Day 4 in Sunny California and Utah

When the CONFIDENCE Workshop ended, Jennifer Laurich (a workshop attendee) was so nice and gave me a ride to Irvine.  On the way, I told Jennifer that one thing that I promised myself that I would do while in California was to touch the ocean.  It was about 7:30pm and she pulled over at Huntington Beach to call her husband.  I jogged down to the shoreline.  Right when I touched the water, a wave came in and got my gray boots all wet!  I stood there for just a couple of minutes, soaking in the ocean scene that night.  It was awesome.  I  can't wait to go back!

                                                                                                         Ty, Jeff, Grant, Jean, Lisa, Jon


My cousin, Jeff and his wife, Ali live in Irvine with their two sons, Evan and Ty.  It was fun to visit with them for a couple of hours.  Uncle Grant and Aunt Jean were there too with my cousin, Jon.  And I did see my cousin, Michelle and her two boys, Kaleb and Kole for a few minutes.  Ali warmed up some yummy dinner.  It was nice to see them and catch up a bit.  Uncle Grant and Aunt Jean gave me a ride to my hotel.  I stayed up longer than I should have that night.  I was all wound up from all the excitement of the weekend.  Good thing I set my alarm clock that night because the front desk forgot to call me.  Hotel Current offers free rides to the Long Beach airport.  I took advantage of that.  My flight was delayed for an hour and a half.  So I just called up my family and texted some friends while I waited.

CA coast

The mid morning flight back to Utah was quite pleasant.  

I didn't hear any screaming kids.  It's nice to not have to worry about anyone else for a few days.  

I just sit back, sipped some Sprite, and munched on those yummy mini chocolate chip cookies.

And my most favorite thing of all is having a window seat.

It's amazing to me how beautiful this earth is... especially when you can see so much of it at one time.

I wanted to jump out of the plane when we were over Las Vegas.  

My sister, Jenny had her baby, Emma on March 20th. I wanted to see Jenny and meet Emma so bad.  

The most beautiful scenery I saw was when we flew into Salt Lake Valley.  

The majestic mountains surrounding the great Salt Lake was just breathtaking.

So then why do I not have any pictures of that beautiful sight?!

#1- It was way too turbulent to hold my iPhone still.

And #2 - I was too busy barfing in the barf bag.  I literally tossed my cookies!

I got home close to 3pm.  Sam and Brian were especially glad to have me home.

Tyler acted as though he didn't miss me.  He'd been having too much fun with his friend, Jack.

And poor Katie.  I got her up when she woke up from her nap.

She was mad at me for leaving her and kind of growled at me.

Eventually, she forgave me... probably when she realized I was home for good.

  It was so fun for me to just spend a long weekend doing something I had been anticipating for 6 months. Sam is so awesome for taking 2 days off of work to take care of the kids.

I sure do love my family!

Day 2 in Sunny California

I didn't sleep too well the night before.  My mind was racing just thinking about how much fun I'd already had... flying solo to CA, finally seeing the amazing Pacific Ocean, meeting new ladies for dinner, staying in a fancy hotel, etc.  Oh yeah, and I kept thinking about how the next day would play out... meeting the rest of the ladies in our group, what yummy food I'd be eating, what new things I would learn, etc. 

That morning, I got ready and had just enough time to walk briskly over to the pier.  I wish I'd had 30 more minutes to take in the scenery.  I just had like 5 minutes to look around.  I saw surfers, several volleyball games going on, seagulls, and people just strolling along the ocean shore.

At 9:30am, the CONFIDENCE Workshop began!

Me Ra Koh and Brian Tausend were the presenters of this workshop.  There were around 20 ladies in attendance.  We first went around the room and introduced ourselves.  When it was my turn, I told everyone the normal info of how I am married with 3 kids, etc.  Then I shared with everyone my embarrassing story about one of the times that I applied for the SOAR! Scholarship (that Me Ra and Brian created.)  The main part of the scholarship application is the 2 minute video each applicant submits stating why they feel that they deserve to be awarded this scholarship.  For the life of me, I just could not figure out how to upload my video!  So I read the fine print that said to call/email Brian if you had any technical questions.  And let me tell you, I emailed Brian, then called Brian and left messages on his phone WAY too much!  To make a long story short, we figured out how to upload that darn video.  A couple days later, I was online and discovered that the "Brian" who'd been helping me out was ME RA'S HUSBAND!  Ahh!  I could not believe it.  I just figured that Brian's last name was Koh, like Me Ra's!  Right then and there, I threw my hands up and told myself that I should just forget about winning that scholarship.  Who in their right mind would award a scholarship to a needy girl who couldn't even upload a video?!  Sure, I wanted to get recognized, but not in that way!  Everyone in the conference room got their good morning laugh in.        

Anyway, so we learned about many things in Day One of the workshop.  We talked about understanding the different types of camera lenses, about The Magic Three (Aperture/Shutter Speed/ISO), playing with different camera modes, framing and composing photos, and the elements of storytelling photos.

We had a lunch break in the early afternoon.  There were large round tables set up in the beautiful courtyard for our group. We each had a gigantic, fancy chicken salad.  The presentation of lunch was top notch.  It was yummy, but it involved cutting up practically the whole head of lettuce.   

I am a visual learner.  So when it came time to do our Mom and Baby Photo Shoot, I was so excited.  We had 6 moms volunteer to model for us with their cute babies.  See me and my fabulous picture taking posture below.

 Photo courtesy of Candi Naranjo

Meet Steven.

This little guy is about 12 months old and his parents just ADORE him. 

Meet Karene and her precious baby girl.

Meet Katie and her daughter, Karis.

 

Katie's mom hopped in.  I sure love this 3 generations shot.

Katie is also a photographer.  Check out her fantastic photos HERE.

Day 1 in Sunny California

One sunny Friday morning in March, I ate breakfast with my family, put my sweet yellow camera bag and small green suitcase in the car, and kissed my family good-bye.  My BIG weekend adventure began.  I caught the late morning flight out of Salt Lake City to Long Beach, California!
To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement.

Nevada Desert

California Mountains

 

Mountain, Desert, and Sky - California

The Long Beach airport is SO small, yet convenient.  By the time I grabbed my luggage and sat down to call Sam real quick, my pal, Amy Rhodes arrived from Las Vegas.  We rented a nice Mazda 3, grabbed some Jack-in-the-Box for lunch, and took the scenic route (sweet ocean views) to the Shorebreak Hotel across the street from the pier on Huntington Beach!  After dropping our stuff off in our room, we booked it to a fancy mall to watch THE HUNGER GAMES on a super huge screen!  I LOVED the movie!  I'm so glad that I took the time to read the book before seeing the movie.  (Which reminds me, I must get started on reading "Catching Fire.")  Once the movie was over, the sun was setting.  I freshened up and met up with about 10 ladies to walk over to Duke's for dinner. 

  

 

The ocean sunset was AMAZING!  I FINALLY got to see the ocean!  About time, right?!
The nice ladies I ate dinner with attended the CONFIDENCE Workshop with me for the next two days.

Huntington Beach Sunset - right outside of Duke's

Stay tuned for more on my trip to Sunny California!