¡me encanta costa rica!

¡So here it is my post about the girl's trip to beautiful Costa Rica! I would have to say that I absolutely fell in love with the country...the people, the weather, the landscape, the food, the way of life! I think if Nat & Corrina were with me I would have stayed! So here goes, 9 days in paradise produces a lot of pictures! When you are done reading my view of costa rica head on over to emily's blog and my mom's blog!

We stayed in the town Playa Conchal, located on the Pacific Gulf Coast, at Paradisus as Royal Service guests...ya I could get used to that!

The beach:



Our best model poses:


All-inclusive baby...you know we were drinking just a few of these :-)


Mom Cooling Off:


Pretty Beach:


By the pool, enjoying life cabana style:


Wildlife by the pool:


The Special Guest by the Cabana:


More beach pics:




We also got to go on a sunset boat ride, beautiful:


Mom enjoying the sunset:


Playa Conchal was awesome! Emily & I (mom a few nights) danced our hearts out at the disco and enjoyed meeting people from all over! We were sad to leave but excited for our next destination! We headed inland for the Arenal Volcano to the next resort, Tabacon!

Arenal Volcano, the most active volcano in Costa Rica, was just outside our back door!
This is a shot of the volcano from the other side of the Arenal Lake (not from our backdoor):

The view of the volcano from our backdoor:


Emily and I went white water rafting and had a blast! We were able to see a lot of cool wildlife on our journey as well:







The next day we all went zip lining which was such a rush! There were a series of different lines all 200 meters above the canopy and the longest one was over a 1/2 mile long! We had to take a 15 minute open air gondola ride to get to the first zip line, this was the view:

Emily in action:

And of course the fashionable gear:

Every afternoon we headed to the natural hot springs, heated by the volcano! It was soooo relaxing, I wish I could have one in my back yard!


And of course the nature was awesome!







Some locals: the guy on the left, a pisoto, I was able to hand feed one of these guys. He grabbed my hand with his claws and took the honey roasted peanut right out of my hand.

I loved all of the huge leaves:


One of my favorite pics:


Sadly we had to leave Tabacon, but we stayed at a beautiful hotel in San Jose, where I had no problem finding great pic opportunities:


The hotel was located on an old coffee plantation:



So that's the wonderful girl's trip to Costa Rica...ahh I miss it already! Cheers to a great time girls!

(cerveza de costa rica)

Featured...

Woo Hoo guys check it out I was featured on Avant-Garde Design Blog! Yeah!

Turning 29 with a BANG!

My wonderful husband celebrated his 29th birthday yesterday...happy birthday! Wait, before you start thinking I am a horrible wife for not posting a best wishes post on his actual birthday there are a few things you need to know. Nat took the day off yesterday and decided to go on a bike ride...but this wasn't his typical ride at White Ranch, let's just say he had a "little" crash! A crash where he caught himself with the right side of his face, a crash that broke his handle bars in half, a crash that required us to spend 5+ hours in the ER (of course only after I begged and pleaded for him to go), a crash that required 9 stitches in his right cheek bone where he had a gash (hole) in the mark of a X, a crash that damaged ligaments in his right shoulder, a crash that has made his right side of his mouth go numb, a crash that has given him a black eye, oh and did I mention all the scrapes on his face, shoulder, fingers, legs, & that he is still coughing up blood? So here's to Nat bringing in his 29th year with a bang!

Here are a few pics after he drove himself home....oh and the crash happened at the top of the mountain so he had to ride his bike down, bleeding, with broken handle bars, meaning only one brake....




And pictures of him today, as you can tell he is a "little" swollen, I have turned into the ice Nazi...ice now!





¡Happy Birthday Baby! I am glad you are still alive!

Back in the States...

I just returned Tuesday evening from a 9 day stay in Costa Rica. One word....amazing! I will be sure to post pics shortly once I filter through my 800 something pictures. Exciting news....My alpha series is being featured on poppytalk in the poppytalk handmade school days section: PoppyTalk Handmade

Trevor Levi

I had the pleasure a few weeks back to take newborn pictures of 4 day old Trevor Levi! It was such a fun experience to photograph such a young new born! Congratulations to Nicholee & Michael!

Celebrating the 4th in Gold Hill

This fourth we journeyed up the mountain to visit our friends, Brian & Lucy, at their home in Gold Hill. We always have a great time in Gold Hill....beautiful surroundings, great food, & wonderful friends, what more could you ask for?!

Our lovely host/hostess with the most/mostess: Brian & Lucy:


The spread of delicious homemade goodies (even the lemonade & apple pie were homemade!):








Not only are humans at peace in Gold Hill, so are our beloved pets. Corrina doesn't stop smiling when she gets to roam free in Gold Hill (except here, she is politely begging for some of the yummy food)

This is Elle, she is a bernese mountain dog...she was so sweet! She came with her mom and sister...I think I want one:-) My heart melted when she sat in my lap because she was afraid of the fireworks...I mean look at that face!


I of course always have fun in Gold Hill because there is always something cool to take pictures of:



And what's a 4th of July post without fireworks?:

Funny

Ok so I "borrowed" this from someone else's blog, a more famous blog, but I could not resist....it is too funny!



This one is funny too, I have actually seen it before...

OMG.....

One of my pics made the front page of etsy!!!! Which is a super big deal! I am sooo pumped that the artist picked me to be on her treasury list!



This is the pic that made it to the home page of etsy!


The Treasury:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=53463

********Update: So evidently I was on the etsy homepage twice yesterday! I missed this one:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=53693




YESTERDAY WAS AN AWESOME DAY!!!

Saturday...

Saturday was a momentous day for our friends!

Michael & Nicholee gave birth to their first child: Trevor Levi | weighing 8 lb. 3 oz., 20 in. long! CONGRATS!!!

Danielle & Garrett tied the knot! This is the only pic I have of them, sorry! Congrats guys!

And we celebrated our good friend Alex who is moving to Montana! We're happy for him, but we will miss him! Here he is with his girl Sarah sometime in March. The only picture I have from Saturday night is the 15 pounds of meat Matt smoked :-)

A Tardy Post...

It seems when I go out of town for some reason or another I take a lot of pictures, which in turn means, I have a lot of pictures to filter through & edit. Resulting in a quite delayed post of the events. Maybe it's because I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my photography & I cannot possibly let anyone see one of my photos without spending some time with it in photoshop. I am definitely my own worst critic, which can lead to hours sitting in front of my computer tinkering in photoshop....something my back & eyes are not grateful for. By the time I finished editing I am exhausted and cannot think of anything clever to say in my posts. With that said, here goes one big weekend.......

Went to Mississippi to see little Zachary get married! Congratulations to Zach & Marcie! This is them during their first dance!


But before we went to Mississippi for the wedding we flew into New Orleans to drive to the wedding only a few hours away. Here is New Orleans through my eyes:



One of my favorite stops in New Orleans (for photographic reasons) was not bourbon street or the french quarter, it was a little cigar shop. It is SOOOOO humid in New Orleans that the shop did not have to have a humidor, which is almost never heard of...a cigar shop with NO humidor!




Instead of heading straight back to Denver I headed home, to my parents house! While I was there I was able to squeeze in a few photo sessions!
First, Jonah:

Second, Corrine, Shaun, & Sophia:

And finally, Stephanie & Brooklyn. I spoke with Ali and she said Stephanie is doing better & at home with her parents! Thanks for everyone's prayers!


Whew so I think that about does it....now I can go rest! 9 GB is a lot of pics to filter through!