our trip to the zoo

been home for a week now and i am still catching up on our time in florida. last wednesday papa p took off work so all of us could go to the miami metro zoo together. there is a commuter train called the Tri- Trail that will take you to the zoo. i thought this would be so fun for the kids, to take the train to the zoo. well the train doesnt go all the way to the zoo, so we had to transfer to the metro rail and then transfer to the metro bus! the kids really did have a great time but it was a lot longer taking the train(s) than it would have been just taking a car. oh well. it was all part of the adventure. i cant believe it but i didnt get a single picture of any of the trains! i think i was to nervous about making we we all got on the right trains at the right times.the kids loved looking out the windows of the train checking everything out, excited about everything they saw.

raelyn waiting to get onto the metro bus.
finally at the zoo... when i was a kid, the flamingos were my FAVORITE.
once we got to the zoo the kids had an awesome time. most all the animals were out an about so the kids got a great view of the bears, tigers, giraffes, elephants and lots of other animals.
we even got to feed the giraffes. this was so cool.







thanks gram and papa p for treating us to this super fun day! so glad we could all go together. i had a great time too, even with missing the train :) funny stories to remind the kids of later on.

waiting for the bus to get back home.

wordless wednesday-fishing with uncle logan

more beach pics

brennas first pig tails :)
she loved getting sandy

warming up with gram after swimming with papa p

taking a breather after learning how to body surf with papa p. i could make a post just of garret crazy expressions. love this kid :)

karate kid

my 11 year old sister Mackenzie is a second degree black belt in Taekwondo. i got to watch her "test" for some more points while i was in florida. it was so cool to see her do her thing. she was so good doing her form (a series of moves they have to memorize) that i wanted to get some better pics of her doing it. i asked her if she thought she could do it on the sand at the beach and she said she would give it a try. so one evening after dinner we all headed to the beach and i got to photography kenzie while gram and papa p played with the kids. i am not super happy with the pics b/c my settings on my camera were way off. i have this problem of not RE setting after the last things i took pics of. they look fine on the camera but when i put them on the computer i see the problems. i had my ISO set way to high for an outdoor setting so the pics got "grainy" or almost spotted. oh well. kenzie did great and we got a few good ones out of the mix.


love this one
action shot. this was part of a round kick.
sand was flying. she thought it was funny when she got me covered in sand.

love this one too!

she said she always makes a funny face when she kicks (which she does) but i told her that was just b/c she was so focused! the above is an awesome kick, funny face!

here i was just messing with some developing settings. thats what is so nice about digital. :)love you sis! you are awesome at taekwondo. we are very proud of you. thanks also for your help with the kids while i was there. you did great at that too. you are beautiful. keep up the good work. dont grow tired of doing what is right. xoxo.

oops

ok so that pic didnt work to good on my blog layout.

Photo Shoot with Amber Holritz

it is so cool how god works things out sometimes. even the small things. dave and i had never gotten an wedding album made. we have our proofs but the album was not included in our package. a wedding album was something that i had always wanted. i loved looking through my parents album when i was growing up, and still do now! i wanted to my kids to have something to look through of their mom and dad too. last november we met with our photographer to see if we could still get an album made. she said we could but it would cost a lot of money! since we got married "so long ago" all the pic were taken with film and not digital so if we wanted any cropping done or adjustments to the pics it would have cost even more! so the more and more we looked through the pics i was having a really hard time spending the money and it not being "perfect".

so this is where the god story starts.... i came across an old highschool friend whos husband is a photographer how is friends with another set of photographers, the Holritzs. i had come to love their blog and their work! when dave got me the new camera for christmas, i knew i wanted to take one of amber holritz's photography workshops. so in feb i went to chattanooga, where they live, and took the class. it was great, i learned so much! we have communicated a few time through email or facebook since then. i had mentioned to dave about using the money we had saved up for the wedding album to have her come and take some pics of our family. her specialty is family lifestlye photography..... so she posted on face book that she would be in miami the same time we were planning on being in south florida. god worked out all the little details and dave and i had the opportunity to do a shoot with just the two of us. (one day i would still love for her to come and shoot our family together)

dave and i had a great time and amber and her friend Ian who was shooting with her got some amazing shots. i am so happy with how they turned out and they will be something we will treasure forever. hopefully the kids will enjoy looking at them too from time to time.

so here is a link to ambers blog where she created a slide show for us. check it out!
http://www.holritzphotography.com/index.php?link=374&cat=4

Gumbo Limbo

well we are back home in tennessee and i have got a bunch to blog about. we had a great time in florida with my parents. the kids loved being there. here are some pics of another one of our adventures.

Gumbo Limbo is a free Environmental Complex that is designed to provide marine and coastal environmental education for the community through classes, workshops, field trips and research.

They have tanks filled with marine life, a board walk that takes you through native florida landscapes, a 39 ft look out tower, and a butterfly garden.
brenna was so excited to see the fish and turtles swimming around. here you can see the sea turtle that brenna was in love with.

the kids had a blast seeing all the cool things and we loved that it was free.
this picture cracks me up.... brenna got herself up onto the bench and was so proud. we tired to move her closer to the group and she wasnt having, so here is the group shot with brenna happy but off on her own.

after gumbo limbo we headed to a park with our picnic lunch and had a yummy picnic in the shade. then the kids had fun on the playground.

it was a great day.