LIZ AND RAF GOT MARRIED!

Liz and Rafael were married last Saturday on one of the most gorgeous fall days, evah. The air was crisp and clean, and Liz and Raf were so relaxed. They were surrounded by the people they love as they pledged their commitment to each other, and it was an honor to be a part of such a wonderful day! Liz and Raf are so real and genuine, and their quiet gestures toward each other speak volumes of the respect, support, and understanding that seems to define their relationship. They are great people and I'm so happy to have met them and document their wedding day. Liz and Raf, thank you so much for the opportunity and I wish you a lifetime of happiness together! :-) 

We started off with a few of Raf getting ready...

The relaxed groom....

This is Raf and his brother/best man, Danny. 

I spy....

I will have you know, we took great care to assure that Liz's dress did NOT get dirty during these shots :-)

The gorgeous bride...

Liz photographs so beautifully.

This is inside of Liz and Raf's house... they live in a gorgeous Victorian house with a great staircase! :-)

The amazing flowers... I LOVED the colors she picked.

 Liz and Raf had a sunset ceremony, so chose to see each other first so we'd still have some light for their portraits... I adore their reactions. 

She is seriously always smiling and laughing... I love it.

Ummm, yes... that's a Model-T...

 This is their driver, and very helpful gentleman! :-)

The rings.

I'm not gonna lie... I love this photo... something about the anticipation here really makes me smile. :-)

See... always laughing...

Liz and Raf incorporated a handfasting ritual into their ceremony.

Some of the details....

They chose to do pies instead of cake ( I LOVE pie), and they looked soooo good ( I REALLY LOVE pie ), I totally wanted to stash one in the car for later... but I didn't. ( Have I told you how much I love pie? )

Liz and Raf had green and orange lanterns, and green uplighting... it was very groovy. 

 This handsome gentleman is Liz's father. Not only is he Liz's father, but he's also famous. He was in the  movie, The French Connection. He was the waiter that served Gene Hackman. I know it's a great movie, but believe it or not I haven't seen it. But I promised him I would watch it, so I will order it from Netflix asap. And if you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest you do. ;-)

I just think this picture of Raf's brother and his girlfriend is cute. 

A little bit of dancing never hurt anyone...

Liz and Raf, I hope you have an AMAZING, LONG, and HAPPY life together! 

GROWING UP

An Un-BEAR-ably good time ;-)

Saturday we took a beautiful drive up to Clark's Trading Post on an even more beautiful day. If you've never been to Clark's, you're not missing much. LOL. Sorry, it was cute, the kids had a good time overall, and it was an enjoyable day with the in-laws, but the place is nothing to write home about. Their claim to fame is their trained bears... a few bears that they've kept in captivity for decades so they can train them to slam dunk basketballs, sit on a swing, stand on barrels, get the mail, and unhygienically share ice cream cones with their trainers. And then they put the "It's so important to learn about bears and respect them and protect them" spin on it so it doesn't look like they're just out to make a lot of money off selling tickets to see the bears. I apologize if I offend anyone, if there's really anybody other than my mother that reads this, but that is just my opinion and how I saw it. The kids got bored after about 10 minutes of the show and we headed off to do something else, which was good because all I could really focus on was how sad it was that the bears will never know their true home. I'm no animal activist or anything, but something just doesn't feel right about dressing a bear up and showing him off like he's a chihuahua in a purse. Sorry :-( Anyway, here are some photos I took yesterday of the kids... like I said, they had a good time just running around with each other and we had a great time being able to catch up with family. Something that we don't often get to do. Plus, the bumper boats were pretty cool.

TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL.

My son is too cool. I don't know when this happened, but I don't think I like it very much :-( Yesterday was his first day of 4th grade, and like all proud moms, I brought my camera along to snap some photos of my growing child. I tried not once, not twice, but three times on the playground, waiting for the bell to ring, to get him to cooperate for the mini photo session but instead got, "Mom, come on, seriously? I'm in fourth grade now. Mom, you're embarrassing. Put. The. Camera. Away!"...Alongside grumbles, hands in front of the face, and turning his back toward me. Insert sad, crying face here. But like a good mom, I sacrificed getting the good shot for the sake of my son's humility. This required a little compromise on his part though, because you see, I always win somehow ;-) So you bet your butt I made him promise he was going to cooperate when he got home from school. The first day of school was over, he was home playing in the yard with his friends, and it was an hour before I remembered! Bogus! I didn't take his pictures!!! Soooooo, I took what I could get.... even if that meant his hair resembled a mop from an hour of jumping on the trampoline, shirt was wet after a water fight with his best friend, and his refusal to not be a complete goofball (remember, he's in front of his friends). It'll do. So, disheveled, goofy, and featured alongside his best friend... here are my masterpieces..... LOL.