I'm happy to announce that Heather and Bryan's wedding at the Desert Botanical Gardens is in the new issue of Arizona Bride Magazine's Resource Guide! (A full page spread no less!)

Congrats you two, and I hope you're still enjoying wedded bliss...

My baby sister just turned 21 last Saturday! So I guess she's not quite a baby anymore, but it's hard for me to believe that she's officially an adult when she's been my kid sister her whole life. She's now studying hard to follow in our dad's footsteps in becoming a dentist and I couldn't be more proud of how she's turned out. She's got a good head on her shoulders and a good heart. What more can you ask for?

We spent a few days in LA together celebrating her birthday. She and Drew are die-hard Laker fans, so we went to watch them play an insane triple overtime game against the Suns!
Pregame giddiness:


We spent some time hanging out at Venice beach. Definitely some characters there. Here's one of them. (Haha! Just kidding Michelle!) What a beautiful girl she is! (No bias here.)


Loved these.


I got pulled into one of the shows and had a guy run and do a sideways flip, not just over me, but seven other people as well! (I'm third from the right.)


This wall was different back in '08 when I did Eleah & Lee's engagement session in Venice Beach, so the change had to be documented.


We stopped by the Getty Museum one cloudy afternoon. I am in love with their landscape architect! I think we spent more time outdoors than indoors there.




Of course, no trip to LA would be complete without a stroll down Rodeo. Work it Shell, work it!


And my all-time favorite image from this whole LA trip. Michelle was just holding her hat down so it wouldn't fly away, but I love how it turned out.


Love you Shellgirl!

I'm so excited to be sharing more of Timothy's newborn photos. He is so cute and cuddly that you just want to pick him up and hold him in your arms! Here he is, Timothy James, born February 27, 2011.









As you can tell, he'll be a huge San Francisco sports fan!
















{Phoenix Newborn Photographer}

I know I had said a few posts ago that I am no longer doing weddings or portraits, but I have such a soft spot for newborns that when Timothy's super excited Aunt Kathleen asked if I do newborn photography, I jumped at the opportunity. Newborn babies are definitely an exception to my "no more portrait photography" rule, and with Timothy you can see why - soooooo adorable!!!

Meet the newest San Francisco Giants fan, Timothy James at 12 days old.


More of Timothy to follow. =)

For anyone interested in a newborn portrait session, I will happily schedule a session for newborns two weeks old and younger.

On our last day on Vieques Island, we had no car, so Drew and I ended up renting one of the few scooters on the island. Riding around this small island on a scooter was one of the highlights of our trip! I love the feeling of being out on the road instead of inside a car. You get to see and feel so much more it seems.


We drove around the island and made a few stops here and there.


A must-see was this 375 year old Ceiba tree. It was a beauty!


The roots were gigantic. I was about to climb up one of the branches until I saw the HUGE thorns!


We had to take a picture next to Island Adventures. The night before (which was Drew's birthday), we went on an unforgettable tour with them out to Mosquito Bay, aka, Biobay, known for its large amount of bioluminescent dinoflagellates (kind of plankton). These tiny little things glow at night when moved. So imagine jumping in the water and swimming around in this. Every time you move your arms or legs, the water glows. Amazing! We made glow angels in the water. And when you swirl the water around in a circle, it looks like sparklers going off. When you lift your arms out of the water, little flecks of light slide down your arms. I wish I could've photographed this, but I knew the scene was way to dark for my camera to pick up anything worthwhile so I didn't even bring it on the tour.

If you go to Puerto Rico, this is definitely a MUST! And go with Island Adventures because they let you swim in the water as opposed to kayaking where you just get to dip your paddle in the water. (Unless of course, you don't want to get too wet.)

Continuing on...more incredible beaches!
















This was one gorgeous sunset. I love evenings.


Our last full day in Puerto Rico (and back on the mainland), we went ziplining with Ecoquest Adventures. We've ziplined before in Costa Rica and it is by far the most amazing ziplining adventure because of the length and height of the lines. The guides from Ecoquest made our tour a lot of fun and very informative. We kayaked for a bit, hiked a little, and ziplined 5 different lines, with the last one ending at a mojito bar where we had lunch and the best mojito I've ever had. What a great way to end a vacation! =)
(All the images below were taken with my point and shoot)








Tons of iguana in the area. And I mean TONS! Drew was asking about iguana meat the whole time we were in PR, but no restaurant serves it.




I was more than excited to be going on Big Mama.


From left to right, Andre, Luigi, and Hector. These guys rocked!


If you're thinking about going away somewhere for a week, Puerto Rico is a great destination! Call the recommended guides/companies here (I'm not affiliated with them at all, just had a wonderful experience with each of them.) and start your adventure!

I had no idea that the week of President's Day was the busiest week in PR after the Christmas holiday season. We were scrambling to find a place to stay on the small island of Vieques the week before and were lucky to have found a room at Hix Island House. I LOVE this place!!! It was designed by Canadian architect John Hix and is definitely the most unique place we've ever stayed at in our travels.

For one, there are no glass windows. There are just openings out to nature. At the time of our stay, the weather in Vieques was perfect with good tradewinds blowing so it felt great staying in our room. At night you can lay out, look up at the stars, and listen to the frogs and geckos. Mosquito netting around the bed was a must, even though some little buggers found holes, came through and bit us anyway. That was the only complaint I had, but the rest of the place more than made up for this minor inconvenience.



The room was spacious, there was a kitchen stocked with fresh fruit, juices, coffee beans, grinder, a french press, eggs, jams, and fresh bread baked daily and delivered to your room. There was an outdoor shower (bottom left photo) with hot water that was solar heated.

It was great waking up to birds singing and gorgeous sunrises.


One night, we had a local lady down the street make us a home-cooked typical Puerto Rican meal. Had a wonderful candlelit meal under the stars. It was one of the best meals of our trip. Chicken and rice, tostones, and a squash & beans curry. Deeeelish!




Now onto the rest of Vieques. The incredible blue waters and soft sand beaches were one of the main reasons why we wanted to go to Vieques.




We definitely had a good day of laying out in paradise.




On our first day in Vieques, we did a tour around the island with Kristin of Vieques Rainbow Tours. Thank goodness for her because we couldn't find a car to rent on this tiny island the day we arrived...they were ALL booked! So Kristin drove us around the two small towns in Vieques, took us to some jaw-dropping beaches, and gave us the scoop on some of the locals and island life. I highly recommend doing a tour with her if you're traveling to Vieques. At the end of our tour, she drove us to a few different car rental shops to check and see if they happened to have any, and with luck on our side, we found a jeep to rent for a couple of days!

(Small individual photos were taken with a point + shoot camera)

On our tour, we saw this little kitty chased up a palm tree by three dogs.

Kristin decided to bring the kitty home.Needless to say, she's a huge animal lover with a cat, dog, and three foster puppies at home already.

One of the most charming things about Vieques is that there are wild horses EVERYWHERE! I had read about this beforehand, but didn't expect to see so many, especially right in the middle of town. Happy findings!

Definitely one of my favorite things about this island!


We found this guy around the property of Hix Island House.

Hammocks are hung up around the area for relaxing naps. We saw this hammock from afar and were about to lay down on it until we saw this:

Oh well, I don't care, I'll lay on it anyway!

Just kidding people! I found another -clean- hammock to lay on. =)

I'll end here today. More on the rest of our trip to Puerto Rico in the next post!