Never Too Many

Seniors!!!

It's that time again to start one of my FAVORITE things...senior sessions!!!  Last year I was blessed with an amazing group of young men and women to photograph!!  They were all unique individuals but all possessed that excitement and enthusiasm for the next step in their young lives.  I love to be a part of this!!  Below I'm going to share some of my favorites from the seniors that have just graduated in 2011!!!  It's going to be a big one...but it could have been bigger...I love SO many shots that I had to force myself to narrow them down!!

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Longggg post ahead, catch up....

  Hi guys!  I have a super post ahead, for our BUSY month of may!

It's been a doozy.  A really good month but we were non stop. 

We start out with a photo shoot of the girls at a local state park.  We had a fun morning just checking out the cool spots and me having fun with the camera.  :-)

Then it was mother's day, such a wonderful day of the year. :-) The girls surprised me with a breakfast in bed, as they were all dressed up as chefs. :-)  They made me an adorable menu and the only costs were kisses for my meals.  They made it the best Mother's day yet!

We went to Nana and Grampa's to celebrate...Nana and I did our annual photo shoot exchange...FUN!!

 

 

Nana got a great new family portrait of us!!

We celebrated mother's day AND Nana's birthday!!  We didn't bring a cake because the girls were dead set on having drumsticks for desert!  we just popped candles in and called it done!

Grampa had started a project with the girls and helped them build planters for some seeds, they got to finish it up this day!

   

I got some of my ALL TIME Favorite pictures of nana!  She looked so beautiful and fresh and candid....LOVE these! This first one is my FAVE!

 

my kids found so much stuff this day at the park..one thing was this tape measure...so Grampa put it to good use. :-)

Next, Farron's class took the 3rd grade field trip called "Day in Denver" where we are bused downtown and get to wander to specific historical spots and look at cool stuff all over downtown. We had her BF Gabby with us and had a great time!  This first shot was takin on the sly ;-) as we were riding the 16th street shuttle.  They were dying to ride the shuttle.  The second shot, in front of the capital!

the part of Denver by the capitol is known for it's "extracuricular" element I guess I'll call it.  Another mom and I were sitting on the bus waiting for the teachers and the last groups to load up and witnessed, just about 15 feet from our buses, a "transaction" in action...no kidding.  Our mouths were agape and luckily, noone else even had a clue! HA! 

   

Farron finished up her Goalie camp for soccer.  They really learned a lot this season and I think she gained some fantastic confidence!  She was put to the test during the tournament and really showed her stuff!

We finished up school with the kid's field days!  It's always a highly anticipated and super fun event!

they have track like competitions as well as just plain fun stuff! This is when Gabby had a balloon bust all over her in the water balloon toss!

 

 

Gabby and the 5th graders had the chance to participate in Ameritown.  This is a ficticious town that the kids run.  They interview for positions and get to role play for a day!  Gabby was hired as a Bank Teller and did fantastic!  They come up a logo, they have a manager, they have to create 3 things for advertising, they have to run the bank! 

Lastly...phew....the girls both played in soccer tournaments over the Memorial Day weekend!  They had a really great time and played hard. Here are a few Gabby highlights first....

Being that I've taken a ton of great Gab pics this season, therre will be  quite a few Farron pics here, this is the 2nd time I even shot pics this season, and the 1st time I think I got a bout 3 shots the entie game!   

They played tough and were winners of their flight!

Look at that elbow action! 

   

Farron did some of her very best goalie-n this game!  Not a ball got by her and there were plenty of shots on goal!  It was a proud mama moment for sure!

The team also were winners of their semi final game so they got to go to the finals!  They played a rival team and it was a GREAT game!  This is the offical march in for the pre-game stuff.

All the girls played tough!

My kid is a pusher for sure!  ;-)  Good thing she's not shy!

After double over time, our team finally took 2nd based on a shoot out. 

Ok, to finally wrap things up....I hope I don't loose this post now it's so long...the pool opened!!! WAHOOOO!!!

Farron had her dance recital!  This is her starting pose for the dance, she was supposed to be sad.

My oldest...well, she's slowly but surely growing into a young woman.  This tween stage is so bittersweet.  She's still a kid, but I see all these nuances of her wanting to be "bigger".  i think she'll always be a mama's girl, I guess I hope she will.

So that's my mega post!  Hope you enjoyed it and I hope everyone is having a great summer!!

until next time....

Grand Junction or Bust!

Last weekend was our very first chance to really travel with Gabby's soccer team!  As you may remember, Gabby couldn't travel on last season's "away" game due to a concussion.  We traveled to Grand Junction Colorado which was such a gorgeous little town!  It's already MUCH more green than Denver is right now, and the mountains/cliffs are breathtaking!  We left Friday as the girls had the day off school. 

All I can say is thank you Santa for bringing Farron her requested Portable DVD player!  The girls were stoked to be able to watch movies during the 4.5 hour drive!

random shot IN the bathroom at the Dillon outlet stores! 

We made a split decision stop to the outlets because I wanted to replace my old Nike watch as the one I had was kind of looking haggard.  I found a beautiful new blue one that is perfect, except it's digital. I wanted analog as that's what I'm used to.  I'll adjust though.  It was about 30 degrees out so it was pretty funny to watch people watch US in our shorts...they were bundled up in snow gear. 

I had HORRID motion sickness this trip and spaced out bringing my wrist bands.  We had to make a pit stop at this gorgeous rest area and stretch our legs, and let my stomach settle.  The Colorado River ran through it so we hung out for a bit.

    

cuteness!

