Thompson Preview

I shot Thompson's 2 year portraits yesterday morning.  Thompson is my high school friend, Ashley's first child.  Our high school days of cheering on the sidelines are long gone and were replaced with chasing Thompson around.  Yep, the picture below pretty much sums up our morning.  Pretty funny, if you ask me (notice Ashley is in mid-air).  It was a challenge getting in front of Thompson, because he was constantly running.  He had so much energy, it was great!

This was his freeze pose, a nano second after this, he was off and running in the opposite direction of all adults : )  I will post more of Thompson later, but I just wanted to give Ashley a sneak peek.  Thank you for allowing me to take your cutie pie's picture! 

Callie is 2 months old!

Wow!  Summer is gone and Callie is well on her way to holding her head up by herself!  Rachel and Callie have been in Asheville this past week, and I sure am going to miss them when they leave!  Two months ago today Callie was born!  Trust me the Daniels' family members are all excited about their new role in life whether it is being grandparents or aunt and uncle!

We had our last summer tiki dinner/bonfire on Sunday night to celebrate Rachel and Callie arriving in town.  So, here's the star, Callie!

My mom came into town on Monday to see Callie and visit.  While my mom was in town, we snapped a picture of the 5 girls.

Here's my mom with Callie.  Oh and you might notice Callie's new winter boots, aren't they cute!  We were joking that I would like a pair in my size, haha!

Keegan is cute!

Meet Keegan, he's my mom's new puppy.  Isn't his face adorable?! He's a mix, but we know he definitely has some Australian Shepherd in him. 

And he's sooo sweet too, look at how excited and loving he is with my Papa.

Gray Skies and Sunshine in Alaska

I was very lucky in that I got to travel to Alaska for work!  Can you believe they have cheerleaders in Alaska?  Well they do, and they had CHEERSPORT camps this summer!

I wish I could say that I brought the sunshine with me to Alaska, but I was there for 2 days before the sun came out.  I'm so glad I was there when there was sunshine!  I caught the tail end of a weather record while I was there.  It rained for 30 (or 31 or 32) days straight in Alaska!  But these first few pictures are from Anchorage, and it was dreary, gray, and drizzling this day, but it was still beautiful!

This is Gwennie's, I ate breakfast here, and it was great!  Did you know they serve grits in Alaska?  I was so happy when I saw that on the menu!

I bought an Alaskan toboggan from here.  Native Alaskans knit scarves and toboggans from the fur of a musk ox.  The material is lightweight (weighs less than wool) but it's super warm!  It has to keep the Musk Ox warm in the arctic, so if you can imagine that as a scarf or toboggan, it's wonderful!

Since it was raining, I had to find indoor activities, so I stopped by the Anchorage Museum.  They had a Smithsonian exhibit on Native Alaskans, it was pretty cool!  They also had some great photographs of the mountains of Alaska, also pretty cool!

The flowers in Anchorage are beautiful and so colorful because they get so much sunlight!  While I was there the sun didn't go down until 10pm.  I don't know what time it came up, it was always light outside when I got up in the morning.

I just think white birch trees are so pretty!

This is the Kenai River in Soldotna.  It's beautiful blue/teal/aqua color is from the silt of the glaciers (the picture doesn't do it justice).  Doesn't the water look cold, cold, cold?  It is!

Sadly, here is the only wildlife I saw while in Alaska... : (

And I don't know the name of this mountain, sorry!

This was the pond that was 5 minutes from the coach's house.  Meagan and I stayed with the coach and her family during the week.  That's their 2 year old lab, Bella, in the pond.

Again, I don't know the names of these mountains, it's on the beach in Kenai.  I saw children in swimsuits on this beach!  I was wearing jeans, long sleeves, jacket, and scarf, ha!  I think hypothermia would set in if I put on my swimsuit...jk!  But it was chilly.

This is the lake from the Kenai River, you can see the aqua color water in this picture more than in the river picture.

These pictures are from the drive from Soldotna to Anchorage.  It's a beautiful drive, so scenic!  These pictures were taken from inside the car, so they aren't fantastic, but they give you an idea of how beautiful it was!

This picture was not taken from the car.  This was around 10pm.  We were just in the city limits of Anchorage.  The sun and the moon were out at the same time, and the colors of the sunset were amazing!  As you can see from above it produced beautiful yellows and oranges in the sky, and then it turned purple and blue!  Stunning!

That concludes my Alaska Pictures!  This is probably my biggest post yet!  I didn't really do anything super "touristy" either.  This was just the scenery in Anchorage and where I was working.  I hope to go back again and not work so I can enjoy more of Alaska and hopefully see more wildlife!