This evening I had the honor of taking maternity photos for a friend. We started at her home in the adorable nursery. She’s done an amazing job of decorating-it’s such a sweet room! I also was able to sneak a shot or two of her adorable little girl doing a fairy dance for me. It’s moments like that when I wish for a brief second that we had a little girl. But, alas, I’m destined to borrow those moments from friends, for our house is all boy! After her house, we went off to the beach for some amazing sunset photos. The light was perfect!  She’s a beautiful mama and was absolutely glowing. I can’t wait to get the rest of them done and posted. I truly love being able to capture such sweet moments for people!

This past fall in one of the courses I took, two individuals in the class presented photos of this decaying building up on the North Shore.  Both of them presented simply the outside shot of the building.  After seeing the building in photos, I wanted to get a bit closer.  On one of our trips up to the North Shore with company, we stopped at this spot, and I was able to explore a bit and take some photos.  While the outside is beautiful in its sadness, I was fascinated by the lines of the building and imagining how beautiful it must have once been.  I chose to process these all in black and white because I feel like it reveals more of the texture of the buildings.

In this shot, I love how the windows on the other side of the building create a cross in the opening of these two windows.  It’s almost as if they are eyes to the building.

This would have been a beautiful entrance at one point.

I love the lines and the symmetry of the roof line.

In this shot, I am drawn to how the window frames the palm tree.

After 18 months in command, my husband turned over the squadron on Friday, April 8. For the ceremony, he surprised me and had my name and the boys’ names painted on the side of the helicopter. I had no idea that he was going to do this and was quite honestly blown away and overtaken by emotions the first time I saw it. The day after the ceremony, we went up to the hanger to get a few last shots of the boys with the helicopter. As you can tell, one of them was not in the least bit interested in having his picture taken. Their personalities just make me laugh because they are so set in their ways at such a young age! The significance of the Deanna III is that this is the third time my husband has put my name on his helicopter. The first time was long ago during the ’90s. The second time was during this last deployment to Afghanistan. This was the third. My only hope is that one day the boys realize just how cool it is that their dad put their name on the side of the helicopter. It’s hard to believe that this time in our lives has come to an end and that his flying days are over. It seems like yesterday we were at his winging ceremony. It’s been a great ride, and I look forward to what the next several years might hold!

No visit to Hawaii is complete without a visit to the North Shore! For one of our adventures, as we called our trips with the boys, we headed up the North Shore and stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. It’s always a fun time, and the boys enjoy getting to ride the Pineapple Express. The weather was gorgeous this particular day, and I was lucky to get some great shots of the landscape. After the plantation, we continued up the North Shore and got some yummy shave ice. Our final stop was Turtle Beach. After two and a half years here, we were finally able to find it! While there weren’t any turtles on the beach, I did find one little guy to get a pretty good shot of in the water.

For the past three weeks, we have had company in for my husband’s change of command. One of the first things we did with the cousins was take a trip to the beach. It was such fun to watch them take their first steps into the ocean. Those four energetic boys had a blast playing in the waves and playing with one another.  They even found a coconut to entertain them for awhile.  Nothing beats a day at the beach in Hawaii!