Alysia + Michael: Engaged!

I remember the night she called me at midnight.

I was sitting next to Ben on my mom's sofa when the theme song from Bewitched started playing on my phone. When I looked down, I saw her name and immediately assumed she was calling to tell me someone had died. Or some other terrible tragedy.

She was in tears, but they weren't tears of sadness. They were tears of joy.

"Michael proposed. We're engaged!" She said.

I screamed on cue. And Ben went deaf.

Alysia and I have been best friends since we were three. We were inseparable until middle school, when I moved to a different town, and therefore, a different school. Our families became each other's families because all of our extended families are spread across the country. We still do Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter dinner together every year.

Having grown up together, I always knew that whoever "caught" Alysia would be very lucky indeed. I loved every second we spent together, playing Barbies, getting in trouble, having sleepovers.  She was the reason everything was fun. She was adventurous and brought everyone along for the ride. And I wasn't the only one who wanted to join in. In second grade, on the playground, she had all of the boys following her, crawling on hands and knees, as her wolf pack. Of which she was the leader, and could get them to do anything she wanted.

Michael is her perfect mate. He shares in her humor. He loves playing Settlers of Catan with her younger brother, or really any board game with anyone. Which is fortunate, because that's what we do after said holiday dinners. He spent months searching for the perfect ring - one that didn't sit up too high and wouldn't poke through the latex gloves that Alysia wears every day at work. He provides for her and their sweet puppy, Zoie. Next to Michael, Alysia loves dogs more than anything else. Without him, she said, they wouldn't have been able to train and care for the love of their lives, their furry child.

Michael fell in love with Alysia and together they are embarking on the best adventure of their lives.

I was fortunate enough to grab them for a hot second during my recent trip to San Diego. When they first moved to California, they lived in La Jolla, five minutes from the shores. Michael proposed on the beach there, so we decided to head to the ocean for their engagement pictures!

To Alysia and Michael: I cannot wait to be a part of your wedding! You two are so special and you have a best friend in each other. Thank you for letting me be a small part of it...and you are certainly the most "unique" and beautiful couple I know!

Ocean City

Well, hello, September!

It's a new month, so I'm treating it as a new beginning. I guess it's not really new anymore, being 13 days old, but since I just got back from vacation where time doesn't matter, it's new to me. I didn't really get to ring it in because I was pretending time was standing still.

And then I got home and all of a sudden it wasn't standing still anymore. Somebody hit the fast forward button, and I'm pretty sure I didn't approve it. But I guess that's how I usually live life...in the fast lane.

Except that I'll be trying to catch up for a little while here. And that's actually a good thing. Take my word for it.

I've been working on these for a while. The funny thing about sitting on pictures for some time is that when you take a look back at them, you realize that they may not have been as awesome as you thought because you've grown as a photographer since a month ago when you took them. Oh, you say that hasn't happened to you? Okay, well, that's what happened to me. So you'll just have to forgive these and come back to see the better stuff that came out of my camera afterwards.

I haven't been to Ocean City in y.e.a.r.s. Until a month ago. And the boardwalk has yet to change. Ah, a constant.

I also recently discovered that I have a thing for photographing fire hydrants. Maybe I'm destined to be a dog in my future life??? Let's hope not, for the fire hydrant's sake.

And now come my favorites from this round. Here I present you my future family, who are way too much fun and will always be infinitely cooler than me. Good thing though, because I am inherently boring and need some sparkly people to remind my old-ladyish self that I'm 24, not 84.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, is hotter than a good Zoolander face. Remember this sage advice the next time you're having your picture taken, and it can not possibly turn out any other way than good.

Oh and did I mention we were on a boat? Yep. See, they make me cool.

You can't leave the beach without finding that perfect shell! I think we got it this time.

A rock skipping pro...

I was incredibly grateful to be able to get away for this mini vacay, and to spend time with the most wonderful future family a girl could ask for!

Weekend Plans

Last weekend we were lazy. The evidence is in the post below.

This weekend, we are jam-packed full o' fun. Saturday will be filled with festivities for a good friend's wedding (and you know there will be pictures to come!). From the wedding, we will go directly (not passing go, although $200 might be nice) to the beach for some R&R and family time. Again, there will (hopefully) be some photographic evidence of all this crazy fun.

And my plans for fun on the beach include those three beautiful library books on the right in the picture above. Aslan, however, has no place in my plans, but decided he needed to be in my picture and wouldn't get out, even when I asked politely. I even tried to tell him I was going to pick the ugliest picture of him and put it on the blog, but he just looked straight at me and refused to take a bad one. *Sigh*

Oh, and if you look closely (and my pride secretly hopes you don't), you'll see the words Sweet Valley on the spine of one of those books. Yes, it is exactly what you think it is. I don't know what you did with your summers as a kid, but my sister, my best friend, and I all spent them reading the Sweet Valley Twins series. Jessica and Elizabeth took us on the best adventures...and I'm pretty sure they were the reason we completed the summer reading challenge EVERY summer at the local library. When I saw this on the "NEW" shelf at my local library today, I hesitated before deciding it might just be the perfect beach read. If nothing else, it will take me back to those sweet summer days of no school and hours to spend in an imaginary world where a set of blond twins were my best friends.

Cheers to a fabulous and relaxing weekend!