Personal Post: Danielle’s Baby Shower

Last weekend, my family and I threw my cousin Danielle a baby shower for what will be the first great-grandchild in the family. We didn’t know the baby’s gender, so we decided on a soft pastel, handmade theme (with plenty of inspiration from Pinterest of course!).  Weeks ahead Danielle’s dad brought over fresh fish for a little family dinner, and as we finished eating, we all gathered around for baby shower crafting.  Everyone got into it: grandpa, and fathers, and husbands all making pom-pons and tag banners - their hardworking precision applied to something so sweet and feminine.

We wanted the decorations to be a surprise for Danielle, but little did we know she had a surprise for us.  For months she had been so sneaky, keeping the baby’s gender an absolute secret - it was all we could do to keep from gossiping wildly about what we thought it would be.  As we set up for the shower, Danielle pulled out a beautiful cake made by the same bakery who did her wedding three years ago. The cake was to be a gender reveal!  After patiently waiting through games, gifts and food, I had the honor of cutting the cake and announcing to all the guests that there would be a baby Hazel entering our family in May.  Many congratulations to Danielle and Reggie!  We are looking forward to your maternity photos this weekend and baby Hazel’s arrival in a few months! :)

Personal Post: Our Second Anniversary Trip

So this post is a long time coming, but I wanted to make sure I had all our clients’ sessions sent out before I started editing on our personal work.

This October Ben and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a train trip to Albuquerque for their International Hot Air Balloon Festival.  I’ve always had a fascination with trains so as we were planning where to travel for the year, the first decision we made was that it had to be via train.  From when I drove Route 66 a few years back, I remembered that the hot air balloon festival fell over our anniversary week, and that got me thinking... perhaps the southwest would be a good destination.

We both loved the train ride; we stayed in a tiny convertible sleeper car called a “roomette” which reminded me so much of dreamy old movies like White Christmas and Some Like it Hot.  It had two chairs that faced in with a table that folded down between them.  At night the two chairs slid down to create a bed, and another bunk dropped from the ceiling.  If you know me well, you know I found everything about the quaintness and efficiency appealing.  The trip was a little over 24 hours on the Southwest Chief Line with a few stops along the way.  We had reservations for each meal in the dining car, which included french toast, mahi mahi, and buffalo burgers, and we spent our free time journaling, playing cards in the observation deck, and of course, taking an absurd amount of pictures. ;)

We did lots of little things in Albuquerque, but there were two main highlights: one was the hot air balloon festival.  The morning of our first full day there, we woke up around 3:45 am to make it to the balloon festival grounds to see the Dawn Patrol, which are the first few balloons that rise up during twilight and test the wind and temperature conditions (see above photo in the dark with lit balloons).  As the morning turned light, more and more balloons were launched until there were hundreds of all shapes filling the sky.  It really was an amazing sight.

The other big highlight came days later on the morning of our anniversary when we took our very own hot air balloon ride.  We were both a little nervous knowing how high the balloons went, and that the pilot only had control over moving up and down (not north/south etc, nor control over speed).  Part of me expected the ride to feel like capturing wind and being pulled, like how it feels to be on a sailboat or to parasail.  Really the sensation was motionlessness.  It was incredibly peaceful and the views over the Rio Grande were breathtaking.

Personal Post: Pieper’s "Adoptiversary"

Yesterday was one year since we picked up the tiny six pound puppy Pieper at the PetSmart branch of the Humane Society here in Green Bay.  We had stopped there the day before to look at a puppy my brother was interested in, but couldn’t resist the tiny little black and white mix who looked so melancholy wandering around quietly in her kennel.  Ben had never wanted a dog - he hadn’t grown up with pets and saw a dog only as an inevitability (since he decided to marry me) but something he could hold off on until he was ganged up on by his wife and future children.  When he held little Pieper in his arms and she wriggled her way right in, he had this change of expression, and I knew we were getting a puppy.

When we picked Pieper up, she was named Brianna and we were told she was a rat terrier/husky mix and would be a medium size dog... we were in for a surprise.  As the weeks wore on, she got longer, and longer, and longer, but barely any taller.  We had her in puppy classes where she started as the biggest dog in class (being a few weeks old than the other puppies) and by the end of those six weeks, she was by far the smallest.  Now, fully grown, she is just over 16 pounds.  I never thought of myself as a small dog person, but I don’t think Pieper knows her size; she is one tough little dog.

Yesterday Pieper and I celebrated one year together with a trip back to PetSmart for some goodies and a visit with her teacher, then headed over to the Howard dog park for a hike on the trails and some play time with other doggies.  Happy Adoptiversary, Pieper; we’re glad to have you as part of our family!

Personal Post: Pieper’s First Birthday!

With such a busy fall season we haven’t had much of a chance to share with you the things happening in our personal lives. Over the next month, I’m hoping to catch up a bit on our blogging and share a few special milestones and little peeks into what we have going on outside of our photography business. Future highlights include our anniversary train trip to Albuquerque and progress on home renovation, but right now, I wanted to share a few photos from the little Birthday party we threw for our puppy Pieper.  :)

Pieper’s Birthday was October 22nd and we celebrated the first weekend of November. I made a few fall desserts for us humans to enjoy including pumpkin mousse and salted maple sugar cookies with cider glaze (thank you Martha Stewart). We also baked a tiny layer cake for Pieper made from whole grain flour, shredded carrots, peanut butter, applesauce, and various baking tidbits and frosted it with yogurt and cream cheese. I was certain the little Birthday hat I made her wouldn’t last a minute, but the moment she saw the cake, it didn’t matter - I could have put her in a scuba suit for all she cared.  She dove into the cake with gusto - a dog possessed.  The entire time she had this expression on her face that said ‘I better eat as much as I can before someone catches me and I get yelled at.’

Later on, with a belly full of cake we took her to the dog park to play with her puppy friends and hand out some homemade doggy biscuits.  Overall, she had a great Birthday with her favorite people.  Happy First Birthday, Pieper!