Egyptian Princess

I realized after I posted my Ireland pictures that I hadn't posted any of my Egypt trip. We went down there to meet up with my parents and cruise the Nile as well as visit the pyramids. It was heavenly (though completely, uncomfortably hot). And it was very safe, considering we hit this magic hole between when the revolution ended and when the Egyptians became riled up again. We were there just two weeks after the revolution ended. The tour guides kept saying, "Back during the revolution..." and we would all turn to each other and say, "Two weeks ago..."

I was sad that we missed out on Abu Simbel but it was way further south than we went. I love traveling with my parents, they do it in style. We had luxury hotels and a beautiful boat on the Nile. Tourism is dead down there (kind of understandable) but the poverty was a bit of a shock for my husband.

The Temple of Philae. They moved this temple piece by piece when they built the dam on the Nile and the area flooded.

My mama and I at Luxor Temple.

Best photo bomb ever by my parents' friend.

Lol. My mom is awesome.

Minarets and satellites.

All four of us at Luxor Temple.

This was happening on one side of the boat...

...and this was on the other.

Portraits of the Perino Family

Last Sunday I got to photograph a beautiful family at the zoo. The Perino family is made up of parents and two kiddos and another one on the way. I was so excited just to get back into portraits, these are the first I've done in Germany.

 

Really a photogenic family. The camera just soaked them up like sunshine. I get to take photos when the baby arrives, I absolutely can't wait.

Three Things Thursday - Family

Do you love your family? I do. Sometimes I get sick of them, but that's just because I'm an introvert and two weeks of constant people tires me out. But I love them so much. Since I just spent those two weeks in Colorado with my family, I thought family would be an appropriate Three Things topic.

Three things about...

your family.

(From left: Brother-in-law's parents; Albert holding Sam; Dad and Mom; Kelli holding baby Ella and brother-in-law A.J.; and Sadie the dog.)

1.    My immediate family is very close. Sometimes we bicker, and grumble, and complain about each other, but we are rather tight. I stayed in Colorado for college and worked for my dad through and after. My sister moved away for college and stayed away a while until my dad hired her as a manager. Family business through and through. We all lived in our little home town and probably will for a long time if/when Albert and I move back.
2.    My mother is a big mother bear. She likes to take care of all of us. When something is wrong she either comforts us or tells us to get up and do something about it. She’s wonderful.
3.    My dad is quiet. He works so hard. It makes me tired just thinking about everything he does. He’s a veterinarian but he takes care of the house and the animals in all of his free time.

Tell me three things about your family either in the comments or link your own blog post into the linky below.

Portraits of My Niece: One Year Ago

Just before my husband and I left to sit in D.C. for a month and then move to Germany, we went to the drag races. I took the opportunity to take my niece's one-year photos. She was just about to walk on her own. (I think she took her first steps just two days after we left.) But she still had those chubby baby cheeks.

She would walk with help, but every time you took your finger away she would just plop down on that Wrangler butt.

Our Mustang (hee hee, my husband will laugh that I said 'our') and my brother-in-law's Camaro in front of it both cooling off between runs.

Chubby baby cheeks, I just want to squeeze them.

Pointing at 'Daddy's Maro' as she calls it now.

Married 1001 Days

My husband and I have been married 1001 days. Yesterday he surprised me with a special occasion to celebrate and a cute elephant necklace from etsy. He kept hinting that we would have a special occasion coming up, but my birthday is still a ways off and I couldn't think of anything else. So when I woke up he said, "Happy 1000 days!" (Isn't he just too adorable?) To go along with that I'll post some pictures from our wedding.

We were married on December 17, 2007. It was sunny and gorgeous, but crazy windy. (We got married on the side of a mountain in Colorado.) It was a complete family affair. My sister and I baked the cake. My best friend provided the flowers. Everyone helped make it happen. Chris Giles and Randy Barnes from Alpine Wedding Photography were the photographers.

It's been a wonderful adventure over the last 1001 days and even before that. Here's to the next 1000!

Portraits of My Niece

My niece is turning two on the 23rd of this month. So I figured I'd catch up on the photos I took of her during her first year. I'm so jealous that I don't get to do her two-year photos, my friend Cora gets the pleasure of that as well as pregnant belly pics of my sister's second baby.

I really want to try to get into some portrait photography here in Germany. People are my favorite subjects. Buildings are cold and heartless, landscapes are too vast, but people are warm and loving and all so very different.

