Hello friends!

Today I have a fun mishmash of photos for you from recent (and not-so-recent) adventures. We have some marvelous sunsets, adorable pets, pictures from a wedding I got to photograph, and more.

I hope this adds some joy to your day! (Especially the toad part.)

landscapes

We’ll start with a serene evening landscape from when our friends hosted a bonfire for Memorial Day. Looking at this makes me so happy and calm.

The serenity turned to laughter when a bunch of little boys pretending to be pirates chased around Sully who was pretending to be an ocean wave (I think)? Sully is a kid magnet. 😀

I don’t think of city views as still being landscapes but I guess they sort of are. Anyway, here are a couple of shots from the cute town Sully and I live in. We walked to a restaurant one day for supper and passed by these neat old buildings.

One night we were driving home and the sunset was so beautiful I asked Sully if he could stop at a stop sign so I could get out and take a picture. :’D He kindly obliged.

Beautiful Sunset, Now with Cows!

Ah, this one brings back memories. I mowed the ceremony area for months before our wedding, enjoying the golden hour light and the break from stress and planning and such.

adventures

We spontaneously went to see fireworks about an hour away on July 4th with my family. It was a spectacular 30 minute show for such a small town. I got so many phone pictures with “Night Sight” mode.

Megan wore her light-up shoes and several people had glowsticks to add to the festivities. It was a great night… except when I LOST MY PURSE at the end and was terrified that I would have to replace all the important documents in there, until God answered my prayers the next day with a call from the police saying they had my purse with everything still inside. Thank the Lord!

One evening all the kids decided to have a pizza-making competition with Mom and Dad as the judges. It was quite fun and we made a huge mess. 😀

My parents had a hard time picking favorites as happily all the pizzas turned out to be quite tasty. The “ham, bacon, and pineapple” pizza Sully and I made is at the bottom of the picture.

Sully and I went to see my mom selling flowers at a local farmer’s market one weekend, but sadly we were too late. Instead, we had lunch at a cute, tiny restaurant (which, contrary to the menu, did NOT offer opposum kebabs), and I introduced Sully to the game “Sorry” while we waited for our food. I think more restaurants should offer board games.

Megan, the maid of honor at Chessie’s wedding, put together a lovely bridal shower for her the other day. This was one of the only pictures I got, but it was such a fun party!

Sully took me to Busch Gardens for the first time. I’d never really been to an amusement park or ridden actual rollercoasters. I kept thinking the rides looked terrifying and then getting on them and being like… wait, it’s already over? That was fun!

This ride wasn’t terribly exciting except for the part where you get wet at the end, but the Pompeii set was pretty neat-looking.

indoor photography

I’m still in love with our little house. I like taking pictures of it, especially when the light makes patterns on the floor and walls. Sully hung up a new pan for me the other day and it just looked… so… aesthetic…

I rather like the soft, melancholy mood the cloudy day gave this picture. There’s something and homey and cozy about this picture, despite it just featuring an empty kitchen sink. Lighting is key, folks.

Carmen’s avocado plant she gave me is growing so fast! It’s already bigger than in this photo.

I had to take a picture of the light shining through the maple tree leaves in our front yard and making patterns on the blinds.

I have so many paint swatches from making my tiny watercolor paintings, so I decided to use them as a wall hanging in our office.

My mom’s plants under their grow lights struck me as a scene from a movie or something. I was trying to give the phone picture a cinematic edit but… it’s a phone picture. It only sort of worked.

Wedding Photography

I got to photograph Olivia and Renzon’s wedding! I used to go to church with Olivia and was excited when she reached out to me about taking pictures of their cute little chapel wedding.

It made me smile when I saw one of the flower girls drinking a Coca-Cola that perfectly matched her red and silver dress.

It unexpectedly rained, which meant the reception and family picture plans needed revision, but we still got in some good smiles after the rain let up.

Ah look how pretty and glowy Olivia is. ❤ I really like the black and white below it too.

I can’t resist taking hand pictures. I dunno, I just feel like hands help tell the story and describe the people it’s about.

They did a traditional Mexican dance where apparently the guests have to try and weave through the couple’s chairs so that they knock the groom over. It was quite entertaining and hilarious to watch (and no one was injured, don’t worry).

One of the guests was this adorable little girl who, when she saw me taking a picture, kept smiling up at me and posing, hehe.

These are so cuuuute! Renzon’s red Corvette was their getaway car, which perfectly matched Olivia’s wedding colors. Thanks again for letting me take your pictures, guys. ❤

Animals

I haven’t shown you guys bunny pictures in a long time! Have some extreme cuteness:

I did a whole adorable photoshoot of the bunnies at this stage, but my computer suddenly crashed and I couldn’t recover the pictures. 😦 SADNESS. At least I had a few phone pictures.

GAHH. SO SQUISHY. Carmen still has two bunnies left to sell, neither of which are these guys.

Here’s one of the bigger bunnies, Basil, resting on my lap while I relaxed in a hammock one afternoon.

Not quite the same level of cuteness, but I like this picture of a pelican we saw on our honeymoon.

I think I mentioned this before, but Maggie passed away a little before my wedding. 😦 Poor pup. Here’s one last picture of her, featuring a a “hay pool.”

Do you need a fuzzy cow to cheer you up after that? Here, have one of the Scottish Highland cattle from Busch Gardens.

OKAY, THE TOAD. I saw a cat and a toad just chillin’ beside each other in a greenhouse a while back and I was like, “Aww, how cute! They’re friends!” Then right after I took the first picture, THE CAT ROLLED OVER ON THE TOAD and just laid there for a while. I was concerned for the toad’s health. Finally the cat got up to visit me. The toad was still there, at exactly the same place he’d been before being unceremoniously deluged in Cat. He was unmoved but also very unimpressed. So much for their blossoming friendship.

Etcetera

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the sourdough starter Sully’s sister gave me. So far I’ve used it in bread, different bread, banana bread, crackers, and pizza crust. Mmmm.

I’ve also been enjoying making occasionally fancy breakfasts for Sully and I. This was just Greek yogurt with bananas, peaches, granola, and honey, but I thought it was picture-worthy. 🙂

Megan and Jeff went to a Switchfoot concert and got matching hoodies. They look even more like twins now! People used to ask that back when Jeff wasn’t like a foot taller than Megan.

Here’s Jeff again, looking cool working on something in the shop. Dad rarely takes his farm equipment to a mechanic because he basically has a machine shop right on the farm. I’m so proud of him and my brothers for knowing how to fix things, but still absolutely clueless myself. Oops.

I’ve taken to making these little hay wreaths when I have extra time on hay delivery days. I start by twisting a few pieces in a circle and then just keep tying and wrapping with more pieces. It’s oddly entertaining.

We’ll end this long post with a quiet picture of my family’s house at night. I love the yellow and blue together.

Well that was fun! I think I’m finally caught up on my miscellaneous pictures now. I hope you guys enjoyed that crazy quilt of pretty/funny/random photographs. I’m glad you came along for the ride. 🙂

Which category was your favorite? Do you like rollercoasters?

Thanks so much for reading, my friends, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. Photos taken on my Nikon D7200 and my Google Pixel 4a phone. Edited with Lightroom.