Travel, Travel and More Travel

Oh no. I’m behind on blogging. My excuse is that we’ve been super busy these past two weeks! We went back to the U.S. for Scott’s cousin’s wedding. We flew into Orlando last Thursday. As always, food entertained my children in the airport and the plane ride consisted of lots of snoring. Can’t complain. Maddie was there too, I promise. I guess she wasn’t in the mood for pictures (shocker…)!

The family drove to Tybee Island on Friday morning. The goal was to get to the rehearsal dinner by 4 p.m. but Kenzie decided to gag herself and puke all over her car seat that morning, so we were late. Sorry guys, but I didn’t get a picture of the vomit-filled car seat – maybe next time?

Surprisingly, the kids were amazing during the car ride too. Scott was a trooper also, although he was getting royally annoyed with my camera. He kept asking why I was taking pictures of the road and road signs and kept asking what I was going to do with them. He’s totally right, because I haven’t even looked through any of those images yet but I will edit ONE for this blog post because seriously, why do I need more than one picture of a road sign?

I did something completely out of my comfort zone and photographed the beautiful bride and her bridesmaids getting ready the morning of the wedding. I now know I don’t want to be a wedding photographer. (Although I should never say never, right?).

Maddie and Kenzie were flower girls at the wedding and my cute little nephew, Mason, was the ring bearer. I may be biased but I think they are the cutest little flower girls/ring bearer combo I’ve ever seen. They all made it down the aisle (well, my girls needed a little help from dad) but didn’t last one minute into the ceremony. Thank God they had a videographer, because I missed the entire thing. Can’t wait to watch the video, Ashley! I’m sure the ceremony was lovely!

The morning after the wedding started a 7+ hour drive from Tybee Island to Fort Lauderdale. I have to admit I was DREADING that car ride, but my goodness my girls were PERFECT. I mean, PERFECT. Not one tear, not one fight, not one tantrum and lots of snoozing. I’m still in shock – maybe they partied too hard the night before?

We went all the way down to Fort Lauderdale because my parents flew back to Costa Rica with us on Monday! They spent the entire week here, and it was amazing! We took a trip over to Jaco Beach. It was beautiful! I snapped lots of beach pictures right in our backyard.

We also did a day trip to Manuel Antonio. This sneaky little monkey is a theif! We caught him trying to steal someone’s watch right out of her bag while she was swimming! It was really surreal to just see monkeys all over the beach, but so cool! It was NOT cool though. It was SO HOT! Maddie was a trooper and walked the entire way down to the car (a 20 minute walk maybe) but she was so sweaty at the end as had to reward her with some ice cream!

On the way back to Jaco, we stopped at this awesome restaurant with an airplane inside. She had SO MUCH FUN (who wouldn’t?)! Also, check out the AMAZING view from the restaurant! So freaking beautiful!

When we got back, the old men went boogie boarding and I had fun trying snapping some pictures.

Overall, we had such an amazing week and I’m sad it’s over. Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from the weekend. And someone said it was snowing/cold back home in Florida, so sorry if these are making you really jealous! If it makes you feel better, we are all a little sunburned. J

Bye for now!

Thank Goodness for Little Girls (and Good Coffee)

They always say the grass is greener on the other side, right? The moment I had my sweet Madison, I longed to be a stay at home mom. I wanted to be present and raise my kids – not a teacher at daycare (although I must add that we had the BEST teachers EVER at our amazing school). Kenzie came along and the urge to spend more time with my girls grew even stronger.  I finally got what I’ve been dreaming of and I have to say, holy heck this is harder than I thought! Seriously, dude. Working in the corporate world was sort of a breeze compared to some of the days I’ve had. 

With that being said I wouldn’t trade a freaking thing. Yes, some moments I want to pull my hair out, lock myself in a closet and scream. I may or may not watch the clock counting down until the moment daddy is expected to walk in the door so I can shower (or brush my teeth).  But I’m making (and documenting) so many memories – and I’m so thankful for my hard-working hubby for giving our family this super amazing opportunity. 

So how is Costa Rica? Well, we still don’t have a car (everything was closed last week) so I’ve been stuck in the house/neighborhood all week again. It isn’t so bad though and we have a nice little routine and are keeping busy. I don’t know how I got so lucky but three times this week the girls played nicely for 30-45 minutes while I exercised on my spin bike in their playroom.  That “me time” of intense sweating sure does help me keep my cool during the days. Speaking of keeping cool, our pool is amazing, and we go daily (sometimes twice a day). Kenzie already has little tan lines in her chubby arm rolls. To. Die. For. 

