I am heading off to South America today!  Southern Chile to be exact.  I'll be out of the studio until Thursday 2/7.  My new assistant, Julie, will be here some of the time that I am away so you can still pick up orders and get some questions answered.  Hopefully I'll be able to do some blogging while I'm away and share some pictures and travels details.  OK, now I better go get my camera packed!

Back in January I went to the Professional Photographers of America national convention.  I love going every year.  They have a big trade show and we get to check out tons of new products as well as take classes and hear experts speak on various topics.  I found some great new items for my clients this year including some really beautiful new frames and albums.  I'm excited to start showing them off. 

I was also honored with an award for my new website.  The website won "Best Website" in a national marketing competition!  It was a huge honor for me.  They are also going to do a feature on great web sites for the April issue of the magazine and they interviewed me for it, very cool!

My fellow winners were Wendy Rouleau and Jeff Woods- awesome to be included in such a great group. 

After the awards ceremony we all went an after party at the Tampa Aquarium.  It was hilarious to see so many people taking pictures of the fish!  I guess that is what you get when you put a bunch of photographers together somewhere...the cameras come out!  I joined in too.  Here are some little pictures of the fish with my iphone.

I also got to meet Gina Alexander at the trade show.  Gina makes the photo handbags that I sell at the studio.  She showed us some of the new bags, which are great and I can't wait to get some sample for the studio.

Now, back at the studio, it's time to sort out all the cool & new information and get back to work!

The past few weeks have been busy!  Right after The Dog Bowl portrait sessions, I hopped on a plane to Las Vegas.  I met some girlfriends for a quick getaway.  I even won $200!  We saw the Cirque Du Soleil show, KA, which was amazing!  I really think it's one of the most creative things that I have ever seen.  If you find yourself in Vegas make a point to go see it.  Here are a few pics from the trip.

The Bellagio 

The Paris Hotel's Eiffel Tower 

the roof above the bar at the Paris hotel 

Me and Kala 

In Vegas you have to pay for everything (unless you're gambling) and that includes a view.  We opted to hold on to the extra $60 a night.  Beautiful isn't it?

Our group, courtesy of the doorman. 

We are knee deep in time change sleeplessness. Sayer came in a few minutes ago holding his stuffed shark and said, "Mommy, my tummy is growling". I thought he was asleep but I guess he was just in there playing. I can't blame him because I'm not tired either.

On our last day in California, I put Finn in his crib for nap time. He always chatters away and plays until he falls asleep. This time I heard him talking to the little stuffed dog that I had put in with him. I was calling it Phoebe (like our dog). So, I hear him saying "yook, Phoebe" and snuck up on him and this is what I saw. It was one of those awesome moments when I had my camera in hand. I was on my way to download some images so I had it on my shoulder.

a drink for Phoebe

a milk break

see, Phoebe, see!

a sweet little kiss

the kiss turned bad for Phoebe...

He always sticks his foot out of the crib railing. It's so cute. This is where I left him.

We are officially Texans again. We got back this evening at around 5 pm. The weather cooperated some so as to not send us running back. It was only in the 80's and not raining. So, this will be my next to last California post. I'm still a day behind. So, 2 days before we left we took the kids out for a ride on Amtrak. We picked up the train in Santa Barbara and took it down south to Carpinteria (the 1st stop). Here they are waiting for the train-

and the ride-

From certain parts of the route the view was amazing.

They got a kick out of the ticket guy, the conductor right?-

When we got there we walked into downtown. We went to a place to get Steven some coffee. Finn grabbed a bag and was holding it saying "my coffee!". The idea of that kid mixed with coffee is SCARY!

Finn has started this new thing. When he gets mad at you, he points at you and says "You stranger, you mean!" You know, you do your best to give them information that they need in a way that they are able to understand...sometimes it just doesn't really work the way you imagine it. That day he was pointing at some car driving by and calling it a "stranger!" It looks like this-

and then he makes this little face when he's done-

After the whole stranger thing, we took the kids to a candy store, Robitaille's, where they make most of their own candy. The kids were in heaven. They were so happy that they even had a moment of (free will) sharing!

They were allowed 3 choices each. Finn got a candy ring, a candy bracelet and a huge lollipop. Sayer got candy corns, sour ring gummy things and a Lightning McQueen pez dispenser. We walked up to the beach and they ate some of their loot. We played for a little bit and headed back to catch the train. It was a great little half day adventure. We were back in SB by nap time!

Now it's off to bed because it's back to work and school for us!