Here’s where Matt works. St Thomas’ Hospital from the back faces Parliament/Big Ben. That’s what he stares at all day…when he’s not furiously rushing around, interrupting groups of sweet old ladies (which are discussing the plans for the upcoming royal wedding) to talk about their meds. It’s pretty sweet. (I feel like he should be wearing a batman backpack and hold a brown lunch bag with jelly stains on his face in this pic)

After this shot, we walked around back of the hospital to get this shot. We felt all of you really needed to see us rather than the beautiful setting behind us. Appreciate it.

The lovely panorama…

The next two: Westminster Abbey.

You’ll notice i don’t take a lot of full shots of places. Its usually because I get fixed on one thing I like and can’t walk away. For me it was the door and windows here wondering who all has walked through this exact door.

A sweet statue outside of Buckingham Palace. My buckingham shots will have to be shared another time. Too many people. Ick. looked all touristy in my shot.

About 20 minutes later, still at buckingham palace.

Westminster Bridge at night with a perfectly timed bus, human (in front of the eye), and london eye lit up.

5DmkII, 35 mm 1.4L, handheld  at ISO 100, f/2.8, shutter 0.5 sec…in case you’re curious.

Shot from the very front of the second level of a double decker. I thought we were going to squash people everywhere on every turn.

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We left London on 12/26 for France. Took the train. I Sudoku’d for 2 hrs. I’m seriously good at these puzzles. I challenge any of you to a Sudoku-off. (i will most likely win….if you don’t have professional sudoku experience). Lets make a note here that THIS is when I started getting sick. It lasted exactly the duration of our week-long road trip. Such is life.

(Forgive me because there’s a TON of stops and sleeps missing in here. I don’t want to overwhelm you. I’ll be making an album of the entire trip and am happy to share if you’re ever DYING to see it all. And, of course if you need recommendations on places to stay for a trip like ours, I’m your girl)

Here are a few faves from our trip to France…

Matt, sleepy. With dirty hole-y socks.

The train…

LOVE this one too.

White pigeon flying through the train station…

Notre Dame…

Book stands along a street in Notre Dame…

My MOST FAVE photo from this entire trip. This little girl had bread in her hands and the birds came flying in! So happy to take a photo of a human being and not a landscape for a change:) I wish it wasn’t awkward to walk around taking photos of people you don’t know.

When I think of the Eiffel tower, I think of all the street vendors.

It was heavy…

Our French family, the lovely Kishbaugh’s. They were so kind to let us stay with them.

Carl bought some chestnuts roasting on an open fire…

Inside Galeries Lafayette…

Then we got a car and I had my first Autobahn (sp?) experience. (if you didn’t go AT LEAST this speed you were hazardous)

Then came Germany…and our desperate attempts to translate dinner menus. We did alright

I got Putenmedaillons vom Grill. The only word i knew was “pommes frites” because they say the same in France. Means fries. That’s honestly the only reason I ordered it. The entire dish came out super yummy!

We steered clear of big cities for the most part and drove on roads we struggled to find on the maps. It lead us to places like this…

(sometimes “no plan” is the best plan:)

We took a SUPER tiny and slightly dangerous snow-covered road to the top of a huge hill so I could snap this photo of the town…

Bakery in another town in Germany…

This is where we discovered the humongo pretzels (after we ordered the medium one first)

The big papa pretzel, or “Bretzel” as the sign read…

They’re quite the creative-type in Germany…

Another little town…

Then we changed course and headed to Switzerland via Austria. I want to kick myself in the head (not possible) for taking hardly any photos on this part of the trip. I was on round two of being sick. See?

But I did get this shot…

And these two when we stopped in Luzern…

All things swiss right here…

Then New Years eve rolled in and I was laying in a bed at our hotel in Zurich with a hot towel on my ear. I had so much pressure build-up that I couldn’t hear. Rough night. We managed to get in a great dinner but I took no photos. Nada. Until the morning. Then I snapped this LOUSY PIC, of the view from our room, on my computer and called it a day. I think I wanted meds, a bed and the ability to hear.

Then we routed back through Paris on our way home and stayed at our most favorite location. Les Degres de Notre Dame. We found it when we walked Paris the first day we visited. We would have never found it and would NOT have booked it based on the photos on TripAdvisor (i pay close attention to these things) but after they showed us the room, we were sold…

It was a full trip with tons of photos (not even showing you a 10th of what we took here!) that we’ll enjoy putting into an album. Matt even typed out a day-by-day account of our journey for us to relive when we read it again.

