lol.

i pranked called david. you can listen to it here and of course you cab prank your own friends too! lol.

we ♥ modern art.

from dali to escher. i favor surrealism over any other art out there. something about it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. i enjoy other kinds of art. but modern art takes the cake. today we went to the denver art museum (DAM). it was one amazing afternoon. i just wish david could have been there. he finds the funniest things to say about modern art. it's like having your own personal comedian, (i'm one lucky gal). he would have really enjoyed it!

ashton was thrilled to be there. i wasn't sure how he would handle a museum. he absolutely positively loved it! the DAM has a children's section.

look at him GO! in the last week he has really stepped up his walking skillz. he can turn, balance, pretty much go wherever he likes now. he also knows how to demand i put the camera down and feed him.

then the worst thing happened. my camera died! (i know i know. this shouldn't have happened to me..... but it did). talk about a debbie downer! as soon as i saw the art i knew i would regret not charging my battery up, (that and buying an extra battery). the camera would turn on for a split second before dying so i ended up manually focusing,(since AF would take up too much time before the camera would die) turned the camera on real quick and SNAP a picture before the camera died. i did this throughout the visit. i was not able to view my images or change any of the settings on my camera. so this will explain why some of the images suck but i have to be honest. it was thrilling NOT knowing what i would find on my flashcard. i should do that more often lol. manually focusing, snapping one picture without viewing it after wards. :o) i also missed out taking pictures of all my favorite exhibits since we were short on time.

my mother's favorite. this is only half of the exhibit. you walk through it. everything but the foxes were red. the food, red. the table setting, red. every----thing, red.

i passed by this several times before i realized it was a PAINTING! i could have sworn it was a photograph. but nope. oil and acrylic. there were several of these around the museum. she had PORES! freaking awesome!

my favorite exhibit. this is a HORRIBLE capture of it. the room was odd shaped (walls and ceiling). all white walls in a dark room. it was a massive room with several family sized black bean bags all over the floor. tons of projectors and lots of, well i'm not sure what to call it exactly, whatever is on the walls (sometimes it was words.. sometimes lines and/or dots). we sat in this room for a good 30 minutes. it was relaxing. ashton even enjoyed it! i tried capturing a silhouette of ashton on the screen (top image) but he dropped out of sight as i snapped it. but you can see me and the stroller! lol. i wish i had a full battery, i could have really gotten some great shots in this room. :o(

if i could re-do this shot i would have asked my mother to put ashton down and hold his hand. lol. but that's what you get for only getting one shot.

hello blurry! but this was a moment i had to share. we were in this room looking at art when ashton just decided he was leaving. he kept waving "bye" to us and continued to walk out of the room. we sat there laughing because he would wave without even looking back, but it was clear as day he was ditching us. i followed him (of course,) had one chance to get a shot and this was it. he was headed to the doors. four things amaze ashton more than anything, escalators, elevator buttons, stairs, and doors!! he will do whatever he can to get to any of those four things ,and if you dare pry him away, be ready for a temper tantrum. i am SO in for it.

this was a super duper fun exhibit. it was HUGE (you can't tell by the picture). inside are bungee cords. you walk in them. it was a BLAST. ashton had a fit when i disappeared into them. he tried to follow me but it was just too difficult for a one year old to handle.

did i mention ashton loves stairs? yeah. he only knows how to go up.

i thought he would enjoy the cars going under the bridge. in reality he didn't care.

by far the weirdest piece of art (and trust me there was tons i didn't get on camera). another room (only 2 out of 4 walls are shown). it was a pretty cool room. but the artist said it was, 'jesus in the hospital'. lol. i would point out the parts that are laugh out loud weird but it's highly inappropriate for me to mention on my blog with david and my family reading. this is when i really wished david was there. it was so bad, i loved it.

outside the museum. i know i said this already.. but it was a fun afternoon!

just pretend there is a cute little boy named ashton sitting where the water bottle is. it started raining/snowing with wind. ashton was tired and hungry and i didn't feel like it was worth getting him out of his cozy warm/dry bubble for a shot. so my wonderful water bottle volunteered. ;o)

visit to vail.

was amazing!! it's beautiful in the winter but even more gorgeous in the summer. we went for gelato and i must say, it was the best tasting gelato i have ever had in america.

after wards ashton discovered escalators.

we went up and down, up and down. and anytime we see one (such as the mall or airport) he demands we hitch a ride and throws a fit when it's time to go.

vail reminds me of germany for some reason.

it started to snow. it was gorgeous! i know it looks like this image is washed out but it's actually steam from the heated pavement (fancy schmancy).

i love it when you turn to your awesome husband, tell him to get over by the statue and look cool, and he actually does it. haha.

stopped snowing and we continued with window shopping and enjoying the atmosphere. i kept smelling hot dogs. which is rather amazing since i have been severely congested all week!

ashton showed off his walking skills and his cute hat which gets SO MUCH attention.

and he made sure to let everyone know how displeased he was when i decided he should stop playing with the snow with his bare hands. i made sure to capture it. because that's what i do best :o) there was a very strong hot dog smell that was driving me nuts. i was SO hungry!

right around the corner there it was... i couldn't resist. i indulged on a $6 hot dog and enjoyed every moment of it in about two seconds flat.

thought this was pretty and snapped a picture of it. right after wards i enjoyed a crepe and hot chocolate. vail made me hungry for some reason lol.

bye bye vail.

it started snowing heavily on the way back to keystone. this is what i find amazing, because thirty minutes later.....

it stopped! that's copper mountain in the back.

i've been to colorado many times during the winter and it hardly ever snows while here. this year it's practically snowing every single day. (LOVE IT) david went back home on sunday. i miss him a ton! ashton and i are going to enjoy the rest of the week here in denver.

i ♥ faces, week 8, hands on fun.

to see all of the great 'hands on fun' photos, click the I ♥ Faces button below!

up in the mountains.

flying with ashton is a lot of work! i feel like i need a vacation when we land. he doesn't cry so much as wants to touch, kick, bang the seat in front of us. we were lucky this time around. the plane was half empty so no one was sitting in front of us and we had an extra seat, which didn't seem to make one bit of difference!

forward facing! back home we are keeping him rear facing for another year at least. i would love to go even longer but we will see. he is enjoying being forward facing for his vacation though.

we are up in keystone until tomorrow. that's when david flies back home and i am here by myself with ashton until next sunday (!!!!). i ended up getting really sick the first few days here. 101F fever. chills, aches. it was horrible. david went skiing without me on thursday. i just hung out with my mom and ashton. took him sledding for the first time. he loved it.

i finally felt better enough yesterday to hit the slopes. only for half a day but it was amazing as usual. it snowed the entire day. beautiful. i love it up here!

what a great valentine's day!

we lounged around the house all day! watching ashton learn new tricks. such as learning how to get on his hot rod..... by HIMSELF!

and he is officially a walker! i thought my eyes were tricking me when i saw him do it. all day he wanted to walk not carried. the look on his face when he realized he is FREEEEEE was the most amazing thing i have ever witnessed!

still working on those maternity pictures.

it's been busy over here and i've been trying to do them when ashton is in bed, but i find myself literally exhausted by 10pm. must be the weather. hopefully i will be finished in the next two days. but in the meantime i would like to share some of the edits i have done. since she is one of my bestfriends i really wanted to give her several options for each image. this is what i came up with. i hope she likes them. i will share some of my favorites from her shoot later.

SOOC:

a simple edit: (my typical work flow i use on my own images)

some fun edits:

black and white edits: