This past weekend, I met this so-very-nice family at the First Baptist Church in Amarillo. What a gorgeous church! There were beautiful arches, lovely landscaping, and ornate details. It was such a great setting for portraits – a thought that about 30 prom-goers and their families also had!

After the prom kids cleared out, they drove their Corvettes up by the church for some photos with the cars. Even though the sun didn’t completely cooporate with us, the Corvettes were a fun addition to the photos!

Here are a few of the photographs from our session:

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Yikes.

When I was in Austin last week, I took some photographs for a local non-profit school. We decided to take the photos while the kids were in a natural and safe environment – their playground. I love how relaxed and carefree the kids look in these photos. They’re pretty much the opposite of my awkward braces/perm picture from 4th grade!

Hope you enjoy the photos!

For our annual get-away-from-the-cold/Russell’s birthday trip, we went on a Caribbean cruise, leaving from Puerto Rico and going to St. Croix, St. Kitts, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Thomas. We had a wonderful time – snorkeling, hiking, beach laying, shopping, and eating way too much.

St. Croix

On our first stop, we got off the boat bright and early to walk around the island a bit, take some yoga/handstand pictures on the beach, and then go on a snorkeling tour to Buck Island.

St. Kitts

We barely saw the island at all – but what a fun day! I shopped for jewelry, then got a massage and facial, and ended the day with lobster for dinner. Talk about spoiled!

Dominica

Russell and I have been wanting to go to Dominica for a while now – so we were most excited for this stop on our cruise. And, it ended up being our favorite island too.

The day started with some rain – which resulted in a beautiful double rainbow over the ocean. Then, we loaded up in a van to go to a zip line and ropes course in the jungle. And our day ended with tubing down a river.

Most of my pictures from this day are on an undeveloped underwater disposable camera. But, here are a few from my camera and Russell’s phone.

Grenada

The spice island. And the spices are awesome. As are the waterfalls.

We hiked Seven Sisters Waterfalls – which was way more treacherous than we thought it would be. It had rained that morning, so the paths were all mud. And very steep. But the waterfall at the end was gorgeous. And the swim was refreshing.

When we got back, the pier was very close to town, so we walked in for lunch and some sightseeing.

St. Thomas

After our ropes course and hike, we were pretty exhausted in St. Thomas – even with a day at sea in between. So, we just meandered around town and then headed to a nearby beach to get some afternoon sun and a quick nap.

Then we headed back to the ship to enjoy some time together on our balcony, the sunset, and some champagne.

Puerto Rico

Our trip began and ended in San Juan. We flew in a day early and then had a late afternoon flight – so we got to explore San Juan a bit. I hadn’t ever been interested in vacationing in Puerto Rico but would definitely go back (or, ya know, buy a vacation home someday!)

When I made my 30 before 30 list, I planned that I would use my last paycheck to accomplish Number 25 on my list – buy myself a nice piece of jewelry. I originally figured that I would buy a nice watch, since the only one I’ve ever had was a Timex sports watch in 3rd grade. And I hoped by the time I turn 30 that I would be mature enough to wear a watch and maybe even be on time occasionally.

Instead, I fell in love with this ring… So much for maturity…

I’m kinda sorta overly obsessed with setting goals, but I’ve never really been into New Year’s Resolutions. I like to reflect and goal-set around my birthday instead of the calendar year. My birthday just has more meaning to me than January 1st. But, given the bad rap resolutions were getting, I couldn’t help myself and came up with 13 projects I want to complete in 2013. And, since I think writing down and sharing goals helps you stick to them, here they are:

• Organize my office closet
• Clean and organize my garage
• Work out 3 times a week
• Take a daily multivitamin
• Complete a photo a day challenge
• Organize my closet
• Frame and hang art from my travels
• Create a Hawaii photo book
• Stick to our family budget
• Improve my front flower beds
• Hydrate
• Try container gardening
• Finish discs 1 and 2 of Rosetta Stone

I think I could go on for days about all we did and saw and ate – and how wonderful all of it was. But, since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll stick to mostly photos!

Around the hotel

We stayed at the Ritz in Kapalua. It was gorgeous. The food was amazing. The spa was divine. But, I spent almost no time in my room, so the ocean view upgrade probably wasn’t worth it.

Old Lahaina Luau

Locals and tour books say this is the best luau – and it certainly didn’t disappoint!

Snorkeling at Molokini

This was by far my favorite snorkeling experience (given that it’s the only time I didn’t have a panic attack, it’s pretty clearly the winner). We even saw some whales during the boat ride back to Maui!

