SmamPhoto

So the fall has ended, along with my favorite time of the year.  Winter has officially begun, and I sit here writing this with 2 inches of snow falling outside my nice warm living room.  I have been terribly neglecting my blog with all the holiday craziness, starting a new job and having the flu for what seems like 6 weeks now.  However with the new job also came the new laptop I bought as a treat to myself!  It is amazing and I can actually create posts on here again without my computer catching on fire…hooray!  To get back into the swing of things I thought I would share some pictures from my Thanksgiving trip to my parents house.  It was a short, but amazing trip and I wish that I could go more often.

These are all little stolen moments with members of my family.  The light turned out very yellow, orange and red in these photos.  They almost seem too warm, but the light in these rooms, as well as the warm feeling they give, was exactly how it was in the moments they were taken.  The below photo is one of my favorites because it is of one of those looks that my parents give each other that makes me smile.

Thanksgiving ended quickly and Christmas snuck up on me as well.  Thanks to my family I got to go home for this holiday, when I didn’t think I would be able to.  I was too ill to even pick up my camera, but I hope they all know that if I could have documented every second of my trip I would have.  So I hope that everyone has as good a holiday season as I had a Christmas!

Thanks Jeanna, John and Gunnar for letting me share the day with you take your family portraits.

For the past couple of weeks I have taken hundreds of photographs of the many things going on in my life.  Below are all pictures from our hike at Oak Openings during peak last week.  Fall is my favorite season and no photograph can ever do it justice.

More pictures to come this week from the reception and as much Fall as I can possibly capture.

One of my younger sisters just became a freshman at Kent State University this fall.  I recently went to the campus to visit and got a refresher on the whole college world.  I miss the whole feeling of a new school year, the challenge of classes and being around academia in general.  The leaves were just beginning to change and it’s almost time for sweaters, scarves and the smell of pumpkins and cider.

I love the picture above, because it looks like the petrified books are turning the plants to stone as well.

Needless to say the campus was beautiful.

My little college student wasn’t as entertained by my constant photographing.

Neither was the black squirrel I had a stand-off with.

We also tracked down the memorial to the students who were killed there, as well as finding a bullet hole in a sculpture nearby.

My God Daughter Paige just turned 2 and the only way to celebrate is with massive amounts of sugar.  And fairy wings of course.

The fact that she kept the wings on during the whole party took all of us by surprise.

The cake was delicious, but oddly enough Paige liked to eat the fondant numbers that decorated it the most.  Needless to say, she was the only one who ate them.

After much cake, cookies and baby chasing, a nice nap was had by all.

This has been a week of very big decisions.  I decided to give applying to grad school a try.  The earliest I could get in is next fall, but even with that long time frame the thought is absolutely petrifying.  I think this is the next step for me, but making this step means leaving everything that I am comfortable with.  After an hour of watching the sunset at the river, I think I have finally come to terms with my choice.  I don’t think that any of these images can capture how absolutely peaceful it is at the river, but it is worth a shot.  So wish me luck, here it goes.

This past weekend we went to a lake in northern Michigan.  It was a very much needed trip.  We got to get away from the every day and completely relax.  Coffee on the dock, swimming, boating and only a slight sunburn!  The above image was taken at twilight, the clouds were still very bright while the color all around the lake faded, one of my favorite times of the day.

I also learned how to shoot a gun….while completely scary, it was also really exciting!  Below is a picture of the boys taking their turns shooting, I really like how you can see the smoke directly after it was fired.

We spent quite a bit of the weekend building fires and cooking on them.  It is so nice to do everything different than you have to day in and day out.  We got an amazing fire started right before a storm moved in over the lake.  The storm was so beautiful we didn’t mind the interruption of our fire.

This was one of the best weekends of the entire year so far.  On Thursday two of my best friends in the world got married!

Seth and Becca Geib and myself.

Later in the day our long lost friend Jean came to town.  On Friday we all went out to dinner and soon after that the food comas began.

Becca collapsed into a food coma behind her new husband

The next day was my birthday party and even more out-of-town guests arrived.

Sometimes Carrie is easily distracted.....

The only reason I know this is Jean, is because her cup tells me so.

My younger brother Leo....not sure if that face is from the fact that he is sitting in a purple chair or not...

Thank you for everyone that came in for the weekend and everyone here for making it so memorable!  It was so much fun!  For more pictures of the weekend see flickr.com.

So the middle child is done with high school .  Congrats Diane, I am very proud of you.  I so look forward to all your stories about college and other successes in the years to come.

You have many talents that have gotten you this far, including:

Being able to make a mirror out of anything.

Keeping us all on our toes by going against the grain.

Convincing us all to do things we may not want to by giving ‘the face’….you know which one I am talking about…..

And last but not least, captivating all of us with your smile and personality.

I love you little Sister!!!

It was a very proud day.

Below is what keeps me sane.

I’m so lucky to be able to see this every day and be near the water.