August 26th; Dahlia Festival

I have to be awake and getting ready for work in less than 6 hours...and here I sit editing more photos and updating my blog! At least I have my priorities straight...

Today, my friend Lauren and I packed up our four-legged friends in my SUV and we drove 3 hours south to Canby, Oregon to attend a Dahlia Festival there. We had an amazing time and got to see so many beautiful flowers! It's not often that an experience like this is inexpensive, but the price for admission and parking was 100% free! Penny enjoyed the flowers, as did Lauren's beautiful Border Collie, Eleanor!

 You'd think that with all the money I saved I could have tipped the nice man at the gas station who pumped by gas for me...How do Oregon residents learn how to pump gas?! What happens when they vacation outside of the state?!

Our drive home, which logically should have also been 3 hours, took almost 5. Today's big idea: Traffic sucks, but listening to Disney Princess Soundtrack makes everything better!

Anyway, delirium has set in. Here are new photos!

August 11th, 2012; a hot date

62.

This is the number of days, with perhaps 3 exceptions, that Bryce worked this summer without a day off. At least the last half of it (probably more) was working graveyard shift.  As of last Friday, August 10th--this ridiculous work schedule is NO MORE!

I don't even begin to try and understand how miserable this must have been for him...it was miserable enough for me! I've found that I'm incredibly difficult to keep entertained. I've turned to blogging for crying out loud. Perhaps I could have made more of an effort to go outside and socialize with the three-dimensional people...

Nevertheless! It appears the darkness has ended. We spent our first day becoming re-acquainted with one another up in Seattle. We ate at a cute little burger place in Tacoma for lunch. It was supposedly rated one of the best burgers in the greater Seattle area.  

We drove up to Seattle and meandered about until 7:30 when we saw The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX--very cool. It was a wonderful, beautiful day...very happy to have been able to spend it with my amazing husband (who also makes a great model)!

August 5th, 2012; Purdy Spit

I'm all caught up on my photo projects now! Blogging is exhausting ;)

The past couple of months have been a bit of a struggle because of Bryce's work schedule. He's basically been working 7days/week, and the last 4 weeks he has been doing noc shift. Aside from the blatant injustice of his having to work so much, it's been rough not seeing him very often. What makes it harder is that he IS physically in the house, but he's sleeping during the day--which is much harder! Part of me just wants to go start jumping on the bed and say "Wake up! I miss you! Let's spend time together!"

To prevent myself from being so uncouth, I try to make myself scarce. Today, I took Penny down to the Purdy Spit--a beach that we used to take her to all the time when we first got her. The tide was very low when we got there, so lots of room to run! It's difficult to find a path down to the beach, and even harder to do in flip flops once you find one. It's not exactly very sandy, either. The ground is covered in barnacle-infested rocks. I won't complain...Penny and I were just happy to have cool water to walk in. There's also a small freshwater stream that flows to the ocean, so Penny stayed hydrated

I attempted to be extra creative in the next two pictures. Tried to focus on the paw prints that Penny left what little sand there is on the beach. It was bright and hard to see...but maybe this is a shot I will work on in the future. Regardless of how successful I feel afterwards, it's just nice to get outside. I feel so lucky to live in such a pretty place! I think I actually got a little sun on my shoulders today :)

August 4th, 2012; Colten

Blessed with another weekend with temperatures in the high 80's! I'm started to become obsessed with taking pictures! I feel naked without the camera on me--I'm constantly itching to just go out and take pictures! My good friend Amy and I went to lunch in Bremerton, and then we brought her ADORABLE son, Colten with us to the park. Colten is a year-and-a-half and has more personality than most adults that I've met! I always have so much fun playing with him, and boy can he make me laugh! But MAN...I thought photographing DOGS was hard! This kid is constantly on the move!

  I love how genuine kids and babies are. As adults we are very good at smiling and pretending that we're having a good time, even if we aren't. The great thing about children is that they feel no need to keep their feelings secret--if they're miserable, they WILL tell you! I think it was pretty clear that Colten had a great time :)

August 1st, 2012; Jabu

Another beautiful day at the dog park! This time I was invited by my next door neighbor, Trish. She brought her big teddy bear, a ~3-year-old Rottweiler named Jabu, and I brought Penny (of course!). We walked around the trails and enjoyed each other's company.

July 29th, 2012; Seattle

Christy, Megan, and I went to Seattle on the 29th. Despite the dreary and overcast day we had the day before, we had blue skies and sun for this trip! 

First stop was Pike Place Market for Lunch--we ate at "Crepe de France", which is my favorite creperie (can you hear the throaty French accent?), and possibly one of my favorite places to eat in Seattle overall.

We started to walk up toward Westlake Center and Pacific Place when Christy found a purse at a small street vendor that she had to get for her sister. I snapped this photo of Megan while we were waiting. I love this shot; it'a amazing to me how great photo opportunities just basically fall into your lap! If Christy hadn't seen the purse, I would have walked by this vendor without a second glance. Life sure is fun that way...

The rest of the day was spent walking, talking, laughing, and shopping! I like the crosswalk shot below--those two were so unsuspecting ;)

The day culminated with a trip to the top of the Space Needle and dinner at P.F. Chang's. What a great day with my girls!! In still trying to teach myself the basics of photography, I spent a lot of time playing with aperture while we were at the top of the Needle. I say this now because maybe in 5 years I'll re-read this blog and laugh about how much of a N00b I was at this--or maybe in 5 years I still won't know what I'm doing.