PhotoJenic Photography [blog]

Last night we had a first for our whole family (except for Emery, she opted not to join the loud fun and instead stayed home with my sister), we all went to the circus for the first time! Maybe I went once as a child, but this is my first memory of the circus and it was so fun to take my boys and let them experience it as a first with us! I always WANT to go to this but never actually do, but last week I got wind of a great deal on tickets, less than $10 so we decided to go!

We saw the tigers…the boys loved it but I personally think they underperformed…they didn’t really do anything cool, just a few easy tricks! Granted there were 7 of them being tame in a cage with a human, I guess that’s impressive in and of itself!

We saw the dirt bikes perform in a cage like this! Now THIS WAS IMPRESSIVE, CRAZY impressive! They didn’t just go around in circles, they ended up having 6 bikes in there total and they would go in circles but then they’d weave in opposite directions, I can’t imagine how they do it without crashing! The boys are still fighting about this though…motorcycle vs. dirt bike! Dawson insists they are motorcycle’s, Brennan, while wiser, has not realized it’s a losing battle to convince his 3yr old brother anything different!

There were AMAZING, strong, bendy people like this that did all kinds of cool acrobats the whole time! WOW, I can’t imagine the kind of muscles those people have, they were REALLY cool! I seriously got nauseous watching all the spinning these people did…I had to look away a few times to relieve the motion sickness just from watching the spinning, I don’t know how they do this stuff.

All in all though, just as Dumbo taught us as little kids…the Elephants stole the show! Definitely my favorite part for sure! Dawson LOVES his “elephant” his one and only snuggly item of choice. He enjoyed watching real elephants perform at the end of the show.

They put their feet on each other’s backs, stood up on these relatively small stools with all 4 hooves, one little baby elephant skipped for us, another did a “handstand” type move where it went forward on it’s trunk and front hooves, but MOST impressive for me was the elephants one by one KNEELING. Here they are, big, MASSIVE bodies thousands of pounds of weight and they can KNEEL down and then lay flat in front…it’s amazing and painful looking to watch! And then they get up similar to how we do when we are laying down by swinging a leg up to get some momentum to pull them up! It was cool! I only had one question after the elephants, if they can train these animals to do all these amazing tricks…why can’t they train them to not poop in the middle of the show as one did last night? Poor guys with that job, can you imagine?

I want to print this pictures and show it to the next groomsmen who complains of bad knees when I ask him to kneel for a photo grouping at a wedding! =)

By the way, if you are feeling bad that you missed out on the great low price, don’t. Add to it $10 for parking, $10 for one drink and snack that we ALL shared (I even snuck in popcorn so we wouldn’t have to buy that), $7 for a homeless man that pulled on Reuben’s heartstrings (and two others denied before he came along), and of course the crazy cost to DRIVE there with the gas prices =) In the end, the boys left crying and mad that we hadn’t bought them these light up spinning toys they each wanted, that would have been another $40! I reminded Brennan that he had gotten to do Summer Movie Fun, swim and go to the Circus all in one day and tried to help him realize it was the memory and time spent that was most important and would last much longer than that toy! He was still a little bugged, but ultimately he got over it =)

Look at these two cuties! This is Heather, another beautiful cousin of mine who is getting married, yipee! She and Josh braved the horrible heat last week to do their engagement photos for their upcoming wedding in San Diego! They were so fun to work with and despite initial warnings they gave about not being “photogenic” I think they turned out pretty dang “photoJenic!” I seriously struggled to pick a favorite so you might just have to watch their short slideshow to see all the favorites I had! Heather and Josh like to hike so despite the heat, we took a little hike with them to photograph them in their comfortable element…

(Hiking in heels and 110 degree temps hardly seems comfortable though!)

I loved this red door! I’ve always wanted to have a red door at my house =)

I LOVED this next sequence and couldn’t decide on a favorite so I had to put them all together…

When I took this shot it made me think of Melissa Jill, an amazing photographer I admire here in the Phoenix area…I think that safely means I STOLE this shot from her, she always has the best eye and angles, maybe mentioning it here makes it ok to steal?

