Family Pictures with the amazing Mia Reed

Mia Marisa Photography

Mia has taken our family pictures for 5 years in a row. It is wonderful to see my family grow through her lens. We count our lucky stars that we get to continue this tradition with her.

We take a lot of pictures as a family so when we hunker down for professional pictures, I like to do something more than ordinary. Be it a new and awesome location, a theme with what we wear, or bringing out the fancy threads. This year, we met at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. There's a dress I bought last year to wear to a charity dinner that I didn't end up going to. I hadn't had a chance to wear it and thought it would be fun to theme our pictures around the dress.

I took HeaBug to the salon where she got her first hair trim from our beautiful friend Rose! HeaBug LOVED the VIP treatment.

I got my makeup done by Lucy Starr at the M.A.C. Store in Cerritos. I showed her the dress. I told her she was free to go as dramatic as she liked. I told her where we were doing our pictures. And I sat nice and still. She did a great job, it was definitely dramatic and it kept freaking Mr. B out as we drove up to Santa Barbara. He said it was nice but I didn't look like the regular me (that was the point) and that he likes how I look everyday. Love. That. Man.

We didn't want to have everyone ride up in their nice clothes so we rode up comfy and literally changed in the car in the parking lot. A few elements that I'd originally thought of, I forgot to execute because we were a little frazzled. The light was quickly fading and though it was sunny our whole drive north, the clouds got a little fierce once we passed Sunnylands.

Mia is magic and talent though. This was a super fun shoot.

Love her. Thanks for these.

LB Marathon weekend, I am a beach bum

We have been juggling through October. Trying to manage work (so much work), school/volunteer obligations, kid schedules/sports/activities, home and the Dodgers. 

Over the second weekend of October, JT ran the Aquarium Kids 1 mile Run for the 3rd consecutive year, (Here is 2011 and Here is 2012) HeaBug had her first in-house gymnastics meet, and Mr. B and I ran the Long Beach International Half Marathon.

Dads were unable to get away from work this morning (last year they biked the course) but the rest of us Booths made our way to downtown for the kids to participate in the run. JT came in 5th in his age group!

HeaBug participated in an In-House gymnastics meet. It was the first in a monthly series of three meets to acquaint the girls with the process and experience of competing. There were 4 events, Bars, Beam, Vault and Floor. These little gymnasts were so super cute!! She did a great job!

Mr B got home about 10:30 at night, we were out the door by 5:30am. Greek yogurt and red bull for breakfast.

We prepaid to park in the parking structure at the Pike. After finding a spot on the roof, we made our way down to the starting line. The waves took off at scent intervals. In truth I didn't even care if we were late, I was just so glad to be hanging out with my favorite person. 

I paced Mr B for about 3 miles and we made good time, about 9:30 minutes per mile. Then came the Powerade table where we kind of got separated. He was ahead of me, now following an old Asian man in an orange running club jersey but I had them both in my line of sight. At the mile 4 loop I had to stop to use the restroom and lost them both. At 5.5 I finally texted Mr B that running separately was not the date I had in mind. He stopped following orang shirt man and waited for me as I rounded the lighthouse. We then ran together until mile 7 when he got a horrible hamstring cramp! We pull over to stretch it out and as he does, there's ANOTHER cramp! This time on his quad. Poor guy. I know they can be so painful. We slowed our pace down a lot and did most of the rest at a walk some/jog some. Mr B kept telling me that I could go ahead but this run was about getting to be together and while I am pretty competitive, I'm not a PR chaser either. My goal for any/every race is Just Don't Die. And to finish of course.

We crossed that finish line at 3 hours on the money. Earlier when trying to convince/encourage Mr B to participate with me, I said I'd drink the free beer with him at the end. We don't drink anymore, aside from sips of champagne at a wedding or swishes or wine at a food pairing, for a variety of reasons but mostly for our health. But I'll tell you, something about sitting in that beer garden, live music and tires from running a half marathon, elated from doing something I love with someone I love, drinking our free ice cold Michelob Ultra while eating cheez-it's and a rice krispy treat from the post race bag... Well, it's going down in my mind and my favorite post race moment to date. 

We made our way to Johns first, limping in and ready to order the chili fries that we earned just burning through and estimated 1800 calories... We ended up with a chicken club and a Greek salad. Live life on the edge right?! Lol.

He enjoyed lunch with me and then this guy, he went back out to the job site Rock Steady was working on. 

Kudos to Mr B for running a half marathon on no training.

He is crazy.  He is amazing and I am glad every single moment of the day that I'm his girl. 

Reflections Art: Top of the Hill

J.T. entered into the National PTA Reflections Art program with another photography entry this year. Well it was really last year since entries are due in October.

Almost a whole school year later, we found out that he won the Award of Excellence (aka 1st place) for his division and category in our school district.

This is so exciting. He was thrilled!
This is his SECOND time winning this honor. Last year he won with a piece called "One Mile Shoes". Mr. B joked that he is going to have to branch out past taking pictures of shoes.

Here he is at the Reflections Event.

 

This is his winning entry. The theme was "The Magic of a Moment".

Last year, we went for a run together and on that day, he used my phone to capture this image. His artist's statement read: 

The magic of a moment is when you are climbing a hill and you finally get to the top. 

So young, so deep... sometimes.

 Congratulations J.T.

Love these kids

 JT got a mohawk. Mr. B rocked a faux-hawk. It was cute. For a week. By the second week, I was determined that they both needed the rest of the haircut.
These guys. Love them.

 In our cleaning and organizing of the garage, HeaBug found her brother's old leapster. She was quite content to pull up a spot on the floor and play her new "game". Pexie, our almost 3 year old rottweiler, thought it looked like a good idea. They were camped here for almost and hour. Love these girls.

My sister-in-law sent me this pic of our Kalani Man. It's so hard when a part of your heart is growing up on the east coast but we love getting a steady stream of picture updates and thanks to Facebook and texting, we enjoy getting to watch him grow up. We are SO excited that he (and his mama and auntie) will be coming out to visit us for a week this Summer!! Love this boy.

St Joseph's Parish Fair

Spring nights. On this particular Saturday, it was nearing bed time but we'd gone out for a late dinner at Fusion Sushi. This amazing, lit up, no joke, school/church carnival had taken up residence for the weekend near the house. We passed it every day that week on our routes to and from school. They were obviously excited. I'm never too excited about huge crowds, price gouging and "Carnies". But thanks to us having been together for so long thus giving the ability to silently communicate (with the help of eyebrows and eye shifting), we agreed we'd surprise these munchkins with a trip to the Parish Fair. 

 And thrilled they were!! What? It's 8:30 Mom. You guys are the best ever! You mean we don't have to go home right now? We can go on rides?

Mr. B did have to climb into the kiddie fun house to retrieve Ms. HeaBug. She got scared and got stuck. She wouldn't budge. Dad rescued her. 

 Flying swings, little coasters, ferris wheels... All of which cause little knots in my stomach but I pushed that to the side in favor of allowing them to experience this fully.

 Bumper cars for Mr. B and JT. HeaBug didn't reach the height requirement so she played a $3 game to win a pink monkey that was cheap and cheesy and totally made her night.

 JT's face says it all for me. This is how I feel at the top of a ferris wheel on in a sky bucket or on a ski lift... But I kept a smile on my face and encouraged them to do so too. Once they got over the initial, WHOA... They soaked it all in with delight. (Mr. B laughed at me the whole time.)
It's great to live in such a big city and still access this small community living. Love me some LBC!