Nikki & Ryan

I had the joy of taking pictures for Nicole and Ryan a few weekends ago. They are the cutest couple and I was super excited to see how many props and ideas that Nicole also had to try. It made the evening all that more enjoyable and we were lucky to only have the rain come about the last 15 mins of our shoot. I really think Nikki and Ryan had a lot of fun getting their pictures taken after you look at the photos, I think it really shows. Enjoy :-)

Cleveland Round 2

Last week, I was able to head back to Ohio with another missions team from my church to help Pastor Jeff (from Forward Church) and Pastor Andy (from Renew Communities) with a bunch of jobs throughout the week

sitting on Jeff's bus getting ready to deliver food to the needy of Slavic Community

The park we are going to give a "face lift" to (thanks to the monetary support of the Cleveland Browns)

We got to go to a Cleveland Indians baseball game (extra score: They were playing the Baltimore Orioles!)

Painting a section of the wall orange

Getting to eat at Melt Bar & Grilled in Cleveland

This place is amazing, check it out!!

Melt Bar & Grilled

Baby Jace

At the beginning of July, the Suto family welcomed another son into their family. Jace was born on July 3rd and was welcomed to the world with open arms! I got the pleasure of meeting Jace and getting to take his picture when he was only 6 days old :-) He is such a precious bundle and our little session went SO WELL! Thank you Lorrie & Chuck for this experience. I hope I will get to take more pictures of him in the future...

Miller camping

 our annual camping trip at Miller's Grove for 4th of July

Traveling to Ohio

At the end of June (the 21st through the 29th) I traveled as a leader with my youth group to Ohio. First we took a little mini vacation and had three fun days in Columbus & Ohio. The rest of the trip was spent working at Joy of Living Ministries in Brinkhaven, Ohio.
My "You are Here" project documented the whole trip (the kids helped too and loved being part of the photos also)

van ride (all 15 seats were full) 

All four adults get carsick, so Pastor Dan always drove

Janet, Gavin, and I always sat in the front row

@ Mt Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU)

this campus is absolutely gorgeous!

these steps are outside the chapel 

@ the Columbus Zoo 

walking around with Janet, Bre, & Jim

a marketplace in Cleveland (section: Ohio City)

looking out at Lake Erie with Jim

I got to dunk my toes in the water of Lake Erie (in Cleveland)

@ Scioto Park 

the Indian head is an awesome sculpture of stone

David is sitting up on top

our campsite @ JOL

the tents are the left are girls, right are boys

our fire pit with chairs is up in the distance

got to take the girls out on the river canoeing with Rachel and Bre

there is always something to paint cabin brown when we are at JOL

our church van

on our way home we stopped at a spot called Unusual Junction and ate at Lava Rock Grill

I ate a texas wrap that had BBQ ranch on it

They have Kutztown soda!

That'll leave a mark

**this story is not for the faint of heart**

Rocca and I were playing ball in the kitchen while the three of us sat around and talked. Dan thought (in his mind the scenerio played out much better than in real life as you will soon read) that it would be a good idea to try and kick the ball to make Rocca work harder to try and catch it. What he didn't take into account and think about was our super smart German Shepherd has only missed a handful of balls when they are thrown in her entire three years of life. When he went to kick the ball, her mouth was already there and her large canine tooth sank right into his toenail!!!! Ewwww :-/ Maddy started freaking out from the blood and Dan starting silenty cursing in his head from the pain. It was a pretty interesting scene. (FYI: Rocca just sat in the corner chewing her tennis ball without a care in the world! haha)

this picture is seriously the best, I totally got the exact second when Rocca was licking her nose so it makes it look like she likes biting Dan's toe and it tasted yummy! LOL

Mom's wedding

I had the extraordinary offer of getting to be the photographer for my Mom & Tom's wedding at the beginning of the month. This is the first wedding that I have been able to do, and I was super nervous about making sure I wouldn't miss a moment of this special day. I did alot of research for ideas and my Mom also came up with some good ideas too. I made several lists (yep, that is the OCD in me) to make sure I would get all the photos I needed at the different locations and times of the day. The icing on top of the cake? My stepmom let me also borrow her camera for the day so Dan and I could shoot pictures at the same time, but from different angles.
It was such an amazing day and I had so much fun! There was NO way I would be able to blog all of my favorite photos for you today, but here is a little sampling :-)