When You Wish Upon a Star...

What kid doesn't like Disney. Wait, let me rephrase that....what person does not like Disney! When I look back on my childhood, there wasn't an age where a Disney character wasn't a part of my life. I lucked out and found a coupon code for Disney on Ice: Princess Classics, so I bought some tickets to take my little sister. With the discount, our tickets came out to $30 total; to say that was a steal is an understatement. The show was beautiful, and I may have enjoyed it even more than Nicole.

Now I know I have complained about my camera on a few occasions here. But man, did this camera work amazingly for this show. We didn't have the worst seats, but we were still 30 rows back from the action. Looking at the pictures though, you would think we were a lot closer.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Unfortunately, where my camera was cooperating, my brain was not. I had batteries in my camera which were running low on power. So I made sure to take a spare set. Bad part is I discovered during the show that those batteries were dead! I could have sworn they were fully charged when I removed them from the charger a few days before. So I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have liked. But here is a sampling of the shots I did get. Excuse the lighting on a couple of them. Like I said, we were thirty rows back. Don't think flash makes much of a difference at that distance in a dark arena.

Aladdin aka Prince Ali Ababwa

Aladdin and Princess Jasmine

A whole new world....

Sleeping Beauty: Prince Phillip and Briar-Rose (Princess Aurora)

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream....

Prince Eric and Ariel (The Little Mermaid)

Mulan and Moo Shoo

Belle and her prince (Beauty and the Beast)

Cinderella and Prince Charming at the ball

Missed me?

Yes, yes it's been quite a while since my last post. And for those of you following along, you will forgive me when I tell you why. I'll try to keep this short since this is a photo blog after all. On July 11th around 10:00pm I received an unexpected phone call which rocked my world. Without any notice, my father-in-law passed away from a heart attack. Here is the last picture I took of the man, taken on his last birthday February 10, 2009.

My father-in-law was such a beautiful man. Anyone who was fortunate enough to have met him would tell you the same. He was a person who truly went through life looking at the positive side of things. No matter what happened, he always saw the good. He just really enjoyed life with his wife, kids, and grandchildren. I don't think I could say enough good things about him for you to understand how truly special he was. Let's just say that I'm honored to carry his last name. The only other person I would rank above my father-in-law would be my father (and here's hoping God lets me keep him for at least 20 more years). Since that dreadful night, life has felt like such an emotional rollercoaster. As if that tragedy wasn't enough, exactly one month later I found out I was pregnant.... only to miscarry a week later. So yeah, you forgive me now right?

I'm trying to get back into the normal swing of things still, which includes my photography. I hope I can at least get one post in every two weeks. I was able to break out the camera this weekend though, and later this week you will get to see some shots I took at Disney on Ice.

Bubbles!

What is it with kids and bubbles?

Who am I kidding... if I were Nicole's age, I'd be chasing bubbles too!

A Quirky Place

Please excuse the photo quality. This was taken with my camera phone. I love Miami Lakes. Along with being a beautiful, family-friendly neighborhood, they have quirky little signs like these. I ran into this at CVS yesterday. Move over handicap and stroller parkers!

Dade County Courthouse

One of my favorite buildings in Downtown Miami is the Dade County Courthouse. It's a nice touch of history amongst all the new office and condo buildings being built up in Miami. Although I work as a paralegal, I probably have only been in this building once. It was for jury duty the Monday after I graduated from the University of Miami back in December 2004. Maybe one day I'll get lucky and get to experience a trial here.

Memorial Day!

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post, close to a month. Forgive me! I hope you all had a nice, long Memorial Day weekend. Miami weather can be a bastard sometimes, and this weekend it really let us have it with all the rain. I wanted to try to head out and take some shots of the Downtown Miami skyline or Miami Beach during Hip Hop weekend, but with the crazy weather it didn't happen. Luckily, we had a small window of sunshine today and our small BBQ for two went off without a hitch. I thought I would share some of photos of the delicious food that we had today in celebration of Memorial Day. Lenin grilled up some awesome pork spareribs and I prepared some potatoes, corn, and a "No Bake" cheesecake to complete the meal.

Delicious spareribs on the grill

The grillmaster himself. I have no idea what it is with guys and grilling. They don't like to cook, but somehow LOVE to grill on the barbeque. If you ask me, that's a form a cooking. (Lenin doesn't like taking pictures and probably isn't thrilled with me posting this shot of him, but let's see if he is actually keeping up with my blog to catch this!)

The final products!

Happy Memorial Day to all! Thoughts and prayers go out to all our soldiers serving our country overseas and to the families of those whom we have lost.

Sports Photography Revisited

I know, I know... I've been slacking. I guess I've just been so caught up doing things around the house, I've kinda put the photography aside. I discovered the world of bargain shopping and coupon clipping, so let's just say my "Holly Housewife" gene has been in overdrive over the past couple weeks.

Well, last week was one of my brother's last home games as a Killian volleyball player; so Lenin and I both made the trek down to Kendall to watch. This game was particularly special because during the pre-game warm-ups there was a ceremony for the three seniors that will be gone after this year. We had the whole family there cheering him on!

I took the opportunity to try my hand at sports photography once more. Since I wasn't being commissioned as the team photographer this time around, I concentrated more on shooting my brother throughout the game. He did great once again and Killian won!

I'm a sucker for team huddle photos. Maybe it's because I have spent a lot of my childhood and young adult life in them because of soccer.

A photo with the future superstar...

Smile for the Camera...

Yeah, I'm back. I was on a mini-break for the past week from my little hobby here. Of course, my first post back is Trouble. We went to Orlando over the weekend to visit some family, which means Trouble got to spend some quality time at his Tia Lupe's house. Sure, he is smiling in this photo, but it's only because he doesn't realize he's getting dumped for a couple of days. He was whining like a little baby as soon as we left. He's very attached to us. But his cute smile was right back as soon as we went to pick him up on Sunday night.

He really is a cute dog.

The Big 5-0!

Today, my dad turned a young 50 years old. We had a party last night at his house with all the family and friends. It wasn't a huge, fancy party but it was so much fun. Everyone had a blast, even the birthday boy! In the spirit of the milestone age, my dad was decked out in his Hawaiian shirt. You know, Hawaii "Five-O."

This is the cake I ordered for the party. It was so adorable, and SUPER DELICIOUS!

Unfortunately, the little guy didn't make it through the end of the night.

I hope you enjoyed your party, Dad! We are all so lucky to have such a wonderful person as our father. You have always put us first and pushed for us to be the absolute best we can be. I only hope that I can one day be at least half the parent you are. Happy Birthday!

I think I will always be "daddy's little girl."

Dad and all his kids!

Floral Fridays

I can't decide which one I like best, the regular color-enhanced one or the sepia-toned version. Happy Good Friday all!