Back from Vacation

I'm back from my vacation sadly, I didn't wanna leave but unfortunately I have to go back to work tomorrow. It was a fantastic vacation though, I had a really great time! The weather wasn't so great half the time but at least we got about three sunny days out of our week. We arrived on Friday July 2nd around 10 pm so there wasn't that much to do then so we basically just unpacked and watched tv. On the third of July it was our first official full day in Minocqua and it was beautiful! It was very hot and sunny that day. A good start to our vacation! The next two or three days it rained all day long so we went up town and just hung around the house. The rest of the week they were predicting rain all day everyday so it kinda bummed us out a little bit but in the end two of the days it was supposed to rain it ended up being very sunny instead. We still got in a bunch of swimming and tubing and we went out on the boat alot to. We also got to do quite a bit of fishing which was nice because I absolutely love fishing! I tried to get as much fishing in as possible seeing as though I had to pay $25 freaking bucks for my fishing license. Since I'm 21 I cant be included on the family fishing license my dad gets anymore and so I had to buy my own. I got my moneys worth though because I went fishing at least two or three times each day. Caught maybe about seven fish total the whole week. At first they weren't biting much but about half way into our vacation I just got lucky and started catching some.
It was a full house this week at our cottage but its nice having alot of people up there. My parents and I, my Grandma and sister were all able to come up this year. My sister brought along her friend Dan and also Jessica and Carl came up for the week as well. A few days into the week my cousin Arayana from Michigan drove down to stay for a few days so it was nice to see her. We barley ever get to see her, the last time we saw her was at Jessica and Carl's wedding in June of 2007. Three years is far to long, I hope its not another three years before we get to see her again.
So in the end my sister decided she was going to come home a day earlier. She decided she would come home today (Thursday) instead of Friday like we had originally planned. She said they were going to leave at 5:30 am so they could make it home before noon and surprise her boyfriend at summer school. In the end I found out I was scheduled to work on Friday when I wasn't supposed to go back to work until Saturday. Thus, I ended up having to come home with her and Dan at 5:30 in the morning. It wasn't so bad, I slept the whole way back while they were the ones who had to watch the road. However, It would of been nice to have another day and a half up there before coming back. I was having to much fun. I didn't wanna leave!

Feeding the chipmunks


Tubing- Dan and Kristi


Kristi driving the boat


Jessica and Carls Dog Tybalt. He cant swim very well because hes a smaller dog so he has a little life jacket.


Dad caught a fish!


Dan, standing out on a rock in the middle of the lake


Minocuqa Sunset- Taken from our boat while fishing


I caught a fish!


Our good neighbor Norb Brost who lives two doors down from our cottage. Slalom skiing (skiing with one ski) at 81 years old.


Cousins Holly, Kristi and Arayana- Updated Picture


Sail Boat racing

Getting Ready for Vacation

Today my family and I head up north to Minocqua Wisconsin for a whole week at our cottage. I've been so busy these past few months with work, school and other crazyness so I'm really looking forward to this vacation! I was lucky enough to get my request off accepted at work so I am able to come along this time. YAY!
I started packing my clothes and personal items yesterday but today I had to charge all my cameras and video equipment, charge my cell phone, update my ipod and make sure that it was all charged up for the ride. I never really pay attention to how much technology and equipment I have but packing up all my things was definitely an eye opener! I had to document the moment with a couple pictures of course!




Equipment Checklist:
Cell phone, cell phone charger, Nikon D60 camera, Nikon battery charger, Nikon USB uploading cord, Nikon spare battery, Nikon spare memory cards, Nikon sports lens and 50mm 1.4 lens, Kodak digital camera, Kodak battery charger, Ipod, Ipod charger cord, HD video camera, video camera charging cords, video camera USB uploading cord, HP laptop cords for charging.

A week away from home is a decent amount of time so this stuff is all very important. It is the key to me having the most wonderful vacation in the whole world. I cannot go on vacation without it!

I finally feel like summers arrived.

At the Beach in Chicago

Today my two friends Chandra, Ceila and I went downtown to Chicago and went to the beach. We took the train down at 10 am and stayed down there all day long! We didn't end up getting home until 8 pm so I'm very tired from all the walking we did. We walked all the way from Union Station to Navy Pier and went to a small beach right off Navy Pier. That was quite fun, the water felt good after all that walking we had done. After we had been at that first beach for quite a while we decided to keep on following the path that went along the shore line and eventually found another beach. That beach was so crowded and there were no bathrooms or water anywhere near so we kept going. After another long walk trying to get near Lincoln Park zoo we ended up at North Ave. beach which had a huge restaurant with restrooms and drinking fountains. We decided we would just stop and hang out at this beach and so that's what we ended up doing. It was very crowded at this beach as well but it was nice to sit down. After we had been at North Ave beach for a while we decided we would go find the Zoo but after a little while of walking and finding a map we realised it was way to far away. We decided to head all the way back to Union Station because we really didn't feel like walking all that way to get to the zoo anymore. After almost two hours of walking we finally made it back to Union Station and caught a train back immediately. Boy did it feel good to sit down on the train! By the end of the train ride I was getting pretty ancy because I hadn't gone to the bathroom since we had left the beach. It was nice to get together and hang out with my friends though. With everyone going to school and working its hard to find time to do anything but today was a perfect day and the weather even held out on us. Near the end of our crazy journey there were dark storm clouds coming into Chicago but it didn't end up raining. Thank goodness!

