I fell off the wagon. Hard.

It's been a super duper uber busy couple of weeks.  

I fell off the August Break wagon, HARD, but I am still smiling.

Getting to spend some time with my beautiful niece and sweet nephews who live out of state is worth it.

Here are some lovely wild flower photos to make up for it.  Yeah I said my own photos were lovely.  

That's allowed right?  Sometimes artists get a lil stoked off our own work, and that's ok.

We are wrapping up summer.  Summer is busy but I love it.  

I am sad to see it ending but I'm off now to make the most of what is left of it.  I hope you are doing the same!

Finally Facebook

I have FINALLY, and I mean FINALLY started a facebook photography page.  The right motivation nudged me out of the procrastination and excuse chair and I put in the work to get it together.  I'm not sure what took me so long.  Part of it was I wasn't sure what to call myself.  I mean KJB Photography (initials) was first but I took my husbands name when we got married and KJS just doesn't roll of the tongue quite the same.  Am I wrong?  Anyway I decided to stick to my first and middle name, which is sort of hysterical because back in my youth I HATED my middle name with a fire breathing passion but it's grown on me and now I quite like it.  I posted some of the work I've done over the past year that I have been MIA on this blog so if you're interested in taking  peek please do so.  And if you really want to put me over the moon "like" it!  I would be giddy like a kid on Christmas.  :)

I haven't done many portrait sessions over the past year.  I started turning shoots down when I was up to my neck in wedding planning and getting settled into married life.  That was probably a sort of suicide for any start up business but I know how much I can handle at once and my limit was in the red.  Now I really miss it and I want to book more shoots.  I had an opportunity to shoot a soccer team a couple weeks ago which was nothing I'd ever done before.  It was a fun learning experience and I finally got to use my new speedlight although I learned quickly that the cheap stands I have do not withstand Sacramento wind and I was trying all kinds of hokey methods (tent spikes and rope) to try to get them to stay up.  Eventually I let them lie on the ground and worked with the mid day sun.  I will post some of those soon to share.

In the mean time the days are getting longer the temps are rising higher and I am sweating more.

Ooooo I do love me some Summer!

Girlfriends

Last weekend I attended our church ladies retreat.  It was the first one I've been able to go to and I was really looking forward to not only the time away from the routine but a chance to get to know some of the women in my church a little better.  I am not sure when it happened, but at some point along the way I sort of forgot how to make new friends.  It isn't that I haven't wanted to...I just felt...frozen.

I know some of the difficulty in maintaining friendships and developing new ones just comes with the territory of being a grown up and having a family.  What very little free time you have as a wife and mother is often spent passed out on the couch or catching up on the 12 episodes of Parenthood on the DVR. 

But my problem seems to go a bit deeper.  I feel and actual wall up sometimes when I am in a room full of women I don't know well. 

It's kind of funny because I used to really shine in social situations.

Now not everyone in that lovely little house on the hill was a stranger.  Some I have known and loved since I was a child and some I have grown to know and love over the past few years, but several were completely new faces or ladies I had wanted to get to know better but hadn't been able to step over that wall.

But something wonderful happend for me on this retreat.  I prayed about those walls and made and effort to leave them behind me as I made the drive, and I can honestly say for the first time a while I felt like I truly made some new friends.

An amazing thing can happen in a setting like this.  No tv, no laundry, phones off, no shopping lists calling your name.  When you have free time....

REAL FREE TIME

with nothing else do do but sit down with one or a group of ladies and chat.  You get to hear so much about who they are and where they come from and what is on their hearts.  And when you stay up till nearly 3am just being silly...I mean laughing from you gut, eyes watering because you are too sleepy to filter and everyone is saying whatever pops into thier head silly...you tend to bond.  It has been WAY too long since I've laughed that hard.  It was a time of growth for me.  A much needed reminder that I need girlfriends, I need FREE TIME, and every so often I need to stay up past my bedtime and be so silly my sides hurt.

To the ladies of Arden Church, thank you for filling my heart this past weekend.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mom's, grandma's, step-mom's, and mom-to-be's!

Just Horsing Around

Well helllooooo there!

Spring break this past week has meant time with the girls, time off work for Devin, time off mom duties for me while the husband played Mr. mom, and on Thursday we all took the day off for Family Fun Day.  Millie went horseback riding for the first time on her birthday last December and fell in love.  We decided to plan a trip back to the ranch where this love of horses began.  It was so fun to see their giant smiles and of course take a few photos of the fun day.  

I will never stop being impressed with these beautiful creatures.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!  

More on Maui

One of the excursions I had to ensure we planned ahead was a snorkeling trip. Neither of us had ever been snorkeling and with all the rave reviews we'd heard about the trips to the crater and "turtle town" I was in. It didn't take 10 min in the water before both Devin and I were hooked on snorkeling. It's so beautiful. You really get a feeling that you are getting a chance to peek in on another world. We saw so many breathtaking colors and patterns down there. I swear if I were a fashion designer I'd do every summer line based on snorkeling trips.

We didn't rent the camera's to take underwater with us but after our trip we did hit the aquarium where they have a group of baby sea turtles. Sooo cute! I just love sea turtles. I mean seriously look at those faces!  We did get to swim close to a few at turtle town on the snorkeling trip. The visibility wasn't great and those awesome creatures are surprisingly fast!  I struggled for quite a while to finally spot one only to have it fly under me too quickly for me to catch up with.  Still... I swam close to a giant sea turtle in open sea which was basically the one thing on my list I was dying to check off.  CHECK!

I only wish the California coasts weren't so darn cold or we'd be asking for snorkeling equipment for Christmas. Oh well...next trip to Hawaii we'll be spending more hours with our booties bobbing watching the underwater life and finding hidden treasures swept off swimmers bodies. Hee hee.

August Break, wait, what date is it?

Just hold still for a moment

Words I say to my child frequently but today I say it to myself. I always feel the need to be doing something lately, too much on my plate to waste a single minute. But if you don't stop and hold still and just take a moment to catch your breath, refocus, and allow yourself to soak in the now it will be nothing more than time lost.

Friends and family keep saying to enjoy these moments before the wedding but all Devin and I want to do is fast forward to it. The daily countdown has even started. There's still a long to do list but all of the big stuff is done. I find myself just getting through the weeks focused on finishing the work day and hitting the gym and staying on my diet before I crash out for the night. Then spending my weekends trying to get things done for the wedding and make some summer memories with the kids. What pre-wedding moments am I supposed to be savoring exactly? I've enjoyed putting the details together for sure but most of that stuff is done. Everything that's left is the not-so-fun details that require a lot of free time to kill. I'm not complaining, please don't take it as that. I'm just trying to figure out what it is I'm supposed to be enjoying right now so I can make sure I don't miss out on it.

I really just want to be married already. ;)

Just saw this on pinterest: Don't count the days. Make the days count.

challenge accepted.

Lake Francis Camping

Just a few of my favorite photos from the camping trip last weekend. Day one we had a few sprinkles but that didn't stop E and I from exploring. Campfires, smores, paddle boat rides, hand crafted bow's, a night time nature walk, and best of all down time with friends and family.  I only wish it lasted longer.

Forrest flowers

These surprised me.

Scattered through out the pine trees were these beautiful blossoms looking like they belonged somewhere tropical. I love them. Hence the multiple photos of them.

 It's been a while since I've been on a walk in nature with my camera and these were by far the most vibrant and lovely thing I found so we spent a little time together and I am happy we did.