Gotta Have that California Sunshine

This was the summer of traveling to California! We went to California twice this summer to shoot some of the most beautiful weddings ever. Seriously. Both were gorgeous couples who put so much time and energy into planning their perfect days! You'll have to head over to my photography blog to see the weddings when I finally post about them! But they were AMAZING! I absolutely love traveling for weddings! It's so exciting and I love getting out of Utah sometimes. It's a breath of fresh air! 

So our first wedding was in San Diego. We flew there and arrived the day before the wedding and shot the wedding the next day. After the wedding was over we stayed a couple extra days to hit the beach and Universal  Studios. But most importantly... HARRY POTTER WORLD inside Universal studios. I've literally read the series 4 times and I'm just finishing it up again before I read Cursed Child ha ha ha! I know the movies word for word so you can say that I was completely in my element in Harry Potter world. It was INCREDIBLE!!!! It was like stepping into the book or movie. I couldn't believe it. Tyler and I were geeking out the entire time. And Butterbeer??? Amaaaaazing. We both got wands so that we could cast spells around the park (nerdy...but it was so worth it! I got Hermione's wand and Tyler got Sirius Black's), bought chocolate frogs, bertie botts beans, ate a yummy feast and drank a ton of butterbeer. The rest of universal studios was just OK but Harry Potter World blew us away!! The next day we spent the day chilling at the beach, playing in the waves and eating ice-cream. We even rode the sketchy boardwalk roller coaster that I basically had to drag Tyler onto. It was an incredible Time!! 

Our next trip to California we decided to drive instead of fly to save some money. Little did we know that that would be the WORST DECISION WE WOULD EVER MAKE!! We were almost to the Cajon pass which meant it would only be a little over an hour until we reached our hotel in Anaheim when the sky turned black and red and traffic on i-15 came to a total stop. I looked up at the sky and the sun was glowing the deepest shade of blood red I have ever seen. It literally was a scene straight out of an apocalypse movie. Apparently there was a wildfire that was spreading quickly throughout the mountains and burning down everything in sight. They completely closed down the freeway and one by one they were turning us around. Tyler was a ROCK the whole time. Very positive and optimistic even when sitting in traffic for almost two hours. I on the other hand started to get a ton of anxiety during the traffic and was antsy beyond belief. We ended up having to take a detour that lead us through Los Angeles. This added FOUR EXTRA HOURS of driving to our trip. It was THE WORST! 

But other than that, the trip was amazing! Tyler took school throughout the entire Summer so he only had a week of actual Summer vacation. And it ended up being the same week I had a wedding in Newport! So we decided to end the summer in style by going to our favorite place in the world! Disneyland!!! We will never, ever get sick of going to Disneyland. I don't know how it happens but it gets better each time we go!! It's like a drug to us, we have to keep going back for more ha ha ha!! We love everything about it! The rides, the food, the atmosphere, the nostalgia, the performances, the music. Just everything! We also said our goodbyes to the Tower of Terror because it's going to be closing soon!! Can you believe it? We are devastated! But after two days at Disney we hit my other favorite place in the world, Laguna Beach for some Johnny Rockets, swimming in the ocean and building a really ghetto sandcastle ha ha!! We ended the week shooting the most gorgeous wedding at the Newport Temple. Seriously obsessed with the wedding!! I can't wait to share it! It was such an amazing summer! One we will never forget that's for sure!

Camping Trip and Cliff Jumping

Holy smokes it has been a CRAZY BUSY SUMMER! But seriously one of my favorite summers of all time! Hold on to your seatbelts because I have a lot of blog posts coming up soon! Gotta keep up with my online journal so these photos don't get lost in the depths of my computer ha ha ha!! Shooting around 40 weddings in 4 months takes its toll on my blog, but I promise to be better!! 

For my good friend Delaina's birthday we went camping and cliff jumping into the most beautiful lake with an awesome group of people! It was seriously so much fun! I am so ridiculously happy I met Delaina on the bus to UVU because we became quick friends, ending up having nearly every class together and now Delaina and Tyler are some of our best and dearest friends who we are so grateful to have in our lives! 

Tyler and I have always talked about going camping together but we've actually never been! We both have camped a ton with our own families but never together just the two of us. Which is SO sad because this camping trip was a blast and now summer is pretty much over and we need to make it a priority to go more next year! But we had a total blast and I can't wait to go camping again soon!

