Schraeder Family – Lilburn Georgia

When I worked in a cubicle I made an excellent friend. We ended up sitting across from each other and had to discipline ourselves not to talk so much and to get more work done. Last fall, I was supposed to get pictures of her family but our timing just never quite worked out.

SOOOOO, this fall we pinned down a day and braved the cold & overcast weather to get some fun shots at the playground…oh, excuse me the “Mountain Park Park”.

For some reason, I really like this image.That worried look in my friend Stacey’s eyes is due to her firstborn son attempting to sharpen his skills on the concrete skating ramps. This was a great reaction to their dog, Grady, who decided he wanted to see what this skating thing was all about and plunged into the pit only to find there wasn’t an easy way out. Dylan showing off his mad skills. These next two I played with especially for Dylan.A sweet little moment. Hayley (sorry if I spelled it wrong Stacey) doing her best impression of Captain Underpants. I will admit I am not sure who this character is. No matter how hard Hayley tried, she couldn’t get in sync with her sister. Our attempt at a nice family picture. Things were a bit crazy at first. This is the picture that they used for their holiday cards. I had to be a photoshop surgeon on this one because it was Stacey’s favorite except for the fact that her youngest, Hayley decided to cross her eyes for a series of shots (just like her momma). So I took her head from another shot and out it on this one for her. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. However, this one is my favorite of them. Stacey’s face in this first shot is absolutely excellent. Even though this shot was taken as Dylan was unhappy to not be able to go back to the skate ramps, I love how it came out. Mom and her two girls having fun on the playground. Stacey tried to get me on here too but I begged off saying I was carrying too much equipment. ;)There’s a new superhero in town. Mark told me he was “letting me” have this shot of him smiling. Hey, I’ll take what I can get. As we were leaving, the kids noticed a baseball was left on the field so they tossed it around for a little bit. I don’t know much about form, but Dylan looks pretty sharp in this series. Once we got back to the house, Taylor wanted to get some shots with her new(ish) bunny, Oreo. She was so sweet and responsible with him/her?Just look at those bunny eyes!

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As my sister would say. . .

. . . WARNING! This is going to be a LONG post. . .but with LOTS of picture goodies.

I am FINALLY getting around to posting pictures of my trip to Savannah with Sara. Although this is not a fact to be congratulated as I just bumped it up ahead of Date Day pictures from the beginning of the year and Charleston pictures. I still haven’t gotten the rolls of FILM that I took on our date day developed yet. Procrastination, Abra is thy name.

Moving right along. . .it has been a week since Sara and I went to Savannah. It was just as it was supposed to be. Relaxing with no plans. My drive to Macon to meet up with Sara was quite eventful and HOT as hades. It took me about 2 ½ hours to make a 1 ½ hour trip and once I had almost reached my destination I got flashed by a passing motorcycler. Scarred for life, I must say.

The only plan that Sara and I had was to try to eat at Lady & Sons, Paula Dean's restaurant in Savannah. However, you have to make a reservation in person by 9:30 AM at the latest in order to even get a dinner reservation. We got there at about 12ish. Hmmmm. We ended up eating at Panera Bread. Quite a letdown by comparison. After wandering around some shops we decided to do something we had never done before. We took a guided tour bus. Wish we had decided to do this earlier because it would have been awesome to be able to do the hop on and off option to see more of the city.

We ended our tour at the city market where we got a wee bit silly. . .
Normally, this is not the kind of thing I would do, but I have learned to not care as much and, HECK you can’t spend your whole life a stick in the mud.

Being that we were in Savannah, I had to get my obligatory bag of Saltwater Taffy. On the tour we had our eyes peeled for the church that we knew had Jehovah's name on it. Once we saw it we got all excited and saw this other family get all excited too. Turns out that they were also Jehovah's Witnesses which we didn't find out for sure until we were getting off of the bus. It's so nice to meet your brothers and sisters anywhere and just talk like you are old friends. Anyway, we had taken note of the streets the church was on and went back to take pictures as you see above.

That night we had all kinds of plans…most of which we did not follow through with. We ended up going to this awesome little Italian restaurant 30 minutes before they closed. {{evil grin}} Then on to our search for a liquor store. HA! I am telling you, 10 o’clock PM is not that late, I don’t care what you think. Unfortunately liquor stores do not think the same way as I do and the search for one that was open ensued.
As the picture indicates, we found one. And since this was a “no holds barred” cheating on your eating weekend, I suggested that we must get some Krispy Kreme goodness…conveniently located across the street from the liquor store…except for the fact that we didn’t notice this and got about ¾ of a mile away before making a u-turn to get back to it. {{whoops}} I swear we weren’t drunk yet.
Sunday was beach day! Highlight of my trip and when I took most of my pictures. So we packed up and were just about ready to go get some seafood before we headed to Tybee Island when “horror of horrors” I could not find my little camera. I was calm at first. . .that is until I had searched through my suitcase…and my purse…and my bed…and Sara’s car…and my camera bag…and Sara’s purse…and Sara’s suitcase…and the ENTIRE room…TWICE!! At this point I was understandably near tears. Then as I went through the hotel room one last time I yanked at the bedspread on Sara’s bed (I had already done the same thing to my bed) and THERE IT WAS!!!
A few stops on River Street, one specialty drink, and bellyful of seafood later, we were on our way to Tybee.
I've always envied Sara her freckles. I wanted freckles so bad growing up that I used to draw them on with Mom's eyeliner/eyebrow pencils.
Sara took this shot of my hand as I was stretching laying on our newly acquired beach towels.
I absolutely LOVE this picture of Sara. Surprisingly she likes it too. I took it right after she was laughing at me over something clumsy that I did.
I have become stalkerazzi as of late taking my love of observing people one step further.
Then, !!CHEESY ALERT!! we drove off into the sunset.

Seven

This is a new photograph that I just listed for sale on my Etsy shop
• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to theirblogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I love my son’s belly button. It is just the cutest thing ever. It used to be an innie and then one day when I was holding him as an infant, it suddenly became an outie. I know!! I am a freak for loving his belly button.

I am addicted to blogs of people I do not know. I obsessively read this one like it is a book and am waiting for the next chapter.

I have a bad habit of picking my toenails when I have access to my feet…weird, annoying, AND disgusting.

I am slowly and yet not so slowly turning into my mother. Scratch that…I AM my mother. :) :P

I wish I had a better communicative relationship with my father. I love him to death but we just don't talk much.

I am sadly prone to road rage. It doesn't help that it has been fueled by my hour long commute to work in HORRENDOUS Atlanta traffic. Sadly I believe it is rubbing off on my son. :(

I have always wanted dancing lessons. I love to dance and just wish I knew what I was doing so that I would be more confident.

My sister is right. . .WHO to tag is definitely the hardest part. Fortunately enough, I am talking to my sister on the phone right now and she is relieving me of that obligation.