The food was great as always and I feel like I captured more images than last year, baby steps.  ;)

Apparently the only good lighting at my parents is at the dining table where a hanging light is super bright!

Looks like Kris and me will be aging beautifully because this is what 55+ looks like.

Typical Erik look, WTH?

My favorite of all. I can’t remember the last time we all four took a photo together, love.

These days I am playing catch up from taking some time off during the holidays and trying to get settled and organized for the year, so much to do and not enough time! Will be back with my word of the year tomorrow.

This fall he came to the states from Mexico to visit all his children here. Starting in North Carolina where he has two daughters and two grandchildren living there and my uncle and his family from Chicago also made a stop there to visit him. Soon after he made a stop here in California where two daughters and two sons with lot’s of grandchildren live, let’s not even count. So there were many dinners at my mom’s and aunts during his week long visit. Sadly I wasn’t able to host any of them since I have been really busy with work.

I think what I loved mostl about having him here is having the family gatherings more frequent than we normally would and of course the lovely discussions we have about anything and everything. Because now I truly understand why and how stubborn me and my family are. I had to laugh at my grandpa for his Spanish vocabulary. It’s that of a rancher and small town folk type, so the terms he uses are just funny sounding to us and vice versa. The funniest was hearing him speak in Spanglish and English… I forget that he once worked in the states for over 30 years! I told him how much I love red wine, but I said vino as it is said in Spanish and he replied “Oh, you mean wine?” see what I mean? Cracks me up.

Don Lupe left this week back to his small town in Zacatecas, Mexico to work once again on his ranch and the 50 plus cattle he raises. He is 80 years old and living strong, can’t wait for the next visit!

Oh and I am still mad at you for giving Duggie back!

Hope you have a great one today. Even though you make me scream and want to shake some sense into you a lot of the times, I am very proud of you and love you to pieces!

This year my grandma was able to be with us, she comes to the states from Mexico about two to three times a year. While she demands to be in her home in Mexico for Christmas (we don’t blame her), Thanksgiving is an easy one for her to be here for since they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving back home. I hosted this year and my dad brought her to the house early that morning to spend time with us. It was nice pampering her and feeding her for once while we chatted and she knitted. Oh how I am jealous of her million talents!

My dad made the turkey as always, while I made all the sides so no photos were taken… I need to remember to have Kris take them when I am busy in the kitchen. We also had my two uncles and aunt join us so it really was a full house in my tiny condo, but we always make do. It’s rare to get together with extended family these days so I really enjoyed it. Even seeing my brother, Erik who we only see a few times a year now since he is going to UCLA and doesn’t drive. I’m not sure what is typical for dinner time, but we usually start at 6:00 PM and we didn’t leave the table until almost 9:30 PM! Yes, the pinot was pouring and at the end we had some delicious coffee to go with our pie. The family had a huge debate on everything under the sun and of course I joined in and out while I hosted. It’s all fun since no one takes any offense, it’s always a healthy debate even when we don’t agree. I didn’t realize how much I missed it; I don’t usually have others I can debate with other than Kris so it was nice to see them being passionate about what they believe in. Having passion for something or everything is a good thing and I have my family to thank for that.

My grandma graciously posed for the camera, as if she had any choice.

I love her to pieces and I treasure every moment I have with her. I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones!

It’s funny because the only times I’ve been to the Hollywood stars and all the touristy stuff in LA has been when family is visiting from out of town so it took me awhile to map out and figure out where to take them. I guess you take it for granted that you live so close by and there is so much to explore in LA that you’d need weeks to fully explore everything. I gave them a good taste though. We started off on Hollywood and Vine to walk around by the Kodak Theatre and the Hollywood stars, then we went off to Santa Monica Beach to cool off. Later in the afternoon we had a late lunch with my brother Erik at UCLA and showed them around in Brentwood. We ended the day at Griffith Park/Griffith Observatory just before sunset, one of my favorite places for hiking. It’s so peaceful there you’d hardly know you’re still in LA.

At Santa Monica Pier.

Proof that just because someone has an expensive camera doesn’t mean they can actually take great photos. I was brave enough to ask the guy with the tripod and all sorts of camera equipment that I thought might be able to handle my camera, I was wrong. I salvaged as much as I could from this photo, my uncle looks so tired!

Victor and tio Gonza if you are reading this, thank you for coming to visit the family and spending time with us. Hope you enjoyed your stay.

Un abrazo!

My sweet little cousin Diana, so cute and darling it kills me.

My dad helping out my aunt in the kitchen, he loves to cook even in someone else’s kitchen.

Love these, already have some plans for these. My mom is going to love them on her wall in the dining area.  ;)

Yes they are sober, just pure natural fun here.

This was a good night. It’s great seeing my mom and my uncles so happy and truly enjoying the family the way they know best, dying of so much laughter it makes you cry. For as long as I can remember this has been the case, one of the reasons I loved going to Mexico when I was a kid. Never a dull moment. I am so blessed to have them in my life and to have learned that no matter how tough life is, you must embrace it with lot’s of smiles and laughter.

Happy Tuesday!

My daily work and home routine is out of balance, but all worth it to spend time with family, always. Also had the opportunity to second shoot a wedding in San Diego this past Sunday and grab breakfast with my good friend Shelina, amazing weekend.

The beaches are so beautiful right now, I love October.

Newport Beach. All SOOC shots, no time for processing and I think they look great just as is.

Laguna Beach this past Saturday and mom even got to enjoy the day with us.

I’ve got some great photos of the whole family during our bbq this past Saturday night, so I’ll be back to share those.

My parents never had any money for any luxuries other than the basics, but they always took advantage of California’s great outdoors and weather. In other words all the free and inexpensive activities you can entertain kids with. Besides hitting up museums, fairs and watching Disneyland fireworks on Friday nights on our rooftop, the beach was my favorite of all. One of the reasons why I always loved summers. I am so grateful that my parents gave me this gift as a child.

In later years, I continued on the tradition with my three younger brothers when my parents didn’t go as frequent. As soon as I bought my first car at eighteen and as long as I wasn’t working I would take them to the beach every Saturday morning during the summer and fall. We haven’t been as a family in years, but I’m hoping we can do so next summer.

These photos are in what I call my mother of all albums, my most memorable photos from childhood into my teens. I’m currently working on printing and scanning some old photos to place in my parents living room and these beach photos just brought back so many good memories that I had to share and wanted to record the sentiment. I’m really bummed that my scanner is not working so I took a photo of the photos, lame I know, but hey it works for now.

The beaches in these photos are Newport Beach and Huntington Beach in the early 80′s.

Love this photo of my mom, her bathing suit is super cool. Also evidence I have her exact body type, especially the arms and shoulders.

This yellow bathing suit is cute, my mama has good taste.

If you’d like to view more from my Memories section you can view my first post here or go to categories and find it there as well.

Happy Monday!

I am so proud of you, finally all my nagging and yelling (still do, I know) is paying off so don’t forget about your big sis when you make it big.

Besos

Unfortunately I didn’t take many photos as I was hosting and cooking a lot of the time. I snapped a few here and there, I need to get better at this.

Menu: carne asada, lime chicken wings, guacamole, rice, beans, potato salad, roasted corn & red peppers, watermelon for dessert (all homemade, of course).

I hope you all enjoyed a good mother’s day with a great mama in your life.

Excited about the week! My sweet grandmother is in town, so I’ll be spending some time with her, a few mixers to attend and prepping for a family shoot this weekend at the beach. I’ll be back with wedding photos from the last wedding I shot a few weekends ago, have a lovely day!