Two Years Since Two Years

It's been two years this past week since Tyler returned from serving his mission in San Bernardino California. I can't even believe the he has been home the same amount of time that he was out there serving. The past two years have gone by A LOT more quickly than those two did ;) 

Those two years are very dear to my heart. We both grew as individuals on our own journeys as well as growing together as we shared experiences that shaped us to be who we are today. This video is precious to me and always will be! I'll never forget waking up that morning knowing that I would finally be able to see him after two years!!! Ah!! So amazing. Here is the video! I never get sick of watching it. 

Lately...

I haven't posted in such a long time! Things have been crazy busy over here but I'm going to try to be better! This has become one of my only places to document and journal things so I've go to be better! A lot has happened since I last posted! 

One of my best friends Jessica came home from her mission in Norway! She left the day before my wedding which I was sooo sad about but she had the adventure of a lifetime and I'm so happy for her! 

I've been in full-swing photographer mode! I always forget how crazy summer wedding season is until I'm in the middle of it once again but it's incredible. I am so grateful for this job. There's hardly any time to breathe but it's the best kind of crazy. I'm shooting two weddings in California in the next month as well so that will be a wonderful time! Shooting weddings outside of Utah is always an incredible experience. 

I started a fitness/weightloss journey for myself on June 1st. It's been one of the hardest, emotional, and amazing things I've ever done so far. I've given up soda (my favorite diet coke), fast food, have tried to eat as clean as possible, and have worked out more than I ever have. I'll do a whole post about this once I've reached my goals but it's going wonderfully. It's LOTS of hard work and I'm still trying to reach my goals but I'm really positive. I can already see and feel a huge difference. 

One of my photos was featured on ANTHROPOLOGIE'S instagram the other day and I about DIED of happiness. When I saw they used one of my photos I had to do a triple-take and I jumped around the room and called Tyler freaking out. They have 2.4 million followers who all saw my photo and then a ton of other accounts started re-posting the photo as well. It was the coolest chain reaction of my life. 

Tyler started a golf class and we hit some balls at the range the other day and he taught me how to hold a golf club. It was really funny but I hit a few of them pretty straight so I felt really proud of myself!! Also, I have to brag about Tyler for a minute. He just finished the hardest class in his whole major this past semester and he got an A. He is so ridiculously smart. This means he has a 4.0 in his Economics Major right now at BYU. He's a champ. He'll be graduating in April!! I can't believe he's almost done! 

I went and saw my darling two sister-in-law's at their Clayton Performance! They both have the most beautiful voices and they are the best dancers. They were AMAZING!! Made me totally jealous! Watching them made me miss performing on stage. I love going to performances like this! So much fun!! Olivia just went on tour to California and Disneyland with her group and Whitney is going out of the country to tour in TAIWAN!! How cool is that?!

 

I'm thinking about chopping my hair. Ha ha ha! But really. I have the thinnest hair on the face of this planet so I've always had extensions of some sort to help out the situation. But I've been loving the "Lob" look lately and I really think I'm going to cut it once I reach my fitness goals and after my sister's wedding in October. Total transformation baby! :) 

Well that's about it for right now! I STILL haven't blogged about our incredible New York trip! I'm still editing the photos ha ha ha ha! But it will be up eventually! 

Breakfast at Tiffany's Baby Shower

My best friend is having a baby and I can't even believe it!! Not only is she the cutest pregnant lady I have ever seen but her due date was yesterday!! So baby girl will be here any day now! So I thought I'd blog the baby shower I threw her a few weeks ago! I wasn't able to go to the original shower because I was in New York so I couldn't let this time go by without attending a baby shower for my best friend so I threw another one for her! 

The theme was Breakfast at Tiffany's / Tiffany & Co. Baby shower. It was so much fun! I made chocolate covered strawberries with blue pearls, Tiffany colored fruit punch, muffins, and everyone wore a black dress with pearls. We even had little gift favors with chocolate pearls inside! It was a blast! I am counting down the minutes until this baby is here!! Congrats Liss! You are going to be the best mom ever!! 

Here we go again!!

Hold on tight because here we go again!! Another wedding season is in full swing over here! This season is filling up quickly. Quicker than I ever thought possible! The amazing couples that have booked with me are INCREDIBLE. So beautiful, happy, and wonderful inside and out. So far this year has been amazing photography wise and I know it can only go up from here! As I sit here looking at my schedule wondering how I'm going to have time to breathe I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my job. I have the best job in the world. I get to meet fun people who are in love and document the most important time in their lives. 

This week I have a shoot every single day. Sometimes twice a day. So I'm buckling in and getting pumped for what's a head. I'm so siked for this summer! It's going to be an unforgettable one! In the meantime, if I'm not on a shoot you'll most likely find me glued to my computer editing and hopefully... I mean HOPEFULLY updating my photography blog, heaven help me with that one ;)