the zoo

Two days before we left for a "workation" in Arizona, we had these two beautiful little girls...

And a bright, sunny, warm(er) day! So we went to the zoo...

...which wasn't crowded at all! Natalie walked almost the entire two hours we were there and she LOVED it!!!!!

Off to see the ducks and flamingos following the dolphin show, which they both loved! Sammi clapped and cheered even when no one else was cheering! It was adorable.

Hello, llama!

...Almost 11 hands tall!

...and Natalie just wanted to walk, walk, walk! Any time we tried to get her to stop walking for a photo she would cry!

...Just one elephant out today. (Okay, it's not that warm yet!)

Finally, a shoulder ride...but only for about 20 seconds before she wanted down again!

She even pushed Sammi around in the stroller by herself! Oh, too funny.

Ah, yes! The shark tank, full of sharks to touch!

Sammi liked playing the water but the sharks scared her a little.

Natalie was not scared at all and loved reaching for them!


Such a cool way to see the seals whip around and swim right past us!

We had such a fun time seeing the zoo, which seemed like it was opened just for us on this particular day. After the zoo we had a picnic outside - the perfect way to spend our last day with the girls before leaving them with Grandma and Grandpa Brand for our workation!

Sammi has been growing fast! Here is a photo of her at the zoo with our friend Megan in August 2009 and then the photo from last week! She's grown about 1 hand! :)

the shoemaker's kids have no shoes...

As you all know, we are professional photographers (see our professional blog site by clicking HERE).... yet this blog is full of non-professional snapshots of our kids. Why??? Well, because just as "the shoemaker's kids have no shoes".... the photographer's kids have no pictures! I always laugh when people say "Oh, you have two kids---you must have sooo many photos of them!" Well, if you hadn't noticed by the blank walls in our 6-year old house, we don't get around to taking professional photos of our kids often! We are trying to work on it because we really do love having photos of them and really do want our walls filled, but... our clients always come first and there never seems to be enough time left over to prepare, photograph, edit, retouch, and order photos for ourselves.

So, we are going to work on it. In fact, we are going to "schedule" a 1-year photo session of our 14-month old daughter as soon as we get back from our trip! But, just for laughs, I included a few photos from my point-n-shoot of the other reason we don't get around to photographing our kids often. They are the "worst clients" ever! :) I say that with a laugh, as they always seem to be running in the opposite direction when we aim the camera toward them (professional or not). On this particular occasion they all cooperated to have a photo with daddy, and this is what we got...



Hope that made you laugh! :) Oh well, I am really glad that I gave up my pride of having perfect photos of my children shown 100% of the time and just got this cheap-o camera for this blog journal, which will be saved and printed in a book for my kids to have when they are grown. Otherwise, they might not have had ANY memories captured of their childhood! :)

Hold me to my word though..... professional photos coming of our family this spring..... :)