Bummer for me that I had my focal point set so that when I handed the camera over, the only shot from the trip that I'm in, is blurry.  Oh well, I'm printing this baby up anyway. ;-)

 

standing on rocks is fun.....

the light was gorgeous!

we spent quite some time throwing rocks into the river.

 

just like her mama, loves to collect rocks.

heading back to the car.

Gab and most of her team, hot tubbin it.

warm up.

just 1 of the gorgeous views from where we sat to watch the game!

just one shot from the game.  It was a great game, tough tough competition and hard playing by the entire team!  1-1 tie.

after the game...we're off to Glenwood Springs (on the way home).  There are natural hot springs there and you can swim in this ginormous naturally heated pool!  There is a main part that is really a nice temp, and then a super hot, 105 degree therapy pool that is WAY fun to go into, for a short visit. ;-)

the view from where you enter the pool.  can you see how far it goes?  it;s HUGE!!

this is back toward where I shot the prior shot, from the deep end. 

we tried out the "bubble chairs"...for a quarter you can enjoy a private chair with streaming bubbles...not bad!!

This is what I saw, driving out of Glennwood Springs....ahhhh, now that is serious beauty.

Steve says to me "wow, check out the sunset!"  I look back, and this is what I saw...this was the very last shot left on my depleated memory cards. 

         

soccer

so the outdoor spring season began March 1st.  We have had 3 games to reschedule due to snow, for Gabby's team, but now that the weather is nice...we are in full swing!

the girls had their first 2 wins of the season this week, one of which was against an undefeated team!  Needless to say, they are pretty pleased as punch!

It's been a lot of fun to see every single player on this 1st year competitive team grow and learn new skills and try new things.  They are such an amazing group of girls that have really bonded this year!  I'll be bummed to have to split up next fall but hopefully some of them will get placed on the same team again!

Here are some pictures from Gabby's game on Saturday.  We have this lovely thing here in Colorado called WIND that is relentless.  EVERY soccer game I tell ya!  ;-)

oh yea, GAbby is number 75.

I KNOW she could have won that ball had she been 1 step faster!!  :-)

BUrn Gabby BURN!!

many of these girls on the other team were pretty tall.  This is the team that was undefeated...

go go go!!!!

    

us parents wanted the "run across" badly!!  They only get to do this if they win...they run towards us in a line and then back to their bags!  GO EDGE GOLD!!!

spring break

Farron owed me.... ;-)

 

   

 

 

 

Back on the Slopes

Saturday, Steve thought about taking the girls to the mountains.  We did some quick research and found a resort where we could get pretty discounted tickets, and decided to make it an Easter sunday event! 

The day was utterly gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky and the temps were pretty mild.

I-70.

We got lucky and found parking in the lot that is right at the base of the lift we were taking!  We geared up at the car and walked over to get our lift tickets. 

Steve did great this time!  Actually, he's done great every time.  :-)

Gab did great too!  I think she got much more confidence being that we were on the beginners hill, where no "skilled" riders or skiers could blast through from behind scaring the poop out of you!  :-)  She took a couple of hard falls too.  She is good at her heel edge but pretty much stays away from her toe egde. 

   

As for Squinky, she was flying down the hill and back up before I could make it down once. LOL  She has good speed but does need to work on her turning.

 

As for me...wellllllll.  Steve says in the top shot I could pass for doing a gnarly rip turn or something..... ;-) .  Only WE know that I was falling.   :-)  I'm not a very confident rider but I'm getting better.  Whereas Gabby likes her heel edge, I prefer my toe edge.  I most Definitely need to work on my turning too. 

   

we missed lunch (we got there around 12:30 and there was only 'spensive restaurant food available) so we broke at 3pm for some snacks we'd hauled along.  We still got to ride for another hour before the lifts shut down.

It was super gorge!

Since I don't have super cool riding shots, here's a cute "me holding my board" shot!!  :-)

It was a great way to spend our Sunday!  Gabby and I are sore beyond belief but it was worth every pain!!

edited to add: I forgot a few fun shots I wanted to put in!  Here they are...

 

the first few times I was freaked out to have the girls on the lifts by themselves...especially since there was no front bar...but I got over it once I saw them make it successfully! 

that's it for now!  :-)

Warm - cold - warm - cold....

Such is this time of year...  We had a beautiful day the other day, about 65 degrees!  The next day, a dumping of snow.  Yesterday, it was t-shirt weather and today, you got it, snow. :-)  Here are a couple of pics from the nice day yesterday!

now keep in mind that even Farron is too big for this bike... :-)

she DID finally catch him. :-)

    

 

:-) 

Documentation

Spring is getting closer, YAAAAA!  In honor of that, ;-)  I'll post a good ole random post of pictures, things I want to document in our lives.

doing homework.

snack time right after school.

I've been meaning to do this for some time now.  I shot this one the other night late, and ended up loving it!  This is Farron's hand in mine.

some funny outtakes of me trying to document what I see every night when Farron crawls into bed with us. :-) THIS is not it of course!!

I took this from IN the tub, with the tub full of water too :-)  because I had to document that I can hardly ever take a bath without some chatting buddies!  :-)  I wouldn't change it for the world.

ok, I guess that's enough for now!  :-)

Until next time!   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA!

We hope you had a fantastic special day!! 

   

Fair Bear

My little peanut.  We watched home videos from our first trip to North Carolina last night, when Farron was just 4 years old.  Her little baby voice, her sweet little toddler body, wispy wind blown hair were just perfect.  Now, just breaking the 9 year mark, she's still completely perfect to me.