Thanks Heather and Josh, you were SO fun! Can’t wait to see you next month in cooler weather at the BEACH! =)

Joey and Amanda were married in May at the Japanese Friendship Gardens. This was a beautiful, colorful venue right here in the heart of downtown Phoenix! I loved that I felt like I was in another place, not the desert I am used to! It had lots of color, trees and beautiful water! Amanda and her family are long time cilents of mine and they definitely know how to host a great celebration, this did not disappoint…

Joey was a laid back, easy going groom, my favorite kind!
Look at the gorgeous walk over a bridge the bride took on the way to say her vows…

Here’s a close up of Amanda and her dad, I just LOVE their smiles. Amanda looks gorgeous here!
The first dance, I love how happy they look!

Daddy daughter dance!

Thanks Amanda and Joey for letting me be a part of your special day!

To see a few more of my favorites view the slideshow here…

So, I assume there are some MAC users out there as well as some PC users that may freqent my blog! Hopefully they are few as it’s come to my attention now that my blog has been pretty messed up for my Mac friends, thanks Marnee for looking out for me =) Sorry Mac friends! As you may have noticed, I have had a few diferent backgrounds and changes going on in my blog the past couple of weeks. My good friend Alyson has been trying to give me a better look to my blog that isn’t the overused background you see here. She finally perfected the look TODAY after many hours of working on it and learning to read/adjust the code! I wanted a bar on top with a photo and she was finally able to have that show correctly. BUT, what I also learned today is that MAC users were seeing a VERY different view to my blog and it was pretty messed up and unprofessional looking, so having found that out, I am back to generic my friends…=( and poor Alyson can only be proud of her works from what she learned, not by what she has to show for it!

I am not hosted through blogger which limits my blogging options considerably. I did this so that my blog address would be my own business name and not have “blogspot” attached to it. Over the coming months I am doing an overhaul to my business and it’s “look.” Once I settle on that, I will hopefully be able to have a newly designed blog look. In the meantime if you know of someone who specializes in customizing blogger blogs, send me their info! And if you can tell me how to make the code consistent from PC to Mac, I’d love to know that too! I am about to take my first plunge into the wonderful world of Mac and now I am realizing how nervous I am cuz it seems it is VERY different =)

Last weekend my husband and a group of about 20 people drove up to Havasupai to hike into the canyon and stay for a few days. I never really understand what all the excitement of this yearly trip is about…I don’t love the heat and I am not the avid hiker like some! I do however enjoy any social setting with my friends and was pretty dang jealous that my husband was on this trip with a handful of my close friends and I stayed home with the kids! So, I guess this is what they’ve all been telling me about…is this Hawaii?? Seriously it can’t be here in Arizona.

My husband got some good shots of the beautiful falls you can see there. All of these images are right out of camera…and taken with our little point and shoot Canon, impressive!

It’s definitely a fear of mine when my husband leaves that something might happen to him, and this trip was no different, I silently worried the entire weekend for his and everyone’s safe return! Unfortunately, this year brought much more catastrophe for the group, putting a damper on the overall trip. After a long, rough hike on Saturday to Beaver Falls the group found themselves up above the falls and not able to get down low enough into the water. Everyone was hot and tired and they had kind of lost the trail. One of my favorite people, my good friend Alisa, saw an opportunity that she might be able to get down low enough allowing them to jump to the water. She started to climb down and unfortunately it wasn’t what she thought it would be and almost immediately she took a fall off the cliff about 15 feet landing on a small ledge below. She severely broke her ankle on impact and proceeded to continue to fall over the ledge, thankfully a man from Germany happened to be sitting there and was able to keep her from continuing on over the cliff for another 20-25 feet straight into the water. She hit the back of her head pretty hard, she was disoriented, in and out of consciousness at times and her body began to go into shock. Her ankle was severly broken, the back of her head bleeding and she was stuck on this ledge with no way feasible way to get her out. It took 4-5 hours for a helicopter to get word and get to her. Here’s the helicopter overhead.

Next they put her into this big duffle bag before lifting her out of the canyon. The rescue team said this rescue was a 10 on a scale of 1-10 for how difficult it was in the narrow canyon. There was not much distance between the helicopter blades and the canyon wall.

