This place was gorgeous! Shanel and David were married at Pala Mesa Resort in Fallbrook, CA (near Temecula). A great place to hold a beautiful event. And not to mention FUN! It was great seeing everyone let loose. We had some awesome details everywhere….thanks to the super skills of Carolyn Chen of The Special Day. Also loved working again with Daniel Boswell of dv Artistry. Once again, they had a great same day edit that they played during the reception. Check it out here. Congratulations to Shanel and David!

Gimme some hands!

Gimme a gorgeous dress. Thanks Eve Of Milady.

Gimme mom’s first look.

Gimme the boys.

Gimme some beautiful scenery.

Gimme some smiles.

Gimme some from below.

Gimme some drama.

Gimme some sass.

Gimme some fun. (Thanks Red Cheese!)

Gimme a kiss.

Gimme some shakin’.

Gimme some groovin’.

Gimme 3 ladies groovin’.

Gimme an awesome reaction.

Gimme some smoke!

Gimme another awesome dance!

Gimme a spectacular cake (and some cool lighting).

Gimme some fantastic details!

It was a another special day! This time in Garden Grove, CA at a The Garden Room. The day was filled with some amazing stories and of them is… Kristyn and Byron have never kissed before! They both had an amazing commitment throughout their relationship to save that part until they were married. AND WOW! When the time came during the ceremony for their first ever big K-I-S-S, the whole crowd erupted in cheers! It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen. I was screaming and clicking! Check out some of the days highlights below.

Kristyn getting dressed. Ready to go!

A prayer before the ceremony.

Grandma gave me the stare :)

The big KISS! It was great!

Big smiles all around!

The kissing didn’t stop :)

There was a great empty street out back.

One of my faves!

Here they come.

Great shot with mom.

The disco ball was in full effect.

Did I mention, the kissing didn’t stop! LOL :)

Happy garter catcher.

Old school portrait inside.

And once again…with the kissing ;) Congrats guys!

This was one of those weddings where everyone was so fun to be around. Gotta love those! Thanks to Ira, Jerome and all their family and friends for showing us an awesome time. We joined them on a HOT sunny day in Laguna Beach at Surf and Sand Resort. Love that place…really gorgeous spot! Their dog was part of the wedding and you’ve got to check it out below!!! Thanks to the great team of vendors who helped us along. Carrie Goff and team for the coordination, Mike and Mark of Ashley Video, and the great staff and Surf and Sand.

There’s just something about about great lashes.

Check out the dress! Awesome…and the nails!

Time to go out.

The girls were such cuties.

The ladies.

Ira looking fab.

The boys.

They were into their knives!

Great smile from Jerome.

It was HOT, but the scenery looked stunning.

That little dude was looking pretty spiffy

Yay!

We hit the beach for a few.

Ira in some awesome light.

One more before the party.

Dance time.

Ira’s dad was in Indonesia and they spoke to him through a live streaming feed.

Great laughs watching the slideshow.

The uncles did an AWESOME seranade!

Cheers for the uncles!

Lookie what we got here!

Cool polaroid of the bride.

And some details from the day. They had a very cool logo!

The scenery in Alaska is as breathtaking as you can imagine. My favorite parts? The air! Coming from smog-ridden Southern California, it’s always great to get away from that brown dingy crust of air that clings to our horizon and clogs our lungs. AND the trees! It’s just an awesome sight to see untouched forests all around you…almost surreal. Instead of giving a daily recap, I’ll just go through the big stuff. If you missed it, go see the slideshow here. Here we go!

Cruising
I just don’t think it’s for me. I can see how people can like with the all-you-can-eat madness and that cool waking up in the next town feeling, but really it’s not for me. It’s not that the food wasn’t good, some of it is actually great. I just really hated the fact that all everyone did was eat! It kinda grossed me out. Probably another thing that turned me off was that we had the kids and we couldn’t do much of the activities that the ship had planned for all. I mean the activities were pretty cheesy, but I guess you can make the best of it. Freaking BINGO! I was one away from the jackpot! Damn you, lady in the giant purple dress! Damn you! So unless it’s an ultra luxury cruise on some exotic location, I don’t think I’ll be on a cruise ship anytime soon.

Lucas going crazy on the ship…

Float Plane
Awesome! We took our first float plane tour in Juneau, AK and it was so cool! It was only a 20 minute ride but the sights were just insane. Seeing all these glaciers from above makes it a must do. I think it would’ve been even cooler on a helicopter, but maybe next time. At almost $300 per person, I almost didn’t do it. But in retrospect, it was the BEST part of the trip.

Family
This was our first family vacation where we all went somewhere pretty far. My mom planned the whole trip and she did an great job gathering all of us crazies in one spot. Granted, being stuck with your relatives for 7 days straight can ruffle anyone’s feathers, but, all in all, it was a blast. Thanks to all those who participated in our jumping shots. Those times messing around will always be bookmarked in my memory. Not sure if one of these trips are coming around any time soon, so I’ll cherish this for a while.

Top: Lille, Tita Le, Edward, Ethan. Middle: JB, Tere, Mom, Tita Peggy, Lola, Tey, Nathan. Bottom: Tristan, Lucas and me.

The Boys
For the most part, the boys did great. Lucas had his daily spats with his cousin, Tristan, but I guess we all saw that coming. Those dudes are crazy. One minute they are hugging and holding hands…best friends. Then the next minute they’re swinging for the fences. One funny story with Lucas was his new name! Yup, he started introducing himself as Buddy or Buddy Lucas. It’s pretty hilarious when he walks in an elevator and says “Hi, this is my brother, Nathan. And I’m Buddy!” We all start laughing. I guess I should stop greeting him by saying, “Hey little buddy!”

The Two Maniacs.

Nathan is now becoming quite the world traveler. At 7 months, he’s been to The Philippines, Alaska, Seattle and BC, Canada. Not too shabby. He was the star of the ship as the cute little baby girl. Yep, everyone thought he was a baby girl.

Prince Rupert, BC
The trip went from Seattle to Ketchikan to Juneau to Skagway to Prince Rupert and back to Seattle. All of them were beautiful and worthy of touring except for one. No offense to the denizens of Prince Rupert, but that was a complete waste of time. I guess I’m just bitter because we couldn’t go whale watching there (no kids) which I heard was great. So we ended up taking tour of the town and wow! The location itself was beautiful, but the town was so….yuck. At almost $60 a person for this bus tour, I’ve never been so underwhelmed in my life. I love history and tours, but there was absolutely nothing interesting about the town. They really need to change that or at the minimum, cut that cost in half. I’m still disgruntled…that was, by far, the worst part of the trip.

This is the only thing we could do in Prince Rupert…

That’s most of my stories. Go visit Alaska! It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to!

We’re Back!! It was a great 7 days in the Northwest and I’ve got a bunch of stuff to write about. Needless to say, Alaska is a beautiful, beautiful place. It was your normal 14-person family vacation, if there is such a thing. It was full of madness, fun, madness, fun, madness, some more madness and a bit more fun. We rode some boats, flew on some planes, saw some wild animals, ate a ton of food and did way too many jumping shots! I’ll have a full recap in a bit.

But for now, here is our trip in less than 4 minutes. Enjoy the slideshow of some random shots from the 7 days. Look out for Part 2. CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM LEFT BELOW.