I met up with Jackie and Evan in downtown Frederick this past weekend for their engagement session. What a beautiful afternoon and what a BEAUTIFUL couple! We started in Baker Park and made our way to Carroll Creek. Jackie and Evan work together as planners so we used some of their current plans during their shoot. It was so much fun – I can’t wait until the September wedding in Middletown!
What a gorgeous weekend for an engagement session! I met up with Beth and Eric at Utica Park on Sunday afternoon for the engagement pictures. We had so much fun and definitely took advantage of the warm weather. I can’t wait until the May wedding!!
Pink is my favorite color…and that seems like an understatement. I love pink! Because of this, years ago, Jason and I started hosting an annual Pink Party every February around Valentine’s Day. Everyone we knew would come dressed up in pink and enjoy a night of friends, fun, and laughter. This past February, we didn’t have a Pink Party because I was in Africa. I was sad about this but excited to think of new ideas for Pink Party 2011. THEN, Jason surprised me with a Pink Party for my birthday this past weekend! On Friday, he told me that for my birthday, he had arranged for two of my friends and me to spend the day at the spa the next day. Fun! Meanwhile, this was a convenient way to ensure I was out of the house all afternoon, while all my friends arrived from all over the east coast to help Jason decorate the entire house in pink and get everything ready. What an amazing birthday!!!!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope everyone enjoyed waking up to a morning of disarray after leprechauns visited the house!
I realized this is the perfect opportunity to put a plug in for spinach shakes (Uglishax)! I start every morning by drinking a spinach shake for breakfast. I know what you are thinking (ewwww!) but trust me, try it just once, and you’ll be hooked. I just throw milk, greek yogurt, protein powder, any kind of fruit, and lots of spinach in the blender and blend away. It’s perfectly healthy and perfectly green (and you can’t taste the spinach at all but benefit from all the nutrients)! Nothing like a little green to start your St. Patty’s Day!
Few things make me as happy as the first signs of spring. For me, spring means running in shorts, hiking with the dogs on the AT, reading outside in the hammock, and hillsides of new crocus buds. It also means it’s time for spring portraits and wedding season is just around the corner. 
Yesterday marked my first shoot of the spring! I spent the afternoon with Brett and Cy in Middletown. Such cute boys – we had a lot of fun.
One of the highlights at school in Ganta was when I introduced weaving to the kids. We had very limited resources but I had yarn from home and I knew this would be an exciting activity. Weaving with kids is so peaceful and filling. We spent the first part starting, pulling the weaving out, and reteaching but after that, it was amazing to watch as every child caught on and got so into their weaving. They were filled with pride and a strong feeling of community as we sat around the room, weaving, talking, and sharing our lives.
A few of the children had more trouble than others and kept changing important steps. These were the same children who flipped letters when writing so I took apart their looms, rethreaded them in an inverse manner, and it clicked with them. They were off and running after that! I think I could spend my life learning about and evaluating cognitive development in children and never get sick of it.
One day, we went out toward the border of the Ivory Coast for an outreach day. After finishing work, our driver took us to the border so we could see the bridge that had been destructed by the rebels during the civil war. When we got out of the car, we followed our driver toward the bridge. I looked up to read a sign that read, “Do not cross line. You may be engaged by fire.” Our driver said, “It’s okay…” so who are we to counter our driver?? We walked right past the sign, saying a little prayer along the way.
During our last week in Liberia, we decided to go to Robertsport for a few days. It is a GORGEOUS beach and we didn’t have to share it with anyone. We slept in a platform tent, ate our fair share of peanut butter to get by, and relaxed before heading back to Monrovia to start our trip home.
Every evening, we took hour to two hour walks. We had a few paths we took fairly often. One of these paths was out through the rice swamps and up through a wooded area. This was my favorite place. From the main path, you could look into the woods and almost feel how soft and peaceful the Earth looked in this spot. It was beautiful. I made my friends walk this path with me and said it was like walking on clouds.
