Honduras // April 2018

This was my 4th trip to Honduras with Humanity and Hope and once again, I came back to reality with a bursting heart full of love for the people in these villages that we serve, as well as for the new friends I got to serve alongside with this trip. We had an amazing group. I feel like I say that every time, but it's always true! There's something about joining up with other people from around the world that share the same passion for serving God by loving others. We had an almost ALL-female trip this time around, but luckily we were graced with Tyson's awesome presence to detour it from being a sorority slumber party, as well as some not-too-hard-on-the-eyes security guards, always keeping us safe, as well ;) 
This group truly was saturated with talented, intelligent, driven, kind, and compassionate individuals and I feel so grateful to have met and gotten to know each one of them!

Although a shorter trip than normal, we still got to visit all three villages and even got more quality time with them than usual, as our focus was to get to know their needs and priorities clearer and make sure we are serving them in ways that are actually achieving sustainable and prosperous change. 

I feel like I am better at speaking through imagery than I am with words, so I will attempt to keep these  summaries of each village brief, then let the photos do the talking :)

[La Cuchilla] We just started working in this village about 6 months ago. They were once referred to as "The abandoned hole" because nobody took the time to notice them. A few different nonprofit organizations even came through once or twice throughout the years, offering to help but never returning. Everyone abandoned them. Not us! They say that they prayed and prayed for some kind of help for their community, and then God led us directly to them. It took time to earn their trust and for them to believe that we truly cared about them, though. To see the difference from when I was there 5 months ago to now, is amazing! This village has some of the poorest living conditions I have ever seen, yet they remain so united as a community, so joyful, and so excited about the opportunity to work. It's so exciting to start providing them jobs within their own village! Tucked away, secluded, in the middle of a luscious jungle, La Cuchilla is one of the most beautiful places I've seen, and it only grows more beautiful once you meet the people that reside there.  It was fun to see my friend Chanel reunite with her beloved Kendra, seeing how much progress the men have made in the fields, to see Adan's (leader of the men) pride and excitement of what they had accomplished, and to watch Danica teach the women a trade of making jewelry. Two specific highlights for me were watching Tyson play with the boys in the tree. These 5 little boys were having the time of their lives climbing up and down the tree, belly laughing as they tossed fruit back and forth to each other. Ah, the simple joys in life. Another highlight was simply watching Adan with his son. I had only gotten to witness him being a bad-ass worker in the fields and constantly striving to provide for his family, so it was a treat to see him full circle - WITH his family, being such a good father to his sweet little son.

[Remolino] is one of the more developed villages now as we have provided them clean water, secondary education opportunities, and jobs ("projects") for both the men and women. However, the demand for jobs is greater than the supply currently, so the people of the village are trading off days and several of them are only getting to work a few days a week, which is hardly enough to support their families, even at $6/day. That's why it was really exciting to visit and pray over a large piece of land that we are hoping to acquire to start planting and creating more jobs for the men. The kids in this village are always a bit timid at first here, but warm up to us by the end of the day and start following us around everywhere, and I can't get enough of their beautiful faces! Some personal highlights from this village were getting to see Owen (born with a disorder but constantly progressing every time I see him), and spending time with my friend Wendy, who seemed to be having a rough week but also seemed delighted when she saw me. She is a sweetheart, and her son is my future photography assistant! 

[La Coroza] is colorful, bright, and cheerful. Always. They are probably the most developed village that we have been serving, and they don't let a day go by without thanking God for it either. When we were doing our assessments, they always said that first thing when they wake up in the morning, at 4am before they start working, is get on their knees and thank God. The kids skip around with so much joy. They literally skip. They hardly run or walk anywhere, they are always skipping and laughing and smiling. It's been a joy to witness a positive personality change in Isis in particular, a little girl with down syndrome, over my visits in the last year. Kids in the village didn't really give her the time of the day, she seemed sad, and scared of people, and now the kids are all including her in everything they do and she is smiling, laughing, and engages with all of us. Some other personal highlights from this village include reuniting with my favorite little girl, Yolani, whom is so sweet, smart, and endearing. At 10 years old, she is so motherly to all of the younger kids in the village, and I am just so fond of her little heart! Another highlight was the worship service we had in the village, which is always a highlight. To witness these people praising God in their little community is such a wonderful thing! Particularly this time, I watched little Gideon (orange romper) sway to the music with Landre, and worship her little heart out to an upbeat worship song. And then it literally brought tears to my eyes to watch her close her little eyes as the song shifted to a slower melody, and she was truly in her element with God. (see photos below!)

On the last day, we got up early before all of our flights and went to surprise La Cuchilla with donuts and orange juice. The sun just began rising over the palms, and the men in the fields were surprised to see us, and overjoyed with the treat. We got to deliver the remaining donuts to the women and children in the village, as well as deliver the good news that we will be starting the first ever women's project (chicken coop) in La Cuchilla the following week! Such a great way to end our trip.

My main highlight from this whole trip though was how much all three villages truly felt like family to me. They remember me, they call me by name, they laugh and joke with me, and they hug me like they never want to let go. As I left La Coroza hugging my sweet little friend, Yolani, goodbye, I told her I would see her again soon. This time, she asked "How soon? Last time was way too long."
You simply can't visit these villages, and never go back. They leave an imprint on your heart, and it's quite clear that we leave one on theirs as well. I'll be back very soon! Join me?
CHECK OUT MY HIGHLIGHT FILM AT THE END OF THIS POST. 
YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SAY NO ;)

Honduras // November 2017

This was my third time in 9 months visiting the remote villages of Remolino and La Coroza in Honduras. Obviously they have touched my heart in so many ways, that I can't get enough and keep going back for more! I mean... look at these sweet faces. 
What was different about this trip was that the team that I go with, Humanity and Hope, is starting to help a new village from ground up, so we got to meet and start building relationships with the wonderful people in the village of La Cuchilla.
They have no clean water, no electricity, many of them don't have a real roof over their head, no jobs, and no education. Yet they still smile, and still welcome us with open arms.
Visiting La Cuchilla was all around eye-opening, heart-breaking, and inspiring at the same time. The whole village only has this one tiny well that the woman manually pull water up from, which is not even filtered or truly clean drinking water. Imagine what a safe and clean water tower would do for them? Also, what really struck was me that this one young man, who has started working in the first job project in the fields, was so passionate and excited about having a job and helping his tiny village. It was pouring down rain when we arrived, he was out working in the field, and he was shocked that we showed up to visit, with the heavy rain fall. He was out there working so hard in it, and he couldn't believe we showed up in a bus, with umbrellas and amenities, to visit him! 
His words to us were of so much gratitude and grace, and he introduced us to the rest of the men working, and then prayed over all of us. It was one of my favorite moments of this trip.

