Yesterday though, they flew from Rincon, PR where the wedding is happening to meet me and Rebecca in San Juan. We did a session at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro in old town San Juan. Then, all four of us, piled into the car, braved San Juan traffic (by the way… I rock at driving around here. Which kinda makes me question the legality of my driving skills back home.) and make the three hour drive to Rincon.

After few hours at the hotel bar, and some time in the sand, Jessica and Andy invited as guests to their rehearsal dinner. Didn’t stop me from taking more pictures! I’m so looking forward to spending more time with the both of them and their wonderful families today!

Here is one of my favorites from our session when exploring all the knooks and crannies of the fort. We went down this long corridor that was totally dark and found this open door at the end. I quickly placed Andy and Jessica right there in the light, and I just felt like it was a little bit of magic!

About 2 weeks ago I tried something I had never done before. I traveled with 2 children, all by myself, on a plane.

It’s not that I hide this fact, but I’ve lived in Washington for so long now, people assume that I’m originally from here. I’m not. I’m actually from New Mexico – born in Truth or Consequences (yes it is a real place) and partially raised in Silver City, New Mexico. In fact, I feel so at home in Silver City that I list it as my hometown as that is pretty much the most familiar place to me – plus the majority of my family lives there/grew up there. I try to get down there once a year, although some years it’s harder to go than others.

But the reason I’m so proud of the fact that I was able to travel with 2 little kids alone is that it is a journey to get from Seattle to the very rural out-of-the-way old-west town of Silver City. First you have the two and a half hour flight to Tucson. Then a three and a half hour drive to Silver City. With travel time, airport time, rental car time, it takes approximately 11 hours to get there – and that is pretty direct. But with 2 small children, and all by myself, it seems like every minute is just that longer!

Life down there has a totally different pace than here in Seattle. Everything is about 5 minutes away and there really is no hurry and no stress about anything. Over the years the town has changed significantly though. When I was a kid the downtown area was just about diserted and the population of the town was primarily ranchers/cowboys, miners with a significant hispanic population. Now days, the art scene has moved out of Sante Fe and Taos and moved south to Silver City and you have a very artsy-hippie kind of scene. The downtown area has become very vibrant with art galleries and shops, organic food markets, and original types of shops. While you still have the original population in the town, these new vibe has created a whole new dynamic in the town. It’s been very interesting to watch this morph over the years.

I enjoy going – and I enjoy coming home afterwards as well. As much as I say that I’m from New Mexico… when I get down there I find myself in this odd-dimension where I don’t quite fit in.

I will say this… I love love love the warm light that they have down there. I get tired of the clouds and blue-colored light we get here in Seattle, so having something different to work with is the best!! Here are a few snapshots from our trip!

I seriously think this is one of the BEST coffee houses I’ve ever been to – anywhere. It’s called Javalina and not only do they make an outstanding cup of coffee there, the place is just absolutely awesome. They have all these toys and books for kids, which makes going and chatting with my family that much better, free wi-fi (about the only place in town with wi-fi to begin with!), and the atmosphere is to die-for. I could spend hours just hanging out there… as it was I hit it up every single day.

Of course, since the light is so yummy, I blackmailed my three year old into a session together. She didn’t want to take a nap… so I told her that if she didn’t want to nap, she had to take pictures with mommy. She is just starting to now mug for the camera, and she was more than happy to take advantage of the “no-nap” opportunity, so I went outside and she gave me about 40 minutes worth of awesome shots. I have so many great ones I have no idea how to choose. But I love this one – she’s kind of a serious and mischievous kid, and I just feel like the look on her face just captures HER.

This is the sunset as we were driving from Lordsburg to Silver City. It really does show the remoteness of the locale when you look and see nothing for hundreds of miles!

I did a senior high-school session with my cousin while there. I captured one of my most favorite photos EVER with her – so I’m excited to share that once Steve processes her photos! So stay tuned for that in the near future!

Every once in a while, someone in the community donates a house or a building for what is called a Practice Burn. This allows the firefighters to do controlled training in a real life scenario kind of way. Essentially at the end of the day, though, the building is burned to the ground. If you’ve ever seen a true ripping fire, the power and the intensity is something to be feared, but is also so hypnotizing. You can be standing a block away, yet feel this intense heat and pressure all around you, but something about the fire just beckons your eyes and mind. It’s just amazing to witness. And watching these guys run in and out of a burning building is just a really wild experience.

My husband was kind enough to put in for photography access to this particular burn yesterday, which was approved by the Chief, and I went out to photograph some of the details of the burn. I had a lot of fun, I just wish I could have stayed until it was all in ashes (but it take hours and sometimes days for it to completely burn down all the way, so that wasn’t necessarily an option), but real life, work and kids called me away in the mid-afternoon. My mom even came out with the girls thinking that Maggie would enjoy watching the fire and watching daddy at work. Nothing could have been further from the truth as Maggie was terrified. Poor little thing… so my mom took her back to the car and they were entertained by throwing rocks in a mud puddle.

This was the first time that Maggie had ever seen Jason in his bunker gear. She’s seen him in uniform tons, but never full decked out with airpacks and everything. Even I have only seen it a few times in our marriage. So it was totally fun to see him working and doing what he does best! But at one point, Jason asked Maggie to hold his helmet.

So here are some details of the day… I’ll let the images speak for themselves and save you the narration.

But sometimes in life, we’ve gotta put ourselves out there, and when you are running a business, the only way to get business is to go to the client. The bridal shows are a unique opportunity to meet a ton of different brides all in one space and I probably talked to 100-200 brides over the course of the two day show here in Seattle. Add in my time at the Tacoma Bridal Expo last week and I was introduced to a ton of people. These bridal shows and a big ad in Seattle Bride Magazine are my two big marketing pushes this year so I’m anticipating a lot of exciting opportunities to come my way soon.

Even though the shows put me in an uncomfortable position, I also have to admit that once I find people at the show I click with, it makes the experience much more enjoyable. I met so many brides with whom I felt these great connections and felt like I could rock-out their wedding. On top of that, I met some great industry peep’s who I just know I’m keeping in close contact with. It’s always nice to have people around you that you can trust and rely on… and I definitely found some people like that this past weekend.

So my New Year’s resolution this year was that in addition to blogging two times weekly (which I managed to do pretty consistently last year!), every post gets a picture. So here is my Seattle Bride Magazine ad that you should be looking for; coming out this week!