Then she smacks you in the face to remind you that she owns your soul.

Girls. Sheesh. Don’t let the innocent face fool you.

But…he always asks for my help.

This growing up thing? I don’t like it. It hurts my heart. And Lanie? No, not a ham for the camera. Not her!

This is the original picture, nothing done to it:

This one has a definite vintage feel to it, circa way back when. The grain + the golden tone + the vignetting around the corners add to the ‘wow, that’s old’ factor.

This one is one of my favorites. The faded yellow/blue/green tones are a throwback to the seventies, when it seemed all pictures were this color. Seemed okay at the time, right?

This is an example of what it sometimes looks like in the bright sun. The washed out, low contrast look with the yellow overtones is what happens when you play with Mr. Sun.

This is another vintage-y photo. The sepia tone + the low contrast is reminiscent of the first black and whites.

This one is a total throwback to the SX-70 camera. It was Polaroid’s first camera, circa 1972, and still has a pretty big cult following today. I love the soft skin tones and muted colors. Win!

The next few are plain black and whites. I love b&w photos because I think they can be much more emotive than a color photo, and they sometimes tell a story better.

This first one has an almost ethereal quality to it, with the glowing skin and soft contrast.

This one is less dreamy, with sharper contrast and more defined midtones and shadows.

Lastly, this one is the same as above, but I added a vignette. A vignette is the darkening around the edges. It’s a great effect because it adds focus to a particular object and draws your eye to the center of the photo. Great for taking the attention off unwanted stuff around the edges, but it can definitely be over used. You can always tell those who have just gotten into photography…they vignette everything.

I just got it out of the box. I could’ve given it to him again this year.

By the way, whoever decided that there needs to be a table for kids that included sand and water is a moron and obviously doesn’t have children.

Regardless, they loved it, and it took all of 1.4 seconds for the sand to get in the water side and vice versa. There’s no turning back now.

I decided that I would take pics of both of them, but would concentrate on Lanie this time. Poor girl’s gonna wonder some day why there are 10 billion pictures of her brother and only 3 pictures of her. Better get on it, mama.

I guess I should stand in line.

The bride and groom…I love this pic because of the way she’s looking at him. So full of love.

She’ll come around.

Seriously though, they looked amazing. We are all so lucky to have her as part of the family now. She’s wonderful! The kids looked so cute in their wedding attire: Lanie in her flower girl dress and Colton in his guayabera. I tried to get good pics, but as is customary, children do what they can to ruin any decent family photo you try to get. It’s some inherent drive for them. So now our family portraits went from nice to wrangling two toddlers while trying to maintain some semblance of prettiness, all the while trying not to sweat to death in the process.

The kids had so much fun on the beach. Jason tried to show them how to build a sand castle, but all they were interested in was knocking it down every time he set it up. Or, in Lanie’s case, she thought the sand was food and ate it. She eats everything.

It’s a problem. (Have you seen those thighs?!)

Uncle Darren and his favorite niece… Speaking of thighs, I completely understand why she isn’t walking on her own yet. I mean, come on, she probably can’t lift those puppies off the ground.

Holy thunder thighs, Batman!

We decided to hit the pool one day so Lanie could get a normal meal instead of just sand. The pools at the resort are gorgeous! I love this picture because it shows the typical family photo when you have toddlers in front of the camera.

We went deep sea fishing while we were there. I had planned to uphold my record for being the only person on the boat who caught a fish, as was the case in the Bahamas, but God had another plan. He came armed this time, it was insane. Between the four of us, we each caught at least one fish, and almost landed another in the boat. That’s a very good fishing day for four people for a few hours. Mom and I caught bonitos and Gordon landed a barracuda. They think I had a grouper on the line, but he spit it right before I could get him up to the boat. I was so mad! Jason had a lemon shark on the line, but right as one of the guys was about to gaff it, it dove under the boat and cut the line. I was so disappointed!

All in all it was a fun trip, but the next time I go on a family vacation, I’m leaving the family at home!!

All pleasantries aside, this pretty much sums up the rest of the trip…

Okay, not really.

Well, maybe a little.

Alright, totally.

The wedding was beautiful, B and D looked fantastic (of course!), and the kids looked so cute in their flower girl dress and guayabera. Unfortunately, I didn’t get hardly any pics of anything else besides the few shots I’m posting here. The shame! All in all it was a nice trip, but Lord, I need a vacation from my vacation.

Lanie and I hung out on the patio one morning while Colton terrorized J inside. The railing on the patio was just a metal rail with clear glass underneath, giving the illusion that nothing was there. Made for a great background!

Their smiles make my heart happy. *sigh*

My heart. It broke. I died.

I went right in the house and took out my very special vase that I stole (sorry, mom) from my mother. It’s a tiny vase, enough for a single flower, and it’s the same vase my mother used to put the flowers we brought her when my brother and I were kids. I love that sweet little vase, and I hope it sees many more little flowers.