Welcome to La Cuchilla:

In Remolino, we re-visited the projects and the H&H board members on our trip had their annual meeting with the leaders in the village to see how things are going and prioritize future needs. One of my favorite moments in Remolino was seeing Owen. I met Owen in February, but learned that a few months prior- a fellow H&H friend, Kahlila (an occupational therapist), had met Owen and assessed his situation. He was born with a disability that didn't allow him to develop fine motor skills; he was unable to even hold his head up or crawl at 6 months old. Living in a remote village, and being the youngest of 7 or 8 children, him nor his mom had access or opportunity to the necessary tools that could help him develop properly, despite his condition. When I first met him in February, other members of my group who had met him prior were brought to tears at the site of him walking with his mom helping him. A true miracle. Kahlila had spent many hours drawing out a plan of exercises for his mom to do with him back in December 2016... and what do you know, less than a year later - I got to meet the infamous Kahlila, I witnessed a miracle once again, and little Owen is walking on his own. He is the shyest, but sweetest little boy. He is my absolute favorite to capture, his smile is infectious, and he truly is a miracle. Here is a photo of him from back in February and a few photos from him this November trip:

We began our day in Remolino by praying over one of the men in the village who is really ill. We then checked out some of the projects, and the boys got their regular haircuts from Ronnie, also a fan favorite - he's so full of life and always smiling. And he really loves giving those "fresh fades."  We also taught some of the women in the village how to make a bracelet, that you can read the story behind and purchase here. 
We also all wore our Gen-Us shirts all day, which you can purchase here. Both of these are part of the "Purchase with Purpose" campaign going on right now, and I encourage you all to make a simple purchase - where all of the proceeds go into helping the people you see pictured in this blog post.

Remolino:

Isn't there an evident visual difference between La Cuchilla, the village we are starting out in, and this village of La Coroza? However, the one thing that is the same between the two villages currently is the smiles on their faces and hope in their eyes. The connection between these two villages is pretty neat too, because Emerita, the female leader of this village - is the one that connected us (Humanity and Hope) to the other village in need, La Cuchilla. True example of this radical change having a domino effect... we are helping and changing the lives of those who have the hearts to go out and want to do the same. It's a pretty exciting time for La Coroza, as they are about to get electricity in their village, too! That is what all of the wood piles are that the children are playing on in these photos. So exciting! And so awesome to witness the process.

La Coroza:

I'll leave you with this: If these photos alone don't inspire you to want to be a part of this story, talk to me. I can only fit so much into a blog post, so I'd love to share more with you in person! Come on a trip with us, donate, purchase with a purpose for gifts this Christmas.
Be generous, live a generous lifestyle, and help make the world just a little brighter :)

Denver Girls Trip

Road Trip to Banff, Alberta

I am so fortunate to have such awesome, talented assistants who also share the same passion for outdoor exploring and epic adventures that I do. So that when we book a wedding in the middle of nowhere Idaho (Bonners Ferry), we make a little road trip adventure out of it for good measure... throw a little camping, hiking, and boating in there - WORTH IT.
I'll never turn down a road trip, especially if it involves driving through the gorge.

Ellie is my full-time assistant this year and I absolutely adore her. She has a sweet, quiet, kinder spirit but is such a badass undercover. She shows up with all of the camping gear and all of the outdoor skills. Katelyn has been with me for a couple of years working part time, and she is always full of joy and can rap any song you ask her to. I can always count on her to show up with good vibes all around, every time.

We drove a straight 12 hours from Portland, OR to Banff National Park in Alberta, BC with  stopping only a handful of times for potty breaks and snacks. Go us! Our jaws literally dropped as we turned around the first corner and witnessed the majestic mountains, as we approached Banff National Park on the last home stretch. But the sun was setting, and we were trying to avoid setting up camp in the pitch black, so we only stopped for a few photo opportunities and opted for just a few photos out the window as we trekked on.

We spent 2.5 days hiking around and exploring the National Park, making sure to see all of the good spots. Peyto Lake, Two Jack Lake, Lake Louise, Lake Moraine, The Historic Cave and Basin, and the Upper Hot Springs were some of our classic favorites, just to name a few. We also had a lovely rooftop dinner, enjoyed some beers in a downtown dive on a rainy afternoon, and enjoyed making coffee and eggs in the morning once we finally got our mini camping stove working back at our Two Jack Lake camp site.

Our 3rd day, we packed up and drove another 5 hours to Bonners Ferry, Idaho. We filmed a lovely backyard wedding all day the following day and stayed in the cutest, little, small town, family owned lodge (Log Inn at Bonners Ferry) for 2 nights. Seriously the cutest. I would go back to middle of no where, Bonners Ferry, Idaho, again just so I could stay there again. So, so darling. Shout out Katelyn, too, for keeping us fit on our trip and giving us personal workouts in our little lodge room.

Since neither of my girls had ever spent time in one of my favorite places on Earth, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, I saved a day to pit-stop and explore the town on our way back home. We made friends with some kind gentleman with a boat, and gave Ellie her first time (ever in her life) experience on a boat. There were a lot of firsts on this trip :) We shopped downtown that evening, had a fabulous dinner, and went back to what we thought was going to be another lodge hotel, but found out we were basically back to camping in our "glorified camping" 2 bunk hut situation. It was actually so cute that I didn't care. It even had an adorable little porch swing. No complaints.

We saw so many beautiful places and had so many different experiences in a matter of only 5 days. After spending 120 hours straight with you girls, and at least 30 hours of those being in a car with you, I can honestly say I still love you both dearly ;) 
Katelyn and Ellie, Thank you for always doing stellar work for me, but more importantly, for always be willing and excited to enjoy life with me.

Until next time Banff... we love you.

Generous Coffee // A Quest for the Best Cup of Coffee

Back in February, I joined a team in Honduras with the non-profit organization that is now family to me, Humanity and Hope United. While on this trip, Ben briefly mentioned this idea he had for a company, "Generous Coffee." Back then, it sounded like a nice idea -- but exactly that, just an idea. I wouldn't have imagined back then that a couple short months and a few unexpected connections later, I'd be a on road trip across the central american country with him and 2 others on a quest for a grower, a story, and the best cup of coffee.

First of all, who are these guys who mysteriously whisked me away right in the middle of wedding season? Ben Higgins: board member of H&H, one of the three founders of "Generous Coffee," lives in Denver, Colorado, funny, friendly, compassionate, heart of gold. Riley Fuller: president/founder of H&H, Ben's best friend, one of the three founders of "Generous Coffee," lives in Austin, Texas, caring, intentional, driven, heart of gold. Darwin Suazo: works for H&H, lives in El Progresso Honduras, absolutely hilarious, sweet, spontaneous, heart of gold. Truly, these guys are gems; I adore all three!

When invited on this trip, my mind was blown that they wanted me to capture it all. When I returned from this trip, my mind was even more blown by what I experienced on this trip, and most of all - the crazy ways in which God works if you truly surrender your heart to Him, and faithfully trust in His plan.

We were in such preliminary stages of Generous Coffee, that I had no idea what to expect, especially because it sounded like Ben and Riley didn't know either. Truthfully, I wasn't sure how much we would actually accomplish, but I was still excited for the experience! I myself am a planner and always have an itinerary of some sort while traveling. I knew I was in for a wild ride with these guys when into the first 40 minutes of the road trip, Riley (driving) looked back in the rearview mirror at Darwin and asked, "Hey, we are going the correct way... right man?" Darwin, dumbfounded, responded, "Um? I have no idea. Where are we even going?" Ben chimed in, "Do we even have GPS?" None of us had an international plan on our phones, no GPS, no maps, and apparently nobody knew where we were going. Jesus, take the wheel. 

I had a feeling that was a sign for how the whole trip was going to go, but honestly I trust these guys with my life and have so much fun with them, that I wasn't completely worried. But, in that moment, I may have been slightly concerned. Jesus really did take the wheel though for the whole trip! The order of events, the people we met, the views we witnessed, the amount of things we learned, it was all God, guiding us and completely present with us for the entire journey. 

