Lost Maples State Park

This past weekend we took a drive to Lost Maples State Park to see some fall leaves since we don't really get to experience fall here in San Antonio. It was about an hour and a half drive, but was so pretty! The weather has been so nice! It's cool, but not cold enough to need gloves or even a jacket really. We had wanted to camp there, but the only tent camping they had you needed to backpack in, 1-3 miles, and our camping gear is not really backpack friendly. Hopefully someday soon we will have gear we need for that! We still had a fun time exploring the area and taking lots of pretty pictures. They said that this fall, the leaves weren't very vibrant, and it seemed that lots of them had blown off, but I will still pleased with the colors that were there.

And a happy birthday to this handsome Bear of mine! I'm so grateful for all of our adventures together. I'm so grateful for him and all he does for us! I'm so blessed and I can't wait to see what many adventures the future holds! 

General Conference Weekend

The Friday before General Conference, a friend in the ward called me and invited us out to their friends summer home in the Texas Hill Country to stay for the weekend. We were already planning to be out there Saturday morning for Oktoberfest, so we decided to join them!

We tried to head out early Saturday morning to get to Oktoberfest as early as possible. We arrived about 45 minutes after it opened, and luckily it wasn't too busy yet. It was right along main street Fredericksburg, a little German town out in the Hill Country. We've been out to visit it before, and love it, so cute and quaint!

We used to love going to Oktoberfest in Utah at Snowbird, but this one was much bigger. As opposed to just one stage for music and dancing, they had four! We got yummy polish dogs, and walked around the shops.

We made the short drive to the address our friend gave us. The house was quite unassuming on the outside, appearing to have been built in the 70s, maybe the 60s, but the inside was entirely remodeled and so cute! Pictures don't quite do it justice.

They also had a pool and hot tub, as well as a little dock as the back yard met the Guadalupe River.

On top of being an uplifting weekend thanks to General Conference, it was such a fun weekend with friends!

We swam and kayaked (for my first time!), and the boys shot bb-guns.

We roasted hot dogs and smores over the campfire.

Played with their cute little boy.

And ate lots more yummy food!

Thanks to our friends for inviting us! It was such a treat!

I failed to get a picture of my beautiful friend, but we did some maternity pictures recently, so here is just one from our session. So adorable! Love them! And they just welcomed the sweetest baby girl! Good thing we did the maternity session when we did, she decided to come early!

And I've talked about it so many times, but I always use the Google Photos app to backup all my stuff. Well they often times compile these little videos from outings, since the photos are geo-tagged, it will be like "A weekend in DC" or wherever we were that weekend. I usually don't really like the videos, and in the past, I haven't been able to edit it at all, but the video it compiled for this fun weekend was pretty good and I noticed they now allowed me to edit it! So I added some photos and videos, and here we go! So easy to throw it all together, I love how it turned out.

To wrap things up, here are a few of my favorite conference quotes. In case you missed it, you can always watch or listen online! So good! One thing from it that stood out to me was
JOY! 

How great is that? That's what this Gospel is all about; true and lasting JOY. I am strengthened through God who I know loves me, as He does all His children. While there are many who do believe there is no proof of his existence, I personally see the proof of His aide and His love clearly in my life. I have spent much of my life void of His aide and the difference has been night and day. I hope that one day, all people can experience the literal change that is only possible through His Love and grace. The happiness, peace, love, and JOY He can give is unmatched by anything this world can give, and unmatched by anything that men can achieve on their own. 

Source: TeePee Girl

Source: Alexa Zurcher

Chipotle Chicken Soup

Now thThis recipe is one of our all time favorite soups. This recipe does have a good kick to it thanks to the Chipotles, but if you can handle the heat, it is so easy to throw together and is packed with flavor! 

Here's what you will need;

1 onion, chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, minced 

2 tablespoons olive oil

6-8 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, chopped

4 Chipotle chilies and 4 tablespoons adobo sauce*

6 cups chicken broth 
1 can corn, drained 
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups heavy cream

Juice of 2 limes

1/2 bunch chopped cilantro

1 avocado

Sour cream

Crushed Tortilla chips

*the Chipotle chilies are really quite spicy, so you can half this to lower the heat

In a large pot or dutch oven add onion, garlic, olive oil, and saute. Push onion and garlic to the side of the pan and add chicken and cook. Once golden, add chipotle chilies, adobo sauce, corn, black beans, chicken broth, and heavy cream. Turn heat to low and simmer, uncovered for 10-15 minutes. Add lime juice. You can add the chopped cilantro at this point, or wait to add it to each serving along with sour cream, avocado and tortilla chips.

And that's it! Enjoy!

Adapted from Rachael Ray

Happy Fall!

Fall in VA

Here are some random pictures of fall here in VA. It seemed like it took forever for fall to come to Virginia, but it finally did come. Winter seems to be taking it's time too, it's still been in the 50's and 60's here! I am really dreaming of a white Christmas!

The one interesting thing about VA is that even in mid October, everything is still quite green and there are plenty of lovely flowers still in bloom.

I also shot a few fall family sessions this year! I haven't done any professional sessions in a while. and didn't even push the business, these sessions were all thanks to my parents! It was fun to get out and create some lovely photos for some lovely people. I will share just a few of my faves here. More can be found on my photography Facebook page.

I also did some new author portraits for my lovely mom! Isn't she so pretty??