The helicopter had been hovering waiting to come back and pull her and the medic out of the canyon. Once she was set, they came back. They made a couple of attempts lowering the rope to get it into the exact spot needed. Once they had her hooked up they realized the helicopter did not have enough fuel to complete the rescue. Unfortunately it was close to sunset and there was no where close to refuel. So, they unhooked her and had to leave her until the morning! She stayed all night in the canyon with the medic nearby and her husband by her side. Here is a shot with some of her support group on the ledge.

L to R, Alisa’s husband Jason, Sister in law Trisha, Alisa, Friend Steve (witnessed the fall), German friend who saved her life Patrick, my husband Reuben.

There were so many others who helped her though including some Arizona firefighters that happened to be hiking nearby, other friends of ours including Russ and Kristen who hiked most of the night getting supplies, food, water, blankets, back to those who had to sleep out in the canyon overnight. This was no easy hike, 6 miles really hard, crossing through water a few times. It’s hard during the day but most say nearly impossible at night. There were so many heroes, all of these people hiking in the dark that night and especially Jason for sitting up awake by her side all night, nearly getting knocked off the cliff during the rescue, and then hiking out alone after she was rescued the next morning! And of course Alisa for her bravery through the whole thing! She was not given ANY pain medication and managed to make it through the night despite having both her main bones in her leg completely broken at the ankle, she also had a dislocated foot! That doesn’t touch upon the discomfort from the fall and laying on a hard surface for about 15 hours. Thankfully, despite a long road to full recovery, she is ok. She was lifelighted to a Las Vegas hospital where they found no head trauma. She immediately underwent surgery and had metal bars put into her bones to secure the position of her foot and ankle until the swelling goes down when she’ll have another surgery to repair the damage. She stayed in the hospital for 3days and is home now. She’s still VERY weak and can’t be left alone as she’s not stable and sometimes gets faint.

I am thankful that her life was spared, she very easily could have died had Patrick not stopped her fall or if she landed differently. I am thankful that with so many prayers, she was able to make it through excruciating pain all night. I am thankful no one else was hurt and that the helicopter was able to safely pull her out of the canyon not injuring anyone else. I am thankful for life experiences like this that remind us to count our blessings and not take life for granted!

Sadly, that was not the last of the tragedy for the group of friends. Another couple on this trip found out after hiking out Monday morning that their little boy who had just turned 1 year old 2 weeks ago, passed away. It was a tragic accident. He was a sweet boy and obviously had another mission for his life. I had the opportunity to get to know more about him through wonderful pictures as I made a slideshow to music for his family. It was a tough project and has been a hard week for all. I will never understand why the Lord takes one life and spares another, I am thankful however, for the knowledge that there is a plan and that little Daxton is with his Heavenly Father now. I am thankful for his story to remind me and all of us that we are so blessed! Please pray for his family that they may find strength and healing in this tragic time. Pray for Alisa and her family as well that she may begin to feel better, find strength and eventually make a full recovery. And remember to be thankful…life is just too short!

Here’s a peek at some of my favorite images from Cory and Ashleigh’s wedding in May! These two were SO fun to work with! They were super cute with each other and SO in love! I am so grateful to get to be a part of their day. I love this shot of Ashleigh catching a glimpse of a few family members arriving at the reception.
The wedding was at the Mesa Temple and the reception held at Provencal. I loved this shot with the columns there.

This is their niece, she’s such a cutie, I just love her little face!
Some of the family…I loved this shot of them dancing with the sun peeking through the windows.

To view more favorites you can view their slideshow by clicking here.

 

Today is my mom’s birthday…she’s not one to like to get in front of the camera…so since I have tortured her enough with photos on my blog…I thought I’d put this one up, so she can be truly grateful for less wrinkles than this little guy!

I’ve been REALLY REALLY busy trying to get caught up on my work lately! My husband left town as well which slowed all extra work time to a minimum as I was clearly outnumbered with 3 kids! Meanwhile I have also been coordinating the efforts of some very important service opportunites as well (more on these later). All in all I am super tired, still really behind and only barely staying afloat! What’s that got to do with my mom having a birthday? Well, nothing, but I did call her today and fully neglected to say a thing about her birthday even though I did remember earlier in the day! I was just in focus mode and had to find out if she still had access to a wheelchair and shower seat for my friend! Hours later it dawned on me that I earned the lame daughter award since I didn’t even say Happy Birthday! So, I hope it was a good one mom! And here’s to really having less wrinkles next year, don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me!