Day One: Doing Business on a Mountain Top

We drove for a good three hours in order to meet up with coffee grower and producer, Cristian. He led us to one of his areas of production, literally on top of a mountain, Taulabe Mountain, with outrageous views, to show us where his coffee beans are dried with the natural air. This is when we just started finding out exactly how little we all actually knew about the coffee industry, haha. Cristian was very informative and educated us quite a bit, while also telling us a little about his story, his family business, and background in the coffee industry. He was also showing business developer and coffee expert, Habib, of Project Origin in Australia, around his farms... so even just listening to their conversations, we got so much insight into the coffee world! Right place, right time. We also got to meet Cristian's longest employee, who was the exact epitome of what we had in mind for a Generous Coffee story. Cow-skin cowboy hat and all, we even kind-of-kiddingly said that he should just be our company logo.

Day 2: Coffee Education from Cristian

After leaving the mountain, we checked into our cute hotel, and walked around the quiet town of Siguatepeque, Comayagua before ending the night at the only restaurant left open that late.

The next morning, we met up with Cristian again at his little coffee shop where his coffee is actually sold in town, Cafe Tio Juan, where I enjoyed the most delicious iced coffee I think I've ever had. Cafe Tio Juan is named after Cristian's younger brother, who tragically passed away trying to protect their family coffee from thieves in their fields in the middle of the night, a few years back.

It was a lovely little morning sipping Cristian's coffee, and the waitress serving us was so sweet! Before trekking onto our next adventure, we soaked in a few minutes standing in the geographical center of the Americas and of course had to take a squad photo. Kind of neat!

From there, we visited Cristian's farms and learned what a coffee plant actually looks like, haha. It was kind of wild how much we learned in that one day though. Between listening to him and coffee expert, Habib, and asking several questions, we definitely soaked in a tremendous amount of coffee knowledge in one day. As Ben said, "I think I learned more about coffee in one day than I have in my entire life." 

Day 2...Continued: Gracias Bound

The rest of this Day 2 was spent traveling into Gracias, one of the cutest little towns that I've truly ever seen. The architecture and stone streets were so beautiful, yet it still had a very small town feel. We had all afternoon and evening to kill so we checked into our adorable hotel, had a nice lunch talking about coffee since we felt like experts at this point, and then roamed around the town, cigars in hand, singing with locals and taking pics.

Just when I thought the day couldn't have gotten any better, we finally got to meet Carlos Javier, newly hired agronomist for the Hacienda Montecristo Coffee company, one of the largest coffee producers in Honduras. He gave us a warm welcome by treating us to one of the most delicious dinners in by far the LOVELIEST setting I've ever dined in. Strung lights, streaming river, delicately designed details everywhere, fresh mountain air, elegant wine, and divine food. Seriously, the evening was perfect. I remember sitting at the table sipping my wine, looking around me and just feeling all around blessed. It was a beautiful evening that I will remember forever.

Day 3: The Best Cup of Coffee, complete with a story.

Okay... just when I thought the entire trip couldn't get better at this point, the third day ended up being the absolute best. Cristian had educated us so much in the last few days, and we had been lucky to taste his delicious coffee and get to know him, but we were still in search of story.

We awoke the next morning to Carlos Javier taking us on a "2.5 hour drive" to meet a small coffee-growing family that his larger company outsources to. We drove about 10 minutes before turning onto a quite treacherous bumpy, rocky road and that's when I realized we were in for a 2.5 hour adventure, not just a drive, in order to get to this family.

Driving up the mountain with my hand out the window, I literally felt tears coming on because the views were just so magnificent, and quite literally, breathtaking. I, unable to control my photographer brain, may have politely asked Javier a couple times too many to please pull over for the several photo-ops ;)

About halfway up the mountain, after seeing these crazy views, small little homes built on side of the cliffs, and naturally a little boy randomly in a tree in the middle of nowhere, we stopped to let these 2 ladies and a small newborn into the back of the truck so they didn't have to continue walking. We were probably driving at least 30 minutes straight up hill before we approached their destination. I couldn't believe these people living on this mountain walk up and down that terrain on the daily, or weekly, as they have no other form of transportation. 

After a few other hiccups that included Riley falling out of the back of the truck and waters too high for our vehicles to pass, we hiked up the remainder of the mountain to the family's farm.

I'll never forget approaching their home. There are 4 main brothers that run this family coffee farm that has been in their family for over 100 years. Each brother has a rather large family of their own, a wife and several kids, that each live in their individual, very small, manmade homes. Coffee is their life. The men farm the coffee beans, the children pick them, the women process them into coffee. It is my understanding that the children have not ever seen the real world, much less have ever left the mountain that they live on. When we approached, the children scattered so fast and hid behind doors, their parents, anything that would hide them! They were so, so shy. After all, they had never really seen people outside of their family members.

We got to chat with the brothers, and I finally got the kiddos to warm up to me by snapping photos of their sweet faces and then showing them the back of the camera. They were the sweetest little children. The one particular little boy in the majority of my photos, in the red shirt (then later in the maroon/white striped shirt), holds a special little place in heart, as he followed me around all day, at a safe distance from me of course, so secretly, and so bashful. At one point, I noticed he had gone and changed his dirty shirt into a clean shirt and then he snuck over to their outdoor sink to rinse off his dirty face and arms. He seemed so intrigued by us, but I think I was more intrigued by his curious and sweet spirit. I caught sight of him at the wash basin, and every time I glanced over he would take turns hiding behind the pillar than doing more rinsing. I finally convinced him to give me a hug by the end of the day, and it melted my heart how he held onto me for a few lasting seconds.

After wandering around their farm a bit, my favorite part of the day came when we all sat in the eldest brother's dining area of his home, overlooking the view from the top of mountain, and sharing a cup of coffee together. His very own coffee. It was truly charming how his wife so eagerly prepared and served the coffee to us. It was even more touching to have the brother repeatedly telling us how much he couldn't believe we were interested in their coffee and interested in their story. He seemed radically humbled and I'll never forget the tiny tear I saw in his eye as he was smiling at Ben and Riley, thanking them over and over again.

In my mind, in that moment, the quest for the best cup of coffee had been accomplished. This family has a story. And it needs to be shared.

Day 3...Continued:  A treat from Ramon

Leaving the mountain that afternoon, my heart was completely exploding with love and adoration for this family. The endless labor and sacrifices that they make for their family coffee business is completely astounding. It sounds like Hacienda Montecristo has really helped this family out by giving them more demand for their supply, by outsourcing to them.

This is how perfectly God's plans work... None of that would have happened that day if Riley wouldn't have randomly met Ramon, family heir of Hacienda Montecristo, on an airplane to Honduras a few months prior. Like, what?!!! Talk about perfect place, perfect timing.

Although Ramon was out of the country at the time we were there, he still graciously invited us to his family property in Copan, where he had his employees and wait staff completely TREAT us to another fine meal and great tour of his family's gorgeous plantation. As soon as we arrived with Javier, these sweet little waiters (they had to be like 14 years old!) came out and offered us cocktails as our jaws dropped in awe of their beautiful home. So much history and so much beauty, their home is seriously unreal. Someone overheard Riley and Ben talking about how they should have saved their Honduran cigars from earlier to enjoy on this fancy porch we were now standing on, and sure enough - 5 minutes later - this little boy comes out with a platter of cigars for them. It was so sweet! We definitely felt completely treated. After another lovely meal and a DELICIOUS coffee cake desert, we started our personal tour of the plantation, learning all about their growing process, how many families work on the plantation, the history behind it, and we even got to experience the task of "cupping" coffee by these two sweet ladies who are in charge of that particular process.

