A Few Days in Florida.

I’m finally done processing all the client work for the year! Whooopie! Now I have some time to do some personal posts. 🙂

In the end of Oct we went to Sarasota to shoot a wedding on Friday, then attended a wedding in Clearwater Saturday! We flew because well,

I hate roadtrips and being pregs PLUS my kids ask me 12 times in a 3 minute car ride “how muuuuch lonnnngerrrrrr?!” I wanted to still like

my kids upon arrival, so flying was best. I should have known they would entertain the cabin. Nico was thrilled to be in the air, even

though it’s not his first time. While Adam rested his eyes, Nico went up and down the aisles talking to people. “What’s your name? Where

you going? You going to my weddings? My name is Nico.” My kids really don’t grasp the concept of strangers. Though,

I guess, neither do I, sooo. :0

I was getting pretty uncomfortable and they both needed to use the restroom. Brave Daddy took them together. Yikes.

The first night there we went to the grocery because the kick ass place the Cagneys put us up in, had a full kitchen. Just as we were walking

out Adam realized he didn’t have the keys in his pocket. In the same second he looked up and his eyes got huge. “WOAH.” This pic does zero

justice to what we saw. I immediately wandered into the lot to get a better view and shot. He went into the store with the kids and a full cart

of paid groceries to find the keys. I kept moving, having zero concern for the keys. I mostly was sucked into the sunset because everyone is

always texting me hot pink sunset images because of Ali. And while I enjoy that, I often say, aren’t 75% of sunsets pink? HA. Anyway, this

one was special. This trip was the final thing “I had to accomplish” in this pregnancy. I was secretly so worried from the beginning of this

preg that something would happen and I wouldn’t be able to shoot Kelly’s wedding. But then, there I was. I made it. And I shared a little

celebratory moment and thanked my sister for assisting me in zero complications. After I relished the perfect moment, I went inside to find

Adam jogging around store with said full cart and kids. I laughed, then said a prayer to St. Anthony. I felt compelled to walk back outside

and within 30 seconds of finishing the prayer I was stepping over a curb where a lady was bending down picking up our keys. 🙂

We had most the day off on Thursday to play.

The view from our condo was…ok. 😉

I didn’t even think to try on the maternity suit because the last time I had worn it, it was huge on me. Nope. Not anymore.

Dem salt water curls.

They wanted to be Mommy and Daddy in towels.:)

She was proud of her work.

Obsessed with sorting and counting the shells.  The right was her favorite, which she is holding in the image below and she gave to a kid on

the beach to look at and he left with it. Oops.

Remember that time we had all the best intentions to go to the beach during sunset and get stunning images of our family? Then we lost

track of time and the place we were headed was actually 35 min away, not 25 and when you’re dealing with a very quick descending sun, 10

minutes is the entire sunset….

We sped. We saw the sun barely above the horizon. We pulled over and parked illegally. We RAN to the bridge. The beach was packed. We

RAN up the sand dune then down to the water. I thought I may deliver a baby or two. I screamed at our children. “Just go stand in front of

me and dance! NO! Don’t shake your butt, like twirl! Use your arms. More dramatic!!! Hurrry the sun is almost gonnnnne! Come on! Just

dance, you LOVE to dance!!” And the people stared at the largely pregnant woman trying to squat but couldn’t hold balance because it was

excruciatingly painful. They whispered to each other while I yelled. While their Dad took beautiful pics of the ocean waves reflecting the

pretty pink light. And I kept yelling. It was the one and only night we had to do this and who knows when we will make it back to the ocean,

dang it! So I was totally that Mom. Thankfully my kids enjoy being photographed which made it way easier.

Cranked up that ISO and tried to get a few shots of them but there were too many distracting people around and this little annoying kid who

would not leave us alone. I wanted to yell, “Kid! I’m on 5000ISO right now and it’s about to be pitch black. BEAT IT!!!!”

I was mad Adam wasn’t helping me with the kids and then I saw his shots and was all, fiiiiine.

This is EXACTLY him right now. SWEET then a freaking lunatic in a split second. He IS the perfect example of the sour patch kid

commercial.

I was 25ish weeks here.

This time Adam got to yell. “Just stand still for two seconds and hold Mommy’s hand. STOP MOVING. Look straight ahead. SERIOUSLY.

STOP MOVING.” Bahaha.

I was actually lifting my belly up because the pressure and the terrible choices I had just made, made it so much more painful to just hang

there. I feel like we at least got some decent shots. Thank God, right??

“Go hold hands and talk to your Aunt Ali.”

It was so dark by this point. :-/ Annoying kid from earlier, his Dad asked to take our pic. He told us to smile which is kinda hilarious

because we knew it would have to be a silhouette.

As I stopped to take this, the kids had already sprinted ahead to the washing station where Nico straight stood under the water and soaked

himself so bad we had to take off and ring out his clothes. I was in so much pain from running and trying to get low enough for shots, and

hangry that I was so beyond frustrated. As the beach crowd passed, we were still yelling at our kids but this time for soaking themselves in

the clothes we were about to eat dinner in. I’m telling you, these people must have talked about the “crazy parents” at the beach for the rest

of the night. At least.

We finally got to Sharky’s and the wait was an hr. I was mentally and physically checked out. While we waited, Nori took her turn to boss us

around. Monkey see, monkey do! My phone is up because I was recording her mimicking me being a lunatic Mom. “Move closer. Put your

head on Dad’s shoulder. Daddy! Put your head on Mommy. DUH! NICO!! Stop moving. 1.2…Nico why can’t you stop moving and smile? 3!”

The next day we shot Kelly and Dustin’s wedding. That morning my sister, Brittany, flew in a day early to babysit our kids. So thankful! It

was beautiful and all went wonderfully. On Saturday we woke up and cleaned quickly, checked out and made our way to Clearwater for our

cousin’s wedding. (Still can’t get over how perfectly that all worked out.) We arrived just after lunch and in time to get a solid hr on the

beach. I played the role of beached whale. Too bad I couldn’t figure out how to make my belly button shoot up water like a spout!

Cleaned up and attended Rob and Jen’s beautiful wedding.

Since Britt was staying with us, the beds were full. Nico got the “luxury” bed of my childhood. 🙂 He loved it and gave me 2 thumbs up.

Woke up super early, cleaned up for breakfast then checked out.

Back to the airport.

Back home to Cincy. What a busy few days. Was nice to enjoy one last bit of sunny weather before returning to our cold and rainy home.

By the way, these images are a mix between a Markiii, a Sony Rx100 iii and our iPhones. 🙂 Heart, Melanie and Adam.