Just Another Day in Houston...

Today, well yesterday (It's now 12:18am), Chris and I went into Houston to go to lunch in the "secret" underground tunnels with his mom by her work. Before lunch, however, we strolled around downtown by Jones Hall, and snapped some photos here and there. I was on a hunt to capture images for my speech on "how to take a well-composed photograph," and Chris was just along for the ride. Here's our day, in photos. :) (Minus lunch because it was too fancy to take a camera out and start flashing!) 

We started at Jones Plaza which is a fun little park area where concerts are sometimes held. It's right across the street from Jones Hall (where the Houston Symphony performs..)

We would walk two blocks this way, four that way, one this way, two that way.. Just strolling and exploring the city we both grew up in. :)

Before the tunnels, we went up into the JPMorgan Chase Tower Observation Deck. Check out the dynamic, architectural, city of Houston!! 

(Courtesy of Chris.. )

Chris <3 and his monkey watch!

Pretty mural. :) It's supposed to represent Houston, I think. 

That's all for now. 

Seven on Saturday...

I am realizing that I just am not blogging enough! So, to make sure I blog at least once a week, I'm going to start doing "seven on Saturday." (The idea is from a friend, Angela Moore. Although, she does ten on Tuesday... ) It's just going to be seven things about my week, day, or whatever. It's sort of a practice for when I will be starting Project 365 in two weeks. I'm going to document everyday of my 18th year! :) Here it goes...


1. My poor puppy got hurt this week. She played too much outside on the hot, hard pea gravel around our pool and the pad on her foot started coming off! Yuck! It made me sad (but I laughed too)..

2. I started summer school on Monday of this week! I'm taking Public Speaking. On thursday, I had to give my first speech. It was called "Any Old Bag," and we had to introduce 3 items and a bag they were packed inside and what each item represents about our past, present, and future. For my past, I chose my high school diploma. For the present, I chose my camera. And for the future, I chose this willow tree angel (representing my bf Chris!) 

3. I'm pretty sure I swam everyday this week. Seriously, it may be hot, but it is PERFECT swimming weather! 

4. I've booked my first newborn shoot for next thursday and I've been working on props for it! The photos will be up soon! I absolutely can't wait. To have the opportunity to take portraits of a new, precious, sleepy baby is incredible to me. <3

5. Here is a glimpse at my closet. In color order of course. Yep, I'm organized. 

6. I've decided to keep my camera out of it's bag from now on. I got to the point where I didn't feel like getting my camera out all the time, so I stopped taking photos of the little things. Now, it sits on my desk ready to capture any moment. 

7. I made my own party decorations today! I'm turning the big 18 in a little less than 2 weeks! AHHH. It's so soon. But, my party is next week. I got the cutest idea from Ashley Ann's Blog. I made garland for the windows that will match the colors of the plates and everything that I'm using for my party! 

First, I chose scrapbook paper that coordinated with my colors.. And punched them out with a puncher. 

I then stitched the circles together into long strings. 

Like this... And then I stitched the strings together across the top to make garland (they will be hung over the windows in the kitchen. 

The aftermath. :)

I'll be sure to have photos of the garland in-use in one week when we're partying it up! 

Long overdue...

Here's the deal, it's been a very long time since I've blogged, but I've also been through photo heart break! Last time I blogged, I promised to post all my photos from my trip to California. During the trip, however, I lost about 90% of my photos.  It's been hard, but I finally feel ready to blog about my trip and what's been going on since. My boyfriend and mom both took photos as well, but I've yet to get them from either of them.. So without further ado...


California was an absolute blast! Here's what the trip looked like:


Tuesday- 14 hours in the car; lots of coloring, movies, sleeping, and listening to music.


Wednesday- 12-13 hours in the car; lots of wishing and hoping we were there already!


Thursday- Day One! Kottsberry Farms was our destination, home to the Xcelerator (0-82 in 2.3 seconds!!) 
Chris and I had a characature made, and just had a blast riding all the rides!


Friday- Day Two! HOLLYWOOD! We went to Madam Tussaud's wax museum, went on a tour of Kodak Theatre (home to the Oscars), shopped till we dropped, ate at Pink's (famous hot dog place on Food Network), went on a crazy hunt for the perfect Hollywood sign shot (photos I miss the most of all the lost ones. :/), and saw all the stars and prints on Hollywood Blvd. :) 


Saturday- Day Three "aka" Santa Monica Day. We spent this day first at a farmers market, where we found HUGE blackberries, homemade Burt's Bees, honey pixie stix, the most delicious lemons I have ever eaten (seriously, I sliced them, and ate the whole thing!) fresh green beans, and some other fruit. Then we went and had fun on Santa Monica Pier (on Private Practice's credits). But, the best part was probably 3rd Street Promenade, where ever store you can imagine is right there, alongside street performers, and the black guy from Scrubs! (Daddy and Nathaniel passed on shopping and went for a motorcycle ride along the coast instead.) Later, it was back to the Pier for some late night fun. 


Sunday- Day Four and Father's Day was spent in two different places. First, was legoland where we rode some "eh" rides (meant for little ones) but saw Miniland USA, where whole cities are built in mini version by legos! I also got another characature of myself as a lego person. :) After lunch, we drove another half-hour to San Diego, and, yep you guessed it, we went PARASAILING! I do have a few pictures of this:

On the boat getting ready for take-off.