Another educational experience for sure. It was also very interesting to literally go from one extreme to the other, having experienced the way that the small 4 brother families live to the fairytale sights of Hacienda Montecristo, in only a matter of hours. However, it did make my very happy that wealthy, successful people like this also have huge enough hearts to want to help smaller families in the same industry. Thanks, Ramon, for the special treat of a wonderful day!

We ended our 3 day adventure driving back to San Pedro Sula area in the pitch black of night in a dangerously heavy rain storm. Thank you, Riley, for keeping us alive on that scary drive.

We chatted life, reminisced about the people we met in those short few days, and talked about our excitement for the future. Personally, I believe Generous Coffee is going to change the world.

They brought me along to capture a small documentary / promo-type film for the new company... which will be coming soon. However, I didn't expect to take so many photos and I certainly didn't expect to blog about the trip either. 

I ended up wanting to document every moment especially so I could remember it for myself. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this extremely long blog post, God works in such crazy ways. The order of events, the people we met, the experiences we shared, I don't know that it would have A) been as effective or successful if it was any different, and B) deepened my faith and touched my heart the way it did.

Riley and Ben, thank you so much for including me on this wildly awesome adventure. I'm so proud of you guys and blessed to call you guys friends.

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Honduras // July 2017

It was such a blessing for me to last minute be asked to come down to Honduras and film a promo film for a new company, Generous Coffee. The three awesome guys behind this company are Riley, Ben, and Drew, whom also happen to be founders and board members of the non-profit, Humanity and Hope United.

Currently we are in very pre-limary stages of Generous, so I knew that the 5 days I was going to be down there with the guys were going to be filled with new adventures for all of us, as we had no idea which coffee farms we were visiting, who we'd be meeting, where we'd be staying, etc.

I'm creating a whole separate blog post about our Generous road-trip and research that I'll share soon, but for now I wanted to share the days that I was in Honduras outside of the Generous trip. I didn't know that I was going to get to meet and spend time with a 26 person crew from Humanity and Hope that was down there at the same time, a group being led by Ben and his mom the previous week. IT WAS SUCH A PLEASANT SURPRISE! It was so wonderful getting to know the people on the team, whom were (for the most part) all new to H&H. I could already tell that they had built some very strong friendships amongst each other, and I was happy to get to be a part of it for the last 48 hours of their trip.

With that, I also got to spend time with them in the village of La Caroza and reunite with the cute kiddos that I met in February when I was there earlier this year. Loving on these sweet faces and seeing their smiles never gets old! It was fun to see how well the 26 person H&H team not only connected so well with each other, but also connected with and had already made such an impact with the families and children in the villages. 

One of my favorite stories from their week was how one little girl was unable to attend school one day because she didn't have any shoes to wear. An H&H team member, Sarah (whom I was so blessed to get to know, she has the biggest heart!), was the only one made aware of the situation at the time, by the girl's concerned friend, and immediately said, "Well, let's go get her shoes!" With Darwin's help, they went and bought some shoes, and the girl was able to attend school that day. I love so many things about this story. One, that the girl's friend was so concerned about her friend not being able to go to school. Two, that Sarah is such a humble soul that nobody on the team even knew about what happened until the end of the week. Three, that there was a moment shared at the end of the week that Sarah spoke with the two girls and told them how inspired she was by the strength of their friendship, and let them know that if they can be there for each other through something like that, then that kind of friendship will be a solid rock for them throughout their entire lives, in any kind of situation. Sarah's words and tears also brought tears to the girl without the shoes, and it was such a special moment that I'm so glad I got to capture. I included a series of a few photos of that moment, just because it was so touching to not only see how much the girls' friendship inspired Sarah, but how powerful Sarah's words of encouragement were to the two young girls.

We also spent a day in Remolino with the new "health squad" for H&H finding out health concerns and needs of the village in order to bring a health program/clinic/care system to them in the near future. Along with visiting household to household and doing some data analysis, we hung out more with the children, and witnessed again just how labor-intensive both the women's jobs are with the sheep and pigs and the men's jobs are in the fields. It is insanely inspiring to see how hard these people work for $7.50 US/day. Which to them, is a lot. 
I also loved getting to spend more time with Catherine and Androlla, two of the translators that live in Honduras, that also have huge hearts! They are such a blessing to H&H and the villagers absolutely adore them.

After the Generous trip, we also came back to spend a few hours in a new village, La Cuchilla, that H&H intends on working with in the future, who currently has zero electricity and no access to clean water. The village of 27 families lives in 20 small homes, and shares ONE well to manually get their water, and still must boil the water before it's even okay to drink. Can you imagine living in that heat and having to pull up your own water from a well and boil it before you can even drink a glass of water to quench your thirst? It was heart-breaking to witness first-hand and I'm thankful H&H has connected with these wonderful people to help their community prosper! I truly look forward to seeing these families again in the very near feature and can't wait to be a part of bringing hope and prosperous change into their lives. Just look at how joyful they are right now with so little... imagine the smiles on their faces once they can drink water without getting sick and find out there is opportunity for them to experience jobs and education.

Once again, I left Honduras completely humbled with a heart full joy, hope, and gratitude. A kind of joy that literally hurts my face from smiling so much, a kind of hope that inspires me to share their story and get more people involved, and a kind of gratitude that encourages me to invest all that I have into these people - their communities, their hearts, and their new opportunities.

Find out more about the vision of Humanity and Hope by clicking here.

Find out more about how you can get involved here:

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God-daughter Love

Gracen and Avery, my two sweet god-daughters and most photogenic children ever. Luckily I had no place to live for a couple months prior to my move to Seattle, so I got to live with these girls and their momma -- my best friend, Kaylin. Avery would would wake me up and come snuggle me at 5:30am every morning, and Gracen would constantly ask if I could live with them forever. These two melt my heart and they truly can turn any bad day into a good one. I feel so fortunate to be able to have the relationship that I do with them, and to share so many memories with them.

We did a little photoshoot in their matching dresses for updated photos to hang on the wall, but the photos turned out so cute that I knew that I would eventually share them. Their spunky little personalities shine right through the photos, I just love it.

One day while living with them, I shut my door and tried to get a bunch of work done, and Gracen just came in and sat on the windowsill and said, "Rachel, can I sit in here with you while you work? I just want to be by you because I love you." How can you say no to that....... I picked up my camera because it was a sweet moment that I wanted to remember forever, Gracen seriously has the biggest heart I've ever seen for a 5 year old. But then, of course, monkey see monkey do, Avery wanted to come in and sit in the windowsill too, and it just turned into an all-around jumping, tickling, hugging, pushing, laughing festivity. 

These two have grown up so fast before my eyes, I've made it a point to capture every stage that I possibly can. They are my favorite little humans, and I am so blessed to call them my god-daughters. They are very special girls.

Posting a million photos of them here because I haven't seen them in 2 weeks, and I miss them like crazy!

If I knew then, what I know now...

Thanks to a little "facebook memory" throwback, I realized yesterday that exactly 5 years ago, I was presenting my business plan to a board for my last project as a college grad. I was nervous, I was excited. It was a "mock" business plan, not intended for real life, but it's crazy to think back to how I was feeling in that moment and know that I had absolutely NO idea how far that business plan would actually take me in real life, or that it would actually COME TO LIFE!

