FINALLY!!!  After almost 1 1/2 years in Germany, I got to turn the lens on my brother-in-law, Tyler, and his fiancé, Antje.  Even though it was freezing outside, we braved the snow and ice, and I’m so glad we did.  These two are a lot of fun!  Here are a few of my favorites from our session.

Did I mention that Antje is gorgeous?

And that Tyler adores her?

Awwww…

I love this shot.

These two are family, and during our time in Germany, we also became very close friends.  We’ve been gone just a month, but Jason and I miss them so much already.  We love you guys!
PS: Thank you Tyler for this last shot

Here’s a little preview of what’s to come!

My little brother, Eli, is GOOD at dodging the camera.  My camera is quite conspicuous and every time I picked it up he suddenly couldn’t be found, or at least had his hands in front of his face.  So, suffice it to say, we compromised, and here’s what we came up with.  I’m determined to get his whole face next time (Eli, you have been warned!!) but honestly, I like how this turned out.

Zoe the dog, she’s adorable.  I had to rub her belly while she was sitting there to get her to hold still long enough.

One day during my visit, we got to watch little Morgan.  Morgan is the daughter of one of my mom’s friends, and she is as cute as can be.  When it started snowing, she insisted that it was actually just rain, so we ventured out to see how she liked it.  She wasn’t sure at first, but then was okay with it, and even let me snap a few photos.

And finally, on Saturday we baked, baked, and baked some more.  First, we started with the sugar cookies.  Then, with the help of my mom’s best bud JoAnne (Morgan’s grandma) we made some delicious pumpkin rolls.  After that, we whipped out a couple batches of fudge, and moved on to sugar cookie decorating.  No one else was interested in this part, so MiKela and I were left with several dozen bare sugar cookie cutouts.  While we were very creative at first with our snowmen, stars, and gingerbread guys and gals, I have to admit we got a bit hasty after, oh, THREE HOURS of cookie decorating.  Can you blame us??  All in all, it was tons of fun, and we gave away much of our goods to friends and family.
I snapped a lot of photos during this week with my family, so instead of posting only a few here, I created a slideshow of them.  Click HERE to view it!  Rather than editing each one individually, I gave in and batch processed.  The slideshow was so simple to create and I love being able to show more photos, so you may see more slideshows included with my posts in the future.  Let me know how you like it!

Christmas Slideshow

I spent the week before Christmas in Prescott, Arizona with my family.  After being away for almost 1 1/2 years, it was soooooo good to be back.  I’ll be sharing a slideshow of the many images from our time together, but first, here are a few shots of my gorgeous sister, MiKela.  I can’t believe that she is a freshman and is going to be 15 in March–time goes by so quickly!  She was always a perfect subject when I was learning photography in high school, and still lets me turn my camera on her, even when it is freezing outside.  And for that, I am truly grateful.  Thanks, favorite sister

On the night of Friday, December 18th, I woke to the sound of my parents saying my name softly, as they handed me a cell phone and explained that it was Jason. I wasn’t fully awake as I said hello and looked up confusedly at my mom and dad; MiKela, my sister, began to stir beside me in the bed. Jason said that he and his brother, Ryan, were robbed at gunpoint at 11:00 that night in the parking lot of Ryan’s apartment. Jason had been with Ryan at work that night, and helped him close the laundromat. They then drove their separate cars to Ryan and Cassey’s apartment, where Jason would spend the night with them. Jason parked in the visitor’s parking, across the lot, grabbed his belongings, and then headed over to where Ryan had parked, just a few yards from his home. Jason and Ryan were talking as two men approached Jason from behind and asked him for the time. One of the men cocked his gun and demanded Jason’s and Ryan’s wallets and cell phones. Jason’s cell phone was in his messenger bag, and as he was reaching to take it out, the robber said to give him the entire bag. The second man snatched the items as the first kept his gun pointed at them. As soon as they had departed, Jason and Ryan went inside and called 911. The police recovered their wallets that night, on the ground of the parking lot. The robbers must have thrown them aside after seeing they contained no cash. Besides Ryan and Jason’s cell phones, they stole Jason’s Patagonia messenger bag, which contained our white Macbook, our iPod, Jason’s debit card, and a few other personal items. Just two days later, on Sunday, Ryan and Cassey’s apartment was broken into while they were at work. Jason stopped by their apartment that day to pick up his laundry, and when he tried to open the front door, it was bolted shut from the inside and the robbery was in progress. The robbers got away through the back door, but because of Jason’s timely interruption, they were not able to steal all that they had planned. Unfortunately, they did get away with all of Ryan’s handheld gaming equipment, but thankfully did not have time to take the laptops, dvd’s, or any other items.
We are all upset that our belongings were stolen, but more than that, we are thankful that Ryan and Jason are safe. Ryan, Cassey, and their two little ones, Sam and Ben, are moving from their current home immediately. We are sad to learn in this way that location can make all the difference between living in fear or safety in Dallas. Please keep us all in your prayers as we look for a good neighborhood to call home here in Dallas. After living in small cities like Flagstaff and Prescott, we are not used to the dangers associated with living in this huge metroplex.
Because our nice laptop was stolen, it will be a few more weeks before I am able to edit any of the current photos I want to share with you all. Thank goodness, we have an external hard drive set up with Time Machine, which contains an exact copy of the laptop’s content (though we’ve never had to test it out, *fingers crossed*).
And now, in honor of the last day of 2009, I have compiled a little mosaic that sums up our past year of traveling and living in Europe. Click on the mosaic to head to my flickr page, where you can see a caption and a full version of each photo. Jason and I wish a happy and blessed New Year to all!!!

