Out of Office

Hi! I just wanted to let everyone know that I am leaving in a few minutes for a mini vacation. I will be back in the office on Monday, August 4th. If you send me an email or call me, I will return your message on Monday.

Have a good weekend everyone!

-Katie

Thorson Family

Last weekend the Thorson's invited me over to photograph them and to play a little.

I captured lots of cute photographs of their son laughing while they played.
I couldn't resist getting them into the water for a little splish splash fun!

Then shortly after it was swimsuit time...

Ouch...this had to have hurt.

The Thorson's are such a loving, laid back family. I just adore them!

Relay for Life

On Friday night I walked in the Relay for Life for the first time. It was an amazing experience that I won't soon forget.

The first lap around the track was designated for the cancer survivors. It was an overwhelming site to see so many people where purple shirts (that meant they were survivors) and to see how their families and friends were supporting them. Even thinking about it now makes me tear up.

Here is a picture of my ol' coworker and friend, Mitch. He was diagnosed with cancer last winter. I still look at him and think "how can someone like Mitch get cancer?" He is one of the healthiest people that I know. I mean come on, last summer he biked from Hinkley up to Duluth and back in one weekend. I definitely could not do that!
Another one of my fellow team mates lost her mother to cancer a few years ago. To honor her mother she had a luminary created for her and she carried the picture of her mother on the walk.
After the Survivor's walked the first lap, all of the teams were asked to walk. We had about 20 people on our team. It was really cool to meet so many new people and to reminisce with my ol' coworkers.
After night fell, everyone was asked to walk on the track again for a lap of silence. I had a hard time fighting off the emotions as I walked around the track while bag pipes played. It is still unbelievable to think that every luminary represents a person who either currently has cancer, is a survivor or someone that lost their life to the disease.

Team Groundhog: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the Relay for Life.

Happy Independence Day (Belated)

Independence Day is always filled with family and friends. We like to stay home for the 4th so that we can enjoy everyone around us. Jon has a tradition of spending the day with his friend Hollywood that goes back to before I even knew him. I, on the other hand, like to just go where ever the day may take me. Here are some images that I took.



We started our festivities on Thursday night by having a campfire in the backyard.

He stole all of the chocolate from us. It took a while for us to figure out where it went and when we did realize the fact that Ethan took it, he gobbled it all up.
On Friday we went to my sister's house in Zimmerman MN to watch their boat parade. We arrived to my sister's house about 30 seconds before the parade started to we threw on the kids life jackets and placed them into the boat. I didn't even have time to tell Gary (my brother-in-law) that Noah isn't a fan of motors. I guess that it didn't matter because Noah had a great time steering the boat and didn't even scared of the motor.Once night fell, we heading over to Jon's brother's (Jimmy and his wife Erin) house to watch the fireworks that are launched over Lake Orono. I decided that it was time for me to get my camera and when I returned I found Noah holding a sparkler. Instantly the owner of the sparklers said that he didn't give it to him as he pointed to Jon. I wasn't about to take it away from him because I didn't want anyone to get hurt so instead, I took a photo. I was hand holding my camera (no tripod) so I was really happy to see that I got the shot. Here it is:

Of course the big kids had to play with fireworks too...
Then the real fireworks started.

I hope that everyone had a great Independence Day and found time to remember why we are celebrating it.

Tyler and Wyatt

Tyler and Wyatt came over to have their portraits taken last weekend. During the shoot, Tyler played with my boys while I hung out with Wyatt. I could hear little foot steps running around upstairs (my studio is in my basement right now until I can find some actual space) and non stop giggling. Tyler eventually made his way downstairs so that I could get a few shots of him and his little brother.

While I was processing the images of Wyatt I kept bursting out laughing because of his facial expressions so I whipped up a little collage for my blog viewers to enjoy. Ahhh, his sweet little expressions still make me chuckle.




We decided to go outside so that Tyler could run around a little. I chased him around and played a little hide-n-seek in between taking snapping a few. He is a busy body! I love it.
Come over anytime boys. Ethan and Noah had a blast playing with you!!!

The Blog's a Changin'

I really wanted my blog to represnt who I am so Jon and I are doing a little customizing to it. We haven't done anything like this before so you might see the blog looking different over the next few weeks until we have everything fine tuned.

Dahlheimer Family

The Dahlheimer Family came over for a little studio fun. Cash had a blast playing "Naked Baby". Seriously, he loved it! I actually felt bad when it was time for him to get dressed to have pictures taken with his big sis, Elliot.

Big Sis with the little Cash...

The whole fam..It was such a nice day out that we decided to go outside for a few pictures too. I love Elliot's eyes in this one. She has the most amazing blue eyes. Lucky girl!
There is something about this image that reminds me of the 1930's. Maybe it is Elliot's pose, it looks like something Shirley Temple would do. Anyways, I love how the sun is freckling the image and how Elliot looks.