This isn’t my usual bus…

I’m typing to you from the bus up to visit my friend Jessica in Portsmouth, NH! But this isn’t just any bus… First, I printed out my ticket directly from the C&J website. I arrived at the gate and was handed a bottle of ice cold water. Walking down the aisle of the bus, I turned from leather chairs to televisions (with headset jacks at each seat) to the ample leg room, and right to the jewel of it all – CUP HOLDERS. Why is this the first bus I’ve been on with cup holders? How awesome that would be in the morning for our coffees.

We start to pull out of Boston’s South Station and – what’s this? – we have WIRELESS INTERNET??

Anyway, Jess moved to Portsmouth recently while beginning an exciting job opportunity in Newburyport, MA. I look forward to getting up there, taking her dog for a walk (her other dog is home with Gary and the boys right now), and walking around town with only margaritas as a goal.

So what have you been up to lately, my friends? Are you enjoying these lovely two weeks of summer before it all disappears again? Exciting to be talking about hurricanes already…

I’ve gotta say, the photography biz just took an extreme turn for the sky in this beautiful weather (that means it’s gone “up”).  I have booked six dog gigs over less than three week’s time, and that’s not including a spontaneous session at a family reunion with four families (and three dogs) on the coast of Rhode Island! My press release was picked up for the first time today by the new BostonPetLink.com, and I even interviewed with the Barnstable Patriot yesterday. How funny, because my friends and I used to be in the Patriot for local rec and high school sports.

Gary’s been doing a ton of fishing, and we’ve been eating a ton of fish. Our garden is finally catching up and we’re seeing lots of cucumbers, tomatoes and hot peppers forming. Unfortunately, our many dog walks through the woods and ponds has led to us both having poison ivy on our hands right now – ITCH!

These photos are from the recent annual trip Eric & Jill made to spend a week on the Cape with the kids and friends!

First was the rehearsal dinner, a blended BBQ to include some of the father-of-the-groom’s most INFAMOUS grilled foods, yummy yum. I almost dropped vegetarianism right then and there when I smelled Chip’s buffalo wings. Emily treated us bridesmaids to monogrammed L.L. Bean totes (we’re so famous) and gorgeous green necklaces that she specially designed for each of us (we’ll come back to that in a sec). We camped overnight on the stunning property, and it downpoured harder than ever imaginable. The sun was shining bright when we opened our eyes on the wedding day.

The bridesmaids gathered that morning to make the bouquets and flower arrangements, and then we were off to the salon. It wasn’t until we were back at the house, Emily already in her wedding gown, that I realized I had lost my green necklace *GASP. After minor crying on my part, fast driving on Mike’s part, and sweating on Sarah’s part, we discovered the necklace was only a few steps away in the guest house. I had only brushed my teeth there that morning, but it was enough for the necklace to fall from my bag.

And then it was game time! What a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful couple!

Wait wait, there’s more! You know how you feel when you wake up the next day after an out-of-town wedding, and you’re kinda like “we better start heading back home, so tired, worn out, tomorrow’s Monday…” Well not at this wedding, no sir-ee! THIRTY-EIGHT guests rented tubes and went for a big float down the Deerfield River!! We took our own vows that weekend, and it was to include more river floating in our lives!

We’re so happy for you, Emily & Anthony! You deserve every single speckle of sunshine that shone on you that day and forever!

Well that week was now two weeks ago for us, and unfortunately it was a bit condensed. We arrived late – really late – Tuesday night, and left Friday morning for a beautiful wedding weekend in Western MA (more on that to come!). Still, it was nice to be there, nice to remember what running hills really means, and nice to cozy up with Mom & Dad Hedman over a game of Yahtzee.

Even their cats came out, since we couldn’t bring the dogs on this trip!

Gary’s big project right now is building a monstrous pergola over the entire length of his parents’ back deck! The home is all deck and all windows across the back, which is wonderful but also very very warm, so the pergola will provide some shade.

I also started chatting with the incredible folks at Northshire Bookstore about possibilities for a doggy-focused event in the fall – how great!

Speaking of which, when we pulled in on Sunday evening, I came home to a bunch of packages in the mail (on the table inside, thanks mom!). 300 postcards for my table at a huge Border Collie event coming up, 500 outdoor-quality stickers of my logo (want one?), and a custom rubber stamp of my logo! We’re hittin’ the big time, folks.

I do have photos of Jake and Emily helping with construction…

There was also lots of play in the backyard while Gary was busy in the corner…

But then on Sunday it was time to get serious… Eric, Gary & Jill all ran the Fairfield Half Marathon! CONGRATS to them!

This is what it looked like from where I was standing…

No, it has nothing to do with sunshine or anything – don’t be crazy. June has now passed with 30 days of rain, rain, rain. Honestly, even July has sent us packing for the hills of Vermont this 4th of July weekend. I haven’t been on the boat once, but Gary’s been squeezing in some excellent fishing with pals whether rain or shine, daylight or midnight.

