White elves CAN dance...

Geri sent me this link and I love it!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1114693102

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!!

Where I was when the sun went down today...

La Jolla Shores

I love how golden the sand appeared as the sun set tonight. The texture was amazing!!!

All it takes is a sunset like tonight to remind me how lucky I am. Lucky to live here in San Diego...lucky to do a job I love...Lucky to have all the good things in my life. Thought I'd share how beautfiul it was tonight in La Jolla.

Enjoy!

More Hawaii for you!!!

I lag getting these images posted but still want to share them with you! There are a ton more to share so please be patient with me! This is an image of Wailua Falls. The recent rains made the flow of the water really strong. We viewed this waterfall twice and the second time there was not as much water flowing over the cliff. It is a beautiful sight. One of the last episodes of one of Amazing Race was filmed here in this location.
I find cemeteries to be especially beautiful. I love the history behind each grave marker. There is something so beautiful and peaceful to me about graves and their headstones. You can ask anyone who travels with me, cemeteries are a favorite of mine. When we visited Hawaii, the Day of the Dead had just occurred and it was very obvious that Hawaiians cherish their loved ones and visit often.

This is a lookout point on our way to go to Waimea Canyon. I was amazed at how brilliant the colors were here.

On our way to Waimea Canyon, I read on the map about a beach that supposedly had sand that barked like a dog when you walked on it. The map said 6 miles to this beach (Polihale State Park). What the map did not say was there was 5 miles of dirt road you needed to take to actually get to the beach. Grandma was freaking out about the dirt road and we had no clue that we would be traveling so long on the road...we just thought the beach was "just around the next bend". The girls were having a blast over the bumps and divots in the back of the minivan (yes...we drove a rental minivan on the road you see above which is why rental cars in Hawaii are shipped to the mainland for sale. NO ONE will buy a rental car in Hawaii!!!). I know we were all wondering if we should turn around but are soooo glad we didn't.
The end of the road brought us to the most amazing beach I have ever been on in my entire life. There was only two other people (honeymooners) on this beach for miles...either way you looked. It was incredible to stand on such a large expanse of beach and enjoy it just for us. It would NEVER happen here in San Diego.
One direction of beach...
The water straight ahead...
The beach in the opposite direction! Amazing!!!

Along the dirt road...we came across Steven's next car. He decided to take it for a test drive while we were there. Depending on how big your computer screen is...Steven's tshirt even says "Rusty" on it...hmmmmm

Waimea Canyon...the Grand Canyon of the Islands was really cold and windy while we were there. It started pouring rain so we didn't get to spend much time there although a local vendor sold the best pineapple I have ever tasted while we were there.

I hope this shows the scale of how enormous this canyon is.

Local flora.
That night we attended a luau at the Kilohana Estates. The luau is put on mainly for the cruise ships that travel around the islands so it was an older crowd for the kids. We had many Mai Tai's and blue Hawaiians while we tasted the local food. They also put on an amazing show about the local history and even had fire dancers. We had a blast!
All of us decked out in our Hawaiian leis and outfits.
More of the beautiful colors you find throughout Hawaii.

Steven had his picture taken with some of the locals. Notice the blue Hawaiian in his hand, but it wasn't the drink making him smile in the second picture!

They have a ceremony when roasting the pig and also said blessings for their good fortune.
Steven and one of his many Blue Hawaiians.
This guy was incredible with fire. If you look closely you can see netting that they put around him so he doesn't throw the fire out into the crowd. The speed and skill he used to work with the fire was unbelievable. The luau was such a great experience and a neat way to learn more about the islands.

I still have many, many pictures to share with you and will, in the next coming weeks.

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and is getting into the swing of Christmas. This is my absolute most favorite time of the year (even if I do turn 40 in the middle of it!) and I hope everyone enjoys the preparation as much as the celebration! I love the hustle and bustle the next month brings and have made a promise to Cassi that we will experience different things around the city this year that we haven't experienced before. Maybe start some new traditions even!

Enjoy!

Chargers...baby?!!

