You may have noticed that the blog has been really quiet for the past couple of months. Though it doesn't look like it from here, I have been shooting and have some great portrait sessions still to share. My primary focus these past couple of months has been preparing for a cross country move. Brandon is finishing up his PhD and this final year he will be doing a full time internship in South Carolina for 12 months. Together we are moving from Pasadena, California to Charleston, South Carolina. Having lived in Southern California for over 18 years this will be a big change for me, but hopefully a really fun adventure for us to have together. At the request of some of my friends, I will be sharing our journey here on the blog, and as well as some stories of our fun, southern, adventures. We are currently driving across the country and I have been documenting our travels on my Canon 5DMark II professional camera, my camera phone, my point and shoot camera, and a digital voice recorder. It's been a lot of fun doing video diaries with Brandon at each place we stop so we can remember what it was like when we were there.
Our first stop was at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, then a less than lovely night of sleep at a Motel 6 in Texas, then a brief stop for lunch with a dear friend in Edmond Oklahoma, then on to Bartlesville Oklahoma for a longer visit with my great aunt and great uncle, and now we are in St. Louis visiting with Brandon's sister. Tomorrow we head to Georgia to see Brandon's parents and then on to our new home in Charleston.
I snapped a quick camera phone photo of our home in Pasadena as we were driving away. I loved living in this charming apartment where we had fantastic neighbors and could walk to a lot of restaurants.
Somehow we had to fit everything in this photo in my Honda Civic... I really wondered if we could do it.
But as you can see, somehow Brandon and I figured it out. Our car is more full than ever before!
Our first stop was at the Grand Canyon. This was my very first time seeing the Grand Canyon, and it was well worth the drive that was slightly out of the way.
This was one of the gorgeous, breath taking vistas. I think I took over 200 photos of the Grand Canyon, but this one really jumped out at me.
It was really, really hot and bright outside. :) 
We stopped in Edmond OK to see one of my past roommates. We lived together in Hawaii for 3 months after college but hadn't seen each other in person for years. I love that EB and I can pick up right where we left off and we had a wonderful visit together. 
The next stop was in Bartlesville Oklahoma to visit my great Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob. The countryside was lush and green for miles and I loved seeing the fields that were covered with fresh hay bales.
Aunt Pat is my grandma's sister and one of the family history keepers. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with them both and loved hearing stories about when my grandma was a young girl as well as when my dad was a child. She showed me the photo below of my dad and his twin brother when they were adorable babies. I absolutely LOVE this photo of them, so I had to share it!
Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob had so many great stories and photos to share. Brandon said he loved the visit as much as I did and we can't wait to go back and visit them again.
Overall, our trip has been going well and we will arrive in Charleston in just a few more days. Having never been to Charleston before, I am getting really excited to see our new place that we'll call home for a year. Of course, mingled in with the excitement and anticipation is also the feeling of missing my family and friends. It feels like we are on vacation but will be returning to Pasadena sometime next week. I think once we get there it will really begin to sink it that we are not going back to Pasadena for a while. I am hoping to stay connected with friends and family through the blog, so I will do my best to post about life in the south.
