Funnest Weekend and a Crapload of Pics

This weekend we went boating with Brandon's cousins. I was a bit stressed because;
a) I've only been boating a couple of times and super suck.
b) My 5 year HS reunion was the same day at 5:30.
c) We drove 2 hours to get to the lake, and I thought we would never get back in time!

But, BOATING WAS ROCKIN'! I loved it! We had an amazing time. The boat had XM radio and these killer speakers on the top bar. It was really nice. The only bad thing that happened was the beach we set our stuff on had hands down the worst smell in history. I was literally dry heaving every 2 seconds. Later we realized there was a decomposing(just dry heaved thinking about it) deer 5 feet away in the bushes! Barf! It had been dead for a long time so it no longer resembled a deer. Barf again! Anyways, here are some pics from boating.

What?! Did you know you could surf behind a boat? It is so rad! I could only surf the wake without the rope for like 10 seconds, but it still totally rocked my world.

Surfing without the rope! Kowabunga!

Brandy hasn't been boating for years, but look how awesome he is. Total stud machine.

Us, in the boat, obviously.

Later, we went to the HS reunion. It was ok, and I got to see some long lost friends, but we didn't stay long. We decided to bail and go bowling with friends.

Me and Bran Bran bowling with Lynz and Scottie Knight and Kristen and Kyle Hagan. We had fun dancing and being crazy. I'm sure people thought we were nuts. Quite the sunburn from boating eh? Can you guess who's responsible and put on sunscreen?

Lynz and Scottie pottty

Every weekend we (my sisters, parents, and us) get together at my mom's for a BBQ and swimming. It's super relaxing and a nice opportunity to see everyone. This weekend the pool temp was 86 degrees! Woop woop!

We were trying to get Gracie to jump to us, but she wussed out. She's such a wierdo though because kept trying to drink the pool water. Nast!

Brucy got in too. He tries to climb the ladder to get to us whenever we swim so sometimes we set him on a raft for a few minutes.

Bow chicka wow wow! Hot bod baby!

Thank heaven for arm floaties! Lilly can swim around by herself now which is so great.

My cute papa enjoying watermelon. I swear, not one person in my family can eat something without spilling it on their shirt, especially my parents and I! Let's just say, Brandon's put a ban on me buying white shirts.

Me and Brandy sharing a raft, kind of. My neck looks a little flexy, but I'm trying to hold my head up for the picture. Don't be scared. I'm not going to turn green before your eyes and wear nothing but cutoff jean shorts.

That's it. If you get sick of me posting mostly pictures all the time, tough crap!

My Website is Complete!!!!!!!

Okay, it's the moment you've all been waiting for! My website is finally finished. It took forever to make, but it was worth the wait. I'm pretty happy with it. There are a couple of things I'd like to change, but for now, they just won't cooperate. So please check it out and let me know what you think.
www.amberweimerphotography.com

A Christmas Miracle!

Okay, so it may not a Christmas miracle(it had a nice ring to it), but it really is a miraculous event.

I've finally achieved the impossible: Thanks to some large tupperwares, a shelf, and a hanging thing from IKEA, I've finally fit all my clothes AND shoes into one closet. This may sound ridiculous, but never in my whole life (seriously) have I accomplished this. I'm notorious for being messy, but since we bought our house, I've been an organization freak. You never realize how much crap you have until you have to fit it all somewhere. So from now on, it's no more mrs. messy girl!

p.s. if you were wondering what was in those 3 gigantic tupperwares at the bottom, you guessed it. All shoes!

Family

These are some shots I took of Brandon's grandparents this weekend. They hate getting pictures taken, but since I'm their favorite, they let me take some. I think they turned out rather nice. P.S. All that land behind them is their farm. It's beautiful.

3 Generations: Brandon's dad, Brandon, and Grandpa Weimer

Caution: Reading the following entry may cause you to pee your pants

Picture this: We've just finished our meal at Red Lobster, and our waitress comes over to sing my sister happy birthday. Normal right? Here's where it gets interesting. Ready? Instead of a dessert, the lady brings out a live wiggling lobster and a lit birthday candle. We're all like, "What the?!"
So they sing her happy birthday, and the lady hands the lobster (really really) the birthday candle which it holds in one of it's tiny appendages and waves it around!!!! Are you kidding me? It's probably the funniest/most amazing/freakshow things I've ever seen. The best part was, she just stood there with the lobster holding the candle for like 20 seconds and told my sister that she (the lobster) was a good helper and that my sister could pet her if she wanted.
First of all, are you positive she's a she? Second of all, are you on crack? I would've gotten a picture of "her(our tasty new friend)" holding the candle, but I was too busy picking my jaw up off the floor.


