I wish I could say that I haven’t been a good blogger lately because I have been slacking. Slacking on a white sand beach somewhere drinking a Corona with lime and digging my feet into the sand! Not the case actually, things have been very very busy!! I have been in post-production craziness the past three weeks with some really big shoots. The Corona and the sand will have to wait till the following week when I get to go to Hawaii for my Dad’s wedding…wheeeeee!!!

This weekend should be nice and easy though…riiiiight…just two weddings!!!! These are two very special weddings and I couldn’t be more excited, my sister’s brother in law and my best friend! I get to visit two amazing locations, The Westlake Village Inn and The Firestone Crossroads Vineyard, spend my time with wonderful people, and photograph it all – a perfect weekend!! I will post this week I promise!!

Ok so I know I get way too excited about this but just in case you are unaware of it, FALL is coming!!! I was driving down the street today and saw the unmistakable red and white stripes of the holiday tent going up around the corner from my house. That wonderful lot will be filled with gorgeous orange pumpkins soon and then before we know it Christmas Trees! I am such a jeans and sweatshirt girl, I just can’t wait to whip them out…especially this year because last year I still had some unwanted baby weight on and couldn’t quite squeeze into my favorites! Heehee! Oh and in case you haven’t made it part of your fall ritual yet, you HAVE to go to Starbucks and get a Caramel Apple Cider – it is amazing – every fall memory you have ever had will come rushing back! Wow…here I go again! Anyway, bye bye summer – it’s been fun!

The Farm (aka The Sanders House) was a great trip. My little sister Anna and her husband Ashton live on this great property just off Flathead Lake in Montana so we just had to go visit. We arrived at the farm on a rather warm day and were greated by their adorable dog, chickens, ducks, Mustangs, cat, various other horses, and probably some other wildlife I am forgetting right now like the cool dragonfly. Who needs a petting zoo for the kids, this was perfect.

On top of all the animals being there, there were fun rocks to throw from the path into Anna’s flower beds…great…and the best – dandelions to blow…sorry Ashton! I swear dandelions aren’t weeds, they are really pretty yellow flowers that turn into fun blowy things, you just HAVE to love em, you have no choice! Anyway, we had a great time hanging out and enjoyed seeing how the locals live. A nice quite life with plenty of nature and neighbors that don’t live a stone’s throw from your front door…pretty cool.

Ok so first adventure…cherry picking. We thought, hey this sounds fun, an outing we can take the kids on, rows of luscious cherry trees, buckets and fist fulls of yummy sweet fruit. This will be great and I was thinking this will provide some really great backgrounds for shots of the kids. Not so much!!!

We turn off the two lane “main” highway onto an unpaved road and drive for quite awhile until the signs stop, clue one. We hit a dead end and when we turn around a very unkempt girl steps out into the road and says to pull over for the cherries, clue two. We picked up metal pails and set out…quit a ways for the little ones. We came to a clearing where there were two cherry trees and some seriously scary looking ladders, clue 3. Then we were educated as to how much wasps like cherries!! Geeze could this get any better we are all thinking. On a sidenote, my sister is allergic to bees so this was great news…riiiiiight!!!!

I have never seen the movie Deliverance but apparently this outing was beginning to feel a bit like that movie. After a brief description of it I start to see why, it was a creepy little place. After half an hour or so of dodging wasps and swatting Maddie off the fruit buckets, we took our spoils back to get weighed. It wasn’t quite what we imagined it would be, but all in all is was a pretty funny little adventure, the views were amazing, the fruit was great, and we got some cute shots!

The adventurers: left to right in the group shot – Camilla, Jamie, Jon, (second row) Josh, Morgan, (bottom row) Jace, and Maddie.

Ok so before I go, I will post at least one image of our trip to Montana, as promised. Here are the Henderson men (left to right) Uncle Jake, Papa Henderson, Jace, and Daddy (Josh). I know genetics is a crazy thing, I do realize that my son looks more like Uncle Jake and Papa than Daddy. Who knows, maybe the next one will be dark.

Just thought I would test out posting a photo in the new blog. WordPress is definitely a little more complicated than blogger; for me anyway. I guess the more options you have the more confusing it gets for html dummies like myself! Here is a shot of my little guy from a trip to the park last week. Oh and my fablous hubby Josh went to Duke, thus the Duke text splashed across his hiney! Go Blue Devils!

I am officially dedicating my first post on my new blog to my wonderful brother-in-law Ashton, who has so graciously introduced me to the wonderful world of wordpress, css, etc – geeky, geeky stuff!! I really don’t know anything about this stuff but it has managed to keep me up till past 1:00 in the morning the last two nights! It wouldn’t be so bad, but Jace has decided to wake up screaming about his teeth coming in…ouch…and then get up at 6:30 in the morning. Sorry if there are hideous typos in this post, I am really really tired but so pumped I can’t sleep. I love designing and coming up with new stuff for the business!

Wow, sidetracked – back to where I was going with this, thank you so much Ashton. I know you spend enough of your time at the computer helping us dummies with stuff when you aren’t working, I really appreciate your time and advice with everything. If anyone out there wants a great website, blog, or just geeky computer help in general contact Ashton Sanders at Websites In A Flash, he is super patient, brillant, and so sweet! His site has a really cute opening animation, check it out: http://www.websitesinaflash.com/

Love you – D

Diana Henderson Photography

www.dianahenderson.com