An Evening with Friends

It's sad that we have friends only an hour away that we see only about once a year. But with both of them working full time, and raising two young boys, their schedules are jam-packed. But tonight was one of those yearly events. We went to their house, where we grilled out, sat in the spa, and swam in the pool all evening. We had a great time!

We also got to meet the newest addition to their family--Henry. Henry is the cutest dang thing ever! Even if he does still pee on the floor and chew up the coffee table. Who could resist that face? It's the Power of Cute.

A Quick Trip to Memphis--Day 2

Today was so suffocatingly hot that we could barely go outside. The humidity was like 90%, and it was about 97 degrees. Plus, we had thunderstorms. Steamy.

But after the storms cleared, I took Kendall and Jax outside to grab a few pictures of them. Just some casual, summer stuff. I processed some of them using Flora Bella's Spring actions.

I also snapped a few photos of the neighbor's spectacular backyard--including my favorite Stargazer Lilies.

I had to head back home right after an early dinner, and right around Jackson, TN, I caught this spectacular sunset--which I shot while holding my camera over my shoulder, driving down the interstate, not even looking to see where it was aimed.

A Quick Trip to Memphis

I don't get to see my niece and nephew very often, as they live in Florida. So when I learned they would be flying up to Memphis to visit my parents for a few days, I decided to make the drive over and see them.

I planned to arrive shortly after their flight was scheduled to land, so I drove over in the late afternoon. And managed to get caught in a nasty storm for over an hour. But once I got past Jackson, TN, the storm abated, and I arrived in Germantown shortly after 7 PM. Since the my parents were still at the airport picking up the kids, I went to my younger brother's house, and we went out to eat at the Half Shell. It was great to spend some time one-on-one with him. I haven't done that in years!

Just as we were finishing up our meal, my mom called to let us know they were home, so we headed over there. They were eating pizza--which my parents had to pick all the toppings off of first. Everyone knows that little kids don't eat peppers and onions and mushrooms on pizza, right? Well, Kendall's not so little anymore, but she still wants her pizza plain.

We all sat around catching up for a while, and I managed to grab a few shots of my parents' cats--Lucky and Leo--before heading to bed.

Woofey's New Chair

Oh wait--that's Kelly's new chair! But Woofey thinks it's his. It matches his eyes...

A Little Western Flair from Thursday...

Here are a few more from last Thursday. Love the attitude I'm getting in some of these. Of course, she threatened to steal my boots and take them back to Hawaii with her.

A few more from downtown...

Just a few more from downtown. These were taken at Legislative Plaza.

Our Downtown Session

So after the field in Kingston Springs, we headed to downtown Nashville. I should have been paying attention to local news, and I would have known they were getting ready for CMA-fest, previously known as Fan Fair. So some of the place we wanted to shoot were either inaccessible because of flood damage, or because of CMA-fest. The Symphony Hall was still barricaded while they tried to dry out all the water damage from a month ago. The Country Music Hall of Fame had a bunch of white tents in front of it for Fan Fair. And there was heavy machinery on the Pedestrian Bridge. We worked around all that as best we could. That and the harsh sun which was still blasting down on us.

How freakin' awesome are these shoes?

Saying goodbye for more than 6 months sucks!

So the kid left today. She's driving back to Memphis, where she will spend the night and catch a plane tomorrow for Honolulu. She was only here for 8 days--not nearly long enough! It's been six months since her last visit home (Christmas) and we won't see her again until December when we fly out to Hawaii for her college graduation.

Of course, I had to take just a few more photos of her before she drove off...

Her Last Evening at Home...

Parrish is leaving tomorrow to go back to school in Hawaii, so we had to have another portrait session tonight. We started in Kingston Springs, in an empty field...

I'll share the ones from downtown in a few days.

Vintage Betsy Johnson

This is Parrish's favorite dress, from Betsy Johnson's Vintage Collection. Betsy is Parrish's favorite designer, and she was absolutely thrilled to find this darling dress in a second-hand store with the original tags still on it. She got it for a steal! We shopped everywhere for the perfect shoes, but couldn't find what we were looking for. We finally gave up and she wore my Kenneth Coles. I made the headband for her.

So this morning, we met up with Rebekah, Aleah, and Skye, and drove down to my favorite neighborhood in Franklin--Westhaven. It was the perfect spot for this session. Unfortunately, it was miserably hot! We lasted about an hour and a half before giving into the heat, and deciding to go to lunch.

Just as we were about to leave, Rebekah discovered the battery in her van was dead! If I had driven my car instead of Parrish driving hers, we would have been fine, as I have two sets of jumper cables in my truck. But Parrish didn't have any. A very kind man coming home from his morning walk knocked on several doors to try and find us a set of cables, but no one who was home had any. We finally drove to Wal-mart in Parrish's car and bought a set. But first we had lunch at Genghis Grill. Love that place! (Ran into Zach while I was there, too.)

Fortunately, Rebekah's van started right up with a little jump from Parrish, and we all headed home to our air conditioning and Photoshop!

Here's the first set of images from this morning...