I must admit, it was actually quite adorable and cartoon looking when it was waving the candle around.

Oh, and here's my lover and me back at my mom's after dinner. Love him!

Why we love our home: It's ours!

A Proud Moment

So today was a proud one for me. It's been a long process, but we're finally done with our guest bedroom. I feel blessed to even have a guest room. It'll be great for when my in-laws come to visit because it's separated from our room by a loft, but right next to the guest bathroom. The colors in the pictures are a little off, but you get the idea. Brandy's papa drove all the way from Rexburg just for the night to bring us the mattresses. They gave us both sets. Nice huh?! They are always doing sweet things like that.

Brandon's mom always lays out fresh towels and washcloths for us when we visit them, and I just think that's so nice. She's the one (and Martha of course) that inspired me to do that with a basket of necessities for guests. Love her!

5 Year High School Reunion- Spread the word!

Okay kiddies, it's been 5 years, and now it's come to it! Our 5 year reunion. Don't be scared though. Just think of it as a chance to get together with lots of good friends and meet spouses and babies. I'm going, and I'm pretty sure Lynz Knight and Kristen Brady(now Hagan) are going. It'll be great to see everybody again. Here are the details:

Saturday June 28th 5:30-10:30pm
Timpanogos Park in Provo Canyon (I think it's right above another park just inside the canyon on the left)
BBQ and games
$5 per person for food

Like I said before, don't feel dumb for going. It's a great chance for us to get together with all our friends and have a BBQ. You all better be there for some of the time. We're going to go right at 5:30 because we have a reception later. Please tell everyone we graduated with because I'm sure not many people know about it. The more friends the better!

I've Been Tagged!

5 Things on my "to-do" list this week:

1. Get a job or find people to take pics of for $ (I'd prefer the 2nd)
2. Clean the house really well
3. Grocery shop
4. Go to Rexburger for Brandon's Gma's 80th bday extravaganza
5. Refinish my deck and a cute bench for our bedroom



5 Snacks I enjoy:

1. colby jack cheese sticks
2. chocolate pudding
3. pistachio icecream
4. homemade caramel popcorn
5. fruit: watermelon, berries, pineapple (Right now we love to grill pineapple with our dinner like once a week. So good!)



5 Things I would do if I suddenly became a billionaire:

1. Sell my house and build my dream homes (plural) in all my favorite locations.
2. Buy hybrid cars ( just because you're rich doesn't mean you want a gas hog.)
3. Donate to cancer research charities and Primary Children's Hospital.
4. Pay a fat tithing.
5. Travel travel travel!



5 Places I've Lived:

1. Orem, UT
2. Vista, CA
3. Provo, UT
4. Fairfield, CA
5. Saratoga Springs, UT



5 Jobs I've Had:

1. Jamba Juice manager
2. Hollister(super lame)
3. Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks sales
4. Pebbles in my Pocket sales
5. Stampin' Up! warehouse



5 Things people may not know about me:

1. I'm hypoglycemic (low blood sugar)
2. Growing up I danced (6 yrs), did gymnastics (4yrs), swam (2 yrs), played soccer (4 or 5 yrs?), softball (too many to count), ran track (6 yrs), and cross country (4 yrs). (whew! Can you imagine how much driving my parents had to do? Ay Carumba!)
3. I constantly redecorate rooms I just decorated.
4. One room in my house is dedicated to scrapbooking.
5. I'm obsessed with everything Italian and want to go to Italy more than anywhere else on Earth.
6. Sorry, I'm cheating, but only Brandon knows this one. I listen to Italian music, Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, etc., and instrumental violin music when I cook. It sets the mood. I'm tellin' ya.



5 Favorite Musicians/Bands:

I don't really have favorite bands so I'm going to do favorite soundtracks at the moment. In no particular order:

1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Any Harry Potters
3. Last of the Mohicans
4. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: #3

I tag Celeste, Lindsey, Rachel, Kim, and Jaclyn!

Country Livin'

I've been trying to shoot more, and today was so beautiful I couldn't resist. I've wanted to shoot around my house for a while now. The roads are pretty small here so I had to pull into driveways and do a little off roadin'. At one point I was shooting some horses, and a rancher walked over to see what I was doing in his driveway. I got nervous and was about to bolt but decided to stand my ground. It was fine, he'd just come over to say hi. Phew. Anyways, I shot with a wide angle lens, which I've never done before, and love the effect it has on images. What a great discovery.