Taking off!

Up we go!

In the air with my lubbb. <3

Okay, let me tell you, it was FREEZING up there, so when the driver lowered us down to dip our feet in, and my butt got SOAKED, it was not so hot. (no pun intended. :P)

After parasailing, we went to Old Town San Diego and had some delicious Mexican Food, complete with a mariachi performance of "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd played to my brother. IT was great. :)

Monday- Day Five and Chris and I's 16 month anniversary..not a big one but cool when you spend it at... Six Flags Magic Mountain!! So, besides having an overwhelming amount of roller coasters, Magic Mountain also had the mother of all coasters: X2. We waited for over an hour to ride this, even staying in line after the park closed. We finally made it on, and boy was it worth the wait. You are strapped in, the laid backwards to go up the ramp. (the click-click-click part..) Then, when the ride starts, your seat flips over so your facing the ground, free-falling. There is also some fire, and some music played in your ears. Pretty much, AWESOME.

Tuesday- Day Six! This day we decided against a day full of walking and slept in. Then we went to the California Science Center and saw an IMAX about the Hubble Telescope, and rode a bicycle across a tight-rope way high in the air! 

Wednesday- Day Seven. Universal Studios! Universal was fun! It was a lot like Disney where every ride has a theme. My favorite was the Jurassic Park Ride and the Mummy Roller Coaster. Then for dinner we ate at Hard Rock in the little hidden shopping area called the City Walk. We would have never known it was there if the GPS hadn't of told us!

Thursday- Last but not Least- Day Eight. On our last day, we decided to chill on the beach. So, we met up with my Aunt Maddie, Uncle Chris, and cousins Bella and Ryder (also vacationing in Cali, but not with us.. weird but complicated..) to hve fun on Laguna Beach! I used to love that show so I was pretty dang excited. :) This is the only place I have photos from of my own, because they were on a separate memory card from all the others...

It was cold if you can't tell! 

Friday- Driving, blah I'm sick of these people already... :P

Saturday- Driving. My butt seriously hurts! Home at 11:30pm. :)

After the trip, I went straight over the next day and began housesitting. It was fun but their backyard WAY flooded because of Hurricane Alex. It was scary!

To end this post.. here are some fireworks. I read a little lesson on how to take them here. It's the blog of a fellow photographer friend with much more experience and so many great tips! Thanks Elizabeth!

Happy Belated July 4th Everyone! And until next time, 

Family Portraits...

I must say, when my mom asked me to do family portraits, I was feeling a little challenged. I didn't know how well photos would turn out on self-timer (well, only the ones of all of us..) But, after some fun on the beach, we have new family portraits! And, I'd say they turned out pretty good! 
These are mainly for my father for Father's Day, but we finally were able to update the photos on a stairwell also! (Thank goodness! The ones that used to be there were from when I was in, what shall I say, an awkward phase.) Anyways, here they are! 
Daddy, I hope you love your new collage of US!

This is my little brother, Nathaniel. He's total boy, with the Harley shirt, the spiked hair, and how he always seems to have an air-soft gun in his hand... I love him to death. 

And when he figures out how to smile, it's absolutely contagious. 

BLUE eyes. And freckles. :)

Oh, and he sure knows how to brush his teeth well!

This is Emily, my little sister. She is fun-loving, smart, and a total drama queen. Which, I must say, without her, life would be a whole lot less entertaining. 

She photogenic as all get-out, too. No fair!

I swear, she gets more and more beautiful everyday!

This would be me. These photos were taken by my mom, and I'd say she did a pretty good job! I only did a quick teaching, and she was able to capture, well me!

I'm the quiet, introverted, intellectual type. Exact opposite of my sister.. :) 

Mommy!! Isn't she perty? Seriously though, this is my FAVORITE shot from the entire shoot. She just exudes beauty in everything that she does. She smiles all day long. I love you, momma!

This is for my daddy, for Father's day. I love how our feet are dirty. It completely summarizes us as kids, and as my dad's kids. :) 

This is a collaboration shot. I knew before going out there, that I wanted shots by the poles. (If you look at my last post, I have a shot using shallow depth of field with these exact same poles.) But, my mom and sister came up with the amazing idea to look away! Frankly, I was too worried with making the self-timer work! Haha. And, Nathaniel perfects the shot.. :)

Can you tell Nathaniel got more tired, and the wind blew harder, the longer we were there? 

SISTERS. <3 

I leave for Los Angeles on Tuesday! I absolutely cannot wait! It's going to be filled with driving (4 days to be exact), lots of Roller Coasters, shopping, the Hollywood sign, and just good ole' family time. Plus, Chris will be there! 


I plan to take an immense amount of photos, which I will surely be blogging about when I get back in two weeks. So, until then, here is Hazelnut again. Sleeping in a ball (after messing up her cage)! SO cute. :) 

Hazelnut...

Today, Chris and I got our first pet together! :) Here she is: 







Isn't she so cute! She is ITTY BITTY! 


Also, on Saturday, I was able to help capture the memories at two different graduate parties for two good friends! Here is a sneak peek..