Sports Lens

Today at Kristi's graduation party I broke out my sports lens for the first time in quite a while. I haven't really had a chance to use it but when everybody was out playing bad mitten and volley ball I decided to get it out. I'm glad I did, it is the most amazing lens ever! John, Danielle and I ended up taking at least a hundred pictures on it just goofing around. I couldn't resist making a separate blog post just to put some of the photos up because there so hilarious!

Kristi's Graduation Party

Right now it is 1:00 am and I'm still up with nothing to do so here I am posting on my blog! Today was Kristi's graduation party and I drank a crazy amount of soda and ate so much food. I don't think I'll be going to bed anytime soon haha.
For having spent all week cleaning for this one day, it sure did go by very fast. It was a blast though! It was good seeing everyone, dancing and of course eating tons of food. We had a friend of ours from our ski club DJ the party so that was really great! At least we didn't have to worry about the music on top of everything else we had to worry about. We had the party catered as well from Elenas catering in Roselle near our house. We've catered from her previously a couple of times and she has amazing food! I especially recommend her chicken tenders, there delicious to the extreme!!!!!
Took a ton of pictures today to, of course! My boyfriend John and my bestest friend Danielle and I shot a ton of pictures on my sports lens playing volley ball and bad mitten. Let me tell you, they are hilarious! I'm so glad I got to hang out with Danielle today, she has been on vacation in Australia so I haven't seen her. She missed my birthday so she gave me my gift today. She got me a best buy gift card and also a cute little pink shot glass with peace signs all over it. I'm not much for drinking but I drank alot of pop out of it today. =D
Overall, I really enjoyed the party. Cant believe Kristi's off to college in the fall, everyones growing up.

Busy. Crazy. Update. Summers here!

Well, its been quite a while since I've posted anything on my blog so this is going to be a huge update. I've been going crazy with school and work every single day of the week so that takes up alot of my time. When I don't have to work or be at school I try to catch up with my boyfriend or my friends and then I need to sleep and eat so theres not much extra spare time in my schedule. However, I am currently on a three week break before my summer quarter starts up so its amazing to have a few weeks to do absolutely nothing! Coming up in a week we will be heading up to Minocqua and we'll be at our lake house for a whole week enjoying Fourth of July. I'm quite excited that I don't have school and I was able to get off work because I could definitely use a good vacation.
Since I've last posted on here alot has happened. We kicked off the start of the summer with the Roselle fest and the Rose Parade.



My boyfriend turned twenty four on June 9th so I baked him a cake and we celebrated.


I was hired by my best friends aunt to shoot her daughters spectacular graduation party bash! It was my first paying photography job, YAY me! It was pretty awesome, an all day event starting with a friends and family lunch in from noon to 3:00 and then a kids party with her whole 8th grade graduating class from 6:00- 11:00 pm. They had a DJ and even a guy who did the airspray Henna Tattoos. It was over the top but very fun! I took at least 400 pictures between the two partys, insane? It was all worth it in the end though because she payed me very well.






So much more has happened as well but Kristi graduating high school is the biggest thing that's happened I would say. Her graduation was quite boring honestly, all those hundreds of kids walking up to get there diploma who I don't even know. However, I'm excited for her graduation party which is actually tomorrow, June 26th. It will be nice to visit with people I haven't seen in a while, dance, eat lots of food and just hang out! I have alot more fun coming up this summer so I hope to post alot during the next few months. Hope everyones enjoying there summer as much as I am. I'm glad I was able to catch up on my blog.

I'm Legal!

Hey everybody!

I haven't posted anything in quite a while because I've been so busy with school and work but today I had to. Why? Well today is a very special day, it is my 21st birthday. I did have class today but I only have one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I was out by 11:00 with the whole day free to do what I wanted. After class my friends Mike and Olivia took me out to lunch and it was delicious. We went to California Pizza Kitchen in Schaumburg and had some Hawaiian pizza. I'd never had it before but it was surprisingly delicious! Then my friend mike took me out for icecream at coldstone in the mall and I had cake batter ice cream. OH MY GOSH! The best thing I've ever eaten before. I was so full after that I didn't eat another bite all day until dinner. For Dinner my family and I went out for Mexican food at La Hacienda and we had Margaritas. They were ok, the alcohol in them tasted kinda nasty but they were decent. I tried a strawberry Margarita and I tried some of my parents normal ones which I liked much better because they were more tart so you couldn't taste the alcohol as much. Any who, it was a great day. Seems like all I did today was eat but it was sure fun! =]
Happy birthday to me.