Just for a back story, for those of you who don't know how this career got started for me, I picked up a camera for my digital photography class senior year of high school, and was simply completing the assignments to get the grade. I wasn't sure what I was going to do for my senior project at the time, and my digital photography teacher (shout out Doug Huegli) suggested that I take senior portraits for my senior project, as he enjoyed what I was doing with my individual class assignments. I figured, well I don't have anything else to do! So, I setup a fake little photography business and took about 10 senior's portraits for free, again, to complete an assignment. The next summer, I had people asking me to take their senior portraits, so I asked to borrow a camera from Doug again and was like "no problem people, I'm not doing anything this summer, might as well." Then, my dad had the GENIUS idea of "hey, maybe you should charge people for taking their portraits?" I was like WOW, great idea! Soon enough, I started making more money than I thought possible for how easy taking photos was. So, I bought my first Canon camera in 2008. The first photo I took with it was a selfie in a mirror (see above), and I think it's hilarious and awesome that I just remembered taking it and actually was able to find it on one of my 30 hard drives!

Anyways, I was definitely not intending to blog about this, but yesterday had me thinking all day how absolutely insane it is that all of this, my entire career, what I am most passionate about in life, all of this started with a little suggestion from Doug Huegli and my dad. Oh and my mom thought of the name "RP Imagery" for my senior project, so credit to my mother, too! My "business plan" that I created at the end of college, 4 years later, was also to complete an assignment... just get the task done... I 100% was not anticipating on actually using it.

And here I am.
I'm blown away with where these last 5 years have taken me, how many experiences I have had, how many epic places I have had the opportunity to travel to, and honestly - the truly genuine, amazing people that I have met along the way.

These are the most random photos ever because I went through facebook as fast as possible grabbing a few photos that when I looked at, I said to myself "I would not have met this person and/or I would not have traveled to this place if not for my photography/videography."

This is getting too long for something that was not even supposed to be a blog post, so I'm going to wrap it up with saying that I'm THANKFUL that I didn't know then, what I know now. I was naive, unexperienced, and had no idea what my life or career was going to look like, but I truly would not have it any other way. I could only hope that the next 5 years will look half as awesome for me as the last 5 years. Thank you Facebook Memories for taking me down memory lane.

Oahu

Oh Hawaii, i love you.

All the places that I go, I typically imagine myself living there... and say to myself, "I could totally live here." But this time, I actually looked at some real estate. I grew up going on several family vacations to the different islands of Hawaii, but going there as an adult by myself this time, was a little different. I felt like I belonged ;)

It started with Steph asking if I wanted to go to Hawaii to help film her best friend's proposal. Dangerous question... if it's between October and April, and you ask me to go somewhere, I'm going. So of course we made a little vacay out of it and stayed in a Waikiki airbnb for 5 days. We met some fun locals on a catamaran that ended up taking us all around the island the next day. This, was actually one of my favorite days. Our new friend, Ikaika, drove us up and down the east side of the island, tailgating at his favorite beach spots, jumping off rocks, and ending the day with a treacherous, muddy hike up to the pillboxes, then jumping into the crystal clear, blue ocean at Lanikai beach afterwards. I floated on my back for a good 20 minutes in the warm ocean, with a little bit of rain falling, and I was in complete heaven. THAT was a perfect moment.

It basically only got better from there, as the day Steph and I were supposed to leave, we decided to ditch our flights and stay another day. One thing I'm getting REALLY really good at, is traveling somewhere and staying way past the original itinerary. We moved on to the Marriott Waikiki and soaked up more sun all day and had one more Lava Flow at our favorite barefoot bar, Dukes.

Once again, I couldn't leave. So when Steph left for the airport the next day, I rented a car and booked another 4 days at an airbnb outside of Waikiki, away from the hustle and bustle. First of all, cutest airbnb EVER! It really is the cutest studio cottage in paradise, and I can not rave enough about how perfect it is for a solo getaway. I arrived to a sweet note from Shawna, the owner, telling me she had all sorts of stuff for me to use during my stay (snorkel gear, beach chairs, bikes, etc) and letting me know there was a brand new outdoor shower in the back of the studio just for me, too ;) HEAVEN!

The next day, I actually got to meet Shawna and her sweet kiddos that live on the property as well, and she convinced me even more that I need to live in Hawaii. Such a sweet, awesome, laid-back, hang-loose type little family with cute, tan, barefoot babies. Serious family goals.

I took a day to drive around the island, made some friends up at North Shore, shared some delicious grilled shrimp tacos with them, and watched a perfect sunset at a "secret beach" that they showed me, to end that day.

My friend from home, Kyle, showed up a few days later, since his parents live in Lanikai, and we frolicked around some more, ate at some yummy restaurants, watched more sunsets, and spent way too many hours at Moose McGillycuddy's on a Tuesday night. 

The day I actually decided I should probably come home was a sad one. So I made the most out of the minimal hours that I had left, got up at 4:30am for a sunrise hike, took the longest outdoor shower possible, and headed home. During the longest outdoor shower possible,  I reflected on how truly blessed I feel. Blessed to have a job that I not only LOVE, but that gives me so much free time to do other things that I love, like travel. And extend my trips. And meet such interesting, awesome people. And spend enough time in Hawaii to know my way around the island without GPS. And float on my back in the ocean for as long as I want without worrying about what's next. And crack a beer at the top of an epic hike because it's a Monday. 

And to think, so many times in the last 5 years, my life could have gone a multitude of different directions. I am so happy and thankful to be HERE, in this season of life I'm living right now. Life is so, so good. Thank you outdoor shower for letting me reflect on all of that.

 Hawaii, I'll be back for you sooner than you think :)

Snowy Mirror Lake Hike

Good Friday this year was a good friday, indeed! 

I've been wanting to do the Tom, Dick, and Harry Mountain Hike on Hood this year, but have been waiting for the snow to get a little less intense. I thought it would be perfectly clear by mid April so we took our Seattle and Ellensburg friends to this hike when they were in town Easter weekend. To say we were a little unprepared is an understatement. I wasn't expecting any snow at all, haha! Oops. Luckily Steph and I just moved out of the house we were living in and had some extra snow gear in our cars that we hadn't taken out yet... perfect. Tom, Dick, and Harry trail was closed, or basically non-existent with the snow, but the trail to Mirror Lake was accessible.

We were the only ones out there and although it was a bit cold, we had so much fun. Michael and Tenielle are serious couple goals (honestly though, talk about two people that are perfect for each other and exude so much joy), so of course I snapped way too many cute photos of them that I had to share.

We celebrated Good Friday with a good ole' communion with Rainiers and a protein bar once we reached the lake. It was a good day on good Friday with good friends and good fresh mountain air. Unfortunately I came down with strep throat and a fever hours after the hike, but it was worth it ;)

West Coast First-Timers

God works in crazy ways and I love it! Getting the opportunity to go to Honduras with H&H was a total God moment that completely fell in my lap, but even more things came out of it than I originally expected. The people I met on that trip will forever hold a place in my heart, two of them being Dana and Ally - whom I like to call my soul sisters. They are literally two of my new best friends that I feel like I have known my whole life. 

Ally is from Missouri and Dana is from Wisconsin. When I heard they had never really been to the West Coast, I was shocked. I shared so many PNW pictures with them and convinced them they needed to visit me sometime. One thing I love about these two is that they stick to their word. We left our Honduras trip end of February and they said they would come visit me in Oregon some day, and about 40 days later they really came!

I was so excited to show them all of my favorite things about where I live. The first day we explored the Columbia gorge. We stopped at Vista House, then on the way to the hike I wanted to do, we stopped at the first waterfall off of the Historic Scenic Byway (Latourell Falls) and their minds were blown. I didn't realize they had never even seen a waterfall! They were seriously obsessed... I was like "goodness, you girls haven't even seen anything yet!" Then we went to Moultnomah Falls and their minds were really blown. From there, we hiked Angels Rest and then stopped at Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River for appetizers and beers. We ended the gorge adventure frolicking around Rowena Crest. We headed home on the WA side so I could take them over the Historic Bridge of the Gods and then ended at my parents house just in time for them to treat us to a yummy dinner and wine.  It was an epic adventure day and I was actually incredibly impressed that we fit so much into one day.

