Thailand!

I am back from Thailand! Tell me... how is it possible that our elephant whisperer captured this picture? Amazing, and it was with our wonderful new, slow, point and shoot camera (I had to buy a new one the day I left cause I lost our old one... :( This is my favorite shot and I think even Brian is smiling. And Elaf doesn't look so skinny from this angle. That's what we named him, Elaf. Below, Brian has a monkey on his back... Tony. He was a friendly monkey who took a liking to Brian. He sat on several people's backs and Brian was just one of the lucky ones he chose to sit on for a while (he was probably there for about 20 minutes while we hiked through the jungle). He liked to suck his thumb.
That's Brian inspecting some fruit he plucked off the tree. Our guide was explaining what it was. If you look closely you can see Tony eye-balling it. Brian took one bite before Tony snatched it from him with his ridiculously long arms.
That's them again. Both happy after their snack.
This elephant in the background was a bit pushy. He stole a bushel of bananas out of someone else's chair and he was at that moment coming after ours... Kind of odd to have an elephant trunk sniffing around your back. Kinda like a really weird harmless snake.
That's us in all our sweaty glory :)
This table was at the Elephant place. It was HUGE. Seriously. Ginormous! Take note of how Brian's feet aren't even touching the ground...
We also went on an ox ride. Pretty cool. I really just like this picture cause the guy behind me was clearly unprepared :) Ha!
Doesn't this make you want to get a foot massage?
These shrine things were everywhere. This was taken while we were on a ferry heading to Ko Sichang.
And the food.... oh so good! Spicy yes. But I loved it! I really love curry. I had never had it before moving to Japan and it is now a new favorite! I almost like it more than Mexican food... I told Brian that and he then asked me who I was and what I did with his wife!
Our last night together we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe because well, they had RIBS! Last time I had ribs was in America and that is WAY too long ago. Scratch that, I have made ribs at home once or twice, but there is something tastier about it when you don't have to do the work. Brian of course could not pass up the brownie sundae on the menu. I was already full so we got it on the condition that he would eat most of it. As you can see below, that was not much of a problem...
He was double fistin' it at the end.
Overall it was a great trip! It was so awesome to see Brian and we had a really great time together exploring and doing fun things. I must say though that Pattaya is not exactly anywhere I would recommend going. It is kind of the butt crack of Thailand, or the Tijuana of Thailand. We did not get to any beautiful beaches and everything was kinda smelly and dirty. Lots of bars and prostitution. Lots of people trying to get you to pay more than you should for stuff. I definitely want to visit Thailand again someday, but I want to see Phuket. I had my fill of Pattaya. Oh, and just to let you know all these pictures are from our happy snappy. All other pics were taken on Brian's camera and he has all those images with him.

Spring!

Ok, yes posting is not so good lately. here are some shots from Spring though! It seems to have come and gone already! May is about half over! For a while I was going out and shooting for fun at least once during the week, but this last week or two I kinda stopped. I was realizing though that I really love the light and softness right at dusk.

Time is going by pretty quickly despite the fact that I am trying to hang onto it and make it last. half the fun is getting there, and though I don't know where "there" is, I know we are always on our way to something right? We officially have 3 months left in Japan and I am trying to enjoy every last bit of it. I can't wait for Brian to get back so we can really get in all our last minute exploring. We are still trying to find Shugo a way home (to Sacramento) before it gets too hot. If anyone is interested in being his chauffeur let me know! If it comes down to it I just might fly him back myself... I am trying to avoid that though.

The Espenscheid Kids

These are the Espenscheid kids. We had some beautiful weather on Sunday and luckily there wasn't too much of a crowd at Mikasa Park. I photographed these kids before in studio and the little girl (I am not even going to attempt to spell her name) she was a tough one last time. However, this time... different story. She was super cute and lots of fun. Her brother K (also not attempting to spell his name...) was a little more shy this time, but he did good. He was definitely dodging the camera every chance he got though :)

Jack and Jenn

This is Jack and his mom Jenn. The above picture of Jack is BY FAR my favorite of the entire weekend. I just can't look at it without busting up laughing! It is classic Jack, but it also reminds me of the movie Elf when they have Will Ferrel on the news walking through the woods... hilarious! I seriously love it. Jenn helped me with this weekend's Portrait Party and also with the last one. She is Cuppy Cake Sweetie Pie and she makes some of the coolest and tastiest things ever. Very creative girl, AND she does it all with this little guy running around stealing her strawberries and frosting :)





This was seconds after a "meltdown". Clearly he was faking :)

The Stark Girls

These are the Stark girls. I LOVE the shot above. It is very real and natural and Trinity's eyes look amazing. Justus, below, was a little firecracker :) She busted out some awesome little model poses and I was laughing so hard I almost didn't snap the shots. SO awesome. I don't remember her age, but when such a young little girl does little poses like that it is just about the cutest/funniest thing you have ever seen. We didn't even ask for it, she just did it on her own which made it even better. They were great :) A cute bunch of girls. Simple and fun, just what I like!

I really like the shot below, it is just very sweet.

The Jones Family

This is the Jones family. They came out to Kannonzaki on Saturday and it was a BEAUTIFUL day. Lots of people at the park, but we had no troubles getting awesome shots :) They are such a sweet family and so fun to photograph! And Melissa GREAT job with the colors! I LOVE them :)


The above and below shots I think are my two favorites. Very relaxed and fun.


Awww... sisters :)

The smile below is a smile that only a puppy can bring out :) Lacey was getting a bit tired of pictures in the end and was ready to be done, but lit up when she saw a little doggy, it was great!
She has the most awesome blue eyes EVER! I did not do a thing to them in photoshop. That is all natural :)