Walking with Team Gina

I'm so sorry for the delay in sharing about our Team Gina walk and wrapping up last weekend.  I never got around to working on the post before we went camping again this weekend.  Yep, you read that right! Camping in Miss Peggy two weekends in a row.  We camped at the same place as before and for good reason.  But I will get to that later.  For now let me back up to last Sunday.

Our last day camping with Miss Peggy on our inaugural camping trip had us all waking waaay before the sun did that day. We had a long drive ahead of us and had to be there to meet the rest of the team at 7:15am. As soon as we got there, we picked up our new Team Gina race day shirts.  Caleb and Madeline had just learned a new hand game from their new friends and were anxious to teach it to their cousins.

 Havi looked  like a 'lil gangsta with my Team Gina cap on.

Once the team had all arrived and registered, I snapped a pre-walk team photo.  Funny thing about this photo is that the local paper snapped a photo of me taking it.

 Since we left my minivan back at home, we were down a stroller.  So my sister came to the rescue and loaned me her carrier for Havi and her umbrella stroller for Madeline.  Deb, you were a lifesaver!

 Team Gina always brings up the rear for the walkers.  We had over 75 people walk as a part of Team Gina!  So naturally our group needs a little extra space. lol

 This photo of Lexi, Gina and Will's daughter (with her brothers alongside her) makes me smile.  During Gina's first walk, she found herself doing the very same thing- pushing a childless stroller.  Just like her mama....

 These cousins just melt my heart.  They were so adorable walking and holding hands.

 We did the short course...and yes, it took us 42 minutes to walk 1 mile.  Try to beat that time!

Madeline was none to pleased with the nutritious post race snack options.  Like her mama, she was wondering where the doughnuts were.

  Lexi enjoyed some watermelon.

  Havi enjoyed flashing her belly.

 I had to grab a quick photo of the POPS nurses.  They all worked with Gina at the same pediatric outpatient surgery center.  All three ladies are named Debbie.  How funny is that?

 After most everyone had refreshed themselves with something to eat or drink, we took another team photo.

  After picking up some goodies from the sponsor tables (like the awesome scarf from Ford that's on Madeline's head), it was time to head home.  We said our good byes, snapped a few photos and were on our way back to the campsite.

 After getting some lunch, it was time to head back to the beach for some sun and surf.  The kids got right to playing in the sand.

It truly was a fantastic first camping trip in Miss Peggy.  It's so awesome to go camping with friends, especially when all your sites are next to each other.  It's just like one big party.  The kids go back and forth between all the campers, ride each others bikes, share boogie boards.  The grown ups share food and conversation.  It's just all around a fantastic time together developing friendships and deepening relationships with our kids.

And as you can see from my introduction, we had such a great time, we couldn't wait to do it again!  We still had to sneak away for two tennis tournaments, which meant no late night dinners or s'mores.  But I will share more about that as soon as I get those photos uploaded.

A happy little family

Our travel trailer arrived!!!

Last week, we headed over to our storage facility and waited for delivery.

Our good friends who "roped" us into this camping thing met us there.

The kids couldn't wait to check out the inside and went straight to the bunkhouse in the back.

Yep.  Four bunks means room for company.

We checked everything out and made sure it all looked good. It took a little while.  So the kids ran in and out and all around.

The sky was so pretty that night as the sun set.

God has truly blessed us with some awesome friends.  This whole camping thing wouldn't be possible without them.  We will be making our inaugural camping trip soon.  The kids can't wait.  We are looking forward to spending lots of time outdoors with our happy, little family.  In the meantime, we have a busy weekend with two, yes two, tennis tournaments and a breast cancer walk with Team Gina.  I'm exhausted just thinkin' about it!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

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With packing up and moving this past month and a half, I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn't have enough time to take the dumplings out for a quick photo shoot for our Christmas card this year.  Well, my suspicion was correct; time was not on my side.  But I didn't want that to keep me from sending out cards this year.  The end result? A simple card with images from one of our summer shoots when I was practicing my homework for Ashley Ann's Snapshops class.  I love this series because it truly embodies my photography style.  No fancy clothes.  No dramatic location.  Just every day play clothes, our (old house) front yard, and the playground.

This year Gina taught me that the most important moments in our lives are the ordinary ones, and if you take the time to embrace them, they can make your heart swell.  Ashley Ann's class taught me how to stop and recognize them and to try to capture them in a way that's not so ordinary.  This year has been one of tremendous growth for me, both spiritually and "photographically."  (I can't say professionally because I'm not a professional photographer! lol)  And, well, I'm grateful to the Lord for this growth.

I'm thankful for His birth many moons ago, and I'm thankful for the chance to celebrate His birthday with the family He has so graciously blessed me with.  May your Christmas be filled with lots of love and laughter.  And would you please continue to keep Will and the kids in your prayers. This is their first Christmas without Gina, and her 34th birthday, which would have been on Dec 30th, will also be celebrated without her.

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!!!!

