Extremely Thankful Thanksgiving

The Saturday before Thanksgiving is not the day we usually celebrate the holiday . . .. . . but this one is very special. Please meet Tommy C. here with his daughter, Shelley.Several weeks ago, Tommy went in for a fairly straightforward surgical procedure, and then - long story short - no one (except God, of course) thought Tommy would ever see another Thanksgiving. So Shelley and Tommy's sister Bev hosted a wonderful afternoon full of friends and family. Here is Tommy with Bryan.And, being who I am; I got some grandchildren shots for Bev, and we just kept rolling for awhile.

We needed shots of each family group

as well as Bev's entire gang. To keep the kids attention, we promised goofy shots at the end. . . .. . .they were all very impressive!Thanks so much Bev and Shelley, for including us in this most wonderful Thanksgiving celebration!

Autumn Beauty - not far from home

I have a wonderful friend in Tampa, Florida. Over the past few weeks, she has been lamenting the fact that the temperature has been in the upper 80's there. As a transplanted Kansan, she has been longing for a taste of home.

So, I went out to my yard yesterday to capture a few images.

I didn't have to go any farther to get a wonderful variety of color and texture. The last of the yellow roses, with their beautiful orange rose hips, to the fabulous deep veined red leaves of my new viburnums, everywhere I turned, there was something beautiful!

We have had an unusually cool and wet year.

I'm sure that must have helped the trees and shrubs give us such a wonderful, colorful fall.

I love the sunlight pouring through the leaves.

Angie - this post is for you, kid. Miss you tons - and I hope you're enjoying these images of home. . . with the breath of autumn you just can't get at the beach!

The beautiful blue sky was an extra treat yesterday. We have had so much rain, I thought I was in Seattle.

I love this one - so simple, yet so beautiful. These are the little crabapples from our three-year-old pink flowering crab that I love so much. It is a beautiful little tree, and was featured in my blog when we got a dreadful late snow. Fortunately, it didn't ruin the tree.

Marlee in the Fall

It's been an interesting day, so I thought I would start Marlee's Senior Session with this image. Her best friend, Jenna joined us at Mi Ranchito for lunch, and Marlee mentioned to the server that it was Jenna's birthday . . . so she got the fried ice cream, the singing, and of course, the hat!
And, as you can see - she couldn't resist smacking Marlee with the whipped cream.
What are friends for - if not to smack you with random dairy products?

This is Marlee. You met her in the summer when she modeled for me at Kauffman Gardens.

We're thinking this is the "Fall Edition" of Marlee's Senior Session. We started at her old elementary school in Olathe.

Then we moved to Overland Park, and the New Theater Restaurant. Marlee is quite an actress, so the stage door was a necessity.

We did have one possible, little problem. As we were going down the alley to get to the stage door, a car was rolling slowly toward us in our lane. He finally looked up and swerved to miss us - and we saw it was Barry Williams, who is currently starring at the NTR.

Then we headed to Old Town Lenexa - a place near and dear to my heart.

We did a few poses on the tracks - - in our few short minutes there, three trains passed us by. I didn't realize it would be so busy on a Sunday afternoon.

We stopped at other places in Old Town, like in front of this flower shop.

Marlee is currently a senior at Olathe North, and will be heading off to college at Tabor where she will be working on a music education degree.

We love Kansas - either it's too hot, raining, or freezing. Today was good - - except for the wind. I ended up with a frozen Marlee by the end of the afternoon, but we sure had fun!

Amber

It was a cold afternoon today, when Amber and I trekked downtown for her Senior Session.

We sure didn't have to go far to find some graffiti - her special request.

Amber is a senior at Olathe East. She is planning on attending Hutchison Community College next year, and is trying to decide between Nursing, Criminal Justice, and Education. With her sweet spirit, she'd be great at elementary ed. - she works with kids now in an after- school program and really gets a kick out of the little ones. After braving the cold, we finished at JCCC at the Nerman Museum.NO ONE has to tell us girls that the shoes make the outfit. Check out these sweet red pumps! She is so darned beautiful that I could put her in front of a garbage can and she'd look great. Oh, wait - I DID put her in front of a garbage can - and she is beautiful!

Congratulations, Amber! Have a great senior year, and thanks for the fun afternoon!

Busy, Fun Weekend!

We had a busy weekend at the Pavilion with two events with start times only 19 hours apart. I don't know how Kathy does it! We had a great surprise Friday, with Mark showing up for a visit from San Francisco. His parents are celebrating their 60th anniversary this weekend, so congrats to them!And I'm thinking, "Time Warp" here. It's 2009, isn't it? This image is totally 1979 - except for the bald heads, grey hair, extra weight, and wrinkles, but hey - who cares about that stuff when the old gang is back together ? - Johnson, George, Mark and Kevin. Saturday, we had a wedding and reception. Here I just can't pass up the opportunity to take an image of the photographer taking an image. Coincidentally, our bride Mandy is a nurse at Olathe Med where I spend my "first job" time.George is always ready to help keep us going with his great attitude and totally random jokes and stories. After the wedding and reception were over on Saturday, we somehow had enough energy to head over to Touche's to help celebrate Maria's birthday. We we hardly able to catch a word with her because she was on the dance floor the whole night.
Charlie and Valerie came awhile later and enjoyed watching the disco queens (Kathy and I) on the dance floor. I handed my camera to Kevin to hold and did not realize he was snapping away. Fortunately, I have a crop tool, so nothing embarrassing (to me) will turn up here - or on Facebook.George and Joel had a little time to catch up. We also ran into other high school friends, Danny, Jill and Dan. It was an impromptu reunion. What fun!

Here Jill is trying hard to keep up with Kathy.

Happy Birthday, Maria! We sure enjoyed celebrating with you!

Katy and David - Sept. 18, 2009 . . . (or 1949?)

Last night was a dream-come-true for Katy and David. They had chosen a 1940's theme for their wedding. What a ritzy dame Katy is, in a period style dress and cascade boquet!And David was the cat's meow in a white dinner jacket.

Leah was big sis's Maid of Honor. And best-friend Mike was David's Best Man - looking spiffy as well!Each bridesmaid's dress was a different style from the 40's. They were knee-length, very swanky, and showed off their gams to their best advantage.When you've got gorgeous dames, you gotta have swell looking guys to escort them! And now that I'm out of 40's slang, I'll just say that Katy looks so happy here with her sibs, Jessica, Leah and Jacob.

Katy just had to know what was going on behind her! Congratulations and best wishes for a lifetime of happiness!