This row of trees is visible from our hotel room’s window, and I just love how the early morning sunlight shines through them on a clear day.  So, one day last week, I decided to bring my camera out with me to take a few shots.  It was soooo cold outside, and had been this cold since I’d arrived in Dallas a few days earlier.  There were even little icicles hanging from the shrubs, and ice droplets all over the grass.

This past weekend, the weather reached highs in the low 70’s!  It is crazy to feel a change of 30 degrees from one day to the next.  On Sunday we spent the afternoon at White Rock Lake.  Jason and I love the outdoors, so it was incredibly refreshing to find a lake with a designated bike and walking path.

And here is a shot of my handsome hubby.  If you look close, you can even see me in his glasses!
I’m flying to Arizona tonight to spend a week with my family.  Jason will be driving to meet me on the 23rd, and then we will head to Flagstaff for a couple days.  Merry Christmas all!!!

In November, Tyler, Antje, and I took a day trip to Heidelberg.  This beautiful city is just an hour away from Wiesbaden.  Here, we are standing on the Alter Brücke, or Old Bridge, a pedestrian crossing over the Neckar river that runs through Heidelberg.  The second photo below is a view of the Heidelberg Castle from the bridge.  Old buildings such as these undergo restoration often, hence the scaffolding on the left side.

We then made our way to the Heiliggeistkirche, and paid a Euro each to walk to the top of the church’s tower.  Here is a view of the church from the second story as we made our way to the tower.

And here is the beautiful view we enjoyed from the tower.  Again, you can see the Old Bridge crossing over the river.  I love the warm, reddish-orange color of most rooftops in Germany.  The second shot below was taken from the other side of the tower.  The tall red building is the Hotel Ritter, which was built in 1592.

Next, we walked up the very steep hill to the castle.  Here is a shot of the castle from the courtyard.  Underneath that staircase to the right is a doorway, which leads to the Deutsches Apotheken Museum, or the German Pharmacy Museum.  It was neat to see all the old bottles, jars, and wooden drawers that were once used.

Here is the view of the historical city center from the castle.  The tall church below is the Heiliggeistkirche, and to the right is, of course, the Old Bridge!  The sun decided to peek through the clouds for a bit, which brightened the landscape.

I really enjoyed our day spent in Heidelberg, and will have to go back there with Jason.  In fact, I was so eager to go that I forgot to bring an extra battery for my camera.  To my dismay, the little screen on top of the camera showed that my poor battery could die at any moment.  This uncertainty had both a positive and negative effect for me that day.  Because I kept the camera off most of the time to conserve the battery, I know that there are photos I did not capture that I surely would have otherwise.  On the good side, I took each photo as if it was the very last I could take of Heidelberg.

I am in Dallas, sitting in the hotel room that Jason and I shall call home for one more month.  Surprisingly the current weather is very similar to Germany–drizzly, cold, and grey– but I’ve heard that Dallas weather changes quickly.  The flight took about 10 1/2 hours, but really didn’t feel so long.  In addition to dozing off, reading, listening to music, and watching “Elf” and “Legally Blonde,” I also edited a few photos.  The first three were taken in downtown Wiesbaden–the second and third inside of the Marktkirche.  The first shot is of an old-fashioned Briefkasten, or mailbox, which are spread throughout the city.  All outgoing mail must be brought to one of these boxes–the more modern ones are yellow–as items are not picked up from personal mailboxes at each house or apartment.  The leafy photo was taken on my way to work one morning as a potential, but not chosen, photo of the day.
More photos coming soon–I’m not sure what of just yet, but there’s always something!