mom's kids: family pics

We recently got family pictures taken of my grandmother's, Mom, side of the family. (That always throws everyone: we call my mother Mommy and my grandmother Mom, just to clarify.) Anyway, we hadn't had family pictures taken since before Kelly was born so since she's now 11, we thought it was about time. Eric Von Lehmden took our family pictures and we love them! Thanks Eric! Here are some of my favs:

The Roses:

The Garritys:

The Kochs:

atx: kelly's birthday + family pix

Two days after landing back in the good ol' US of A we headed down to Austin for some family pictures with Mommy's side of the family and to celebrate sweet Kelly's 11th birthday. It was tiring to travel again so quickly (bless Ryan for putting up with my crazy scheduling) but it was so fun getting to spend a weekend with the whole fam in Austin!

The puppies always crack me up when we drive... sorry for so many road trip pictures of them! We were in Jim's Yukon this time and it really threw them for a loop.

 

On Saturday, we went on a hike through Lakeway to scout out some good spots for the family pics. It was fun to spend time with my cousins and family outdoors and I was being (probably somewhat annoyingly) nostalgic about all my friend's old houses in Lakeway.

Daddy spiced things up with a jumping picture and Rob, the monkey, climbed several trees.

Rob and Kevin thought this might be a cute pic opp... we turned that one down pretty quickly. But make them pose for it.

That night we had pizza and ice cream cake and played games and watch Kelly open her birthday presents.

 

After presents, Jill, Mommy, Mom, Kelsey and myself had to figure out what everyone was wearing in the pics the next day. After an hour or so of discussion (debate) we landed on the below (which really came out great in the pictures). 

Then it was time for more games, or naps...

Here's a few I snapped during the shoot. The family pictures really did turn out great, thanks so much to Eric Von Lehmden! 

ooohhh mexico...

Mexico 2013: fun.

It was a VERY early morning to fly out of DFW, but we were excited...

to get to Paradise!!!

Ryan was able to get some reading time in on the beach, but only a little. Most of the time Brandt kept us all busy playing sand volleyball, pool volleyball, frisbee, snorkeling or just goofing around.

Our first night, we had a delicious dinner at the French restaurant. Brandt tried escargot for the first time and loved it, he enjoyed 2 orders and later got 3 creme brulees for dessert. 

We played a lot of sand volleyball during the week we were in Cozumel. We got close with one of the activity coordinators, Julio, and had a standing 11am game. This is also where we met several of the couples we made friends with. Meredith wasn't super into the volleyball, so she had fun getting some action shots and laying out during our games.

On our last day, Julio took us snorkeling. We had gone a few times on our own, but he knew where the lobsters and sting rays lived and wanted to show us. It was beautiful down there and always amazes me how much wildlife is so close to the shore.

For our last night, we got together with our new friends for drinks while the sun set, dinner, and more drinks after. The resort was not very full (I think they said something like 23% capacity) that week and so that night we pretty much took over the restaurant. I felt bad for the few other people who were there, but we had a blast! Dinner turned into a family style meal, we pulled 4 or 5 tables together and the wait staff just brought us big plates of everything that was on the menu that evening.

On our way back home, we got delayed for several hours in Houston. It wasn't the end of the world, but I was ready to get home to see this sweet face and her brother!

We had so much fun, but it was definitely good to see the pups and be back in our own bed. I think they missed me too! We let them sleep with us that night and they both had a paw on me!