Last Vacation Post...I Promise.

Summer 2011...NoCal & SoCal from Aja Vaught on Vimeo.

A few favorite memories from our trip that I don't want to forget...

Jude taking a big bite of Calimari a Riva's in Santa Cruz and giving us the thumbs up, then me telling him he was eating squid tentacles and him instantly gagging and choking and spitting the chewed up squid tentacles out.  I know, I know.

Looking out at Glacier point watching Jude climb a rock and then watching Jude lose his balance and tumble down the rock feet moving faster than he could go and catching himself at the edge of the point and saying "I meant to do that".  Us checking our pulse to make sure our hearts were still beating.

Watching our children explore Yosemite fearlessly and curiously.

Picking Eric up from the airport in San Francisco and watching all the Asian flight attendants come off the plain from Bangkok.  Seriously, they looked like Barbies or dolls.  Wish I got a picture of their hair pieces and uniforms.  Our flight attendants are so boring in the states.

Watching T carry Tristan off the Indian Jones ride in Disney.  Bella and I bailed at the last minute.  Apparently it was a wild ride but Judo LOVED it!

Tristan and I sleeping in a twin bed together for a week.

California's bounty.  They have the best farmer's markets in the world and I have a new love for peaches.  Can you believe I have never tried a white peach before?  WOW!

Sleeping in a Yurt and being lulled to sleep by the sound of water flowing through the Tuolumne River at night.

River rafting on the Merced River in Yosemite Valley.

Lunch at the Awahanee Hotel.

The Giant Sequoia Trees.  WOW!

Watching the surfers in Santa Cruz and looking for Lost Boys on the boardwalk ;)   Come on Kiefer, where were yo?

Walking on the beach in Santa Cruz, freezing and playing in the ice cold water barefoot.

The Fischers.

Lunch with the Fischers at Half Moon Bay.

Singing show tunes and songs from the 70's, 80's and 90's and commenting on how cool it would be if we actually had one of those infomercial rock ballad cd's.

In-N-Out's.  Enough Said.

The games we played trying to keep each other awake while driving at night.

Missing home and all the people who make it home.  It's good to miss home.

Escaping 115 degrees back home.  It was in the 60's to 80's.

Watching Bella take care of her little brother.  At one point Jude fell asleep in the car with gum in his mouth.  Bella was so worried about him choking on it that she woke him up and made him spit it in her hand.  That's a few hours after we had to separate them b/c of fighting.

Also, watching Bella almost in tears b/c she was worried about her little brother riding Indiana Jone's.  She just kept saying "poor Jude".  I love to see how much they love each other.

Hanging with Fisch...you know you love us Eric ;)

Hanging out under the stars in our little Yurt Village with my tripod and camera and a glass of cheap Cali vino, eating tortilla chips.

San Francisco.  Oh how I thought I would not like you.  You are great and beautiful and have so much to explore.  I can't wait to visit you again (minus the wharf).

Getting the Mister some Dogfish Head.  Finally.

Surprising the kids with Disney and Bella saying "You Promise?"before she officially got excited.  Too cute.  I have a separate Disney post planned.

Traders Joe's and 2 Buck Chuck.

Yosemite.  All.  Of.  It.

370 Miles.

Thank you Sleep Inn and Suites for you accommodating accommodations, where bed jumping is allowed.  After 16 STRAIGHT hours we arrived, only 370 short miles from home.  The kids could not contain themselves so they took it out on the hotel bed and Audrey posed along with them ;)  Still going through tons of pictures and had to share these.

Yosemite.

We stayed up late one night, sitting outside our Yurt, eating tortilla chips and drinking cheap wine.  Eric told us stories of Thailand and we waxed sentimental about how much we miss him all while waiting for this exposure.  My 30 minute exposure at Yosemite.  It's not what I was going for, but I didn't have a wide enough lens and there were so many darn trees in the way.  It would have turned out my way if we were at a higher elevation too.  Pretty cool how you can see how much the earth rotates from looking at the stars.

San Francisco

So I had a plan to post al of our vacation pics from Northern and Southern California, but it's just too many to post so this will be it ;)  I'll try to get a slideshow posted in a few days of the whole trip.  I love slideshows for the memories anyways so its all good...

Here are a few from San Francisco, most being near Golden Gate and Fisherman's Wharf and Mussee Mecanique.