So onto the photos I took when Sam, or Squeaker, was nine months old.

My sister pregnant with Sam.
Sam when she was 3 months old.
Sam when she was 6 months old.
A slideshow of Sam's first year.

Portraits of My Niece

When my sister was pregnant for the first time I had this dream of being the most awesome aunt, the one that lets you drive fast on your 16th birthday and the one that takes you for drinks on your 21st. I also wanted to have a nickname for my niece. But I didn't want to just pick one, I wanted it to mean something. So just a few days after she was born, she presented it to me. Whenever she was hungry she wouldn't really cry, she would just squeak. Squeaker. I have it on video and everything. Even now when she's two years old, she is quite the squeaky little thing, squeals when she's excited and all. I took photos of her every three months during her first year. Here is the link to the three month photos. And here is the link to the slideshow I made of the whole year. Now I'll post the six month photos. She was sitting on her own but not crawling and certainly becoming very animated!

Portraits of My Sister

I was backing up photos yesterday and happened upon some of my older stuff. I have been wanting to post the portraits I've done, so over the next few weeks I will. I got a lot of practice when my sister was first pregnant and after my niece was born. It makes me sad that I'm missing her second pregnancy, and my niece going from one year to two. These are two of the belly pictures I took for her. We went hiking quite a long ways, and I think she was eight months here, she's a superstar when it comes to being healthy.

Family Trip to Germany

The second week my family was here my dad and brother-in-law showed up. They brought my precious parakeet, Moe. We've missed her for the past eight months. She was hand-raised and is just as friendly as a big parrot. We played her favorite song, and after not hearing it that entire time she still sang to it!

Moe bird.

Anyways, my dad and brother-in-law flew in and then we headed to Munich. We saw Dachau, very heart-breaking. We went to the Munich Ratskeller restaurant for dinner. Then we headed to the Neuschwanstein Castle, otherwise known as the Disney Castle. I'm having to split up the photos into three segments, so that's it for this one. There will be more later.

Visiting Esslingen for ice cream and an afternoon in the park.

Dachau barracks.

Dachau gate, Arbeit Macht Frei - Work Makes You Free

Neuschwanstein in the mist.

Family Visit Photos

Here are some of the photos from my family visit. The first week was just us girls and we went to Baden-Baden and the Alsace region of France. It was a complete blast. We happened upon two very wonderful pensions to stay at, and had a lot of fun. We also took the girls to Frühlings Fest on the last day. Junk food galore, let me tell you. Then the guys showed up for another two weeks, I'll post those photos later.

The Squeaker in Baden-Baden.

My mom said she visited 'little people houses' when she was a child. We searched and searched, and randomly found something like them. Though not the same according to her. With these you put a euro coin in a machine and the waterworks, train, and gondola all moved for about ten minutes. It was excellent.

My mom and her friend Linda from college. We teased her relentlessly about the 'little people houses' for the next two weeks. It seemed like she was just describing a fantasy dream but hen we found these!

We visited an Abbey ruin. Yes, my mom laid down in the tomb/trough thing. Linda had the hardest time getting her out because I was just standing there laughing.

My mom and sister on the Frühlings Fest swing ride. Of course then Squeaker was begging to swing so we had to find her some rides.

She rode the tiny Deutsche Bahn train with my sister. But her favorite was the pirate ship that moved in a big circle. She's fearless.

My mom wrote the sweetest blog post about staying with us. My sister is waiting to write her blog post until I send these pictures. I'll post about the other two weeks later.

The Answer

Yep, family is the answer. Here's mine at Bodensee. We had a lovely long trip traveling around the southern parts of Germany and some of France. We dipped into Austria so my brother-in-law could say he had been there. I'll blog more about it when I have more pictures edited.

Free May Calendar

Here is May's calendar. It's a beautiful little fountain hidden in the open space behind our apartment. Please leave a comment if you use it, I like to keep track of how popular it is.

Just click on the picture. When it comes up in its own browser window, right click and save the picture somewhere on your computer. Then go to that location, right click on the picture, and set as desktop background. Voila, you have a photo calendar on your computer!

My family is coming for two weeks starting Monday. I'm super excited. I will be posting Word of the Week but after that I'll be in and out since we'll be so busy traveling around. I'll be sure to post pictures after.

My sister's family

I'm going to post the portraits I worked on this year. The first set was the 2 month pictures of my niece, and we decided to do family portraits at the same time. I took these after having a few years away from my camera. So things only got better from here.