Trip to the San Diego Zoo!

After the big rush of holiday portraits, I've been taking a few weeks off work pretty much. Deployment is just around the corner, and I'm trying to spend weekends with my husband as much as possible.

Last week, we went to the SD Zoo with my friend Justine, her husband Andrew, and Andrew's son, Parker. AD military members get in free, FYI - and dependents are 10% off at the gate or you can get tickets at the ITT office on base as well.

The zoo was huge, and it was great to see Parker all excited to see the animals. It definitely was a lot of walking though - although not as much walking as my husband and I did this past weekend in San Francisco. Stay tuned for an update about the "San Francisco Death March", as my husband termed it.



My favorite pictures of the animals this trip were all birds - the larger animals seemed to all be sleeping in the corners of the cages.



Oh, and the meerkat of course!



Parker loved just watching all the animals.



We also got the chance to wait in line & feed the giraffes! If you're ever at the SD Zoo, take the time to do this - it really was a lot of fun.







Parker is just too cute, haha. He was trying to look inside my lens.







Classic overstimulation, haha. One hand petting the goat, and he's already looking at what else he can do.



His dad trying to knock him off the log ;)



Getting a ride from my husband.



Feeding the goats at the petting zoo!



We had a great day, and I had a great laugh when Justine texted me a photo of Parker passed out asleep on the ride back home!

Puppies!

I realized I still haven't shared some of the images from my trip home to CT on the blog! Dogs are a huge part of home for my husband and I. I grew up with Rottweilers & Mastiffs, but when I was in high school my parents decided to switch to having Newfoundlands. They now have 4 Newfoundlands and 1 Carin Spaniel (kind of random addition, we all know).

My husband always grew up with labs, and his parents still have 2 they rescued. His aunt also breeds labs, so when we visited for Christmas we had 6 labs running around together. It was quite busy :)

Here's a sampling of our parent's dogs - you can always see more at my Facebook Page!

My husband and one of his aunt's dogs - I have this framed over our couch now because I loved it so much :)

Tara :: Maternity Shoot

So, I have been totally slacking on blogging lately! I've been crazy busy editing the hundreds of personal photos I took in CT during 2 weeks at Christmas. When you only see family twice a year, you want tons of pictures of course...it just makes for some long hours at the computer :) I will be sure to share some of them with you as well.

Anyway, I had an awesome maternity shoot this week with Tara. I actually did an outdoor maternity shoot with her and her husband Corey before Christmas, but she wanted to do some indoors closer to her due date as well. Less than a month to go at this point!

Here are some of the images we were able to capture inside - enjoy! You can also check out my Facebook page for some more images.



How cute are these little boots??







Everything is all ready for baby Trenton!





I love this one.



Have a great weekend, Tara! Hope the rest of Corey's training flies by, and I hope I get to meet Trenton before you move :)

Ross, Stacy, & Lizzie :: Family Shoot

While I was home visiting Connecticut for the holidays, I got the chance to do a family shoot for a friend of mine and her family. Stacy and her husband Ross drove to CT to meet me for a few hours, with their daughter Lizzie. We had planned on doing more portraits indoors since it was pretty chilly, but after the long ride, Lizzie really wanted some outdoor activity so we ended up mostly outside.



She's such a beautiful little girl.



Lizzie LOVES the snow.





We got a few of just Mom & Dad as well.







I love these ones of Lizzie and her dad. He's been away for work quite a bit lately, and you could tell how much she missed him.





I snapped this one in the car, between locations. Lizzie wasn't really all about posing, and finally smiled...in her carseat, haha.



Beautiful family :)



Stacy, it was great to see you and your family!