 

 

Home Again.

And it feels so good.  I LOVE California and have dreamed of living there, BUT I have come to realize that there is no place like home.  We are so glad to be back and we're slowly getting back into a routine.  Two weeks is a very long time to be away from normal so it's taking me a bit to get things done.  I will share pictures soon!  School starts next week and I'm a little sad about that, but anxious to get some things done.  We are also leaving again in 3 weeks for Gulf Shores so lots to get done.  I'll be updating this little blog like crazy soon!

Bella...Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco

Greetings from SoCo....

We're in Southern California at the moment, about to head down to Huntington Beach.  NoCal was beautiful and so different from the south.  I have so much to share and so many pictures to wade through, post vacation bliss.  More soon ;)

Arizona & New Mexico Desert, Tulsa Photographer

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We spent ours in Fayetteville visiting family and doing a little vintage shopping. If you're ever there check out The Flying Dog Vintage Mall off College. We also found this amazing little store called the Himalayan Mountain Store right off the Square. Many of the locals don't even know about it yet. I bought a few things from them. It's all made in Nepal, except for the basket I bought which was made in Africa. Many of the handmade items were made from wool felt (I'm obsessed) and it was all super cheap. Oh, I just realized I forgot to post a few of the images of the landscape from our trip out west so I thought I would go ahead and post them now. We were in awe of the show that mother nature put on for us. It just proves the existence of a magnificent creator for those that doubt such an existence.

Mondays aren't my favorite, but I hope yours is good :) I was reluctant to leave my babies at school today. I miss them so much this morning :(

We're Back from Southern California...

and oh how much I miss it already. I will post more shots from the trip later (I only have about 700 images to choose from) but until then, here's one from the road. Absolutely NO Photoshop done to this one. Yes, the skies are actually that blue in Arizona and the clouds are in fact that fluffy. Now I'm off to spend another day back to school shopping. This year will be hard. I spent last night in tears already having to face the fact that my youngest, my baby boy is going to school. We're going to spend next week in lazy summer mode and as Bella now says "chillaxin'".

A little of this...a little of that.

We're back from a weekend in the country with the kids. They went fishing, camping, swimming and marshmallow roasting, I went thrifting. We're getting reading for our trip to Cali in 2 weeks. As we speak, Mr. Vaught is googling celeb homes in Venice Beach. We'll have a full week in Venice and then a weekend in the Hills, Beverly Hills that is. I'm afraid I might be a little of the starstruck kind so I'm hoping to see some shopping on Abbot Kinney or strolling by our temporary home for the week. We may be moving there ;) I can wait to do some thrifting in West Hollywood, see 100 Monkeys at the Viper Room (if our body guards accompany us...tee hee), enjoy family & good friends, have a great photo shoot in Laguna and so much more. It's gonna be a blast and we're even looking forward to the 24 hour drive through the dessert. No...really!

Baby C decided to take a catnap in the pool...his first time in the pool too...

Random lala from vacation

These are from the last night. We had dinner on a pirate ship. I love the picture of Jude where he looks half awake. He was.

Vacation Highlights

Jude and Bella eating and liking alligator (thanks to uncle James)

Jude scarfing up fish and my husband trying raw oysters (yuck...also thanks to James aka "rufus")

Watching Bella snorkel and bring back shell after shell after shell, expressing the beauty of even the broken ones.

Jude running down the board walk everyday and jumping out of his flip flops into the sand down to the water.

Tristan holding his babies in the ocean and jumping waves with them.

Night walks on the beach, catching little crabs with flashlights in hand.

Eating at Schooners.

Bushwhackers.

Night swims in the pool.

A king size bed.

Grilling veggies, brats and chicken with peanut sauce.

The cool breeze coming off the ocean.

A mother daughter trip to Alvin's Island.

Father daughter and son trips to Thomas Donuts.

Watching my brave little girl take on the jellies...she was not afraid of them this year...they did not stop her from enjoying the seawater.

Our last night there eating key lime pie and watching shark week on discovery realizing that we were a bunch of idiots for getting in the water and vowing to never do so again, until next year.

Thank goodness for the beach. Thank goodness for my amazing husband. Thank goodness for good friends. Thank goodness for our beautiful children. Thank goodness for time with all of them.

Peace and infinite XO's.



















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