I was on my way to bed (after midnight of course!!!) and went to check on Cassi and thought the site was hysterical so I had to photograph it, download it, change it to websize and here I am to share it with you all.

Cassi has obviously given up worrying about what happened to the Chargers today (although she fell asleep still in her Charger jersey!). Her baby, on the other hand, is wide awake...downing her 'bottle' wondering what the hell happened. I bet she is not the only one sucking down bottles of liquid wondering about today's loss.

Thought I'd share!!!

Enjoy

Lyon Family Portraits

Isn't this a gorgeous setting? I photograph at this park all the time and haven never used this area before. I think the clouds allowed me to use this area that day.
Isn't Meghan adorable?
I guess we tired Nicole out!!!

Before we left for Hawaii, a family friend asked me to photograph her beautiful family. We photographed her right before we left and I realized I should share them with you. We had cancelled the first date because of rain and then the day turned out gorgeous. When we finally got together for the session...it actually rained for the first time in months. We took cover under a building awning and when the rain stopped, we continued. It really felt like fall for the first time this year!

Thanks Jen and Derek for the great time! I can't wait to see the purse you had made!

Enjoy!

Day One Hawaii

I have been so busy catching up with home life and drama at work that I am now just getting around to my Hawaii images. These are from the first day we were in Kauai and just a fraction of the many images we took in Hawaii. Cassi was given one of my point and shoot cameras and I will post some of hers in a later post...She has an amazing eye for composition and it's fun to see her interpretation of the same pictures I am taking. Some of these are from my point and shoot camera and some from my Canon 20D. The picture above is somewhere over the pacific ocean before we landed in Honolulu.

This group of arrows was in front of an arts and craft fair in Kapa'a that had many vendors from Kauai who were selling their handmade goods. I love supporting local artists instead of the mainstream stores and so we spent some time and money here!!!

The three pictures above are some of the art pieces sold at the fair. The picture of all of the homemade postcards caught my eye because there was such harmony from the display and the walls. I wanted to purchase some and then decided that my own personal photos would be more meaningful to me. The next two images are actually pieces of silk material one of the locals was selling and they were all hanging throughout the fair and really gave us an amazing feel for all of the local color you find in Hawaii.
Many of the walls throughout Hawaii are painted bright, fun, happy pictures and I love that!

This picture is taken in Northern Kauai at the Kilauea Lighthouse. It had been raining most of the day and at this lookout it was cloudy and rainy to our left and sunny, bright and blue to the left.
This is a small island at Kilauea Pointe.
The lighthouse at Kilauea Pointe.
This is a viewpoint right outside of Princeville. The lines and patterns of this area were beautiful and because of the rain...there were rainbows here too!
Cassi being my second shooter!

At Kee beach (which is the northernmost point you can drive to before the NaPali coast starts) the waves were incredible. I don't think you can truly capture how powerfully beautiful these waves were crashing on the beach. Cassi and MacKenzie tried to with their cameras though!

MacKenzie is totally cracking up because a huge wave crashed near the shore and Diane (her Mom) was videotaping when the wave scared her and as she rushed up the shore away form the wave she fell. It was hysterical and Diane actually caught the whole thing on videotape and I think I would have pee'd my pants laughing if I would have replayed the video. I don't think I have experienced such a gut-wrenching funny moment in a long time.
At Kaepa Beach there is a cave you can walk into and this was what it looked like when you exited.

These two pictures were also taken at Kaepa Beach. If you look towards the top of the stream you will see that the stream goes over the road you need to drive over to go into this beach area.
Back in Kapa'a, this wall was painted by the famous wildlife/sealife artist Wyland. He painted this one in particular in 1991 and there are 34 others all over the world that draw attention to the plight of animals in the sea. There is one other painted by him in Kauai and when we found it, the only camera I had on me was my camera phone and I have not downloaded it yet.

This is taken from the lookout point towards Opeakaa Falls.

The three sunsets above are taken right outside the complex we stayed at. It was so cool to see this area every day because it changed each day. The color of the water, the clouds and everything about it. We had a great first day and I will post more in the coming days.

Enjoy!