Countdown is ON!

Greg and Andrea did just that – they headed to Vegas for their ceremony, then asked us to join them back at their reception here in Bloomington. And of course we were excited! For us, some of the most chaotic parts of the day occur directly before and after the ceremony. Setting lights, staging and placing family members for formal portraits, hanging on each spoken word by the minister…watching so carefully to not miss a moment. Then gathering the bridal party together and trying to convince them to get into position for all of our crazy ideas …all of those little things that are so critical for our role. As guests fill the reception hall, we usually kick into race mode and try our best to beat the clock and nail as many great shots as we can. And…as I’m sure any photographer would say…there just never seems to be enough time You always wish that you had another five minutes to spare.

However! Receptions, on the other hand, are one of the best parts of the wedding day for us – it’s usually when we get to step back into the shadows and let the bride and groom really shine, all while capturing their memories in the making. Gone are all of the little bits of fear and stress – and the worry that comes with trying to make everything ‘just right’. At this point, it’s simply time to step back, let the music get our blood pumping and just have fun in doing what we love.

Amanda: My mom wanted a few pictures of herself. It has been… well a long time… that she’s had her picture taken. She’s getting her groove back and us kids couldn’t be happier for that. So we went out for about a half hour and caught the most gorgeous light.

DAY 4

It’s amazing how driving from the northern side of town to the southern side can create such drastic changes in the landscape. The further south you go, the scenery begins to change from open, rolling foothills to a rocky red terrain. The two different places we visited were Deer Creek Canyon Park, which surprisingly did have deer out roaming about, and Red Rocks Park, home to a huge amphitheater built into the side of a mountain.

Throughout the whole day, we walked and walked and walked. We’d start on a trail and just keep going until we were exhausted and dying of thirst – only to realize that we had to make the entire journey back to our car. Even Biscuit started to slow down and trudge along by our side. But, looking back at the photos makes us wish we could do it all over again – there simply isn’t anything else like those trails here in central Illinois. Overall, it was a perfect ending to our short little vacation

The ground here was a bright red clay color – perfect for turning little dog paws into a mess-making machine inside our rental car. Oddly, there was also quite a bit of snow to be found, even though we were hiking in 80 degree temperatures…and had spent the entire week in the upper 70s.

Right here is quite possibly, the happiest we have ever seen Biscuit. I don’t know what it is about a muddy, red-colored stream in the middle of nowhere, but for a good five minutes straight, he went nuts and started running up and down the hill in circles, jumping and galloping all over the place. And to follow it up, gave us one really happy and proud “look at me” pose to top it all off.

All of these rock formations look really small until you actually stand next to one.

ABOVE: LEFT - We debated for a good ten minutes over the little “drawing” of a man in this picture. It almost looks like a cave painting with the way it has been stained. Can you see it? It’s right in the middle of the picture. ABOVE: RIGHT - I’m not really sure what sort of animal lived in these little nests – maybe bats, or some type of bird?

If you look closely, there’s a herd of deer out in the middle.

This area is part of the Red Rocks Amphitheater. The picture to the right shows the walkway that leads up to where concerts are held.

I would love to attend a concert at this place when it opens for the summer – it must sound amazing.

DAY 2 (CONT)

Going horseback riding was at the very top of our list while we were out in Colorado. But, unfortunately since we had Biscuit with us, it proved to be much harder to actually do. So needless to say, this ranch turned out to be a perfect ending to our day. The boundaries seemed to stretch almost as far as your eye could see and the owner (who happened to drive by at the same moment we were there) said it’s a place where people can board their horses and give them free roam out in the countryside.

DAY 2 (CONT)

The snow here was completely untouched, expect for a few small animal prints here and there. It was a perfect setting.

This would have been the perfect Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Since our own car has a little over 120K miles, we decided to rent a vehicle for the trip. With so much mountain driving, we didn’t want to run the risk of breaking down in the middle of nowhere. And needless to say, after being a Ford family, this little Chevy Cruze was a pleasant surprise. It was fully loaded with leather, blue-tooth – the whole works. Even better, it was rated at 38mpg Impressive since gas prices just so happened to rise to the $4 mark at the same time as our trip. It was more than worth every penny.

A specific picture goal: Get a shot where a tree is growing out of the rocks. We would have climbed clear up to the tree, but we chickened out about halfway through after noticing what could have easily been an animal’s den. With Biscuit in tow, the last thing we wanted was to have something coming after us When we entered the park, the ranger specifically told us to be careful where we took our dog, since elk and other animals don’t mind defending their own territory. …and because of that, we were technically suppose to keep from straying too far from the main roads.

Finally, on our way back down, we had our first true wildlife spotting We watched this herd of elk come down from the mountain above and into the valley below.

And, just in case we didn’t get our filling of seeing elk the first two times, another herd making their way down into Estes Park as we headed out.

 DAY 2 (CONT)

The entire way up, our eyes were glued to the trees. We were just waiting and hoping to see any kind of wildlife-elk, bighorn sheep, even bears. But, sadly, other than a few foot prints here and there, nothing stood out.

I don’t know why, but I just really liked this rock. The green was almost neon.

Biscuit making his presence known in the untouched snow

We definitely don’t travel ‘light’. For almost the entire trip, at least one of us had a camera in hand and ready to go…sometimes even two.

We were so happy to bring Biscuit…and we’re pretty sure he felt the same way.

To be continued (again)…

DAY 2

When we started the morning, Denver was warming up into the high 70s, but by the time we climbed up in elevation (7,522 feet) and finally reached Estes Park, it was somewhat breezy and cold.  I think that’s helped by the fact that Estes Park sits down in the valley, right next to Lake Estes.

The scenery here was perfect, and the entire reason why we wanted to visit Colorado. We technically spent our entire day between Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, but we have to break the day up into multiple posts because we took so many pictures. It would have taken forever to scroll through them all

Biscuit, back in the water again. I think we’ve learned from this trip that he was made for water .

Estes Park is known for being home to various elk that come down from the mountains to visit.

On the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park – heading up.

To be continued…