As y’all may have noticed, I’ve been in the northern part of our country the last two weekends.  Ben and I went to Chicago to shoot Kristin and David’s GORGEOUS winter wedding and then this past weekend, I flew up to New Haven, CT for Justin & Mary’s What’s Next One Day Getaway.  Last year I was able to go to the What’s Next Tour when they came through Charlotte and it was amazing… the perfect way to start the year!  But this was a little different.  There were 10-12 of us in their living room just hanging out with Mary for a day.  And it didn’t take long before we started getting down and dirty and she started pressing us to go after what we wanted and to stop making excuses!  I love Jon Acuff’s books and in his latests he talks about punching fear in the face and Mary has taken that as one of her mottos.  And I am so thankful!  Because as she talked as she looked each of us in the eye with each of our stories and each of our backgrounds she challenged us to punch fear in the face, stop making excuses and GO FOR IT.  Successful people are DOERS.  They aren’t sitting around wondering “what if” or saying sentences that start with “But, I…”  They go.  They do.  They fail.  They try again.  And they don’t stop until they succeed.

I think once I get my mind wrapped around the fact that I will fail – and that I’ll survive! – then I’m really going to be a force to reckon with.  And that’s scary!!  But goodness, it gives me a drive and a strength I didn’t actually realize I had.  So this year, I’m making changes.  This year, I’m going to work harder than I ever have.  This year, I’m going to punch that lingering fear in the face and chase really hard after this dream that has been building and growing for so long.  Last year was my first full year as a full-time photographer and it was amazing.  But I don’t want to settle for amazing.  I want MORE.  I want amazing-ness.  I want amazing sauce to be poured over everything that we plan, that we attempt, that we strive for!  Cheesy?  Maybe.  But cheese is delicious so I’m ok with that :-)

So here’s to 2014.  Here’s to quitting with the excuses and buckling my seatbelt for what is sure to be a most amazing ride!

And here’s to being back in the south where it’s warm(er) and we don’t have so much crazy cold weather!
Rainy Greenville, SC on the left and Snowy Hartford, CT on the right.

This trip started like last week’s ended… with weather delays! So as we sat on the runway in Greenville our flight attendant said, “Well, there’s only one thing to do now… snacks!  And please, take two!”  Because of the delay in Greenville, we were late getting into Atlanta and I thought I’d missed my flight.  Well, I decided to still try to make it from the end of terminal C to the middle of terminal A.  So I ran… yes, I was that person.  And then the escalator down to the trains was broken.  So I waited in line for the elevator.  And then ran to the train and then to my gate.  And I made it!!!

Another short story to go along with all of our crazy travel detours… I copied the address for my friends’ house from her contact info and pasted it into my phone’s GPS and drove the hour or so it would take to get there.  Except when I arrived at the address, I was looking at dumpsters, not a house.  So I looked at the address I’d plugged in and I was in the WRONG CITY!!  And to top it off, I was over an hour away!  Oy… Luckily it was just a straight shot down the interstate and I got there super easily.   I was laughing SO HARD because it just fit so well with the week’s travel disasters!

The morning before going over to Justin & Mary’s I sat at Starbucks with my pumpkin spice chai latte and kept brainstorming what worked and what didn’t last year.
The two lists became much longer and I’m excited to adjust what we do this year based on that list and what transpired the rest of the day (with a mug of hot chocolate!).

Justin kept the fire going ALL day long.  It was amazing!  It was also amazing that I had the joy of sitting next to this girl for the entire day. I met her two years ago at Katelyn James’s workshop and it’s been incredible to watch her business and her talent do nothing but continue to grow.  And she’s only 18!  I only thought I knew what I wanted to do when I was 18, but she not only knows… she’s DOING IT.  Because that’s what successful people do… they DO.  And check out her work on her gorgeous website: http://carrielogan.com/

And then we ended the day with s’mores.
If you haven’t had s’mores with Reece Cups you MUST try it.  It will change your world.

And these two?  Holy moly.  The “chance” meeting we had with Chris and Ashley on Facebook to shoot a session for us in Paris on our honeymoon has turned into such an amazing friendship.  We are so thankful for them and their love and support and guidance and all of my crazy business questions!  They’re due with their first child (a boy!) in April and I will unashamedly be stalking them online for news and photos when her due date rolls around!  Oh and their pup Remmington?  He’s adorable.  I’m not a huge animal person but he was SO sweet (even if we did have a couple of stare downs while he contemplated giving me a plethora of doggie kisses) and if I keep meeting dogs like him, I may change my mind about owning a dog again one day.  Craziness.

We didn’t have a ton of hang out time since I was at Justin & Mary’s all day on Saturday so Sunday morning we got up a tad early, went for Starbucks (of course) and then drove over to one of the beaches.  She blogs a lot about how close they live to the water and since I’d never been farther north than NYC before, I wanted to at least see SOMETHING that was New England-ish.  But wow was it freezing.  I’ve never been more thankful for this coat than I have these past two weekends!!

And then I had to get a photo of Chris holding my yellow bag for the second time in his life!  The first time was in Paris during our shoot when he was the bag holder, Ben and I were the “models” and Ashley was the photographer.  This was definitely a must-have shot :-)

And then it was time to go.  It was a crazy fast weekend but one I will not soon forget!