Happy Veteran's Day!

What Veteran's Day means to my 8 year old son: "Veteran's Day is a remembrance of the times all the soldiers gathered up to help protect us and to give America it's freedom."

In honor of Veteran's Day today I wanted to share one of my favorite photos that I have taken here in my new hometown in Chicagoland.

Navy Pier is my favorite place in Chicago. I really love the red, white and blue colors of it.

Some history about Navy Pier:

It was built in 1909 and has been around since WWI. During the war in 1917-1918 the Pier housed several regiments of soldiers, Red Cross and Home Defense units as well as a barracks for recruits. In 1927, to honor those who served in the U.S. Navy during World War I, Chicago changed the name of Municipal Pier No. 2 to Navy Pier. Since 1942 as many as 200 WWII planes still rest at the bottom of Lake Michigan as a result of accidents during pilot training. Today, Navy Pier is named Chicago's most popular tourist attraction, bringing in over 8.5 million visitors a year.

Happy Veteran's Day to all who have and are serving our country and to the ones who have lost their lives in the process. Thank you for the tremendous sacrifices you have made to defend us and our freedoms that we all too often take for granted!

Easter

Being the photographer that I am, I just wanted to get one cute picture of Rob and I next to the waterfall. But the next thing I know he's gone missing. I look down below the cliff and there he is standing there with a big smile on his face. I couldn't figure out how he had managed to go from right next to me on this 30 foot cliff to down below in such a short period of time. I was confused but even more than that, I was mad. Why couldn't he just stand still for two seconds so I could get my picture? But he had other ideas in mind. So my red headed temper came out and I yelled at him from way up there. And he just stood down there and laughed. The next thing I know he was back standing by next to me at the waterfall. He said I looked ridiculous standing on top of that cliff yelling. He was probably right.

Other than Rob's game of hide & seek, the day was a lot of fun. My step-dad Ross, mom, Tyler, Rob and I had drove an hour and a half out to Freeport, to visit with Ross' family. We had lunch all together and then Tyler, Rob and I headed out to the beautiful Krape park, which is where the waterfall was. Tyler also go to do an Easter Egg hunt, which to me is one of the best things about Easter (when you're a kid).

Overall it was a nice, blissful day. And btw, I did end up getting a picture of Rob, Tyler and I by the waterfall, but of us standing by the bottom instead of the top. Which I'll have to admit probably would have been a better picture anyways. :)

Here's my favorite photos from that day:

The BEST Christmas present ever

"Someday I will have a camera like that, someday."

And now I do.

When I said this, I was referring to a camera that you would see a professional photographer with. A type of camera with more buttons on it than you know what to do with. A camera that comes with a manual that looks like it could be a novel. A camera with a fancy strap you wear around your neck.

I am very lucky to have a boyfriend who listens to me. Who hears my every want and need. He's known for awhile that I've wanted a really nice camera of my own. And he made that dream come true. I am SO thankful for him and for everything he does for me. I fall more and more in love with him every day.

Here are two photos that were taken with this amazing camera. The first is of some berries in our backyard. This photo was taken from a distance, zoomed in. I think it's a pretty awesome photo, especially since I don't really know all the correct settings for outdoor use yet.

These next two photos are of my mom's Christmas tree. Rob took these two. They are completely out of focus but are absolutely gorgeous. And they go to show how amazing this camera really is.

I am so excited to welcome in 2011 with a new camera. I can't wait to take amazing photos with my new toy and to make a ton of new memories!

Our first Christmas tree

This year will be our first Christmas together. So I thought what better way to start of this holiday season than by getting a Christmas tree? It seemed simple enough. You go to the store pick out a tree. Then bring it home and assemble it.

It was going pretty well until we got to the lights. I mean really? Who designs those things anyways? There were about four different cords that you had to connect to each other just to get the tree to light up. But they had to be connected to the right one or else part of the tree wouldn't light up. The directions were useless. They didn't help at all. The whole thing seemed ridiculous because if I was the designer I would have just designed ONE strand of lights. ONE cord. But no they had to make it the the most difficult they possibly could. At one point I thought Rob was going to throw the tree across the room. Luckily he refrained. After about 30 minutes of unplugging and switching the cords and plugging them back in we finally managed to get the ENTIRE tree to light up. Well Rob did most of the work :)

Next Rob had to figure out where to put the tree in his new pad. He moved it all around his room to about 4 different locations until he finally found the one that was perfect. And since the tree had an unsightly, bright, orange extension cord hanging around the bottom, we figured that would look best covered up. Rob got the brilliant idea that the chocolate brown bathroom rug that sits around the toilet would do the job of covering the orange extension cord from around the bottom of the tree. I thought it looked ridiculous so we just settled for a brown blanket to cover the cord until my amazing mom bought us an actual tree skirt. Thanks mom! All that was left to do now was to decorate the tree. With it's shiny white beads, blue and silver ornaments, and the beautiful silver star on top, our tree was complete. And I am proud to say it looks pretty good for being a first tree. :) And now for some photos!

Here's Rob and the unsightly orange extension cord. This is before our tree is decorated as you can tell.

Rob and the tree. Still undecorated.


Me, my bear Rob got me, and the undecorated tree (the flash on the camera was on that's why the tree looks different in this photo).

And here is a photo of our gorgeous decorated tree with it's proper tree skirt. And look! It even has presents under it =)

Our first Thanksgiving

Being in a new relationship comes with a lot of "firsts".

• First date
• First kiss
• First meeting of the parents (he's met mine, I still have yet to meet his)
• First argument
• First "I love you"
• First "We"
• First trip
• First holidays.
  

One of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving. I love getting together with family and enjoying a hot home-cooked meal. And thinking about all the things I am thankful for. This year I am especially thankful to have Rob in my life. This was our first Thanksgiving together and I wanted it to be special since last year he celebrated Thanksgiving alone due to his family living in other states. So we all put on our lose pants and got ready to pig out! Everything was absolutely delicious. We over ate and enjoyed every minute of it. Here are some photos from our first Thanksgiving.

The expression on Mile's face says "Give me some turkey!!!"

The result of eating too much turkey :)

I would like to end this with a laugh. (I don't REALLY think that's all Thanksgiving is about, it's just a joke :)