The next morning we headed out to the Oregon Coast. Huge thank you to my friend Judy who let us use her beautiful Rockaway Beach cabin for our stay. We stopped at Cannon Beach first on the trek to our cabin, and briefly took some pics at Hug Point, too. We cozied into our cabin the first night, made some tacos, and attempted to build a fire on the beach. It was so windy that it wasn't necessarily a success, but a memory for sure haha! The next day we celebrated Dana's birthday. We started off with a birthday frosted breakfast roll for her and went on our merry way to check out some other beaches. We stopped for a bathroom break at Blue Heron wine and cheese company, part of Tillamook Cheese Factory, and ended up staying for a wine tasting (Dana's first wine tasting!). We spent the rest of the day exploring Pacific City and of course getting lunch at Pelican Brewery. Our last night at the beach, we went out to a local dive bar, Rick's, the only one in Rockaway and met a rowdy fun group of people, which led to meeting another fun group of guys, who invited us over to their beach front cabin for a fire and s'mores, which us girls ended up building AND buying s'more supplies for, but at least we got our fire on the beach. Another first- for Ally!

The next day we headed back to Portland so I could show them the actual city. We were blessed with another gorgeous sunny day to wander around the Sunday market and walk around the city, then I took them over to another favorite, 23rd street, for some shopping. Mid afternoon we drove out to Mt. Hood because I wanted to show them my favorite Hike of all time, Bald Mountain - which opens up to the most glorious view of Hood. However, we drove all the way there to find out that the road to the trail was unaccessible due to snow... my bad. Always do your research, oops! Fortunately I remembered another road near the trailhead that opens up to another pretty view of Hood, so we were still able to get that "photo op" with Hood. We ended the evening introducing them to my friend Kelsey at another one of my favorite places, McMenamins Edgefield. Another day that I couldn't believe we fit so much into! So blessed.

It was a truly joyful experience for me getting to show Dana and Ally all of my favorite places, a little piece of where I grew up, and a big part of my heart - my home, the PNW. It made me smile seeing their jaws drop at the sight of a waterfall, of a mountain, and of all of the beautiful green trees we have here. So many more wonderful memories were made having these girls visit me and I'm writing this still thinking about how in awe I am of how God works. At the beginning of 2017, I never would have imagined doing all the things I've done before the month of May, and the new and dear friends that I've made along the way. I am SO incredibly thankful. Thank you, Jesus. And thank you Dana and Ally for coming to visit me, for being extreme troopers with all of the driving and the constant go-go-go, for having as adventurous hearts as myself, for being genuine forever friends, and for posing for all the photos I wanted to take of you guys even when you were over it haha. I love you girls!

Butcher Jones

I just got back from spending 2 weeks in Arizona when I thought I was going for 6 days, and had the absolute time of my life. It was a much needed couple weeks in some sunshine. In my extra week, I got last minute Eric Church tickets with my friend Jon, went to a few more spring training games, got to see one of my college besties Nichole and her family, and had the opportunity to meet a new friend, Annabelle.

I have a dear friend, Tenielle, whom I've known since grade school. She text me while in Arizona and mentioned that she reached out to her college friend, Annabelle, who lives in AZ and told her I'd be in town. Annabelle is also a photographer, as well as a very sweet girl - and I'm thankful that our mutual friend Tenielle thought to even randomly connect us from 3 states away! 

Meeting Annabelle was a complete treat. She is incredibly kind and endearing, with such a wonderful story and testimony for the Lord. We spent an hour driving out to explore the Butcher Jones area in the Tonto National Forest and got to share several stories. Unfortunately, our goal of capturing sunset was diminished by the cloud coverage, but we still explored beautiful areas and took some awesome photos, and of course photographers on an adventure always have to take a few portraits of each other ;)

Detours // Joshua Tree National Park

Some people wonder how I travel so often... and the answer is no, I am not made of money. I am a small business owner, and I'm extremely lucky to do what I love to make a living, but no I am not ,by any means, made of money. I am however, lucky enough to have a mother who has worked for Delta airlines for 20 years and the benefits are wonderful :)
 

The benefits are wonderful budget-wise, but flying stand-by has gotten more and more difficult over the years. Often times, I'll be stranded in a city for several hours, sometimes several days, just trying to get to another city. Often times, I'll be stranded in an airport for 24 hours or more. And often times, I'll get fed up with the hours in the airport and just fly somewhere other than my original destination. I'm thankful my schedule allows me the flexibility for this type of travel.

I'm spending the week in Arizona this week, maybe next week also. Yesterday, I got up at 4am to get on the Salt Lake City flight out of Portland to make sure I got there in order to try to make at least one Phoenix flight that day out of SLC. Chances were looking slim to none come 3pm, so I hopped on a Palm Springs flight instead. 

Arriving into Palm Springs and having to rent a car to drive the 4.5 hours to Phoenix, most would be frustrated. I, too, would normally be frustrated. However, I've come to realize in the last few years that frustration does not result in anything good. It results in more frustration, tiredness, stress, bad attitudes, and that, in turn, effects the people around you. The term "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade" has really come into play for me lately. Everything happens for a reason, God gave me a little "me" time before hitting AZ with friends and visiting family, and I couldn't have been more thankful.

I rented the cutest car that I've never even heard of (I'm not a car person)... I was urged by a friend to rent a convertible and let my hair down, but I'm cheap so rented the latter and just rolled my windows down instead... felt just as happy ;) Anyways, what came of the Palm Springs-Joshua Tree detour was nothing short of fantastic. I met the sweetest old man on the plane, whom showed me around Palm Springs a bit when we landed, I took my time on the road to AZ, discovered some wonderful new music, stopped in Joshua Tree and got a little lost wandering around taking photos of plants and the beauty that surrounded me, and caught a sunset in the middle of no where all by myself. I didn't have any cell service most of the time, and truly didn't have any worry in the world of timeline, schedule, itinerary, anything. It was all a true breath of fresh air, and then I made it to my final destination of Phoenix by 11pm. Between 4am and 11pm, I had a damn good day. Come to find out, it was the first day of spring, and I'm so glad I got to spend it the way I did!
 

The first day of spring 2017 I learned that some of life's greatest adventures are actually detours. I actually didn't think I would blog about this (thought I was taking photos for myself), but I woke up today feeling truly blessed for my unexpected detour yesterday and had to share. Here's to detours. And here are my photos from Joshua Tree National Park... it is so beautiful, I can't wait to go back and explore for more than an hour!

Bahamas

I've never been on a cruise, never really had any desire to go on a cruise... but this Bahamas cruise was one for the books, and one of my 2017 highlights so far; even though it was supposed to be a cruise elsewhere....

In my Uncle Cory's prime 30's, he was full of spontaneity, loved to travel, loved to ski, loved going out with his friends, loved enjoying so many things in life. Then, he was in a terrible car accident in 2001, was in a coma for 15 days, miraculously came back to us, but was left legally blind in addition to several other impairments for the rest of his life. As you can imagine, after that kind of trauma, things were never the same. Because of his impairments, he was unable to keep his job, in which he also took great pride in. For years, the only thing he has really been able to do and takes joy in now is rescuing rottweilers. Because he always has had 1 or 2 rottweilers in his home over the last 15 years, he really hasn't left his house and is always unavailable to go on any family vacations with us. However, sadly his last rottweiler passed away in the fall, but I took it as an opportunity to get Uncle Cory traveling again!

