Keri Payne Photography

Summer Vacation

It's been a couple of years since my son and I went on vacation.  We usually take a ski trip with the family, but between moving last year, and job issues (before I decided upon self-employment) the year before, it's been a few years. 

Since my son has always wanted to go to "paradise", and I'm pretty much happy on ANY beach, we decided to go to St. John.  I was there about 16 years ago for just a day, and have always wanted to go back.  Plus, there's this really cool campground that I've always wanted to stay at.  By "camping", I mean very rustic little screen-sided cabins, and public restrooms, and cold showers.  It was the best vacation EVER though!!!  We had a great time together, and I really hope it's something he remembers for a long, long time.  I definitely know I will!!

I didn't take my "big" camera with me, but here are a few I snapped with my point-and-shoot.  It's a Canon Powershot and I LOVE it.  It even took the little video at the end of this post.  GREAT camera!  Unfortunately, it came home with a few issues, most likely related to the sand and bouncing around in the taxi.  Oops!  But see why I didn't take my other camera???  :)

 
Links:

Where we stayed: Maho Bay Camp

Our favorite beach: (big) Maho Bay Beach

Our favorite daysail: Cloud 9 Sailing Adventures

 

St. John - Giant Starfish from Keri Payne on Vimeo.

(no starfish were harmed in the making of this video - lol)    

Mary Kay's Birthday Party

Mary Kay is my step-mother, and the whole family just loves her.  Loves her enough to have TWO birthday parties in fact! 

Actually, the first one was scheduled, then got canceled due to an unforseen event in the family.  But we couldn't just IGNORE her birthday, so we threw her just a little get-together and had dinner.  We didn't even do cake - just cupcakes.  And although she hasn't said so - I'm guessing that she thought it was pretty lame.  I mean, her own kids didn't even show up!!!  lol 

But the NEXT weekend - we suprised her good!!!

There were presents:

A very funny song from her boys:

Cute dogs:

A REAL cake!!

And LOTS of kids:

Little kids AND big kids too:

Hope you had a great birthday Mary Kay!!!  Are you sick of cake yet??  :)   

Weekend fun!

It seems that Spring is FINALLY on its way.  Are you guys as excited as I am?! 

My niece was playing in the one patch of green grass in my yard the other day and I caught this picture of her.........something about it makes me want to blow it up HUGE and put it in my livingroom to remind me that no, it WON'T be this yucky for much longer.  :)

I decided to give it a little 70's look, just because it reminded me of being a kid.  I mean, when was the last time YOU laid in the grass just for the fun of it?!  We should all do that more often, I think. 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Here's a peek at my son's Valentines.  We always do something silly, and this year we forced our new bunny, Owen, into service as a model.  Isn't he cute?!

And I guess I haven't really introduced Owen to everyone.  Sorry!!!  But here's a little video I made of him hopping around the house.  He's a Holland Lop, so he's pretty small.  And he's only 9 weeks old, so his little ears still stand up.  He's funny though!!!  Oh and I haven't actually LISTENED to this video, so I hope I'm not saying anything embarassing in the background!!  haha!

Silly Owen from Keri Payne on Vimeo.

Snow Day!

The weather the last few days has been CRAZY!!!!  I've never, in all my 36 years, woken up to it snowing and had it snow non-stop until I went to bed again that night.  It was so cool!!!  I'm not sure I'm going to love it so much when I get my next electric bill, but whatever!!  haha!

And of course I went out and took some pictures:

 

 
 
This is me waiting for JC at the bus stop.  It was running about 30 minutes late and, well, I got bored.  I don't think you can tell in this photo, but my hair was frozen!!  I was one big popsicle by the time I got back home, but it was fun, and very pretty.

Hope everyone had a GREAT time in the snow!!!

Sports update....

Some of you may already know that my son is a swimmer.  Which basically means that I spend most of my time hauling him back and forth to the pool.  It's pretty much a full-time job and there is not a "swimming season".  It goes on 365 days a year.  It's fun though!!!  We've been involved (or mostly him, really, since all I do is sit and watch - lol) for about a year and a half now, and I don't see us stopping anytime soon.  So if I show up at a session with a half-clothed and/or wet kid, you'll know why.  :)

A couple of weeks ago we went to a meet and I filmed it, so for those of you who are interested, here it is:

January 22, 2010 Meet from Keri Payne on Vimeo.

x2

So is there anyone in Midlothian who DOESN'T know my SIL is having TWINS?!  While I think she's pretty busy planning the next 18 years of her life, I'm busy planning all the cute newborn portraits I get to take and all the knitting I'm going to do for the babies.  It's FUN being the Aunt!!!! 

Isn't it crazy?!  Crazy in the best way ever!!  I hope she doesn't mind me showing pictures of her innards to the entire internets!!!  lol
 

Personal Projects

So it's cold outside.  Or at least it has been most of the time around here lately.  What's up with that?!  I thought I was moving back to Texas, not Nebraska!  But it's been fun, just because it's so unexpected!!!!

Anyway, I was itching to get out and shoot SOMETHING, so I made this cute little hat and forced my niece to wear it and let me take her picture.  OH!  And I went through her closet and picked out the rest of this outfit for her too.  Which my son said was weird (he's 10, what does he know?!), but us girls kind of liked.

What is the age limit on wearing the leggings/fuzzy boots combo anyway?  Because I'm thinking that's about the closest you can get to being fashionable while ALSO wearing something that's basically pajamas and slippers.  Thank goodness Zappos is out of the Uggs I like!!