Photo Alert

I had the pleasure of capturing a moment in Ashley's pregnancy today before she and Matt welcome their daughter into the world a few weeks from now.

Check out the UPDATED preview at theherndonportfolio.blogspot.com

Enjoy the photos.

Courtney's Baby Shower

A few weeks back my friend Lisa and I threw a baby shower for our good friend Courtney.

We held the shower on Mother's Day because Courtney's family was going to be in town and we figured what better timing to celebrate this mom-to-be than on the day that celebrates all mothers. She's due in 10 days now, so I figured I better get this post up already!

Our guest of honor arriving with her family who all happened to be in town from Wisconsin for her sister, Ashley's graduation from ODU with her masters.

We stocked the party with Courtney's favorite pregnancy friendly beverages and finger foods.

One of her good friends owns a cupcake bakery, so she made the CUTEST cake for the shower. I loved the fondant cut-outs.

All the goodies for Courtney and Baby G

As one of the shower activities, we had onesie decorating with all sorts of fun accessories.

A small preview...

and all the finished products...aren't they the CUTEST?!

Then we had one more game (which Lisa is explaining below)...

Courtney will be cloth diapering, so we had a race to see who could cloth diaper a doll the best in a minute.

The race is on...

Everyone with their cloth diapered babies.

and our winner!

Then it was time to open the gifts...here are some of the gift moments.

I love these shots because not only are the gifts wonderful, but Courtney was SO excited and it's written all over her face.

Check out the bib...perfect since she's such a blogger!

A wipe warmer...who knew!?

A denim jacket...perfect for a boy or girl since they aren't finding out the sex of the baby.

Photos with family...mom with future grandmas, aunts and even great grandmas!

Photos with friends...

It was a great day celebrating Courtney's becoming a mom and Baby G's arrival. We can't wait for his or her debut, and Baby G we hope you felt the love. There's only more to come once you come into this world! You have many OSL aunties and uncles who are excited to meet you.

Summer Fun to come...

I don't have my photos at work...so the blog recap is starting a little out of order...but no biggie, right! Today marks the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL...so what does this teacher's summer hold you might be wondering...well it won't involve quite as much jet setting as what I coined last year's "Summer of Travel"...but I'm looking forward to a wide variety of summer events.

The summer launches next week when I get to perform again in Shores Summer Spectacular, our church's Vacation Bible School...but this year its focus is on the whole family, so I'm really looking forward to how the new program comes together and impacts our church's families as they head into the summer. Then I'm headed back to Camp Watermarks for a week with our middle school Waves and high school Elevate students. Every year the camp has even more to offer our students and God always does amazing works in their lives, so I wait with anticipation to see how He is going to move this year while we're there, especially since this is the first year our high schoolers will be joining the Waves in all the fun.
A new addition to this summer's events is Adam's two weeks of Airforce work as a chaplain at Bolling Airforce Base, so I plan to go up and visit him for a few days while he's up in DC serving our nation's military. Not only will I get to see him in action and in uniform, but I'll get to catch up with good friends who live up that way too (Celeste and Arianna on my way up there and a bunch of XA ladies too who I usually get to see for "annual" trips to the District)!

New news...I also just found out I'm going to get to shadow my cousin who does wedding photography in New York the weekend before I head to DC to see Adam. I am SO excited for this experience. It will add something new to my photography portfolio, I'll get to see family and hopefully I'll be that much more prepared for photographing Emma and Nima's wedding!

Then there's some downtime, some standardized ESL test item writing and our 6th anniversary celebration...WOW how 6 years has flown by!

To round out July, Haley and I are taking a road trip to Atlanta to see Lindsey, her new house (which isn't so new to her anymore, but still new to us) and possibly Shelby who will have moved to the Nashville area by then so we'll see if we can find a meeting point.

In August, Adam and I are headed to Las Vegas for our own vacation. We'll be joining my parents, Anna and her boyfriend Chris who are headed to Vegas for Anna's birthday extravaganza. I'm SUPER excited about seeing the Grand Canyon too while we're out there...after seeing Yosemite, I am very excited about these type of breathtaking outdoor spaces! It won't be Italy, but it will certainly be a new adventure since neither Adam or I have been out to Vegas.

Finally, the summer will wind up with some pre-wedding festivities for my best friend Haley and my friend Emma. You all know by now how much I LOVE weddings and EVERYTHING that has to do with weddings, which includes all the showers and parties. The plans for Haley's Bridal Shower and Bachlorette festivites are well on the way since some of her guests will be coming from Richmond, so we wanted to give them plenty of time to mark their calendars. She will be getting married at the end of September. Emma's Bridal shower plans have begun as well with setting the date and beginning to chat shower details.

As you can see, my summer calendar is FULL of fun stuff and I can't wait to get started and that doesn't even include youth group surf days, hanging out at the pool/ beach with friends and more.

I LOVE SUMMER!

More Catching up to do...

Okay...so I have once again gotten behind in my blogging, but we'll fix this soon. I always seem to do better catching up once I have an outline of what's missing...so here goes...or better put...

here's what's coming soon...

1. Courtney's Baby Shower

2. Regan's 1st Birthday

3. Adam's 1st Triathalon (WHICH WAS AWESOME!)

4. Summer fun to come...I am looking forward to SO many things this summer! Travel, downtime if you can believe it, wedding showers, time with friends and more!

5. Photography Blog redesign...

I need to get working on this ASAP now that I have my new watermark!

See you soon!

Chi Alpha 10 year anniversary

A few weekends back, Adam and I headed to Charlottesville for the weekend to celebrate Chi Alpha's 10 year anniversary. Friday night there was a wonderful worship service full of laughs, memories shared and a challenge from Pete to not forget our roots. I am so thankful God got ahold of me while I was at UVA. Wow how my decision to follow Christ has CHANGED my life!

After the worship service, a bunch of us headed to Little John's for a late night snack.

It was fun to run into a group of younger Chi Alpha grads when we got there.

Crazy to think that us "05 grads are the oldest alum for the most part since we were the first big graduating class.

Saturday morning, I headed over to Celeste and John's to meet Arianna Joy before that day's festivities!!

What a sweetheart!

From there Adam, Celeste, Arianna and I all headed to the gardens at UVA for a reunion brunch for all the Chi Alpha alumni complete with Bodos bagels.

It was amazing to see the new generation of Chi Alpha kids too!

It was also great to catch up with far away friends and meet new friends to Chi Alpha...like Blah's boyfriend, Doug.

From the gardens, Adam and I wondered over to the lawn for some pictures in front of the Rotunda...since Adam had missed out on these shots from our five year UVA reunion last year.

A jumping shot without any casualties this time...right Andrew ;)

From there we grabbed Take it Away sandwiches and ate on the lawn.

Then Adam and I met up with a few of the Chi Alpha crowd at a vineyard over near Monticello.

Then we headed back into town to get ready for that night's Chi Alpha Development Dinner where I caught up with my fellow alumni, parents of current students and even Cav Man was in attendance.

Many people came from far and wide to hear how Chi Alpha has grown since its start my first year at UVA and how it was continuing to impact the university and the world for Christ.

It was a great night of celebration and commitment to supporting the fellowship in the years to come so that it can continue its kingdom work at UVA and beyond. The fellowship that started with 20 students when I was a first year has grown to be the largest student group on grounds with 450 students involved in core groups. I was so blessed to be involved in Chi Alpha while I was a student at UVA and I am always encouraged when I hear about how God's hand continues to move in and through the students at UVA.