I have been looking forward to this past weekend for months.  My long time online friend Emily Weaver Brown made a trip down from Seattle to visit me.  I was so excited when she decided to come, we’ve known each other online for right around 6 years, from the very beginning of my business (and hers too I think).  Emily is also a charter member for The Birth Experience and we decided to make it an all out get together for our little group.  Rachael Hutchinson and Wendi Schoffstall drove in to meet up with us and make a weekend of it.  Of course quite a few couldn’t travel to see us due to scheduling, being on call for births, traveling husbands, great big oceans in the way, you name it, we sure missed you girls!  A few certain someones showed up on a flat form (((cough cough, Jodie and Britt))).  I couldn’t have had any more fun, we had a blast!  Ty, Taryn and I went downtown to meet Emily and her beautiful baby girl Talia for dinner Friday night.  Thankfully my kids decided to behave themselves at dinner and meeting Emily was just as comfortable and real as could be….it was as if we have been friends for years, because we have been, just not in person!  Saturday we met up with Rachel and Wendi for breakfast at austin java, hit the farmers market downtown, the Austin graffiti wall, soco, uncommon objects, amy’s ice cream, chuy’s, maria maria, yes, we ate a lot, and the live outside streaming performance at Austin City Limits with The Steve Miller Band.  I’d love to say I took a ton of photos of our adventures but I didn’t even though my camera was in my hands all day long.  I kept getting caught up in chatting and exploring and catching up with friends and laughing.  I did catch one of Emily and Talia in front of the Austin wall….

Other than that, I mostly photographed our flat friends that weren’t there!  Go figure!

Those silly flat friends!  I totally stole Jod’s pic off of facebook so it isn’t even in focus!  They ate, they danced, they hung out in our back pockets and partied down while livin’ large in Austex.  They were missed and thoroughly enjoyed by all.  So many people stopped us to ask about them!  Oh, and Talia, she LOVED LOVED LOVED Jod for some reason.  I think Rachael caught a photo of them together.  It was so cute!

Wendi had to dart out early, we met up with my friend Marti and then after dark we met up with our contest winners for a Love Light Night Session, Dawn & Ross.  And man did they rock it, so much fun!!  Not only were they fun, but they totally deserve to win a night out on the town to do something fun, they have 3 kids including twin toddlers and Dawn is a wedding coordinator and founder of  Your Very Own Fairygodmother.  I hope you two had a blast on your night out on the town, thanks for putting up with all of us!

Needless to say, I was draaaaging and exhausted at the end of a very busy and fun day.  I called Jase and asked him to make me some tea and run a bath and I walked through the door totally useless.  Unfortunately I was met with a grim looking husband standing at the kitchen counter with Taryn’s allergy test results in hand.  I’ll post more about it on our other blog but I won’t lie….immediately after reading it I asked Ty to leave the room so I could cuss.  And I did.  And I cried.  A lot.  And then I drank my tea, took that bath and went to bed.  Sunday morning I stayed home, snuggled my kiddos and threw myself into altering every single freaking thing related to meal planning and food *again* in our house.  Exhausting.  I was so happy I got to sneak away in the afternoon and be creative again.

Sunday evening I headed right back downtown to do a family session with Wendi and her family.  I was so honored and excited when they decided to hire me to do a session with them while they were in town!  I love photographing photographer families, although they do make me a little nervous.  Photographer’s kids know what is up, they know the game, you can’t fool ’em.  Their client survey cracked me up and I could see the images in my mind just reading through it.  At the end of describing her family she wrote “May the force be with you.”  HA!!  I know just what she means too because I pity the poor soul who has to photograph my fam.  But they rocked it, they did awesome, the kids AND the parents 😉

Wendi I’m going to be really mean and hold out on showing you my faves, the sibling shots!  You have to wait on those my dear, I love them!!

It was an awesome weekend filled with friends and food and exploring and creativity and I’m so so thankful I have these wonderful women as my friends.  They are creative, smart, genuine women.  I never envisioned myself as a teacher but I feel like I have received as much as I have given through The Birth Experience.  I can’t wait to meet more of our members in the near future, even next month!

Thanks for the awesome memories ladies!