Short Hair! (well, short for me)

Today I decided I needed a new hair style. I've had it the same For-eh-ver. Really. I've been sick of it being so long. You know it's too long when, after you style it, you still don't like it because it's so dang heavy and just blah. Anyways, It's probably the shortest I've ever cut it, and I really like it. It's like 50 lbs lighter, and layers are a nice change too. I figured it would be a good time to take a quick shot of Brandy and I down our street (since my stylist did my hair today.) I would've gotten better images, but we shot at dusk and were getting eaten alive. Anywho, hopefully my haircutting adventure was a good idea.
Oh p.s. Check out that hunk behind me! Rarrrrr!

My New Thing

This is a family I shot at an all day photography conference at UVSC. They brought in families with adopted children to get portraits done. It was a bit intimidating because a) So far I've only shot people I know or have approached myself, and b) there were professional photographers there that I've never met saying, "How do want the lighting? How do you want them dressed? What settings are you shooting at? Yada yada yada."
I just about peed my pants with excitement when I saw the outfits they brought to wear though. Their mom asked if I wanted them in normal clothes or the costumes. I didn't even have to think about my answer. Aren't they adorable?
The two oustide kids are half Native American, and the girl in the middle is the one they adopted(who happens to be part Cherokee.) It was a great learning experience.

This one is my niece, and we were just playing around at grandma's house. She's so beautiful it's hard not to get a great shot of her, but I really liked this one.

I realized that I, surprisingly, love to photograph children. It's weird because I didn't think I was very good with kids, but interacting with them has become so easy. I'm positive it's because I see my nieces all the time and have been really close to them their whole lives. I'm really glad because it's definitely improved my photography by leaps and bounds.

This is what inspires me

For all of you who don't go to school with me, I just wanted to show you a few images (of the many) that have inspired me to become a better photographer. I hope you enjoy.

Richard Avedon. Red Owens, oil field worker, Velma, Oklahoma, June 12, 1980.

Steve McCurry. Afghan Girl.

Steve McCurry. Rajasthan, India, 1983.

Sebastiao Salgado. Refugees in the Korem Camp. Ethiopia,1984.

Eugene Atget. Coin De La Rue Valette Et Pantheon.

Herb Ritts. Nelson Mandella.

Frank Eugene. Adam and Eve.

If you are inspired by these images also, feel free to google any of the photographers. They are all very well known.

Twilight and Johnny Depp

Last night a clip from the Twilight movie was shown before the mtv movie awards. It was super! Just google "mtv twilight" to view it. You won't regret it. Also, check out the trailor on youtube if you haven't already. It gives me the chills whenever I watch it!

I also wanted to say that Johnny Depp was beyond delicious last night on the mtv movie awards. He just has this natural swagger that makes me crazy! Watch out Brad!

Our First (real) Camping Trip

The piece de resistance!

Chocolate or poop?(refer to the movie Baby Mama) Pudding appetizer. Couldn't wait for her dinner to cook.

My mom, dad, and sister Jenny and fam came up.

"Show us your dinner." Not exactly what I meant, but it'll work.

Our new(way too big) tent. At least we won't have to buy a new one when we have kids.

Tin foil dinners! Yum!

Brandon and Gracie by the fire

Last year for Brandon's bday I thought it would be a great idea for everyone to get him camping gear, and they did. We now have everything we'll ever need for camping. A year later, Brandon has been complaining to me about getting all that gear that we're never going to use. Well, I thought it was hight time we did so. We packed up all of our stuff and headed up to Nun's Park in Provo Canyon this weekend (I know, not too adventurous right? But good for our first time.) We got a great spot that was away from everyone else and big, really big. So big that my family decided to bring the motorhome up and camp with us. (It was fine because we were already expecting them to come up for tin foil dinners and a campfire.) We had an amazing time that ended with a hike to Bridal Veil Falls and swimming at my mom's pool the following day. We plan on going again next weekend to AF canyon with my sister's family. I knew that camping gear was a great idea.

Memorial Day Weekend in Vegas

Our schedule for Vegas that we've always followed my whole life:
1. Swim and tan all day
2. Shower and get beautiful
3. Eat at a nice buffet
4. Shop until you can't walk anymore!
5. Sleep and repeat

I never realized how big babies' heads are!

We stayed in my mom's motorhome in Vegas. On the way I was getting drinks out of the fridge and the fridge door fell off! It was quite the ordeal and we had to stop at an RV place in St. George to fix it temporarily. We went to another place in Vegas and guess who's motorhome was in the parking lot?... Criss Angel! So weird. And then randomly we saw his bus again at the Luxor.
Brandon injured his ankle installing in Baltimore so he wasn't able to come. But my brother flew in from L.A. and we had a great time. I got lots of cute new things. And the best part was, my mom bought most of it as a thank you to me for helping her pick out up-to-date stylish clothes. Sweet!