Sunrise at Haleakala and the Road to Hana

The 3 am wake-up call was totally worth it to get to the top of Haleakala for sunrise – even though fog rolled in after about 3 minutes. And combining Haleakala and the Road to Hana into one day was do-able, even though all of the tour books and websites said they weren’t. And, the tour books said there’s no food along the Road to Hana – another lie. There was great fruit, banana bread, tacos, and even Pad Thai.

Ziplining

Gorgeous views of Maui and the ocean. So glad we did ziplining – but not something I’ll do on my next visit to Hawaii.

It was such a great trip – I can’t wait to go back for another visit (or find a job and move there!)

I’m of course so unbelievably thankful for my amazing husband; our marriage; and his love, patience, devotion, and understanding. (And his muscles!)

Our wonderful families. And our animals.

I’m thankful to have a lovely home (even if it is in Dalhart, TX). And, in that house, I’m thankful to have more than I need; plenty to eat every day; and a safe, warm place to sleep each night.

I’m thankful to have the best friends a girl could ask for.

I’m humbled and grateful that I was born into such a blessed life, with parents that believe in me, great schools that educated me, in a country that makes all of the above possible.

And, last, I am beyond-words-thankful to be leaving for vacation tomorrow. Hawaii, here we come!

To really show just how cute their clothes are, we’ve had a few photo shoots. It was really fun to think about photography in a commercial way – thinking about how to best show off the clothes, while still trying to capture portraits that the girls would be proud to see online. I’m really happy with how they turned out – and hope they are too!

Here are a few of the photos:

One of my co-workers and I arrived several days before the rest of our group. Because of a national holiday, we had a day to do some exploring. Having done virtually no research about the country, we let the tour guide decide what our itinerary should be.

First, he took us to a series of crater lakes in nearby Debre Zeyit. There was a lovely resort there, called Kuriftu, where we had lunch lakeside. The scenery was pretty – but, at the end of the day, they were just a series of lakes.

So, we returned to Addis Ababa to see some of the city. Our first stop was the Ethiopian National Museum, which is best known (at least to us…) for housing Lucy, the skeletal remains of a woman thought to have lived over 3 million years ago. The museum had a great collection of fossils, creating a really interesting visual story of the history of prehistoric animals and humans. It was humbling to stand in front of a fossil that is 10 million years old. Wow.

We also learned some about Ethiopia. For example, it wasn’t colonized (although they had a brief occupation by the Italians, but I don’t think that was considered colonization.). They have an entirely different calendar and clock there (it was October 5, 2005 when I visited. And 4:00 pm our time is 10:00 am their time. It was most confusing). And, my favorite, they boast that coffee originated from their country. It grows wild there. And it truly was amazing coffee.

Our final stop was Mount Entoto, the highest peak in Addis, which is 3200 meters above sea level (…or, um, a bunch of feet…). The mountain is very steep – I was glad to be driving up it instead of walking! Our tour guide said that many of Ethiopia’s famous runners live and train on the mountain.

And, at the top, the panoramic views of the city were pretty breathtaking.

All in all, it was a lovely country, full of rich history and culture, with such nice people. I’m glad to have visited!

I got into a conversation with a taxi driver who asked whether our elections were safe and credible. He went on to explain that in Uganda, the elections are full of fraud. In the last election, the winner received more votes than people who were recorded as voting. Democracy, he concluded, isn’t always democratic.

This conversation really underscored how lucky we in the United States are.

But, then, this morning on election day, the news is filled with people alleging that their vote is being suppressed or that others are illegally voting. There are reports of hoaxes meant to discourage voting. People are so concerned about their party’s voters being intimidated that they showed up at polling places with billy clubs (because that’s not intimidating….). On Facebook, friends complain about fraud while others complain about voter ID laws. And most of these concerned voices are less worried with the actual fraud than that their candidate will lose votes or the other will gain votes in error.

It seems like the outcome of the election has become more important than the democratic process that defines the greatness of our political system. Of course, whoever is declared the winner is important – but maintaining the integrity of our political process and discourse is far more important. Indeed, what stood out to the young taxi driver, and I’m sure to others around the world, wasn’t that America might elect Obama or Romney today. Instead, what stood out was that individuals can safely voice their opinion and know that it is important to shaping the future of our country.

I hope we never forget the importance of that. No one candidate is worth hurting the integrity of our political system at large.

I’ll step off of my soapbox now and share a few photos from my time in Uganda…

**Please note that this post contains only my opinions and is not in any way reflective of my employer or the clinic I was visiting.