad we pushed on because it was beautiful.


the view from the bottom.


relaxing & loving it.


bryan started our gourmet mountain house meal, which wasn't so great. stay away from
chicken teriyaki -nothing special there.






ah. check one off the personal list! which makes me wonder why wasn't this on my 101
list?

definitely a trip worth making if you haven't already :)

pj reunion.

several months ago- a friend from college posted on myspace

three brothers
april 19th 8pm

& what followed was about 20 "old school" kids hanging out at our old bar in
good ol' bowling green, ky. i've mentioned several times my college days & how
fabulous they were so you can imagine that i put that date in my calender & said.
yep. i'll be there. it was so great seeing everyone- several of the attendee's were
people i hadn't seen since graduation!

walter came over for some breakfast at my mom's before we headed south on 64!


i hadn't been back to bg in at least 2 years. every time i go i love going by my old apts./
houses. the one on the top right is where my apt use to be. so sad, it's now god's parking
lot :( i lived there by myself for a year, it was such a great apartment. my kitchen was
purple & my living room was green & it was all mine.



i taught art classes at memphis marsha's art gallery for over a year. i love this funky little gallery & marsha. if you're ever in bg make sure you stop by!


i was so shocked by how great the campus looked. art was scattered about & they're
even building the other side of the stadium- i can't believe we have enough people coming
to games that we NEED both sides, but hey that's cool :)


isn't it beautiful? we're called the hilltoppers because we're built on a hill. you guessed
it before i even said it, didn't you? this is the flat part. but believe me it's on a hill &
woah i have that to thank for my killer calves :)


here's the first group to arrive. more came closer to the evening gala!


hugs.


our stoop. if we weren't inside printing prints or working on projects we were out here
hanging out. but sadly its no longer our stoop. since most of these guys left they've built
us a new building with all new equipment & computers. pretty high class, but i think we
would all trade the new stuff for our old duct-taped equipment because it builds character,
or at least so we think.


we made reservations at our favorite mexican restaruant! yummmmmm.


& then onto three brothers 4 or something like that. this place keeps losing it's liquor
licsence & having to reopen under another name so they keep adding a roman numeral.


web, sports shooter extrodianare!


me, vonnie & jacolyn giggling over something.


walking around town. aren't they adorable?


it was such a great night!

the next morning my friend clay came to pick me up so i could have some yummy breakfast
with a different group of friends. my life in college was divided between photography & art.

clay was in ceramics with me, ironically. will & i took sign language together & leslie & i worked at the best sushi restaurant in town together. will & leslie are expecting their
first baby, a baby boy in a few months!

pictured: me, will, leslie & clay.


ah. i miss that town & all those crazy peops!