I said "Uncle Cory, let's go somewhere. I'll take you anywhere you want." He said Belize. I said, "we're going to Belize!" So, him and I, being the only ones with a flexible schedule and the rest of our family with normal jobs, we sought out options for a Belize vacation for the two of us. When it came down to it, it seemed to be that a cruise might be a good option, stopping in Belize, Cozumel Mexico, Roatan Islands, and Grand Cayman. We booked it and were excited for months leading up to it!

Out of 15 years that my uncle hasn't traveled, the one cruise that he books would of course get canceled. 2 Days before we were set to sail, we got an email from Carnival Cruiseline saying there were some ship maintenance issues, and our anticipated itinerary would be no more; since our ship was unable to go maximum speed. What they could do for us - A) Give us our money back and cover flight costs or B) Give us 50% off and still take us on a cruise, but only to the Bahamas to get the ship fixed, and give us 50% off of a future cruise as well.

I was so peeved, I couldn't believe the ONE cruise we perfectly planned because of the destinations, fluked on us 2 days before travel! I was already on my way to Denver to fly out with Uncle Cory when we received the news, so we sat in Denver for a day contemplating the options.. both of us irritated with the situation, and really leaning towards not going at all. Then, we ultimately decided to make lemonade out of lemons and just go for it. After all, neither of us had been to the Bahamas before, so that would be another check off the ole list... and being on a cruise, unlimited drinks, in the sun, surrounded by sea, we really couldn't complain... Plus I thought, we would be surrounded by such positive people, because the only people going on the cruise would be people doing the exact same thing we were: making lemonade out of lemons.

My first cruise experience was very unique. We pretty much sat at port in the Bahamas getting fixed for the majority of the time... but it was still SO wonderful! Warm sea breeze, lots of sun, lots of drinks, new friends, fun evenings, great shows, amazing food, Uncle Cory and I had a blast. Most people had to ask us two or three times, "Wait, he's your uncle? she's your niece? you guys are traveling together, just the two of you?" Hey - I highly recommend an Uncle-niece trip if you have an awesome uncle :)

Anyways, I took this week to really spend time with my Uncle and make sure he had a great time and I really didn't bring out my camera all that much. It was more about the relaxation and living in the moment. But, of course I took just a few pics, so enjoy the little bit of Bahamas that I did capture:

Honduras // Part 2 (La Coroza)

Welcome to La Coroza, Yoro, Honduras. A small village with little to nothing in tangible form, but the biggest hearts around. Humanity and Hope has brought in clean water for them, jobs, an education opportunity, and are currently working on providing bathrooms to every household too. I included a photo in this post of what they currently have, which is a little make-shift shack with a concrete hole in the ground. Click here to donate, as many of the donations are currently going towards this bathroom project.

La Coroza truly stole my heart and I cannot wait to go back to hug and laugh with all of them. I want to share my two favorite moments from this village though... which are the moment we arrived and the moment we left.

Our arrival: Our truck pulled up into the village early morning, so the kids were in school. It was the cutest thing to see all of their faces piled up at the door of their classroom peaking out as our truck pulled up, and it literally looked like ants in their pants, they were jumping up and down and couldn't contain their excitement (granted, many of us they hadn't even met before). When we got out of the truck, and made our physical appearance known to them, it was all they could do to not run over each other while sprinting full force and jumping all over us. The joy that these kids had just merely seeing us, I will never forget. One of my favorite images from the whole trip is one I got of the kids piling all over Riley (founder and President of H&H) and squeezing him like they were never going to let go. It was so sweet. Our arrival was definitely a moment to behold and the pure joy in their hearts truly made my own heart overflow.

Our departure: My other favorite moment was the last morning before we headed to the airport. Just Jaclyn, Ally, and I rode into La Coroza one last time with Darwin to bring donuts and orange juice to the men working in the fields. With the beautiful sunrise, and the gratitude that the men had for us bringing them some breakfast, it was the perfect ending to an amazing trip.

The eye clinic was also a huge success in La Coroza. They managed to get everyone in the villages' eyes checked the first day, so opened up the clinic to surrounding villages on the 2nd day. I'm pretty sure a whole village piled into the back of 1 truck... you'll see in the photos. They were all smiles though and you could tell they were so thankful to have this opportunity to literally, SEE. 

Other than the eye clinic, we also spent our time digging a trench in the plantain field, well... helping at least ;) The village men found it very entertaining how NOT labor-intensive our American men are, as they did more singing than digging. We also helped dig the holes in the ground for the new bathrooms. I came around the corner one time to see how they were doing with the digging of the hole at one particular home, to find a 5 year old with a machete chopping up coconuts for his friends to eat. I took plenty of pictures of that... because it's not every day you see a 5 year old so coordinated and comfortable with a machete!

We also ended our last evening in La Coroza with a church service. It's really neat that a local pastor and worship team come out every Thursday to this small village, donate their time, and bring the word of God straight to their little village. A few of us climbed the water tower during the worship service, and it was really a wonderful moment to have that aerial view of the village, and see that the whole village was empty and quiet except for at the worship service... all were worshiping. 

All of these moments I will hold in my heart forever. However, I am excited to go back again and again and bring more hope, inspire more faith, witness more miracles, and grow in the H&H Family. I am starting off the photos with a photo of our H&H team. It's crazy to see God works in small ways of simply just bringing a solid group together. Each one of us truly had our own unique skill-set to bring to the table, and we couldn't stop talking all week about how much of a dream team we were.... not to brag haha... it's just really cool to see God's hand in placing each one us on this particular trip at this specific time. I love each and every one of you and thank you for laying out your hearts and giving up your time to not only inspire the villages we serve, but to inspire me. Until next trip! ;)

Also, I encourage all of you who are reading this to do something. Come on a trip, donate, share our story.  As Riley recently said, "Everyone was created on purpose, and for a purpose. No one is an accident." So why invest any less than our best? Find out more by clicking here.
And give them a follow on instagram to keep up with what we are doing down there!

Secret Supper in BEND, OR

If I lived anywhere besides the Portland area, it would definitely be Bend, OR. The landscapes, the community, the breweries, the seasons, the people, the all around vibes... I love it all!
Huge shoutout to my friend, Max, for inviting me to a "Secret Supper" in Bend this last weekend. It was a beautiful weekend, and just what my body needed in this travel season of my current life.

We stayed at Suttle Lake Lodge, which is EPIC. It is the perfect combination of rustic and modern, with a cozy common area, a warm fire, a trendy bar, an arrangement of popular games, and a record player complete with an impressive collection of legendary records. The rooms are also the perfect mix of spacious and cozy, in a way that you literally look out the window and feel like you are in your own private cabin on the lake. I took a few photos so you know what I mean!

Okay... I had no idea what I was in for going into this "Secret Supper" thing... I had never even heard of it, but apparently it's a thing. A wonderful thing! Truly one of the coolest experiences of my life. The amazing team behind it began doing these secret suppers about a year ago, with the vision of inspiring people through feast, community, and the natural surroundings... and just something out of the ordinary. Mona and Jaret, from Tournant Catering in Portland, are the incredible chefs behind this masterpiece concept (and also the cutest couple ever, I obviously HAD to take a few portraits of them)! They teamed up with a talented team of creatives, Christiann, Danielle, and Eva, to really bring their vision to life. I believe this was their 4th one, and this one was alpine themed. They cooked everything over an open outdoor fire, the candle-lit table setting was to die for, and the people we dined with were genuine, fun, down-to-earth folk that I seriously feel so lucky to have met and spent all weekend with! Sorry for the picture overload, everything was too beautiful - I could not stop taking photos, even though I was there to just enjoy it, oops. Not pictured - Max rounding up 12 of us after dinner to join in the lodge and play a rowdy game of Cards Against Humanity - complete with home-made cookies, more booze, and more laughter.

