Portrait session!

A few months ago, we had Elsie do our family pictures, and I just LOVE them! These are my favorites, but it was so hard to narrow it down to even this many! I can’t believe I’m only just now getting around to posting these, and I can’t believe how much the kids have already changed! Jason was hardly sitting up at the time of these pictures, but now he’s almost walking! Gloriana looks so much older now too; it’s crazy! Also, that girl’s eyes…!!! The one with her and Sam hugging is my absolute favorite picture from the whole session. Elsie took it, and called it the money shot. Boy, was she right. LOVE. IT!

Oh. Right. Hi.

I used to have a blog. I still have a blog. I used to have time. I rarely have whatever that is anymore, and when I do, blogging usually doesn’t make the priority list. I recently pulled out my camera again though, so I thought I’d share a few of the best recent ones.

Life is crazy, so, naturally, a couple months ago we decided to add another dog. Daisy is a red heeler who was an emotional support dog of someone who was forced to giver her away. She came to us basically fully trained. She had never been around small children before, but she’s learned quickly and beautifully that they’re not her responsibility to herd. ;P

Sam took the day off for my birthday recently, and we spent the day wandering around Wildlife Prairie Park. The kids did great, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable family day out.

Yesterday was one of those days where everyone decided to have a rough day at the same time. To help us get through the final hour or so before Sam got home, and while dinner cooked, I grabbed the camera to see what I could capture. I need to play with it more regularly! The quality of my recent pictures make me so sad when I think that I used to be halfway decent!

#whoisridingwhere2018 – Part 6

Last post about this trip!

Not really sure what was going on here, but it made me laugh, so I snapped a quick picture. 😀

These Lularoe dresses are the cutest anyway. Add the beach, and it’s just unbearably cute!

#whoisridingwhere2018 – Part 5

Yep, going to have to split this into 2 posts. Something like 45 pictures seems a tad excessive for just one post! But I saved the best for last! These two posts have some of my FAVORITE pictures in them, and you’ll easily see why.

Ryan occasionally got almost reflective in the way he was walking. It made us want to know what he was thinking. 🙂

Her outfit here made me laugh throughout the day. All I could think was that she made the perfect tiny tourist!

 

#whoisridingwhere2018 – Part 4

Beach pictures today! Overall, I was not as happy with the quality of the pictures I got this trip compared to the last one. However, since we didn’t have necessarily sick kids, I spent more time enjoying the beach and the vacation as a whole. So, these posts are just full of the best of what happened to catch my eye enough to convince me to snap a picture. 🙂

Since we actually remembered kites this time, they came out several times throughout our visit.

As hard as it is with the kids, I do miss this view!

He caught it with his hands!

This sand castle was discovered down the beach, created by someone else. However, it served as inspiration for a couple of sand castles created by our party later.

The waves create such a great backdrop!

#whoisridingwhere2018 – Part 3

Water pictures! I actually went out in the water several times this trip! On the last day, Sam and I went out to the sandbar and were actually REALLY close to a group of dolphins surfing the waves; it was SO cool! Sam got a video with his waterproof camera; I’ll have to see if I can get it posted here at some point.

She is always smiling. One of the many things I love about her!

How she makes pregnancy and getting slammed by strong waves looks so regal, I’ll never know.

#whoisridingwhere2018 – Part 2

The kids are napping and/or doing time in their beds, so it’s time to put together part 2 of our lovely vacation. This post will include the wildlife – minus the random dragonfly included in the last post – namely, birds and crabs.

These birds were incredibly annoying! They would hover, about 4 feet above our heads, as soon as they realized someone had broken out some food. They seemed to take particular delight in chips, and other such crinkly-sounding, bagged food items.

So, birds stretch too. At least, that’s what I’m assuming this guy was doing.

Yes, I was once more obsessed with trying to get good shots of the surprisingly graceful pelicans. There wasn’t as much pelican activity this time, but they were still enjoyable to watch as they rode the currents over the houses and waves.

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Keep following! We get to some of the people pictures next! 😉

#whoisridingwhere2018 – Part 1

In going through, editing, and organizing the pictures from our latest, wonderful, Evans family vacation, I was having a terrible time deciding how I wanted to do this. So, I took the easier way out, and decided not to go by day or story, but rather by subject in the picture. It’s probably not quite as interesting, and it certainly won’t have quite the narrative this way, but it’ll be faster and less stressful for me, so it wins.

Part 1 includes the fewest pictures, and the ones that didn’t fit into my categories very well. Here we have my “abstracts”, the lovely house we once more called home for a week, and a random dragonfly I noticed one day.

I know this view means you’re not RIGHT on the beach, but I’ve come to love it (despite carrying loads of stuff and often one ore more kids down it!). I think it’s something about the anticipation.

Beach sunrises… I love them too much.

Life Pictures – March/April 2018

I haven’t gotten my camera out a whole lot lately, but here are a few of the best from the last month or so. We’ve been cooped up inside, waiting for Illinois to prove me wrong on the fact that it DOESN’T have 6+ months of winter. So far, it’s failing miserably, so I really should get my camera out more often in desperate attempts to stave off the winter blues (in spring…).

These two have started playing together all the time. It’s both wonderful and frustrating, since it ends in fighting, screaming, whining, and crying about 80% of the time. But I love watching their relationship grow.

That hair though…!

This girl’s eyes…!

All the Evans cousins!

A few more Jason pictures

After finally going through my camera’s pictures on the computer this morning, I realized that I have gotten seriously out of practice and that my settings were off quite a bit. However, there were a couple that were … okay. I will not say good, but good enough. I’m glad, because it is crazy how much Jason has already changed in just a couple weeks!

His hands were so big! He’s grown into them a bit now.