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.

Totem, a Cirque Show at the Port

We have been spending so much time working that getting in that quality family time has been a bit of a struggle. BUT weeks ago I purchased tickets to go see a traveling Cirque Du Soleil show that was in San Pedro. I figured if we had tickets, we had to go.

The kids (really JT) were not looking forward to it. They had to wear nice clothes and the show didn't start until 8. They have been to see one other cirque show, O at the Bellagio.

The ushers were great and gave both kids a booster seat for their chair so that they could see better. It was an AMAZING show!! Poor HeaBug, she was so tired, at intermission she said she was just going to rest her eyes... She knocked out and missed the 2nd half! Poor thing.

It was a great family date night and the kids (really JT) were thrilled to have gone!

Taking our monkey kids to the San Diego Zoo

Months ago we decided thy we wanted to take a camping trip with our friends in the fall. That weekend fast approached and between work and family and school we just couldn't make it happen. Resigned on getting our families together still for some quality time, we headed down to San Diego to the zoo!

What a fun day, there was so much to see and we didn't even cover a third of it! It was all kinds of good fun though and afterwards we found a spot to grab a jammin' dinner!

I think anytime I include the Mabry Ohana in my blogs I talk about how cool it is that we were friends as girls and then as women and adults and how awesome it is that our families are friends. I love that we include each other in our lives. Mabry + Booth = lalalove

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.