Abandonment

So this blog has pretty much totally been abandoned....sorry 'bout that for the 5 of you that still check it occasionally! I am going to just post on my photography blog for the time being. I'll probably keep this here..or not. I'm undecided about that, but I do know that personal posts will now be at www.chesleysummarphotography.com. I love for my clients to feel comfortable with me, and I feel like when they know a little more about me personally, it happens a lot quicker. That's the main reason I'm consolidating. Who am i kidding?! haha I don't have time for 2 anymore. Anyway, thanks for being there when I was here :-)

Blast from the Past

I am in the process of moving files from one hard drive to another, and last night, I came across this video of Grant singing a little Taylor Swift. This is from July of 2008, so Grant would've been just over 3. He looks (and sounds) so little in this. Love it, but wow it makes me really long for time to slow down even more!

Untitled from Chesley Summar on Vimeo.

Thinking

So, you may have noticed I don't ever post here.... I'm thinking I'm going to make this blog private just for the purpose of keeping the posts for myself, but I'm going to just post on my photography blog. I like the layout there better & the ease of uploading photos is SO MUCH EASIER!! I really love sharing small bits of me over there. I have so much to say that I'm hesitant to post anywhere, and that's one of the reasons I haven't blogged. I'm behind on pretty much everything & kindergarten is the devil..I'm sure of it.

Anyway... What do you think? Would it be easier if everything was over there or does no one but me really care since no one really reads this anymore?! :-)!

"Summar" Fun!!

I uploaded these pics forever ago, and kind of forgot to do the blog post! I do want to document my summer a little bit here, since I've been such a slacker printing any pictures or anything else. We have had great times at the pool this year. Although, we still have to watch our children closely, it's so nice not to have to be on top of them all of the time.

I think Claire enjoys the snacks as much as anything else at the pool. (This was July 4th).

Grant doing his best fountain pose!

On the 4th of July, we all camped out at Nana & Papa's. My kiddos and two of their cousins slept on an air mattress. Can you tell they were tired?!!

I just cannot get enough of this sweet face, especially when she has pig tails. I tell ya, I could inhale her most days! I just hate these from the back! The anal person in me wants a perfectly straight line, and it is just not possible!

To celebrate my birthday, we went to a local steakhouse on the lake where ducks congregate and wait for bread. They are VERY tame. One literally had his beak on my mom's leg. I did not have a zoom lens on when I shot this. That bird was up in my face! AFLAC!

Grant loved messing with them!

We went to some movie in the park thing, but had no clue they had "water" stuff there to do so we didn't have swimsuits for the kids. Grant just dove right in with shorts on, but Miss Priss would not think of it without proper attire. Gotta love that porta potty background! This is also about 2 days after successful potty training & wouldn't you know she needed to go here?! She learned the art of successful squatting behind a hedge much earlier than I had planned!

The firemen were there spraying the kids with the fire hose. Since it was right at sunset, the light through the water was just so pretty!

They also had ice cream at this event, and of course, we did not miss out on that!

July has gone by in a flash! How can it be that my little boy starts kindergarten next week???????? To say I'm a wreck is an understatement. I will do that post on its own next week so it has it's own space here, but I absolutely cannot believe we are coming to this point in his (our) life! It goes by way too fast!

Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time, I blogged regularly about my family, and I enjoyed it! I uploaded my pictures regularly, and (gasp!) even printed them! Lately, I've been hanging out more over here, and I am having a blast! However, I'm not sleeping much and my own stuff has really taken a back seat. I miss blogging about my personal life, but it feels like a bit of a burden right now. So...the posts are few and far between..and so are the readers it seems :-)! Here are just a few pictures of the last few weeks for my own sanity.


Grant had a swimming party for his birthday after we got back from Disney. It rained pretty much the whole time, but I don't know if the kids even noticed.





Claire really enjoyed the cake...she is my child after all :-)!



Grant in his car seat...love his sparkly eyes in this shot and the fact that this isn't a fake cheesy smile.



This is a pathetic photograph, but my girl is cute nonetheless with her make shift pig tails.


Grant learned to swim!!!!! A switch flipped 2 weeks ago, and he is officially a water rat! I couldn't be prouder of him!


and neither could he!


Claire enjoyed her first pedicure with me and my niece. This is what she picked for her birthday present from us. I'm so glad because it was a great excuse for me to go too!


Please note that my toes are not really this far apart! I was trying not to fall backwards while bending down with my 12 lb camera taking this pictures...ha



Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July! Maybe I'll post pics of ours round about late August!

Orlando Rundown

I cannot believe it's been almost 3 weeks since I last posted. I have been blogging, just all about my photo sessions of late on my other site. To say it's been a little hectic is quite the understatement. I had to post some pictures from our trip to remind myself that indeed we already went on vacation for the summer. I'm DYING to go somewhere else & actually relax, but my checkbook doesn't really agree :-)! Here's a little rundown of all the things we did and saw when we were in Orlando.

The day we landed, we checked in & then headed straight to Sea World...I say straight, but the truth is we had a couple of GPS's that didn't feel the same way & it took us almost 45 minutes to get there, when it should've taken about 5!

