Casa Tranquillo

Jed's mom gave us the most amazing post Christmas gift! She found a house on the beach only five minutes out of Tulum, Mexico. We spent a week body surfing, drinking cervezas on the roof and touring around ancient Mayan ruins. If you are interested check out Casa Tranquillo.

The view from our bedroom.

We watched the sunset from the roof every night. And found ourselves back up there first thing in the morning to watch the sunrise with an endless cup of coffee.
Jed, how did you get so handsome?
This is our lovely tour guide at the Coba ruins. What would we have done without him? Probably would not have learned much, that's what.
Jed walking through a tunnel. My dad pointed out the creepy looking ghost-like face in the wall to the right of Jed's head. Yikes!
Very nervous tourist descending the 138 foot Nohoch Mul, the tallest ruin in the Yucatan peninsula.

Poor Brian couldn't quite stay in the boat.

This entire family piled out of the small white truck behind them. They dropped a net in the water and one of the guys jumped down below the bridge that I was standing on to pull out some fish. I am pretty sure that this is highly illegal: a. because it is a wildlife sanctuary; and b. because they piled back into the truck and took off before I even noticed that the guy below me and his net were gone.
Casa Tranquillo and the people keeping the peace. :)
Jed looking at his three favorite women (his sister, his mom, and me!) on our last morning on the beach.

Mom's Road Trip

Yesterday marked the anniversary of Nelson Mandela's last steps of his Long Road to Freedom after 27 years of imprisonment. Apartheid ended.

That same day, 20 years later my mom celebrated her new birthday also known as Day Zero or the day of her bone marrow transplant. Her brother Chapin sat in a chair for nine hours with one needle stuck in his left arm and another stuck in his right hand. Blood came out, traveled through a super high-tech machine, and reentered his body leaving behind the "buffer layer" full of stem cells, white blood cells and platelets.

After the bag of salmon colored cells spent a bit of time in the lab, the nurses on the 11th floor started to medicate my mom. Benadryl, steroids, Tylenol, and saline solution coated her veins before they brought in her soon-to-be new immune system.

We had a short window of opportunity to bring out a coffee, Heath Bar ice cream cake and sing "Happy New Birthday"! Here she is, my unbelievably, strong-willed mom keeping a gorgeous smile throughout her long road to freedom!

Pup Portraits

My newest Denver endeavor: Pup Portraits

Having a new puppy in the house not only encouraged puppy school, but it has inspired a new photography focus. Our dog trainer lives just a few doors down from us. She is awesome! Watching her with puppies, dogs, and their owners triggered the thought that I would like to work with a similar community. As you can see, Jackson (pictured below) and Pico (our pup in school) are fully supportive of my newest goal.

Next Saturday is our last session with Lisa Sickles at Wag Wag Enterprises. I will be offering Pico's classmates a free session with me as a promotion to kick start the pup portraits!