Bye-bye France and Germany…

Hello again to London. Here’s a quick video tour of our new apartment. We’re no longer in the Notting hill area. We’re now Lambeth-ites.

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Stay tuned for some fun London pics…

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So, let me give you a couple quick visuals to give you an idea of whats to come!

Last time we “chatted” it was Christmas eve, I think.

- Christmas Day was perfect. We slept in until noon, skype’d both families, had our own Christmas lunch at a Thai restaurant a couple blocks from of our apartment, stopped for a latte and a frosted mint hot chocolate (tasted like an andes mint and was pure heaven), skype’d more, walked around Hyde Park at dusk and took the below picture (among many others), then came home to plan our trip and eat left overs for dinner and skype w/ family again. Happy day:)

- The day after Christmas we hopped a train to Paris. I could ride that train anywhere because I get to stare at Matt and make faces at him the ENTIRE ride. Then we got seafood as a snack. Who gives seafood as a snack? The EuroRail.

Now of course I have many pics to share. And I’ll be putting them on Facebook but for now here is a snapshot of where we’ve been since catching the train. The bottom half is what we’re doing today and tomorrow…

I have photos to show you from that entire loop. I promise I’ll share them. In general, we’ve avoided actually staying in a big city (with the exception of Mannheim) and instead found tiny towns w/ b&b’s along the way. Wouldn’t do it any different. Even if we get stuck in the snow and have to be pulled out by 5 germans in Rothenburg. It’s worth it:)

Until later…

(we ate that big pretzel over 2 days)

…and everyone just wrapped up their shopping. It was INSANE today/tonight on the streets. Stores packed. Looked like rush hour in New York City…but worse. I literally had to hold on to the strap of Matt’s backpack to make sure we didn’t separate. They closed a couple of the tube station stops due to overcrowding.

Here’s a list of what you’ve missed (or not missed if we’re friends on FB)

• Our apt is tiny, tiny, tiny. Or maybe I’ll say “cozy” I haven’t had a chance to get a great shot out front so here’s a google map street view for you… (we’re the top floor of 77)

• Our luggage still hasn’t arrived. And they’re estimated 10-15 days now. SWEET.
• It’s NOT freezing here. And honestly, we haven’t seen a bit of snow. Not sure what all the London flight cancelations are about.
• We have walked everywhere. Several miles a day.
• We have 6 flights of stairs leading to our apartment. No lift. After day 3 of running up and down the stairs, i’m finally not winded anymore.
• The only good food we’ve had is Indian. The rumors are true.
• I attended my first midnight mass tonight. (it must have been obvious we were the non-catholic out-of-towners)
• Starbucks DOES NOT taste the same in every country.
• If the price on a rental seems too good to be true, it absolutely is.
• I have missed my puppies about 20 times a day.
• Matt and I have become directional-geniuses. Lots of guessing where we are (since we don’t have our phones or maps) and lots of being right (so far). First time i’ve survived w/out a GPS.
• The tube ROCKS. Columbus, lets get on that.
• Chai at Cafe Nero is simply the best.

I’ve pulled out the camera a few times ….look at all the colors?! I’m in heaven.

I’m headed to bed now. Santa is coming (i hope). It’s 4:18 in London and we have big plans to do a yummy Christmas lunch out. Hopefully London can “bring it” in the food arena for Christmas day at least. I’ll leave you with this image I snapped on our 30 minute walk home from midnight mass. Around 1-something in the morning. LOVE>

Merry Christmas, friends.

I figured the best way to catch you up is with some visuals:) And as you can see below…there are a TON of blog posts coming your way. 4 more weddings, families, portraits, travel, engagement. All the goods!

Wednesday the 14th was the Murphy family. This is one of my FAVORITE shots from our evening sunny-orange session.

Saturday the 17th…

An early morning session with the beautiful White family…

Then a barefoot-baby back patio shoot with the Hinkle family later that night…

Then, Monday, I hopped on a plane with my travel-crazy clients Jill & Lee for their destination engagement shoot in Washington DC. They’re both living in Columbus currently but DC holds a special place in their hearts. I can totally see why after the amazing time we had. You know me…I tried as many of the great restaurants as I could and stayed at the best B&B in the area – The Swann House. I HIGHLY recommend The Swann House, btw. Location – perfect. Management – perfect. Decor – adorable. I’m ready to go back:) Actually, it’s in the works. HUUUUGEEEE thanks to my lovely friend Cassidy for taking my call at 8 am the morning of the flight and accepting my spontaneous request to join me on the trip:) I couldn’t have done it without her. I wish you could see how opposite our planning styles are but we had a great time.