What do I miss? For starters, a bath tub! Our place doesn’t have a tub, and my kids are NOT fans of the shower. No joke, we’ve been bathing them in this inflatable rubber ducky every. single. night. You see how big Kenzie looks in it in these images, imagine Maddie in there. It’s quite funny and, OK, sort of cute. But this needs to stop.

One AWESOME thing that happened last night is that we sold our appliances. What, you say? Well, when we started our house hunt, every single home we looked at did not come with appliances so we purchased a whole set in the U.S. and had them shipped here. Turns out, the one place we rented came with appliances. Of course, we stored them in our living room and we FINALLY got rid of them. Hallelujah! They were totally ruining some awesome images on the dining room table (see below, before I edited them out). 

This place has some awesome light. Every room has such beautiful photo potential. The playroom is by far my fav, but the girls’ rooms have great light too. The awesome light has really made my 366 a breeze so far. Here are a few of the images I took, including some that didn’t make the cut but I still love!

Two of my photography-related goals are 1) to get in the frame and 2) to improve my macro skills. I tackled both of these goals this week. Lots of room for improvement, for sure, but we all start somewhere! 

Wow, I’m really rambling and I doubt anyone is here for my phenomenal writing skills, so I just have one more story (and I’ll keep it short). We have a wedding to go to next week, and apparently we need an exit permit to leave the country. We had an appointment this morning and we found out we needed a passport photo for the kids. Whoops. So, I’ve added passport photos to my resume as well. Here is my B&W version of the girls’ mug shots. I’ll leave you with these gems! Bye for now!

Hello 2016!

Well, our family made it to Costa Rica safe and sound. We arrived on Monday, and so far we are loving it! I won’t bore you with too many details of our flight, but overall I’d call it a success. The airport was semi-challenging, but we gave them food and all was well. 

Maddie was super excited about the plane ride but she fell asleep before it even took off. Kenzie zonked out within a few minutes of taking off, so my pictures on the plane are limited as I wasn’t willing to risk waking up the baby. Pretty uneventful flight though. They both woke up about 30 minutes before landing, which was just enough time for another snack. I’m sure I won’t get this lucky twice, so my next blog post post-flight with two kids should be a little more interesting. 

So far, I’m loving Costa Rica. The view from our home is beautiful. I snapped a sunset pic from Maddie’s window (through the screen) the night we arrived. Everyone in our neighborhood is really friendly, too. I think I’ll stay for at least two years :).  

Our mornings are spent in the playroom with a warm cup of coffee for mom. The coffee is really good here. We then head to our neighborhood park, followed by a picnic-style lunch in our covered garage.  We hang out in the pool in the afternoons. Of course, I manage to grab some pictures of the girls during our “busy schedule.” 

We’ve only ventured out of the neighborhood a couple of times. We don’t have a car yet and Scott takes the rental to work. He was off yesterday and today, so week one included trips to PriceSmart (totally Costco) and Wal-Mart. I think we are going to buy a car tomorrow, so that shouldn’t be stressful at all...

My 365 project is off to a great start. Here is where I am so far! 

I promise my blog posts will get more interesting as we get settled in! For now, I’ll just leave you with some eye candy. 

The Commitment

A couple years ago, a dear friend convinced me to attempt a 365 project. I signed up, not realizing what I was getting myself into! It was hard work, and I didn’t manage to complete all 365 photos but it did serve as a tremendous method to improve my photography skills and definitely served as one of the catalysts to starting this business.

In less than three weeks, I’m heading on a plane with my husband, two girls and pups. We are taking a one-way flight to Costa Rica and will stay for about two years.  I’ve spent hours trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my photography business during my time outside of the U.S.

Today, I made my decision and I’m ready to commit (in writing). I’m putting all client work on hold. I’ll be focusing on improving my craft while documenting every last bit of this amazing opportunity – and I’m going to be using this blog to do it!

Our Journey begins on December 28, and so does day 1 of my 365. I’ll be taking at least one photo per day and blogging at least once per week.  I would love for you to follow along with us and hope you enjoy a glimpse into the Pura Vida.