Maine

I am off to Maine tomorrow for a little getaway during this busy wedding season! Thank you in advance for your patience while I am away. I will be camping and will not have access to my phone and email in most cases. I am looking forward to coming back recharged and refreshed, ready and excited to get back to the work I love! I will be back on September 4th. Happy Labor Day!

I will post some pictures from the trip when I get back :)

Best,
Kristina

Nicole and Ron

Yesterday my cousin Nicole got married to a fun-loving (to say the least) guy named Ron! We had so much fun and Nicole was a very trusting bride! :) I was so excited to be behind the scenes all day watching the moments of laughter and tears and more tears and more laughter! These are some of the most genuine, honest, and heartfelt people I know and I am proud to call them my family. I am also so proud of them for having a dollar dance and donating all the proceeds to the American Cancer Society in honor of our loved ones including my Uncle Tom who have past away from Cancer. That was so generous!

The wedding took place at St. Irene's and Drury Lane with the fabulous Vince from A Touch of Music on the mic!

I found this cutout of the engagement annoucement on the dresser and thought that would be a good place for the rings.
Way to go Janet, a bee was coming after her and she held on to that dress! Nicole tried so hard not to cry :) I love the way the light came through the window for this shot to just light up Nicole, she was beeming! This is what I meant by trusting bride :) But it all worked out and this shot is just halarious...this is why I never stop shooting! :) These guys were not waiting to dance with Nicole! Watch out Ron! But at least it was for a good cause :) This is a family tradition also in memory of my Uncle Tom's love of Billy Idol..Rebel Yell! My dad and brother of the bride getting way to excited! :)

Congratulations you two! Have a wonderful honeymoon!

Tag...I'm it!

I have officially been tagged by my fellow woodsman Eric! So the deal is that I have to share 8 interesting things about myself and tag 8 more people...why not! I can easily share 8 things, hopefully you will find them interesting! :)

1. My FAVORITE thing to do is take a nap on a rock in the sun. I am a lazy hiker in that if I am walking along and see a big rock, I am going to take a nap on that rock! I don't know why, I just love the feeling of the sun on my skin out in the middle of nowhere! My ideal vacation will always be climbing and camping.

2. I am officially an expert on North American deciduous trees and Peregrine Falcon behavior and ecology (here I am hard at work). Although I may be a tad rusty, I was paid to get my Master's by teaching tree identification courses at the University of Kentucky and could easily identify 100 or so species of trees and their Latin names and I can also walk into a forest and know which birds are there by their song...I know, I am a huge bird and tree nerd!

3. I listen to french pod casts hoping one day I will be fluent through the process of osmosis.

4. My new favorite toy is my holga. These are a few snaps from my last few trips to Nevada, Silvercrest (family spot in WI) and San Fransisco.

5. For my high school graduation my mom said she would take us anywhere we want to go, my sister chose Bermuda. I chose middle of nowhere Idaho to chase mountain lions as part of an Earthwatch expedition. The first trip wasn't enough so I went back two years later and collared 2 mountain lions in an effort to help study predator prey relationships in that area of their range.

6. I am training to climb Mt. Rainier next year as hopefully my first in several mountaineering trips.

7. I think I must have been a cat in my past life because I am absolutely fascinated with everything my cat George does. I think I could watch him for hours on end and not get bored but, I also have this thing about watching behavior patterns :)

8. I want to go to France. Bad.

In an effort to not double tag I chose some people that I just love for many reasons and who don't just have picture blogs so hopefully we will get some info out of them!

Amanda Hein I just love this girl!
KMo Who could get enough
Becca Spears my KC girl, share your words with us :)
Tyler Wirken come on, you know you were up next ;)
Ray and Erwin I know you have some interesting things to share!
James Walters This guy is the ....
Anna K needing to be tagged on her new amazing blog!
Jesh We all need something deep to keep us from being too surfacy ;)

I don't know if any of these guys watch my blog but I am always checking them out!

Hopefully this was as fun of a distraction for you as it was for me :)

Heidi and Mike

Heidi and Mike had a beautiful wedding on Saturday despite the rain! Heidi is very talented doing all of the flowers herself! Mike's family has a rental business that decorated the Evanston Golf Club and it was beautiful! The entertainment was provided by the talented and fun Johnathan of Spinnin' Discs.


Best,
Kristina

Madyson in San Fransisco

Every year I get to shoot my gorgeous neice Mady and her beautiful mom Andrea. This year they brought me all the way to their home in San Fransisco where I had a whirlwind tour and photoshoot in about 36 hours which is all I had time for! I can't wait to come back, it is such a beautiful city. It was such a blast to grab these pics of their family and add Don to the pics this year!


This is the palace of Fine Arts which was just beautiful all lit up!

Miss you already!