2015 Year in Review

2015 was the busiest of years for my business. We photographed 28 weddings, and over 60 portrait sessions, spread over 8 states -- Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Pennsylvania (x2), Missouri, Colorado (x2), New Jersey, and New York. We visited several other states for mini or full week vacations: California, Tennessee, Alabama, New Orleans,  Mexico, Honduras, and Belize.  What a year it was! 

Some of the fun/challenging experiences:  Photographing a 9 hour wedding in Lancaster, PA then immediately after driving through the night to St. Joseph, MI for a wedding the next afternoon (Reed drove almost the entire way for me). Driving to Kentucky at 6 am to make my flight to Colorado for engagement session by myself, photographing the engagement in the heat of summer (12 weeks pregnant) while hiking through the mountains, then flying home at midnight, finally arriving in Kentucky at 6 am the next morning to drive home to Dayton to be home with my love (crazy, crazy day!).  Two triple headers wedding weekends with one being the weekend after Thanksgiving and being 6 1/2 months pregnant with our little guy. Snacks upon snacks in our camera bags so I could keep little one happy inside. I could go on and on about all the adventures 2015 brought us. 

Looking back at the year, it seems crazy we did so much and stayed sane. I can't say enough about how much Reed was there to help me through it all.  Finding out we were pregnant in June with close to 20 weddings left to photograph, with several of them being out of state, not knowing if I would have terrible morning sickness, if I would even be well enough to photograph them was a leap of faith for us, but God had his hand it every step of it.  All glory goes to our wonderful Savior. 

And lastly, THANK YOU, to all my wonderful clients, friends, and family who continue to support us and our business. It means the world to us. We can't thank you enough! 

2015 was so good to us. Enjoy a look back. 

Western Caribbean 2015

Back in February, we went on a Western Caribbean cruise for our third anniversary, but this trip was different than the others. This time my siblings David and Rebekah came with us and we had the time of our lives. I think I laughed more on this trip than any other haha. It makes a laugh just thinking back on it. There were several times during the trip you could catch us in the Garden Cafe right before they closed impersonating people and doing improvisation comedy or being in the kiddie pool hot tub several nights (since no one was ever in that one) playing "Truth or Dare" or giving Rebekah CPR because she can't keep her mower shut (kind of kidding). We ate a fancy dinner and saw an awesome live show every night. Life on vacation is rough.

We stopped in Cozumel, Mexico the first day and most of it was spent at the beach. This is where we were served the most amazing authentic Mexican food right on the beach. The second stop was Roatan, Honduras where we went ziplining. This was Rebekah's favorite thing (Haha, not really. We convinced her to go and she, well, let's say, didn't enjoy it as much as we did). They had a animal park next to it and we were able to hold the monkey's and Toucans. Our drive drove us all over Roatan -- such a beautiful island. The beach there was great also. The third stop was Belize City, Belize (our anniversary day). We had to take a tender boat from the ship to the island due to the reefs, and than took a small speed boat to the Island of Goff's Caye, which is this tiny little island only 1.2 acres big. The water was so still, warm, and shallow. They took us out where you could barely see Goff's Caye to snorkel. The guard told us "If you see a shark just make circles around your friend." haha. He was great! The last stop was in Costa Maye, Mexico. We saw some ancient Mayan ruins there that were thousands of years old. When we spoke with the tour guide about seeing the ruins he spoke verrrry broken English. You should have seen us after he told us all the info we pulled each other aside to talk about it and none of us knew what he said haha. We were all counting on each other to be able to decipher what he was saying. We finally figured it all out and were set to go see them. Definitely worth it. We came back and spent the rest of the day on the beach. The last day we were sailing back to New Orleans. So glad my siblings could join us. It was their first time out of the country so it was special for us to be able to take them with us.