In Oregon, we lived an hour from the coast.  Any time we were free and it was semi-nice out we’d head out to the beach.  It was rare to catch a warm day on the Oregon coast.  We’d often leave a 90 degree day in Beaverton, get out of the car at Seaside, and have to put on our fleece sweatshirts and pants.  It was so beautiful that it didn’t matter.  We’d visit Haystack

Rock in Cannon Beach, or play on the swings in Seaside, or just walk for miles.

There was one year, where we had a couple warm trips in May, very early in the season.  Normally, the trips were all of us as a family, but a few times the little one and I went out just us.  This one warm day, she was at the fearless age of two, and just wanted to charge into the ocean.  I had to keep our towels set way back, so I’d have enough distance to catch her if she started to take off.  Thankfully, Seaside is a very wide beach.

It’s odd to me, living so far from the beach now, in the DC suburbs.  In Seattle, we were far from the ocean but still had Puget Sound beaches to hold us over.  I’ve managed a couple beach trips to NJ though already, and look forward to checking out Virginia Beach and Ocean City!

I handed my mom my Nikon

(at least it was loaded with a short prime lens), and she did a great job in capturing this moment.  So here I am… sandy, windblown, messy hair falling out of a french braid, sunburnt, and no makeup.

My wedding photography client, Sirius, shares this love of shoes. She showed up for her engagement photos, in cute maryjane style red patent leather pumps. A bit difficult to walk through muddy park grounds, she slipped on black ballet flats and Chris got to tote the adorable red shoes. Later when we were back on paved ground, Sirius mentioned putting the shoes back on but then said, “oh wait”. Chris ran to the car for her and came back with another pair of crimson red super high healed super sexy shoes. As Sirius spoke about this pair (in the photo) she told me they were almost her wedding shoes but she found even better ones! I thought it was just charming how through the hour an a half session, Chris was almost always carrying a pair of cute heels for his wife to be.

I love seeing the different shoes brides wear on their wedding day. I wanted to be a flip flop bride but I kept seeing my toes sticking out as I walked. Considering I had a wedding in a historic church, toes didn’t seem right. I wore rather ugly one inch heeled white shoes because they were the perfect height for my dress. (Note, get the shoes and then get your dress altered.) As soon as the ceremony was over, the pretty white beaded flip flops went on!

During our trip back east we visited my old friend Kendra in New Jersey.  I mentioned her a few months back in a post.  Her son is one day younger than my daughter.  This was the second time they met, and seemed to become instant friends.  I think at one point three of the four adults had a camera out and were trying to keep up with the little ones running around.

This is one of my favorites because it captures them.  It reminds me of their dashes that would start in one end of the kitchen, and end in a very brief break looking out the window at a cold winter day.