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What’s better than having one best friend who’s pregnant? Having 2!!! Yes, another best friend from college is expecting her first baby on the same day as Heidi and I was psyched to spend an evening with Larissa and her husband Dave in Baltimore! Side note:  Larissa and Dave actually met at Heidi and Scott’s wedding – crazy, huh?! Crazy awesome because they’re such great couple! Anyway, they lived right in downtown Baltimore within walking distance to Federal Hill and this beautiful park overlooking the inner harbor. Can I just tell you how GORGEOUS it was in Baltimore that day? Seriously, it was an absolutely perfect day – perfect light, perfect temperature, and a perfect day to walk around Baltimore and take pictures of my friends!

Dave and Larissa – I miss you guys terribly and can not wait to meet your new baby!!! Home stretch – you’re almost there!!! Love you guys!!!

Seriously, one of my favorite pictures ever!

Yup – my favorite shot from the weekend.

And just one more of my best pregnant friends ever – how awesome do they look!??!  I can not WAIT to meet these babies!!!!

When I was pregnant with my son, people always told me you you’ll never realize how much you love you have for someone until you have a baby.  And it was true.  After having my son, I couldn’t wait for my friends to share the experience – the excitement of feeling that first kick, picking out names, wondering what he or she will look like, and dreaming about what your life has in store for you.  Let me introduce you to my BFF – my best friend in the whole wide world – Heidi and her husband Scott who are expecting a little boy in a few weeks.  Heidi and I have been friends since our freshman year in college at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA as we embraced the challenge that was Electrical Engineering.  We were roommates our senior year and BFFs ever since.  We have been through so much together over the years and I am SO excited for this new journey she is about to begin as a mommy.

A few weeks ago, I went to PA for Heidi’s baby shower and we managed to squeeze in some time for several shoots around central PA.  They own a piece of land just north of Harrisburg and I’m so glad we had a chance to take some family shots with their dog Chloe.

Heidi, you will never know how much love you’ll have for someone so tiny, until you see you son’s face for the first time.  You guys have waited for this for so long and I promise you, he will be worth the wait! I love you guys so much – can’t wait to meet baby Jack!!

How cute are you two?  Hands down my favorite shot from the weekend!

A few weeks ago, I had a great time shooting our friends at a park here in Cary.  We planned for a picnic and the kids had a blast – could they get any cuter?!  More to come very very soon!!!

Finally getting online (while everyone in my room takes a nap) to post about Day 3 – the FINAL day of the Best Ranger Challenge of 2010. Wow, what a weekend it has been, folks! I could not be more proud of these guys – they did an amazing job pushing through one of the toughest competitions they will ever experience. I say that because there’s no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that I’m going to be able to handle the single-mom gig again and plus, Bob says he’s getting to old for this stuff! HA!

History was made this weekend and I could not be more proud to be associated with the National Guard. Not only did they have their first team ever complete the event, they had TWO!!! 40 teams started the competition and Bob and Kevin came in 10th place out of 25 teams who finished. CPT Chris Ahlemeyer and SSG Bob Tobin, from the Rhode Island National Guard also competed and placed 14th overall. It was exciting to see these guys do so well and represent the Guard the way they did. They were up against Army Rangers and Special Forces teams who’s daily work activities include many of the tasks featured in this weekend’s competition, so I was happy to see our guys not only keep up, but surpass many of them.

Here is some information regarding Day 3: Day 3 started at Camp Darby with the Darby Queen obstacle course – 26 obstacles/2 km long. Once the competitors completed the course, they prepared poncho rafts in preparation for a HELOCAST (jump from helicopter into Victory Pond). After entering the water, teams swam the rafts to the shore. The next event was a water confidence course which consisted of a confidence plank walk, commando rope traverse, 40ft drop into water, and 75ft zip line into water. Teams were shuttled by UH60s to Uchee Creek for the 1 mile run to the 3 mile upstream canoe along the Chattahoochee River. The last event was a 2 mile buddy run to the finish.

I should note that the ranger training brigade and race promoters designed the competition to be very spectator friendly, so many of the “cool” events that you’ve seen in my pictures over the past few days were conducted during daylight hours at featured Ft. Benning training locations that were easily accessible to people like me wielding a camera and a double stroller. When the sun goes down, that’s when things really heat up, such as last night when teams went on a 12 hour night land navigation adventure with 80 lbs of gear on their backs. If you’re not familiar with land nav, basically, you’re given a map, compass, protractor, and about 30 grid coordinates to plot on a map. Try to imagine yourself in the woods, at 3am, after an entire day of physical activity in the sun, having already traveled 20-25 km. Heavy ruck sack wrenching your back. Mental fatigue. Dogs barking. This is what those in the know call “seeing the pink elephant”.

It may appear that this competition is about a team of two guys testing both their physical and mental strength over the course of 3 days, but it goes far beyond that – something that took me driving 9 hours down to Georgia with 2 little people in tow to find out. The Best Ranger Competition showcases what this highly trained military community is all about and that it takes more than just two guys, a team, or a platoon of soldiers – it takes support from families and friends for these guys to do what they do best. There were big groups supporting each of their teams and I wish I had thought of having creative shirts made for our guard support crew, like many of the other teams had. I’d say there’s always next year, but we already covered that, right?!

Before I continue my post with pictures, I just wanted to take a second to thank some very special people who I just met while I was in GA. Carol and Dionne are good friends of both Kevin and Laura Dylus and came down to support our team during the events. I literally handed my kids over to these ladies MANY times during the course of days 2 and 3 and they willingly helped me out and treated my children as their own. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t have an extra set of hands to come down with me, so their help was incredibly appreciated. Thank you ladies! I hope to see you again in the future!!! And also – thank you to our buddy, Major Mike Gilligan who also stepped in to watch my kids as I ran off to catch my “money” HELOCAST shots! Thanks Mike!!!!

Without further ado – here are my pics from day 3!! Thanks for reading my novel!

Earth Day is coming up on Thursday, April 22 and what better way to spend it than with me at our green McDonalds on Kildaire Farm Rd. in Cary! The Garden Supply Co is setting up a beautiful backdrop for pics – I can’t wait!!  There will be a bunch of fun activities, including paint your own pot, planting seeds, making bookmarks with the Girl Scouts, and Ronald McDonald is bringing along his scoot coupe!! Please come see me and have your picture taken!!!

Thursday, April 22

5:00-7:00pm

McDonalds – 1299 Kildaire Farm Road, Cary, NC

Kevin and Jenni were a dream to shoot – such a beautiful couple and absolutely head over heels for each other.  They seriously could not take their eyes off of each other the entire day – can’t say that I blame them!  I wish them both all of the happiness in the world as they start their new life together in Oklahoma!  Congrats Kevin and Jenni!

Julia – I absolutely loved shooting with you! Your pictures are stunning!