Alive and Kickin’!!! (aka… “Where on this Green Earth Have I Been?!?”)

Hey happy peeps!!!

I feel like a college kid trying to explain to my professor why my mid-term paper is unreasonably late… but you guys are such sweet and faithful blog readers that I can’t help but want tell you what I’ve been up to and why it’s made me such a delinquent blogger this summer. : )

So… where have I been?!?  What have I been doing?!?  Don’t know if it sounds as silly to read it as it does to write it, but I’ve been:  1) cooling down between shoots, and 2) editing mosquito bites.  Mostly the latter.  As in, a few red swollen bites on the face of each little one in each shoot, times 30-40 pictures per shoot, times a few shoots a day, times a bunch of days a week, well… you can do the math!  Who would have guessed that such a little insect could give this girl such a hard time?  I won’t go on and on, but let me just finish this little paragraph by saying that I knew it was getting bad when I swallowed one while photographing a running toddler a few weeks ago.  Totally gross.  I mean, totally gross.  Ahem… moving on…

Between those little issues, a studio make-over (it’s looking AWESOME but there’s more to share!), and some super-amazing family milestones, I’ve been completely out of time for blogging.  I really can’t tell you guys just how much I’m looking forward to this fall… cooler weather, no bugs, and lots of time for pondering and sharing here on the blog.  Thanks for hanging in there with me… I love writing now more than ever and can’t wait to finally get some of my thoughts down on paper up on this screen. : )

Good news, bad news : )… My hard drive isn’t here tonight so I can’t show you guys pictures of you.  But I DO happen to have some pictures of US from this past month.  Can I show you a few?

My sweet baby girl turned one!  Little note about our baby girl… this child just bubbles joy.  She’s just one of the happiest little people I’ve ever met, and it’s no surprise that she’s been an absolute delight for all of us at the Tripple house this past year.  These pics I snapped of her at her first birthday party really show her darling personality… (and thanks again, Lisa, for giving me a hand with these, I know I’m a picture nut!)

She’s standing but not walking.  I just love that stage.  She gets so darn excited for herself every time… how CUTE is that?!? : )

The other awesome celebration we had this month was our tenth anniversary.  I really don’t think a little paragraph could do justice to the priceless treasure we’ve found in our marriage, and I’d love to blog our story for you sometime just because it’s such a sweet one.  For tonight, however, let me just say this:  I love my husband now more than I ever dared to dream as we would take walks around our college campus on those chilly fall nights twelve years ago.  We were babies.  We were insane.  We were head-over-heels-in-love.  And we chased the dream of a life together as we’ve come to chase so many of our dreams since… with the fullest of hearts and totally reckless abandon.  It’s a beautiful thing, this crazy, sweet life of ours.  And together it’s been no less than a glimpse of Heaven.

We celebrated by heading up to the lake…

Grabbed some dinner at the local pub : )

Took a boat ride to watch the sunset…

And took in the glory of the night sky together…

And that’s where I’ve been. : )