anniversary continued in las vegas

i had mentioned that our anniversary celebrations were extended over two weekends, with work in between. dale planned a fun getaway to las vegas. aleah came with us again this year (we can't leave her yet). we left friday and came home on monday. short but very sweet!

baby slept part of the way, then woke up and spent at least an hour trying to get her sandals on (herself, no help, thanks anyway)...

after checking into our hotel, our first stop was the mgm grand to see the lions. we were able to see some cubs too (no pictures of them).

next we walked down to the bellagio, where we saw some beautiful displays. there was colorful glass on the ceiling, carousel horses, flowers and fountains.

outside we watched the pretty water display. there were so many new sights for aleah, she never took a nap. we tried to go back to the hotel for a short nap, but she wasn't interested. we joined sarah and whitney and went to the fremont street experience in the older section of las vegas. she finally fell asleep...exhausted.

on saturday we went to the venetian.

we ate a yummy breakfast at an adorable cafe.

and had a fun time together.

we all loved the indoor gondolas!

and the pretty displays throughout...

one of us really wanted to take a swim in the fountain, but it was time to move on.

the paris also offered some beautiful decor:

then we took a walk over to caesar's palace. again, playing with her sandal. we were lucky to come home with them both! after a good walk in 100 degree sun, this gelatto looked pretty good, but none of us was hungry :(

aleah liked looking at the fish.

and we were impressed with the fashionable displays at the forever 21 store. wow!

we returned to the hotel and aleah spent the evening with sarah and whitney shopping, swimming and playing while dale and i had a fun night together. we had dinner at ruth's chris steakhouse, saw blue man group, and got a gorgeous view of vegas venice from a different perspective on the gondolas. oh yeah, and had gelatto. what a memorable anniversary for us.

and then it was sunday and time to return home, so take the hairdo out!

kamee june photoshop workshop

last week i had the great pleasure of participating in a photo shoot and photoshop workshop with kamee june. it was simply awesome! the workshop was organized by amanda schiavi and stylized by jessica frederick. we had an adorably gorgeous and patient model, alyssa sanchez. i am still trying to sort through the many concepts i was introduced to, in addition to reading my enormous photoshop manual. i don't know where to turn first, but it is all so fun to learn. here are a few of my favorites (there were many!!) thank you kamee!

start of our third anniversary

this year, due to work schedules, we didn't plan anything long or far away but we decided to spread the fun over a few weekends. it started on saturday at 4:30 am (that's right!), when we drove to temecula for the annual balloon and wine festival. the clouds were unexpectedly low at the 6:00 am start time, so the coordinated launch scheduled didn't happen as planned. we were still able to see some amazing balloons launch right in front of us and the sky filled with 30-40 hot air balloons.

did you guys see what's over there?

i so wished the sky had been a beautiful blue. the balloons were amazing colors.

we watched one balloon fill up with hot air right in front of us. we weren't sure it was the prettiest balloon because it was all brown, but when it fully inflated, we understood!

smoky the bear :)

after a bit we went to paul's house (my first time). we walked around and admired the beautiful view.

we went for breakfast and then in the car we started teaching aleah some new words. she liked the word "pot" for some reason. daddy started naming everything rhyming with "pot", like "hot", "tot", "cot"...she thought it was hilarious. so funny!

after lunch dale took us to a beautiful lake park. we walked around there for a good bit, taking in the beauty of the day.

we stopped at the park to swing, slide, and ride.

we smelled flowers along the way, and every flower was given the same respect.

we are so happy with the man who makes our lives so complete.

there were fun rocks to sit on and practice balancing on.

daddy got a turn with the camera.

we both loved this one! she was clinging to my legs and i focused in...then picked her up!

after the park we looked at some amazing cows. check out the horns on these animals! i really felt sorry for them actually.

next we went shopping, then we all took a snooze in the car until it was time to head back to the balloon festival. it was very packed with people but we were still up close to all the balloons as they lit up the sky. it was dramatic. what a fun day and night we had :)