NYC Days 2 & 3: Into the night

Before I share more about our trip to NYC, I would be remiss if I didn't express the pain I feel for all of the families affected by the tragedy in Connecticut.  I can't imagine the enormous loss they must be experiencing right now.  Death is never easy, even when you're prepared for it.  To have your loved one taken from you without the chance to say good bye?  Well, the hurt goes deeper still.  

Tragedies like this, and Gina's death, continue to remind me that my most important goal as a photographer is to capture the every day moments.  As I've said before, most of our lives are made up of these ordinary moments.  Don't let them slip by without documenting them.  Stop what you're doing and grab your camera.  You'll see in the images I'm sharing in this post that, while some of them scream Big Apple, some of them are quite ordinary.  And I couldn't tell the whole story if I didn't include those small, simple ordinary moments too.

Now on to the photos, which are a mix of big girl camera and iPhone shots.  Last time we went to NYC, we kept things low key at night because Madeline was only 2 1/2 years old.  Being that she's 4 1/2 now, we thought we would attempt some night time entertainment.  That meant keeping things low key during the day.  So the dumplings played with their stuffed animals and watched movies on the iPad.  

I had every intention of doing a wee bit of school like we did last time we visited the Big Apple, but the excitement in the air kept this teacher from focusing! lol

Since we missed seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center the night before, we decided to head over there on the second night.  It was a pretty short walk from our hotel.

I snapped this quick shot of Patrick with the kids on my iPhone.

And then Baba insisted  I pull my big girl camera back out of my bag so he could play photographer and snap a shot of me with the dumplings. Looks like I'll be turning him into a photographer sooner rather than later.

We love eating at Wu Liang Ye for dinner when we visit the tree at dinner time because it's simply delicious Chinese food.  After we finished up dinner, we headed back to our hotel room to freshen up.

And then we walked right back out the door and across the street to the Minskoff Theatre to see The Lion King!

We absolutely loved it!  And I was impressed with how well behaved Madeline was during the show!  She really listened carefully and kept quiet throughout the performance.  I was shocked. lol.  She's always so loud.  The costumes were incredible.  The only downer for me was that the character's lines were too similar to the movie.  It was a little bit different than the movie but not by much.  Oh well.  It was still a winner.

So, as I mentioned earlier, we really thought Caleb was going to lose his top left tooth.  So I snapped this shot of his "old smile" one last time, or so I thought.

Day 3 went on like Day 2....very low key during the day.  Then when Patrick finished up his meeting (oh, I think I failed to mention this part yet; Patrick was in meetings all day), he wanted to head back over to the tree because his iPhone had died the day before, and he wasn't able to capture a photo of the kids in front of the tree.  So we headed back there again....this time in the rain.

We passed by the Fox News Studio as we headed back over to Rockefeller Center.  That's Bob Beckel in the suspenders, and Dana Perino is the blonde to his left.

And since it was still raining, I snapped the dumplings in front of the tree with my iPhone too.

It continued to rain as we tried to catch a cab on our way to the Upper WestSide, but we had no luck, with the cab or the rain.

We stopped to get Caleb a pretzel to hold him over until dinner.  Unfortunately, it was like a hockey puck.

Well, we weren't just going to stand there in the rain and hope to eventually catch a cab during rush hour.  So we walked all. the. way from Midtown up to Lincoln Center in the Upper West Side.  Well, three of us walked..in the rain.  Patrick carried Madeline, and Caleb was a trooper.  We planned on grabbing dinner around there and were thankful that Bar Boulud had a table for us!  I was thankful that the food was delicious...and the atmosphere was loud!  Great.  Madeline fit right in.  I'm beginning to think she was made for the city. lol.  Anyway, after dinner we headed over to Lincoln Center to catch George Balanchine's The Nutcracker! 

By intermission the kids were exhausted, and I wasn't sure if they were going to make it through Act II.  But they perked right up.  Every time Madeline saw a costume she adored, she whispered in my ear that she wanted it.  It was so precious.  Caleb remarked that he liked baseball more than ballet.  lol. He was a good sport.  He did enjoy the storyline; it was just too much dancing for him.  Again, Madeline really surprised me with how well she behaved.  Madeline does not know volume control very well at all.  She's on or off.  So I was so impressed that she actually whispered!!! lol.  Anyway, we truly had a lovely time at the ballet.

And to top off the night, I got to meet up with an old friend from childhood, Alex, and his beautiful and sweet wife, Ileana.  Alex and I went to summer camp together as teens.  We all used to sit around the piano at night as he played song after song, mostly Billy Joel.  We called him our own Piano Man.

We knew back then that Alex was a pretty talented musician, and we had no doubt that he would make it big in the industry.  Well, twenty years later finds him quite accomplished on Broadway. He's won Tony's and Grammy's for his work on In The Heights, and other recent works include Bring It On and Wicked.  Oh, and he's also played for the President, as in President Obama.  Not bad, eh?  We knew he would make it someday, and boy, has he made it.  We're so proud of ya, Alex!

And our trip didn't end there.  We had one more big day in the city!  Stay tuned for lots more photos.  I told ya I took a bunch!