Utah visit continued..

Never one to turn down an opportunity for a small photo session, I jumped at the chance to take pictures of the Kotter family. As you may remember, I met Selina during grad school when she was hired for a job at the MTSU business office. She and her husband, Jayson, introduced J.R. and I in 2005, and the rest is history. About a year after that we were visiting them in the hospital, meeting cute Caiden. So much has changed since we all lived in Tennessee, including a second addition to their family, youngest son, Paxton. Right away, he had me wrapped around his finger:). He is such a happy baby with one of the most infectious laughs! I spent the day with Selina and her two boys while J.R. and Jayson went on a mountain biking trip. Later that evening we drove to a park to attempt some family photos.

J.R. and I stopped by a candy shop in Park City before visiting the Kotters, and brought a treat for the boys. I am sure Selina was thrilled with us for the mess that ensued:).

As you can see in most of the pictures, by the time we made it to the park we were losing light.  I am hoping the Kotters will visit us in Texas this winter so we can try for round two, and I can redeem myself as a better photographer:). We really enjoyed hanging out with you guys and wish we lived closer!

Stay tuned for the rest of our visit to Utah...

The Grizzlies

I think it only appropriate to split our Utah post into several separate entries, considering I have TONS of photos and am still not done going through them. So for now, I will share our afternoon at the West Yellowstone Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. Our visit fell in the middle of our trip, but left a HUGE (as in 1000 lb bear huge) impression. How often do you get to have such an intimate experience with a very large grizzly bear? I must admit I probably wasn't in the right mindset the day we visited. I should've been impressed with his natural beauty, but instead I kept watching his massive paws pushing away enormous logs as if they were twigs. You see, J.R. and I were hiking the Beartooth Mountains the next morning. Yep, beartooth! The name alone gave me second thoughts, and although I tried to take comfort in the fact that the ranger assured us that we would more than likely never encounter a bear of his size in this area of the country (this particular bear and his sister were rescued from the Alaskan wilderness), I couldn't shake a slight panic that had been building since months before when were planning the trip. I look back at the pictures now and think, wow, they are amazing! They don't look scary in the pictures at all. In fact, if I didn't know better, I would say they are smiling in a few:).

 

Gone Fishin...

While I was home in TN, I went on an early morning fishing trip with my dad, his friend Ken, and Ken's 3 year old grandson, Isaac. What a personality this little boy has with a very genuine and sweet nature that you don't always find at such a young age! The minute I sat my chair down on the rocky bank, Isaac came along with his chair, placing it so close to mine that the arm rest protruded into my seat:). Later on that day I decided to dip my bare feet in the river despite my dad's warnings about it being bitterly cold, and immediately yelled out in pain. Isaac, who hadn't left my side for most of the morning, pointed his finger at the offending water, scolding it with a, "bad water, bad water!" How cute is that? I think he will make some woman very happy someday:). Anyhow, on top of being one of the sweetest little boys I have met, he also happens to be extremely photogenic with beautiful light blond hair and big blue eyes! He and his granddad have such a special bond, and I tried to capture that with some images from the day. How lucky they are to have one another!

Beautiful morning on the Clinch River

(Don't forget to check out the previous post, if you haven't already. 

I am doing several back to back so I can get caught up. Next up, Utah pics!)

The Meredith Boys

So, I am a little behind on my posts. I meant to have one done before we left for a family visit in Utah, and became overwhelmed with other projects and last minute preparations. Now that the Utah trip is behind me, I want to share all of the images my camera has captured over the month of August, including two very cute little Meredith men. As mentioned in the previous post, these boys are the sons of my friend Jenny whom I have known since we were five and six years old.

Tommy (age 6 weeks) :)

 

Tommy's sleepy moments:)

Cyril (age 4 1/2) :)

We attempted to get one with both boys a few times, but Hercules (their Great Dane) had other plans:)

I need to go drop Jenny's pictures in the mail, but will be posting some more from this month today or tomorrow, so be watching--I mean it this time:)!