Did anyone else loose their minds after that second snow storm in April? After spending a whole year in Alabama, I was not prepared for the long Alaska winters as I had been in previous years. I caved in around mid-April and we high tailed it out of here for some place warmer!

I told my dad not to whack down the yellow flowers (photo opportunity) in the pasture because we were on our way! Remarkably enough, they had not yet bloomed but were in full force two weeks later when we arrived. Once again, the boys had to suffer though several rounds of “photos in the weeds” before we were allowed to return home to AK. We enjoyed 80 degree weather, playing at the fountian in the zoo, finding four orange kittens in the barn, coming across a full deer skeleton, and many, many visits with their best friend from Alabama. They also learned the joy of four-wheeling their gator through the giant mud puddles after a storm!

Now that we are relaxed, refreshed and thawed out, we are ready to kick off summer in Anchorage.

My anniversary was quickly approaching at the beginning of February and I had to come up with a surprise for Dave– pronto! I had just received some leather wallet samples with photographs bonded to the leather. These were surprisingly elegant and I thought a nice leather tri-fold wallet might make a nice gift. (Okay, I know what you are thinking. The perfect gift for Dave would be a new set of floats or some geeky techie stuff, but I really have limited resources!) Of course, that meant I needed a new photo of the boys- fast! On the last night that Dave was in Fairbanks, I hijacked the kids for a quick session right before bed! I knew I wanted a black and white image to print on the black leather and I knew their faces needed to be close together. The boys complied with about 15 minutes of some sort of cooperation and I ended up with a whole set of images that I just love!

I had so many cute photos that I decided to create a sample of the new accordion books that I’ve started offering, as well. These are really cute but much tinier than I expected! I’ve decided, because of their miniscule size, to include them as gifts for client’s that purchase a certain amount, rather than trying to sell them. They include about 8 to 10 images and they work great as refrigerator magnets or as little accordions to prop on your desk. They come in a group of three, which means they are perfect for sharing with the grandparents!

Below are some photographs of the design and of the actual books themselves.

With the threat from my dad that he was going to whack down all of those yellow weeds in the pasture, I knew I had to rally the boys and try to get a last ditch effort of a portrait in the bag!  The plan was a bit over ambitious.   Since the yellow flowers (ie, weeds) were in the horses pasture,I decided that Roger and T2 – the horses –  would make a good backdrop off in the distance.  Since the flowers were on the ground, I figured the lazy old dog, Sam, would make a good pal for Solomon to lean on.

We loaded up the gator with horse feed, two boys, lots of gear, and the grandparents.  We headed out with happy dogs trailing close behind.  Unfortunately the pony stood guard over the top of the pasture and the dogs would venture no further.  My mom is convinced her pack of not so wild dogs are afraid of the teeny tiny little angry pony.  So, scratch the idea of Sam the dog in the photo.

Step two, the horses are cooperating nicely.  We have a very short timeframe before they gobble up their feed and then head off to who knows where.  

Step three, Sid is yelling and crying and refusing to step foot outside of the gator.  Sol is cooperating but not so happy about it.  I am rolling around on the ground in between horse droppings and giant Alabama ant hills.  This is going well!

I give up on Sid and get barely a frame or two fired off before the horses start heading our way.  Sol is screaming and giggling or scriggling and trying to run from Roger, the oldest of the mangey beasties!  My mom, with that knack of hers for animal behavior, knows just what to do to send T2, the sexiest of the wild beasts, off into a gallop.  I click off a few good shots of T2 and then head back for the family portraits underway.  Grandma carried Sid out into the middle of the flowers and then walked away.  Sid stormed off swinging his fists and crying the whole way back to his beloved Grandpa Mark and the safety of the gator.  Sol was gracious enough to oblige his photo happy mother and did a few more jaunts out into the flowers for me.  

What an adventure.  Can’t wait to see what is in bloom on our next trip to the farm!
 

It’s Christmas Card season again so I’ve been forcing the boys to sit through their annual holiday photo sessions.  I stepped back from this one and thought surely I had stumbled onto something that had already been done before… but what was it?

What do you think?  Is there a slight resemblance?

Sol finally turned Four!  He must have been looking forward to this day ever since Sid turned two on July 5th.  After that he had to endure Mark’s 70th birthday in August all the while wondering when he would have his day.

It finally came and he had a blast even though we had to cancel the party at the last minute due to some minor vomitting by his mother!  Anyway, he played hard and once again scored on all the presents.  Thank you to everyone who plied him with gifts and especially Clemente, Felix, and Alec who came out for moral support!  

We still managed to make it to the Old Baker Farm in Harpersville to pick pumpkins,  take a hay ride, and run through the corn maze.   Sol was a trooper, and we were actually able to salvage most of the fun for his big birthday.  The day was beautiful and the boys had a great time!  Picking our own pumpkins was the highlight of the day for me.  We now have four!!! Solomon’s highlight was, of course, being surrounded by other little boys to play with!  Happy Birthday, Sol!

Here are a few more shots from the field after the beautiful sunset light was gone.  I attempted to fake it with a flash.