Heather was in town from Arizona for the last few weeks, which is always awesome. We managed to hit a couple of our regular spots to catch up and eat ice cream, but the time went fast. Here are her girls playing at Craigville Beach one evening:

The Pashbys came into town one weekend as we also kicked off Emily’s bachelorette weekend in Wellfleet and Provincetown! Drag-queen karaoke is the perfect bachelorette festivity, FYI. Highly recommended. It was great to have a bunch of our friends meet each other that weekend, all cozied around the back deck sharing laughs and that now-so-familiar bottle of Hound Dog iced tea vodka (classy). We also got to meet Otis that weekend, the adopted little boxer brother of Toro Pashby!

In the meantime, a local animal hospital is ordering up about 10 to 12 of my prints in art gallery canvas and they look incredible! Check out the first trial order  below, and you’ll see this 30×20″ vision of Brewer above your bed when you visit next. It’s so exciting to see these and to be able to start showing them to clients.

On that note, I dabbled in my first-ever family photo session on the beach for a college friend, and I actually loved it! While I don’t expect to change the business name to ‘Warm’ Nose Photo any time soon, please do spread the word to friends and family that I’m available! Click on the photos to go through to the larger portfolio.

Stay tuned for more photos from last weekend, when Gary, Eric and Jill all ran the Fairfield Half Marathon in Connecticut, and the nieces and nephew had their uncle build them a big sand box in the back yard!

I hope you all have something exciting and dry planned for the holiday weekend ahead!

We’re celebrating a momentous occasion ourselves here in our cozy Cape Cod home…

Please head on over to Cold Nose Photo to read more!

They say dog people aren’t kid people and kid people aren’t dog people. I guess that seems fairly accurate, but not always. Sometimes the dog becomes second fiddle when a kid arrives, but sometimes the dog arrives after the kids have settled. Either way, I know I am who I am because I grew up with dogs.

Bromley has been with me for over ten years, and Brewer is the young pup, but together they make the sweetest of brothers. Gary and I can watch them play together for hours, and it warms our hearts to see Bromley “tolerating” Brewer using him as a constant pillow. I’m sure many people wouldn’t find this as fulfilling as having children, but personally I’m too filled to imagine anything more.

It happened to also be my mom’s birthday, which allowed her to throw a creative celebration with friends and dogs on her own special day. It’s a good thing, cause my dad doesn’t have the best track-record for this kind of thing, and we Rocha (family name) women loooove our birthdays!

We bailed on outdoor plans at Scorton Creek (Sandwich, MA) due to the extreme cold front, but the dogs had a blast in the house. My mom made adorable party favor doggy bags filled with homemade dog treats, and there was even a full-size cake made with dog-friendly ingredients, courtesy of the Canine Cookery! As you can see above, guest Graycee just couldn’t wait to snag her tastey bite!

I made the carrot-cake cupcakes for the humans. Happy Birthday Mom & Rigley!

I gotta believe it actually began with the stories our parents kept hearing about “photos of the baby on Facebook”, and “OMG, [family member] said [X] on Facebook.” I’m sure they started to think “what is this thing called Facebook…? What am I missing?”

So the same week my own mom joined Facebook, I noticed on Twitter and, ahem, Facebook that many of your moms and dads were joining too! And you weren’t entirely sure what to do with that. I hear ya!

But is it really so bad? I know Facebook started with college kids, and I can’t imagine the photos they were probably posting back then, but now that more than half of Facebook’s 150 million users are out of college, are any of us really keeping dire secrets from our parents any more (I mean never, mom, but I hear other people did)? I share photos, I import my blog posts, I post interesting links… all the things I’m going to then turn and type an e-mail to my mom about anyway. If you’re friends with colleagues and superiors on Facebook, what’s so bad about mom?

By the way, my mom is doing awesome. She’s changing her status, she’s joining dog-park groups, she’s importing her blog and posting photos – all without my help!  P.S. She’s also on Twitter.

Bring it on, Boomers!

Just a few highlights from our holiday… It started with a big family dinner on Christmas Eve at my cousin Ian & Kate’s home, and then our own little family of four cozied up to watch Jim Carey’s “The Grinch” for the first time ever.

We woke up on Christmas morning for a breakfast of blueberry pancakes, opening presents – which lead to reading books for a while on the couch – and then a run. It definitely felt funny having such a peaceful Christmas morning when kids everywhere were waking up early and shrieking with Santa excitement. As we ran just a three-mile loop around our neighborhood, I enjoyed thinking about the different families and traditions inside the windows.

My parents came over for dinner and more gifts that night, and barrels of laughter filled our home as Brewer looked in the opening of a box of 50 multicolor tennis balls! The look on Brewer’s face was of sheer ecstasy and disbelief.

As tradition goes, we drove down to Connecticut for the big Hedman Christmas festivities on Saturday. Always a fun time sharing the holiday spirit with our nieces, nephew and extended family. Gary was of course the perfect uncle to give little Jake his first tool bench, complete with table saw, drill press and more!