Last weekend I traveled to Seattle for my niece Kaydriana's first birthday party. The only bummer was that Sunday was mother's day, meaning I had to be away from my own husband and son. However, we ended up having an amazing day. My brother-in-law took us out to a beautiful brunch at a fancy country club (I don't remember the name), I did a shoot for the awesome Bly family, and when we got home, he had a fantastic steak dinner waiting for my sister and I. I want to give a shout out to my sister for being an awesome assistant during our shoot. Or, should I say, professional dog handler? haha. I love the Seattle area - it's gorgeous, green, lush, and full of activity. What I don't love? The weather. I'm a California girl to the core and 50 degree highs in May just don't work for me. My niece's party was outside on Saturday and I wore my biggest winter coat, boots, a hat and a scarf. Stand out much?? Everyone made fun of me, but hey, at least I was warm!

Happy birthday to my beautiful niece!!

The proud parents with their girl (and Minnie!)

I have never seen a child enjoy cake as much as Kaydriana did!

The view from the country club on Mother's Day. That's downtown Seattle that you see.Views like this make me think that I MIGHT be able to handle the weather. Maybe. Probably not.

I bought these crazy red heels for Vegas but never got to wear them. This was my attempt at classing them up with a little black dress and black coat. I can't even tell you the last time I wore heels. I really need to get out more.

Meet the Bly family! Anita works with my sister and we arranged to do a shoot while I was in town. I don't consider large families to be my strong point, photography wise, but they were the easiest family to photograph - even the dogs were great! We were so worried that it would be raining that we initally arranged to do the photos in their home. However, the weather (you know how I feel about you, Seattle weather...) finally cleared up and we were able to get outside. Gorgeous!

Too much cuteness