a taste of kara’s…

the aftermath of kara’s…

yeah. go ahead, just try and tell me those photos didn’t make you happy!

On Sunday my sister called to let me know that she and her fam, including her inlaws, were headed to San Francisco on the ferry, and would we be able to join for a few hours? I have been itching to see everyone, so of course I jumped on the opportunity. Brandon and I grabbed some breakfast and then headed to Pier 39 to meet up with the gang. Here is part I of the beautiful sunny afternoon! This post will be mostly Conor photos, and the next one will be more heavily Claire.

Ugh, don’t you want to just pinch those squishy cheeks? Also, notice the pirate ships on his sweater–there’s a skull and crossbones on the back. Christmas gift courtesy of Auntie & Uncle B.

On Friday as I was waiting for Brandon to get home (from Dallas…he just got home and now he’s going back), however, I got an itch to do a little something special this year to make the apartment feel festive.  I decided to scrounge through old photos, get out some red yarn and do a little “Valentine’s Installation.”  Top it off with a vase full of fresh flowers, and instantly the top of our bookcase turned into a very happy place.

I am more a fan of thinking of Valentine’s Day as a day to celebrate everyone you love, not just in a romantic way.  Don’t you think that’s more exciting?  What did you do to in honor of this day, whether you love it or hate it?

I am not very productive at home (too many other temptations), so I decided to head out to a nearby café, correctly making the assumption that it wouldn’t be crowded during the Super Bowl. Nook was my location of choice, and it was perfect. We were having unseasonably hot weather (read: I was in jeans, a tank top, and flip flops), so the café had all its windows and doors open. I decided on indulging in a happy hour glass of wine and (gasp) a brownie. It was my own personal super bowl party. With headphones on and my feet up, I had a glorious and relaxing afternoon. I think I may want to start my own Super Bowl tradition…I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how perfect that afternoon was…

I share my birthday with my mom (January 21) and we typically like to do something together around that time to have a joint celebration. Conveniently this year my good friend Jessi was having a birthday party the following weekend in her hometown of Santa Cruz, so I stretched my birthday celebration into two weekends by convincing Brandon we should make a weekend out of Jessi’s birthday party. For my birthday celebration with my mom, we had a Saturday filled with pampering, the wine exhibit at the MoMA, some coffee time at the rooftop sculpture garden, and then dinner on Belden Place; it was fantastic!

For the following weekend, Brandon and I rented a car and drove down to Santa Cruz where we stayed at the modern Dream Inn, right on the beach. These photos are all views from our room.

On Saturday after we arrived, we wandered along the boardwalk for a bit of nostalgia (I forgot my camera! UGH) before we headed back to our hotel room to get ready for the party. I ended up falling asleep, I guess I was lulled due to the waves crashing. When I woke up, it was sprinkling and foggy but it was a good excuse to not feel bad for just wanting to hang out in our room. We had a great time at Jessi’s party, and then headed back to our room with enough time to enjoy the hotel’s hot tub before it closed for the evening.

After our hot tub excursion, we snuggled up in our room to watch some TV and listen to the waves crash. In the morning it was drizzling and we decided to order breakfast room service to eat on our covered balcony. Luckily for us it stopped sprinkling right as the food came, so we were able to soak in some sunshine while we ate food and drank our coffee.

After breakfast the sky looked threatening, so we just sat on the bed, balcony door open and music on, listening to the waves and reading.  It was a glorious morning of relaxation!  I realized that we should do these mini-escapes more often…it was just what the doctor ordered after some hectic weeks at work.

She’s on the home stretch, and she’s starting to feel like it. The determination is setting in, but so is the organ-rearrangement and resulting fatigue.  Luckily for Erica, despite how she might feel, she looks beautiful and radiant.

The above photo on the right is one of my favorites from the day–I think it really captured her essence.

Well, our remaining shoots are numbered–we’ll probably have only one or two more before her baby boy arrives!

Especially when I tell you that this girl is 34 weeks along. With twins. Twin girls, to be exact. It’s a little more obvious from the front.

Jess is a coworker/friend of Erica. Erica asked if I’d be interested in photographing Jess, and of course I gave a resounding yes! I jumped at the opportunity and set a date to go over and take some photos to capture this time in Jess’ life. Here are the photos from the day.

I couldn’t get over how amazing she looks–so tiny and unpuffy.

I am supposed to go photograph her again next weekend, so look forward to more photos!

Okay, enough of the excuses, etc., and onto the fun stuff–I’ve been taking a black and white film photography class! It’s a 5 week class, 4 hours one day a week through City College San Francisco. It’s mainly about the darkroom, which has been really fun and exciting.

my contact sheet

We developed film two weeks ago and printed some last week. Next week we get to develop/print more, so I’m really looking forward to that. It’s been so much fun being back in the studio atmosphere, which has reminded me how much I miss that aspect of school.

I was pretty pleased with my first roll of film, and am really looking forward to taking more! I feel like the dark room is magic–you stick a blank piece of paper in some liquid and *shizzam* a photo appears. It’s very rewarding!

I’m looking forward to my next few weeks in the photo lab, and I think this has inspired me to be more bold and take more classes.

These next shots came right after I finished changing the sheets on the bed (his favorite activity):

“You’re done changing the sheets already?”

“Are you suuuuuuuure?”

Such a little stinker, but so hard to resist! Happy Friday everyone, hope you have a lovely weekend ahead!

The birthday girl at River Ranch Lodge on the way home from Tahoe

shopping around downtown

my photo taken to celebrate the sun!

the local lunch spot

Brandon and I had dinner on the roof to escape the heat of our apartment. It was glorious! The “ghost” in the righthand corner is due to me forgetting that I hadn’t wound my film. Whoopsies. That’s called exposing your roll…lesson learned. For now.