The adventure continues...

Well day four of our trip has finally come to an end. It was a long day filled with some really awesome sights. We saw what some consider to be the best part of Route 66 as we drove through Texas and New Mexico. We photographed the famous Cadillac Ranch, drove through Glenrio ghost town, explored Motel row in Tucamcari and saw some of the old motels and cafe's, stopping off at the Frontier Restaurant to get some delicious sticky buns, in Albuquerque.

Today was incredibly windy, but other than that it was a lot of fun. We pulled off of I-40 to jump back on the 66 somewhere back in Texas and we saw a little turtle chillin' in the road. So as I photographed the historic Route 66 sign, Rob came to the turtle's rescue by removing him from the middle of the road. The turtle happily repaid him by peeing on him. Maybe next time he'll let him stay in the road...lol

Here are some photos from today:

Cadillac Ranch

Abandoned gas station and motel in Glenrio

Abandoned Juarez Cafe in Glenrio Ghost Town

On the way to New Mexico

Route 66 in Tucumcari, NM

The famous Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, NM

Santa Rosa, NM

Dreams do come true...

Rob and I have been talking about two things for as long as we've known each other. One: owning his dream car, a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle, and two: cruising and taking photos on old route 66.

This spring we were finally able to make both dreams become a reality.

After years of searching we finally found "the one" and on April 25th 2010, after months of planning and negotiating, we flew down to the small town of Seminary, Mississippi to pick up our new "baby".

Drinking some cokes in a bottle with our new ride, outside Cranford's Drugstore in Seminary, MS (Population: 340)

We decided the best way to see how solid she was, was to drive her over 2000 miles back across the country and to our garage. We figure, if she can make it home, she can make it anywhere. And since we're out here, why not take advantage of the history and culture route 66 has to offer by making dream number two come true as well.

It's the start of day four of our adventure and so far so good. Car's running great and we've seen some amazing things.

We've driven through the lush countryside of Mississippi, stopped off and had some amazing Louisiana BBQ with a side of Southern hospitality, and brushed up on our history with a quick stop in Dallas to see the infamous site of JFK's assassination.

The book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot JFK from.

Our new ride sittin' pretty in the Texas countryside

We stopped at Red's Drive In in Quanah, TX for an old fashioned hamburger and some vanilla coke.

Yesterday we finally made it to the northwest part of Texas where our Route 66 journey began. So far we've been through Shamrock, where we saw the U Drop Inn, Conway to see Slug Bug Ranch and we crashed for the night in Amarillo where we will be enjoying our breakfast at the famous "Big Texan" restaurant, home of the free* 72 oz steak. (*yeah, free if you can eat it all in an hour).

It's been an exciting adventure so far and we've learned that everyone's your friend when you drive a classic. We get lots of thumbs up, big smiles and lots of waves. Did I mention that not only did we get a free upgrade to a suite at our hotel (and at a discounted rate) but the hotel manager was more than willing to let us park our new ride in the drop off area right in front of the hotel entrance over night.

With a little over 800 miles down and roughly 1200 to go, the adventure has only just begun. We'll keep updating everyone on our long journey back home.

50 years...and counting

So this is post I should have written in February, but being out of town a bunch and having my photography season pick up, I haven't gotten around to it til now. But you know what they say, better late than never right?

February 19th marked the 50th wedding anniversary for my in-laws, and Rob and his siblings wanted to do something special for them to celebrate. Rob has two sisters that live in So Cal, a sister that lives in Vegas and the rest of his siblings and parents live here, in Utah. Because everyone is so spread out, the family hasn't been ALL together for a really long time and they haven't had a family photo taken since before I met Rob. So we all decided that we'd meet in the middle and get everyone together for a weekend in Vegas.

We booked his parents a two night stay in the Trump Hotel, which was beautiful, and got dinner reservations at The Black Pepper Grill. We also planned to do a big family photo down by Lake Las Vegas. Easy right?

Even though it was mid February and freezing back home in Utah, this is Vegas, the weather's always nice in Vegas....

...Unless of course you've planned a once in a lifetime, 50th wedding anniversary family photo, outdoors. Then it decides to rain. But not only did we get rain, we got wind too. Luckily, it wasn't constant, and we managed to get the photos done. And I, being the family photographer, got the fun job of setting up the tripod and running back and forth between each shoot, battling wind and sporadic rain drops. It definitely took some patience and cooperation.

Here are some shots from that day:

After the photo fiasco, we had dinner then Rob and I presented his parents with a photo cake we had made for them with one of their wedding photos on it. Then we played a slide show I put together with a bunch of their old photos. It was great to see everyone, even if only for a weekend and his parents are still talking about their wonderful Anniversary in Vegas.

Click here to watch the slide show

50th Wedding Anniversary

My latest project

We've lived in our house for just over 6 months now and we just BARELY put curtains up in our bedroom and got our first two pieces of furniture for our front room. It's definitely been, and still is, a work in progress. But I did complete a pretty big project this last week in our living room. And by big I mean size, not so much the time and effort it took to complete.

We have pretty high vaulted ceilings in our living room that start in the south east corner of the room at about 8 or 9 feet and go up to somewhere between 12 and 15 feet at the highest point. So, needless to say, the main wall in our living room has been a bit of a challenge for me to decorate. We don't have an entertainment center but we do have a pretty big TV against that wall and because of the vault and the fact that I put up a collage of photos on the opposing wall, I really didn't want to put more photos on the main wall.

So I got this idea and our friend Darin, who does vinyl stickers, helped bring my idea to life.

Here is my "tree" project:

The finished product: