Monday, September 16, 2013

our 2013 cross country adventure

First off, I want to thank everyone who emailed and commented regarding my last post. Your words meant and support have meant a lot.
I am currently almost 18 weeks along, (due 2/19/14) and feeling pretty good most of the time. I still have my freak-out moments, but they're less frequent.
Joe and I are still kind of pinching ourselves that this is happening. We're having all the conversations that I am sure most parents-to-be have, and making lots of plans for the future.
We cannot wait to welcome our little boy into the world early next year. (Yes, it's a boy!!)

In the meantime, however, we are spending all of September on the road with our first child, Miss Nina Simone. You can see her below and how thoroughly thrilled she was at the prospect of riding in the car for this month-long adventure.
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Road trips, as I've mentioned many times before, are pretty much Joe's and my favorite thing, and we've taken several of them. In fact, we plan on introducing our son to them as soon as it's feasible, but we realize that may take a little time. So, this trip is kind of our last hurrah before becoming parents.

We left Seattle on 8/31, and basically drove for the next 7 days. I needed to get to Vermont by September 6th because I had a shoot on the 7th. Despite the many hours of driving, though, Joe and I managed to fit in hikes and exercise almost every day.

Missoula, Montana....
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Wisonsin...
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Minnesota...
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I hate to sound like a broken record, but Vermont is pretty much my favorite place on the planet, outside of Washington State. I fell in love with it back in 2009, and have been back a number of times since, including last fall when I started shooting Rowan Jacobsen's book about apples.
This time around, I completed the last of the shooting for that book (which will come out Fall of 2014, published by Bloomsbury) and I did some other shoots for an awesome catering company, Bon Temps Gourmet, which I will be writing about soon in a separate post.

Joe and I spent a whole week in Vermont, and it was truly a restorative getaway. We spent almost every morning hiking in the woods, which was absolutely magical, and did a lot of reading, resting, and visiting with friends. It was heaven.
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The woods where we hiked...
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The location of one of my shoots: Scott Farm (where they filmed The Cider House Rules.)
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After Vermont, we went to Bar Harbor, Maine, specifically because of it's proximity the gorgeous Acadia National Park, where we spent a day hiking. I'd like to mention that it's SO refreshing to find a national park that actually allows dogs on it's trails. Most don't.
Nina sends her thanks!
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Now we are in Portland, Maine, which is a very quaint city located on the water. We're here for a couple nights and then off to the Catskills.
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I'm planning on checking back in more regularly now, so please come back and visit soon!