Grant was apparently feeling SUPER brave that day, and asked if he could ride this. This is the only part of the ride that you could really see, but from what I heard there were some dark caves & a couple of either quick moves on it. He met the height requirement, so Pookie and he went on the ride. Unfortunately, it ruined him for our ENTIRE trip! It scared him to death! He's actually in the very back of the ride in the picture below, and when they got to the bottom, he was crying. He didn't want to go on ANY rides the rest of the trip...not a good way to start the trip. It was a battle the rest of the week to get him on much of anything - It's a Small World, Peter Pan, the Little Mermaid Show all resulted in all out screaming in line! Not so fun!



One of the very few pictures I'm actually in from the trip waiting for one of the shows at Sea World to start.


I had to post this photo just because I think it looked so cool!


The 2nd day, we headed out to Magic Kingdom. It was by far the craziest place we went the whole time we were there. We got there pretty early and stayed until 11 pm. We were exhausted when we left, but it was worth it.

Claire loved Minnie's house & still talks about going back there.



Mom will probably kill me for posting this picture, but I think it's hilarious. We had 1 rain shower the whole week, and we were actually in Judge Mickey's tent when it happened. When we came out, it was just sprinkling and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party was close by & covered, we headed there. We all SQUEEZED into 1 teacup together. I DO NOT like these types of rides, and neither does my mom, can you tell?!



We then went to wait in line for princesses. Grant & Pook ventured off somewhere else, and we stood in line for an eternity. It was worth it though. Claire was in total awe of these princesses. Sleeping Beauty was a total sweetheart and held her for a really long time. She was talking to her & stroking her hair. Claire is VERY shy around people she doesn't know, and she just kind of stared at all 3 of them, but it was so sweet.










Grant got to meet some of his favority characters too. Claire wouldn't step foot near them!



We hung around for the parade, and it was so worth it. It was just beautiful!



Claire sat front & center & took it all in. Grant was kind of behind us so he could run & hide at any given minute! The funny thing is that when the Peter Pan float went by, Capt. Hook totally blasted a canon right at Grant - scared him to death, but we thought it was hilarious :-)!

The castle is SOOO pretty at night, but the crowds around it were absolutely ridiculous! We had no intention of staying for the fireworks, but it was impossible to get out of there because of the crowd.


Love Love Love Tinkerbell before the fireworks!


Random balloon pic that might be my favorite from the whole trip...Funny thing is this guy was SOOOO in the way of everyone with all of this stinkin' balloons!



The next day, we went to Animal Kingdom for a few hours while Pook was in classes. I do have LOTS of pictures of animals, but I figure you've already seen that stuff! It was a drama filled day when my credit card was declined trying to buy tickets. Apparently, someone stole our number & they froze our account - great thing to happen on vacation!

That night, we headed to Epcot for some fun & fireworks. Love this pic of my boys!


The were all about this Nemo exhibit. Grant was, of course, petrified of the ride, but just fine once he realized it wasn't scary.



Weds morning, we headed back to Magic Kingdom for breakfast with Pooh & his pals. I would not recommend character breakfasts unless they're at your hotel. It is SOOOOO HARD to get there in time. We were so tired every morning & that time difference is a killer that early in the morning. We had quite the morning when Grant had a HUGE belly issue right when we walked through the gates. I am so thankful for extra clothes & ziploc bags - a theme park necessity!






The breakfast was really good, and the kids really enjoyed it. Claire still wouldn't touch the characters, but she did at least stand next to them.


Later that same day, we ran into some more Toy Story friends.



Back at Downtown Disney that evening, they were obsessed with the little Mickey & Minnie!


Thursday, Grant, Pook & I went to Typhoon Lagoon. I didn't take my camera so I don't have any pictures, but it was a lot of fun!

Friday, we hit Hollywood Studios. I think it's one of my favorite places, but Grant had a really tough time that day. We were all totally stressed by the end of it & I really was not in the mood for pictures of him. However, this little duck came up to us while we were waiting for our shuttle & he wasn't camera shy at all!



We ate Mexican that evening & our little booger was tired! He fell asleep waiting for our food!



After that, we played mini golf. I posted a couple of pics of that night on a previous post. My 2 cheeseballs!



All in all, it was a good trip! Both kids did better than I did on the flights, which was a huge relief! It was a very tiring week, and I would've loved to have had a few more days there so that we could've rested a day in between each park. Hopefully, we'll get to go back again in a few years and won't have a scaredy cat then!

Grant's 1st T-Ball game!

After a pretty much disastrous year of soccer last spring, Grant decided to try t-ball out. He had his 1st game last week, and all in all did pretty well. Don't get me wrong, he's no super slugger, but he did stay on the field, ran the right way & hit the ball each time. I think (hope) he enjoyed it because he looks so cute in his little uniform. They had pictures the 1st night, but I decided to try to get his individual ones on my own. I actually got a not terribly goofy smile so I'm stickin' with these!





Hitting the ball..I love that he has a smile on his face :-)!


Waiting on 1st base!


Sister enjoyed the ball game too! I learned at the 1st practice to dress her in something that's ok to ruin. She plays in the dirt the entire time. It totally grosses me out. The insides of her crocs were totally black when we got home.