good times // oak glen

A few weeks ago some of us went to Oak Glen for a nice little autumn Saturday. We had a nice time surrounded by the apple extravaganza and getting a first taste of the chilly weather fall should offer. I had my hopes set on some tomahawk throwing and archery but we didn't have quite enough time...we'll hopefully make it up there again before the end of oakie season.

Until then...



Lauren was a little bummed Brian wasn't there for her couple picture... ; )

an ode to m and m

Mister mark and lil miss megan got all dressed up in their wedding garb before they left to turn into Minnesotians in the land of Piper and Goldy Gopher. It's taken a while to get them all finished with the new job and a ridiculously slow computer, but alas they are finally complete. The day was quite enjoyable. We toolied here and there and everywhere... from lil old Redlands where gardener's are so inclined to kick my lil photographer booty off the property to laguna beach where we had many a'stares and finished off the day with BJ's (as my days somehow always do ; ). Anywho, it's been nice editing these lil guys since I don't get to see my dear friends much thanks to the two-THOUSAND miles separating us. They're beautiful people inside and out and have unshakeable character that I so admire.

Raise your glasses to mark and megan...

prego a la playa

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage"....yes I remember teasing many o friends with that one in elementry school...and it all started with 'k-i-s-s-i-n-g' haha. Well that little song is actually playing out as one of my bestest's is soon to have a lil bundle of baby boy joy. I'm so excited for her and her hubby, Dan 'the Man.' I was in their wedding a couple years ago, a marriage which the Lord has so evidently blessed. They went from thinking that they'd be moving to Oregon to ultimately buying a house a couple months ago in Beaumont, close to where my parents live. Lil Ryan is already loved by many...and I mean looooved, I added the extra o's to make my point clear. Bekah's baby shower was this weekend and the lil guy already has more stuff than he needs....no...seriously, you would've thought he has 25 grandmas all there to spoil him with the amount of stuff crammed into the living room and tumbling out of the zillions of baby gift bags colored with blue.

Well Bekah and I went down to San Diego a couple of weeks ago to visit another of our bestest's Melody who lives down there. Bekah, Mel, and I all went to the same church a few years ago but didn't really become friends until we all worked at Club JA in Redlands...okay it's not really a club it's an Aveda hair salon. We had many fun times there together and grew pretty close somewhere in between cutting foils, making appointments, and deflecting the drama of working in a salon ; ) We've continued to be the three amigos as life has shifted, Bekah now married and prego, Melody now married and moving to New Mexico (boo), and I now graduated and doing the working thang 24/7. Anywho, we went down to visit miss Mel and had a great time at the beach and then hangin down by her house at mission beach on the lil boardwalky. I brought my cam along to get some pics of Bekah's baby bump in action, which really couldn't be any cuter : )

What I did at work this week.

Soo I haven't really talked about it yet on this here lil blog but I started a "real" job three weeks ago as a Project Coordinator at PlainJoe Studios. It's a boutique studio that focuses on strategic branding, interactive media, and environmental design...basically they do a lot of really sweet stuff all the time. I'll tell you more about it all in an upcoming post and hopefully get some pictures up of how absolutely incredible the place is that I work... but for now just know I looove my job. What's not to love? They already took us on a "team building" trip to Disneyland and the owner surprised us by getting us all annual passes. Who does that?!

Anyways I thought I'd just show you all something I've had a chance to work on this past week. Basically many people in the PJS team have been working to put together 40 customized ipod touches for a client that is giving them away at an investor/launch meeting....wish you could be one of those guys? Yeah, me too. I basically put together all the packaging that was branded for this project which was really cool to see come together. My newfound photography friend, Ed, let me help photograph the swag and I managed to get the shot below. If you can't figure out the copy reference its per the one and only John Lennon's picture being displayed on the front of every box.

Welcome to college lil seester.

My one and only and bestest sister graduated high school a couple weeks ago. I'm so proud of her and all she's done and encountered through life thus far. I'm excited to see her pursue a nursing degree and know she'll make the most incredible nurse ever. Seriously, she's going to be Ammaaazing. As for the graduation, it was lotsa fun. We made a nice big Hoo-Rah! A couple of air horns and some screamin vocal chords made for nice support...the kind of rachet that every graduate hopes for. Tef received her diploma, shook a couple hands, and was glad to be moving on to the next part of life. I'm super glad for her and can only imagine what the next four or so years will bring.

Soo I have to include this side story about my Dad....just have to. My poor dad...you know how some schools release birds as some sort of attempted act to be inspirational. You can see where this is going already im sure... Well they say the lil mantra "And you will soar on wings like eagles" and they released the doves (not sure why they didn't just get eagles). Well this one bird decided to single out my dad for a little drop zone if you know what I mean. Yes, the dove dropped a turd right on him. We felt bad for him, but really no one could stop laughing.

Goin to the Chapel // Sarah and Adrian

So my dear friends Sarah and Adrian were married a couple weekends ago. Okay so when I first heard they were going to be having the wedding at First Baptist Norco I wondered how they were going to pull it off. But it turned out absolutely incredible, with style and artsy flair to match their personalities. I wish I had more pictures of all the details, but you might be able to catch those soon on Zack's blog, he was the actual photographer, I was just an imposter, actually being in the wedding party. Sarah was sooo beautfiul and Adrian was quite the dapper groom, I was glad to be a part of their day. Anywho, I am excited for the pictures I actually got in and I'm even more excited to be friends with these two as they continue on through life as the Martinez family ; )





Sorry Jordan, I should've gotten this to you before Mother's Day...would've been perfect.

Minnesota, please welcome Mark and Megan...

Soo this past weekend we threw a farewell party for our wonderful friends, the Schaaps at Jamie and Nathan's. Putting aside the sadness of them moving to Minnesota so soon, we had a wonderful 'vunderful' time. We ate a lot of yumminess ranging from smores toasted over the bbq to the same type of cake they had at their wedding...we pretty much all felt sick after the gorge fest.

To help them remember their freakin awesome friends in cali, we had a lil photo sesh with M and M of which you'll see below. For some reason Mark and Megan can rock a sad face better than anyone out there, and I was made fun of for my lack of ability...whatev. After taking our turns with the guests of honor we played spoons and another card game that was new to me called 'Mow Mow'. Now I was warned that everyone would be fighting, and if you've ever played this game you know why.

The girls were crying, the guys were brawling, and many people threw down their cards and walked out.

Okay so that didn't really happen, but It really is one of the most frustrating games in the wooooooorld! We ended the night with the cake I was talking about earlier of which we lit up with candles and serenaded them with our version of "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow." I'm pretty sure as they blew out the candles they wished that they could find friends in MN half as great as we are ; )

Stay tuned because later on this week Megan and Mark are going to get all dressed up in wedding garb and do a "Trash the Dress" sesh with me before they leave. Sooo excited.

My Gooorgeous Seester. Part Two.

Finally! Here are a few more from my sister's senior photos. My Teffie is about to graduate high school and then move on to college...It's so weird to think about how I just ended that part of my life and she's just about to begin it. I hope it's even better for her than it was for me.

I love her soo much and can't think of anyone else I love being around as much. Fretel and Gretel, Suzanne Wong, Mama Boobik, Pootie...they're just a bunch of weird words and names to all you reading, but to her and I they're fun and crazy memories that I hope we'll remember forever and still be laughing about twenty years down the road. I can't tell you how great she is...how much she teaches me. If you know her at all you know she's just about the most selfless, caring, and kindest person out there. I love her.