Here’s the hot couple in the city …

Shooting in Georgetown…

And lastly, I shot two more sessions Friday and Saturday. Amy & Shawn’s anniversary pics…

…and Melissa & Derek’s Engagement session.

We’re off to walk around town a little more, hitting up a coffee shop then heading over to Folly Beach to shoot Kurt and Nina’s beach front wedding. Pics to come!

{each image you see here is available for sale if you’re interested! Sizes: 12×18, 16×24 and 20×30. Email me for print pricing and shipping}

“This post is better when viewed with a cup of coffee in hand.” – Matt

This was our last full day in Colorado. And it was perfect. We skied at Winter Park to avoid the ridiculous resort/touristy traffic and craziness in Breckenridge, Keystone, etc. Best decision. The views were rockin headed to Winter Park…and a bit scary at times…but photos were taken and that was alllll part of the plan:)

A mine on the side of the road. The only pretty one. Rest were boring brown.

Pic out the front window. We’re finally seeing the snow!

And just like that, you’re in a blizzard. And this was the scary part. To the right is a cliff. And no guard rail. But we’d prefer this route over Loveland Pass ANY DAY! Go read about Loveland Pass.

Ugly snowy moment.

Then it stops every so often and looks like this. Not kidding. Gorgeous.

This is pretty cool. Ever heard of Mary Jane? This is part of it…Olympic team trains here. It’s straight down hill. See the little people near the top?

Then we skied. Half day. We had plans that night. Plans to sleep and eat…because our bodies hated us by this point:)

Goodbye Winter Park!

Matt not too excited about driving home. Not a long drive. Just scary at times for us Ohio drivers.

And this was me the entire day. Not as much previous days but I’m wishing I had. I feel like we don’t have nearly enough pics of the good stuff. This is me taking the shot you see below it.

Sun going down on the way home. This was taken in the car.

Believe it or not, there are more pics coming:)

Day two (after the hike) was spent with Lisa and Nile, clients of mine that I actually just met about two weeks ago! They helped set up this whole stay and then invited us over for game day. Great times and they have THE CUTEST cabin up here. Sorry everyone, but the highlight of game day for me was when these cute little buggers hung out right outside the window. I was in love.

Lisa made guac. Nile made dip. Matt and I brought some goodies and the Mooberry’s came over too. Great group for game day!

________

DAY 3

________

If you’ve seen any of my posts on Facebook or Twitter you’d know how excited Matt has been to go skiing for the first time. In fact, he fell asleep with his goggles on after testing them out in the cold and snow Friday night.

Then, as if that didn’t show his excitement, I heard a ton of noise in the kitchen the next morning (Saturday) at 5:20 am to find this guy all decked out, ready to go, and making banana pancakes.

Found out later he barely slept the night before. Adorable

We were on the road by 6:40 am on Saturday so we wouldn’t hit any traffic on the one road to Breckenridge.  A quick recap on the day: I haven’t skied in a while and Matt has NEVER so we decided to take a lesson together. Our instructor rocked but 30 minutes in, I remembered everything I had ever known and wanted to pluck my eyeballs out knowing there was another 4 hours of “here’s where your foot goes, and here’s how you ride the lift”. I managed to make it until lunch with Matt and had to try a few runs on my own. Then, I plucked Matt from class and pulled him down a green. He did great:) And let me tell you – green here is not like the greens in Ohio. But more on that when we share stories on Winter Park, our ski stop today.

Sorry there aren’t many pics – we weren’t ready to bring the cam on the slopes! I’ll post a few from my twitpic though.

A few from the camera posted via Twitpic

Overall – amazing day two. Day three was just as great! More to come. We still don’t know exactly when we’re leaving. We’re thinking tomorrow (Monday) morning. Plans got a little open and well, unplanned. That’s good every so often:)

The day was like this. All day. Gorgeous.

And this was EVERYWHERE. Deer poop. Looks like coffee beans:)

I love this shot of Matt

A little snowball throwing action.

This was the only place we could set our camera to get a shot (forgot the tripod). There were some much more amazing views but this one wasn’t too bad

Matt wanted me to shoot this. Markings or something on the tree. Looks cool.

Our street. The hike started right out of front door.

Our house.

So many more pics from the day but I have to go! We’re at Breckenridge getting ready to go ski. Matt barely slept last night he was so excited. In fact, when I woke up this morning, I walked into the kitchen to find him fully decked out in his ski gear…at 5:30 am. He’s nuts but I love it:) We’re pumped. Video to come!!!