Buy tickets to their next Secret Supper because you seriously have to experience this yourself to truly know how wonderful it is. We laughed, we feasted, we drank, we shared stories, we cozied up with blankets, it was 30 degrees and we didn't even know it! Anyways, thank you to the Secret Supper crew for blowing my mind... you guys are amazing.

With the obvious highlight of the weekend being the Secret Supper, we also made sure to spare a little bit of time for some hiking and adventure on the way home. We met up with my friend Megan and her cute pup Dally for a hike at Tumalo Falls. We couldn't stop talking about how glorious the weather was that day... the falls and surrounding areas were completely covered in snow but the sun made it feel like t-shirt weather. We worked up a 10 Barrel appetite and enjoyed more of the sunny day at the cute Bend brewery before ending our day at Smith Rock.

All in all, it was an epic weekend. I love to travel, and I love to explore and try new things, this included. However, this was semi-different in a sense that it was a weekend prioritized with NO priorities, NO plans, and I thoroughly enjoyed NOT having a worry in the world, breathing in fresh air, relaxing, and enjoying the people that I was surrounded with. Martha and Thadius - the cutest young couple with old souls... They recently got married, and we loved getting to know them.. they sat across the table from us if you couldn't tell, I took so many candids of them! :) Also, Tim and Deb - I loved getting to know this couple and hearing their stories... Tim fell in love with Deb when she walked into his elementary class, and now they are married with kids my age. It's stories like theirs that you appreciate and really admire. I just adore them! Tim reminded me of MY dad Tim, and had me constantly laughing at the table, as well as in our Cards Against Humanity round-up. Anyways, here's to my new friends, Max for inviting me, the Secret Supper crew, the wonderful staff at Suttle Lodge, and the beauty that surrounded us all weekend! Oh and here's to BEND, OR too :)

2016 [Behind-The-Scenes] Recap

2016 was one of my best years yet! It brought a ton of new adventures and meeting new friends, with many of those new friends being my brides/grooms/clients. I've never done a "behind-the-scenes" blog post but thought it would be fun this year since my assistants and I truly had the best time at every wedding this year and had so much fun with all of my couples.

Check out all the behind-the-scenes fun, at the end of this post... 

But first, I want to give a shout-out to my extremely talented and awesome assistants that I also get to call some of my best friends. Stephanie and Katelyn worked with me at the majority of my 2016 weddings, but I had a couple of fun opportunities to get to bring 2 other gals along, Lacy and Lauren, to a few weddings, too. Not only that, but I also brought Ellie on board at the end of the year, whom will be shooting all of my 2017 weddings with me as well, and I seriously am so excited! Thank you girls for being a part of my year, a part of my life, and huge assets to the success of my business. I love you girls and hope you know how thankful I am for you.

STEPH

Stephanie is my go-to for wedding dress shots, pose ideas, attention to detail, and encouraging me when I'm stressed. You can always find her with the cute kids at the weddings. She is a delight to have with me at all times, we have way too much fun traveling and on road-trips to weddings together, and my clients absolutely adore her. She is sweet, caring, hilarious, and has a gentle heart. Stephanie- I couldn't be more blessed for the direction that my life has taken me, because your friendship has been a huge part of it and means the world to me. Thank you for also killin' it with me in the wedding photography industry and especially for making me laugh so much.

KATELYN

This was Katelyn's 2nd year filming and photographing weddings with me, and she is so much fun. As a cheer coach at Camas, I've enjoyed getting to watch her grow into a beautiful, talented young lady since freshman year and now I get to have her as my assistant, side-kick, dance buddy, and dear friend. Seriously though, she's the only one who can ever pull me out to the dance floor. You'll see in the photos and videos... She easily makes friends because she is so loveable and you can always catch her on the dance floor. Oh, and she's a really great rapper!

LACY

Lacy was one of my 2014 brides and I am so lucky to have her in my life, I absolutely adore her. She is one of the most kind-hearted people I know and am so blessed with her friendship. She is also a blogger (Positively, Lacy) and I love her style. I had been keeping up with the recent photos she takes for her blog and opted to invite her on one of my June weddings. Despite her being 6 months pregnant, and it being a double header (2 wedding) weekend all across the state, she was so enthusiastic about going and she ended up killin' it. I was so proud of her and it was such a joy to have her along for my first 2 weddings of 2016. Lacy- you are a life savor! Love you!

LAUREN

I met Lauren in 2014 when she interned with me for her senior project. It was such a fun year, and I was so excited to get to have her along for a few weddings this year as well. It's always a joy to get to work with Lauren. She is sweet, thoughtful, talented, and witty once you get to know her ;) Oh and I learned this year how much she loves cows. Love and appreciate you Lauren!

Meet ELLIE

When I posted for a job opening for 2017 weddings, I was blown away with the amount of responses I got. As flattered as I was, I was bummed that the majority of them were 40+ year old males. Not that I have anything against you men, but with the amount of traveling that comes along with my weddings, I was really hoping for a female close to my age that I could really click with. When I was just about to give up hope, I got the sweetest email from "Elizabeth Parker" who was just asking for a chance. When I looked through her portfolio, I was like "a chance to work with me?! Girl you're more than talented!!" I was so excited... then when I got to asking her more questions like if she'd be interested in video too, she nonchalantly mentioned that she had her degree in video production and was almost done with her photography degree as well. OKAY?! Dream come true... I feel like I hit the jackpot with Ellie, especially once she started working with me, and I found her to be just as sweet and fun as she is talented. I am so excited to have her on board for 2017 weddings! I know you guys will love her as much as I do :)

I truly feel the meaning of "dream team" capturing weddings with these gals. I am so thankful for them and my 2016 weddings would not have been the same without their talent, composure, humor, spontaneity, friendship, style and class. Here's some more behind-the-scenes of 2016:

Shout-out to Seth, too, my "drone guy"
...Who slays at aerial footage and steals all of the flower girls' hearts :)

Cheers to 2016 being one of the best ones yet!

Small little moments captured behind-the-scenes of some of our 2016 weddings. Love my girls! You'll notice Stephanie is always working or with children, and Katelyn is always dancing and/or rapping.

MY Family Portraits

I don't remember the last time my immediate family had portraits... and I don't think my extended family has EVER had portraits together, so while we all gathered in Colorado for Grandma's 75th birthday this month - we figured it's about time :)

This Thanksgiving, I'm truly thankful for so many things, but most of all: family. I'm so thankful for every single one of them... My loving and supportive parents who truly are my #1 fans, my two brothers who consistently keep me proud and teach me several things in life, my grandma who is my soul sister, my Aunt Mindy who I love like a best friend and who is one of the bravest woman I know, my uncles Scot and Cory who teased me like heck growing up but now I look up to the both of them in so many ways, my Aunt Teri who was my role model growing up and also happens to be my Godmother, and all of my crazy little cousins who bring so much light and laughter to our family. And this is just my mom's side of the family! I'm so thankful for all my family on dad's side too.... Maybe we can do portraits one day of all 50+ of us ;)

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll.