A few weeks back on Saturday, the sun decided to come out for a few minutes after it had been raining alllllll day. I looked out the window and couldn't help but notice how beautiful the coloured leaves looked lit up in the rays. I threw the girls in some cute outfits and said, 'quick, let's run out and take pictures!'. Lierra has been very interested lately in mommy's work, and loves looking through the photos with me after I do a shoot. One day we were out driving and I took some detours to do a bit of location scouting, and since then when we are out for car rides she will sometimes tell me she is looking for spots I can do pictures at for people! She had also suggested that I could maybe take pictures of her one day.....so I told her this was her chance! haha. Keanu was home and was willing to grab a few shots of me with the girls too. We just went in the front yard/driveway, and spent only a couple minutes, (before we had to leave to head to a birthday party!) but it was so nice to be able to quickly capture these moments together enjoying the fall beauty. Lierra was having fun running through the leaves, and then for some reason decided her boots needed to come off and she should run around in her tights....! (see photos near bottom....my crazy girl!) My mini me....! ^ haha
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Blogging a little #throwback post for you all today...!
Actually I was looking through my drafts recently and found this....it was finished, (as of many months ago, haha) but I guess I forgot to get around to publishing! So I thought, hey why not! I loved coming across these shots and reliving these memories through them again! That really was a great trip we were able to take last summer. Seeing the beauty of the Pacific along the coastline of California together as a family was so special to be able to experience! We took these pictures at a stop on the side of the road by Rocky Creek Bridge along Route 1. If you've ever driven the #1 in Calif before....you can understand the love-hate relationship with this road. It has really incredible views, yes, but by the end of it you're like "Get us off this"!! Let's just say I'm glad I wasn't in the drivers seat. And, also that by that point I was far enough along in my pregnancy that I didn't have my 'all-day-morning-sickness' very badly anymore. With all those twists and turns and sharp corners, that might not have ended well for me if I did. (Thank you to my father-in-law and husband for doing a great job behind the wheel!) Enjoy these pictures of the beautiful Big Sur coast . . . ! - Janessa So, this was supposed to be the first of a couple, but ended up being our only coffee stop in San Francisco! We had done lots of research to come up with a list of all the best coffee places to visit in the city, (there are a TON to choose from, the coffee culture there is crazy!) and planned to try and make it to at least 3 or 4, but the day got away from us so fast and we knew there was too much else that we wanted to do! So we skipped over the other cafes on our schedule and did more sight seeing instead....after all, how much caffeine do you really need in one day? ;)
The location had a big open feel, and almost seemed like a trendy warehouse or something. Lierra loved running up and down the ramps and climbing and swinging on the rails, hahaha. Oh to be two again. Our drink of choice to try was the "New Orleans" - their version of an iced latte. Cold brew coffee infused with roasted chicory root, mixed with whole milk and a bit of cane sugar syrup. It was really, really good. You can actually buy it in little cartons to take home as well...! Very cute. It was a fun experience to get to go on site to one of the main names in the Third Wave coffee scene right now and see how they do things. We got a bag of beans to have with us for the rest of the trip so Keanu could use them with his little portable brewing set-up. He made himself an iced coffee every day in Palm Springs. #happytraveler #piresfamroadtrip Blue Bottle Coffee Instagram / Twitter / Facebook
Back in August we had a chance to do a little family road trip down to California! We spent 3 days on the road, had a few days to relax at a relative's place in Palm Springs, then did 2 days in LA before flying home....!
Our first stop on Day 1 was Portland. We got up super early in the morning to start the drive down, hoping baby would stay asleep for most of it (which ended up being a great plan because she slept pretty much the whole way there). Once we made it into the city, we headed for Stumptown Coffee to grab some drinks. It was nice to get there and have it still feel like "morning". I had a delicious tea and shared a bagel with Lierra, and then we all walked down the street to Powell's Bookstore to spend some time looking around. What an amazing store! Seriously any book-lover's paradise. Lierra and I enjoyed hanging out in the huge childrens book section, looking at all the fun different stories before picking out a few special ones to buy to take home :) I purposely didn't bring any books along for her for the car ride, knowing that we were going to be stopping at Powell's and I wanted to have "car room" to be able to purchase a couple new ones. Even after a good hour or two there, it felt like I had barely seen everything it had to offer, and I could have easily spent twice as long looking around at everything.
(Images from Stumptown [Ace Hotel] + Powell's City of Books)
After finishing up at Powell's, it was lunch time and we were all pretty hungry so we started trying to decide where to go to eat...! Keanu remembered that Portland was known for their food trucks and there were certain places in the city where they would all gather (called "Food Cart Pods). We turned to google to help us out, and saw on the map that there was one such area just a few blocks away. It was fun to see the bustling set up of all the different vendors, but it made it hard to choose with so many delicious looking options! We settled on some street tacos from an authentic looking Mexican cart, and the rest of the gang ended up at a grilled cheese truck. Once our tummies were full, we spent a bit more time just walking around the city, looking in the windows of the different stores along the streets. One in particular we came across and spent some time in was a leather shop called Orox. We chatted with one of the sons of the family that owns the business, and found out that the trade of working with leather has been passed down through their family for 4 generations. They came from Oaxaca to Portland, where the name Orox comes from, OR(Oregon)/OX(Oaxaca), so Keanu was excited to learn of that connection. The bags and backpacks they make are gorgeous, it was so enjoyable to just look around and see the exceptional quality of the craftsmanship of each piece. Visit their website and view their amazing goods here! www.oroxleather.com I thought I would share a few images from our recent trip to the island...! We spent a few days at our family property on Gabriola Island last week, and it was so nice to be by the ocean again enjoying some time just relaxing together. After supper one night we went down to sit on the beach and I decided to bring my camera along to grab a few shots in the lovely golden light!
It is fun to get to watch Lierra take everything in at this place that holds so many childhood memories for me. She loved watching the waves and throwing rocks in the water, and making Harley (my parent's dog) go jump and dive for them...! One morning when the tide was low my dad and I took her out to go flip over the big rocks and look at all the different sea creatures to be found. Crabs, starfish, eels, sea worms, chitons, anemones, sea cucumbers, etc. She was so adventurous and wanted to touch and hold everything! It's special for me to see her being able to experience these things and enjoy being at "the cabin" just like I did each year growing up. Thanks to my hubby for grabbing the shots of me and Lili! It is nice to try and get myself in some photos every once in a while. Lierra is at the stage where she is wanting to try and "smile" when she gets her picture taken, but it's a work-in-progress and sometimes the results are pretty hilarious. (I included a few outtakes, you'll see what I mean) ;) At the beginning of the new year we drove up to Alouette one morning for a little picnic together as a family.
I'm trying to get better at bringing along my camera for casual outings like this more often, instead of always just defaulting to grabbing shots on my phone. After all, in years to come I'm sure it will be so much nicer to have proper pictures to look back on to remember this season of our lives, as opposed to low-res iPhone images you can't really even print. For my daughter, I want to have the memories of her childhood captured in an special way....where she will know that mommy took the time to document our life too, not just other families! She is a treasure to me, and I want to be able to show her pictures one day that will be timeless, quality keepsakes to last for her to show her children even. Who knows what technology will be like years down the road, and if people will still use devices that can access all those files we think are "secure" in the cloud, or on hard-drives...?? (Just think of how the stuff we grew up with, like VHS's and tape cassettes, quickly became a thing of the past!) Nothing can replace actual images that you can hold in your hands, or put in a book. With this little 'shoot', nothing was posed . . . . it's just real life. But it's our life. Her snacks are half-eaten, her boots are dirty, she never even "smiled at the camera". Nonetheless, I still love these pictures! Sometimes I don't feel like I have enough time to do a proper "session" with my little girl. I would have to find, or make the perfect setup, deliberate over picking the perfect outfit, wait for perfect lighting, only to actually begin trying to take the pictures and find she is in a less-than-perfect mood, not interested in cooperating....! So, my camera usually sits away at home when I'm not using it for shoots. It doesn't have to be a big ordeal to capture your family life though! Not that I don't think photo set-ups can be super fun and cute, but if that's the standard that I have to set for myself to reach before snapping a shot of my daughter, I will miss out on so many precious images I could be capturing of her day to day life! Instead of striving to make a pinterest-worthy image, I need to remember that the ordinary can be special too. Because it's us. And that's what I want her to remember . . . .who we were as a family, what we did, where we went, how she played, what she was curious to run around and look at, exploring her world . . . . Not an artificial, manufactured scene just to look good for the internet audience. Doesn't it feel nice sometimes to just live in the moment? I've been reminding myself lately to put my phone away more and actually just enjoy whatever the day holds, instead of looking for what would be cute to take a picture of next. I've had an iPhone for not even 2 years, and have already taken over 4,000 photos with it. Whoa. Like, really, what am I going to do with those all...??! It's overwhelming to even try to look through, let alone begin to sort and organize! I'm grateful for the moments it has let me capture, but I would happily trade in hundreds of those shots to have a couple really nice shots with my dSLR instead. Definitely. #goalsforthisyear - Janessa |
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