Summer has officially begun for us. One camping trip down, (hopefully!) several left to go. This was our first trip to Black Hawk State park in Lakeview, Iowa. It was gorgeous, and we couldn't have asked for a better time. Our campsite was right next to the lake, so it was more windy than i would have liked, but we would gladly take wind over rain any day!
Logan's gramma Donna bought him a portable DVD play for the trip to help keep him occupied on road. It was a lifesaver! Any time Logan was bored, or just needed a time out from everything he hopped in the truck to watch a movie. It will be perfect on long trips too! (COLORADO!)
We did plenty of fishing. (actually, steve did the fishing, i mostly did the magazine-reading and picture-taking) Logan wasn't interested in fishing, but loooved playing in the sand and water. I got lots of great pictures and have been having fun editing them on Picnik.
One of our favorite parts of camping is the cooking. Last year we invested in a camp stove/oven, and its been GREAT. we can cook anything similar to being in a real kitchen, and deff. speeds up cooking times to give us more time to relax.
I always get Logan's birthday pictures taken at Portrait Innovations at Jordan Creek. I've had good experiences up until now, with the exception of last year-- after they snapped over 70 pictures the memory card went bad and ended up losing them all and having to start over. The pictures didn't turn out the best because Logan was super annoyed with having to re-do everything, but I really didn't blame them, it was a fluke thing. Well...I called at the end of April to make an appointment for June 19th. At that time they told me they couldn't schedule appointments further than 30 days ahead of time, and told me to call back. Okay, it must be a new policy because i've never had any trouble before, and I always schedule things ahead of time. I called back on May 20th (exactly 30 days this time) and was informed they couldn't make appointments further than 2 weeks in advance. WHAT?! The girl was a real peach on the phone, acting like i was crazy for wanting to make an appointment a month away. Its a month, not a year, and i really didn't (and still don't!) think that is too much to ask for. I am a working mommy, and have to go out of my way to schedule things, ask for time off, etc. So, i vented my frustrations on Facebook, and ended up booking an outside/indoor photo shoot with a guy i went to high school with's wife. Im VERY excited, since this will be Logan's first professional outside pictures, plus everything will be edited, re-touched, etc. The convenience of getting pictures back in 30 minutes at Portrait Innovations will be missed, but i'm willing to wait for better pictures. He's getting time taken June 10th & I will post them as soon as i can.
Hope all is well with everyone!! Love you all, take care!
