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Getting “high” in New Mexico

There is something strange about agreeing to get into a basket with your whole family to float about 2400 feet above the ground using only hot air to hold you aloft.  Who would have dreamed this up, you ask?  The French, of course.  Something completely impractical, but incredibly beautiful; that’s so French.  {and they’ve been doing it since 1783 when the Montgolfier brothers, French paper manufacturers, first put a sheep, a rooster and a duck into the air.  Read more about it here.}

Last week, we tried the virtually-perfected New Mexican version of the Montgolfier balloon.  It was fabulous.  We departed at dawn… literally dawn.
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See the sunrise over the Sangre de Cristo mountains… It is beautiful.
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Inflating the balloon. {We were reminded that this is not “blowing up” the balloon, because that’s an explosion.}
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Another ballooner in the air with us. There were only two that day.
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This is called a “ballooner” eclipse. The crew were always ready with corny jokes and “hot air” puns.
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The boys loved the ride.
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Pueblo Balloon Company in Taos, NM offers a great ride and brunch that starts at about 5AM and takes you along the Rio Grande Gorge. It was an experience that I can’t really describe. It’s definitely worth doing at least once in your life.
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Returning the super squishy drooliness

My husband and I have decided that two boys are all the kids we need.  We love them mightily and are desperately trying to cherish as many moments as we can with them until they start to like girls, grow facial hair and only need us for the car.  We get glimpses of these older-kid moments now when they whine and roll their eyes.  However, I can still put my eight-year-old in time out.  {I haven’t figured out what I’ll do with a 14-year-old.}  Alas, I have a few more years to cross that bridge.

This digression is leading somewhere… it’s to other people’s babies.  I love babies, but I don’t want to house, diaper, feed, discipline and send to college any more than the two I have.  So, I love taking the opportunity to snap some photos of other people’s kids; I can appreciate the darling, super squishy drooliness and then return them and the tuition payments to their parents.

Here is a particularly squishy, university-bound boy that I had the opportunity to love and then return.

Enjoy my tuition-free snaps.

SPL
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Christmas in August?

 

I just missed the Christmas in July boat, but I’m ready for some cool air to blow right about now.  August is usually the most unbearable month here in Southeastern Virginia.

And, so I thought that I’d deliver a Christmas-y preview of this little six month old love.  He was such a cutie.  We got the session done in record time.

Enjoy.

SPL

Want the free Christmas template?  Click here.

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senior-ita!

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Well this senior-ita is not Spanish or even a Spanish speaker, but she does like Latin.  (Canis in via sedet.  Coquus in culina coquit.  My Latin teacher would be so proud to know that I know where the dog is sitting and the cook is cooking.  She did write our book.)
I had the opportunity to take this Latin-lover’s* senior photos on a beastly hot day this summer.  We held up well with lots of water, paper towels for blotting and a trip to our local coffeehouse, Fair Grounds, for some AC and iced lattes.
* Yes, I do think I’m “punny.”

PhotobucketOn a side note… It’s my birthday today and I really don’t feel my age, however; my senior year seems decades ago.  Well, I have to say to myself, “Sarah, it was decades ago.”   However, I wouldn’t go back for anything.  Each year seems to get better than the last, even though it seems like the years keep speeding up.Photobucket
Do you like the vintage photo look?  Go to Willette Designs for the free download.

Enjoy the AC this summer and your years before they’re gone.  E pluribus unum, y’all.

SPL

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Photobucket This is a free frame from The Coffeshop Blog.  Check out all her great freebies. Photobucket

 

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Party hat template

I am coming out the the crafty closet. Yes, I’m crafty. You got a problem with that?

So,  it’s end-of-the- school-year party time and I got my craft on with some party hats for my son’s class.
I have included the template and directions below.

The hats were a great success, but I could kick myself for not getting a class picture with them on. Too bad.
Enjoy what I do have.

Click the image below to go to the download site.

Party hat template

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happy spring cards

Did you miss getting cards out this winter…  Have the grandparents been laying on the guilt trip about not getting any photos or news about their grandchildren?

Well, if so, help is here.

GHD Happy Spring Cards.

Book a photo shoot and order your cards

that say “bring on the warmer weather” today!

10% off your sitting fee

if you mention this post with your order between now and April 30th.

 

 

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No-school photos

I think in my twelve years of school pictures, I liked maybe one or two of them. Actually, my first grade one is the best.

I was a little cuter back then than now.

Anywho, that whole school photo thing was  such a blur of a yearly experience.

I remember every year being lined up in a random school hallway,  given a little black comb, and told to wait patiently for what seemed like the next three hours.  We usually flicked each other’s head or shoulders with the combs before they broke.    And then we would get scolded by one of the teachers assigned to herd us in the hallway, who would say something gentle like, “I don’t get paid enough for this” or “I really could be using this time to teach more about fractions.”    Well, you know it’s bad when I’d rather be enduring a refresher on fractions than standing in that hallway trying not to wrinkle my clothes.

Invariably, about ten seconds before I got to the door I remembered the cheap comb and its real purpose, to fix my hair.  But where was the mirror?  Nowhere to be found.  In the twelve years I had school photos snapped of me, I never remember a mirror.  And,  to top it off, I had hair nearly halfway down my back – this little piece of black plastic was no match for my tangle-prone locks.  Furthermore, what’s the use of trying to fix my own hair without a mirror.  I had to trust that the frazzled photography assistant was telling me the truth when she said I looked “fine.”  {Oh, that’s a four-letter word in my house.  My husband knows not to tell me I look “fine.”  But, I digress.}    And then, before i knew it I had been called into the creepily lit room with the funny umbrellas, muddy backdrop and the brilliant lights; shoved onto a stool; told to say “cheese;” snapped twice; told the purple dots would go away; and sent back to my fractions lesson.  Yup, every year.

Well, that doesn’t happen if you’re homeschooled.  Or, maybe it does, but not if I can help it.

Anyway, I had the opportunity to take some non-school photos for a local homeschool co-op the other day.   And they didn’t get the cattle-call line-up in the hallway treatment from me though.  Each family got about fifteen minutes to pose and just act a bit silly.  We captured more personality than you’d see in most yearbook photos and no one was hurt by cheap combs.

Enjoy.  SPL