Author Archives: Nicole

11 years.

Eleven years ago, on a cold day on MT Dandenong in Victoria, Australia, I married this man.

It’s crazy to think that it all happened that long ago – in many ways it feels like the blink of an eye. But then I think back on all we have achieved together and it seems incomprehensible that we did it in such a short time. After we made it through that first (very rocky) year, it seemed there was nothing stopping us. We bought an apartment in Australia and lived there for a few years, then moved to Hawaii for a few months, drove across the United States and back again, settled in Portland (where we knew no one but each other), found jobs, bought a house (after selling the apartment in Australia), had two adorable babies and, in the midst of it all, found time to travel back to Australia numerous times, all while balancing a full time job each, daycare/school schedules and everything else that life throws at us.

Sometimes it’s hard – it’s always busy – but I really don’t think I would be where I am if I didn’t have the most wonderful partner in the world. And I’m happy with where we are, with what we’ve achieved, with the little people we’ve created and the parents we are striving to be. I think we balance each other well and keep each other sane (most of the time). We’re partners in life and, above all, we love each other (well, I love him. Kei may have to write his own blog post to confirm).

Happy anniversary honey. I couldn’t imagine having spent these past eleven years with anyone else and I look forward to SO many more. Mwah!

The Big Day

Our entire visit to Australia was building up to one big moment – the day my brother, Ben, was to marry Emma. The ceremony took place in Melbourne’s Carlton Gardens which was just beautiful (thankfully the rain held off until the very end). The bride was fashionably late so Thomas and Samuel entertained guests by wrestling each other on the red carpet.

I had a couple of responsibilities on the day – accompanying my son down the aisle with the rings and giving a reading – so I wasn’t able to take as many photos of the ceremony as I had liked. I did, however, have a fabulous view from the front row of the bridesmaids…

…and the grooms men/woman. That’s my baby brother Jono in the middle. He turned 30 during our trip so I suppose he’s not much of a baby any more.

And of course we had the perfect view when the vows began. I began crying the moment I saw Emma get out of the car and I’m pretty sure I didn’t stop until the marriage certificate was signed. I blame the extra hormones that come from having given birth to two children.

And of course Emma looked stunning. (Ben looked OK too).

A light rain began to fall as the champagne was poured, so we quickly headed off to the reception at a nearby Chinese restaurant for Yum Cha (Dim Sum for my American blog readers).

I love this next photo. It is so “Emma”.

I told you she looked beautiful.

My kids were the life of the party.

Especially after the pants came off.

We gave Samuel free reign with the binky during our visit. It began with needing to help sooth him during our flight from hell on the way over, and became a crutch to help him cope with the fact that he was introduced to about 50 new people during our stay. I was worried that he would continue the binky addiction when we got home but, thankfully, he reverted back to bedtime-only as soon as we touched down in Portland. Still, I’m a little disappointed that he has a binky in every single photo of him at the wedding.

Of course between the moments of child entertainment, there were speeches from both best men, father-of-the-bride and father-of-the-groom, my cousin Luke who acted as MC and the bride and groom. Nothing too embarrassing (although I’m sure there was plenty of fodder) and I continued to cry. (I swear I didn’t cry this much before I had children – not even at my own wedding).

The very proud parents of the groom.

And another one of Jono. I’m not absolutely sure why I took so many photographs of him during this visit, although I suspect it’s because he’s matured enough that I no longer have to photoshop a certain middle finger out of all of the shots.

Finally, in what is likely to have the longest wedding celebration in history, we headed to a nearby pub for cake and dancing. My flash misfired on this next photo but it ended being one of my (and my brother’s) favourites.

Kei and I partied into the night after my parents took the kids back to the hotel. It was wonderful to have some time to relax and catch up with cousins who I have not seen in years, as well as get to know some of my newly-acquired family members.

It was a wonderfully beautiful day and a great party – and I even scored a sister out of the whole deal (my second one). I’d call that a huge success.

Motherhood

This week’s I ♥ Faces photo blog challenge is all about celebrating motherhood. So of course I went back through my photos to find one of me with the kids and, sadly, there weren’t many to choose from. Ok, there were a few, but I didn’t like the way I looked in them. It’s tragic that when I look at a photo of me with the kids, I find it so hard to get past the “me” part. It’s the curse of the photographer – never wanting to be in front of the camera.

So I am determined to take more pics of myself – with the kids, with my husband and by myself. I bought a remote for my camera a while ago and I have barely used it. Consider this my wake up call.

Thankfully I did find one photo that I love. It’s not perfect by any means, but I love how it shows the fun part of being a mother. I so often get bogged down by the frustrations and the arguments and the terrible two’s (which we are knee-deep in by the way), that I forget how much fun we have together.

An Ode to Uncle Jono: Monday Mosaic

Yes, I am still going through photos from Australia. I took so many that it feels as though I need to post ten for each day that we were there (don’t worry, I won’t). Of course I HAD to post more than one as my ode to Uncle Jono. I was so grateful for the short time that my brother was able to spend with us at my parent’s house so that my boys could really get to know (and by “know”, I mean endlessly climb on) their uncle. It’s photos like these that make me sad to be living so far away, but thankful that my children have such a wonderful extended family.

Happy Mothers’ Day

I just returned home after spending an evening with a few of my fabulous friends, who also happen to be fabulous mothers. On this Mothers’ Day eve, it seems fitting that we spent our time discussing the constant juggle of our family lives, our work live and ourselves. I feel truly blessed to know so many wonderful women who make it look easy to everyone else, but who work so hard every day to find that elusive balance between calm and insanity.

I leave you with a couple of recent photos that remind me why I work so hard to try and be the best mother I can be.

And of course the man who obviously supplied about 75% of the genes, and who helps me stay sane on those days when it all seems so hard.

2 Years in 4 Minutes

Kei has been studying a variety of film classes for a couple of years now. It’s related to his job, but sometimes the results of his class assignments have a personal benefit.

Check out his latest editing class project below for a look back at the first two years of Thomas. Home videos would lose their bad reputation if they were all made like this.

P.S. Now Kei’s on the hook to make a Samuel version – if he can find enough footage of course. Video of the second child is harder to find.

Outside: P365

A few more photos of my favourite photos from Aus. This is one of my favourites because it so clearly represents how we spent a great deal of our first couple of weeks while we were there – watching the sun dip below the horizon as we sipped wine and watched the children wrestle each other to the ground. The final week was a whirlwind of wedding prep and not quite as relaxing, and this photo doesn’t show the mosquitos that left us scratching our legs for the next few days, but I think it tells a story. A true vacation shot.

By way of introduction, that’s my new sister-in-law Emma looking at the camera. My brother Ben (Emma’s husband) is standing behind her and that’s Danny, one of the best men, standing off to the left and smoking a pipe. Yes, a pipe.

I am primarily a portrait photographer but I like to work on my landscape photography in the hope that I might one day be able to catch the sort of image that I want to hang on my wall (or someone else’s. One can dream). Australia provided me with numerous landscapes to practice my skills. Of course now I have the desire to invest thousands of dollars in prime wide-angle lenses… It’s a side effect of this little obsession.

Taken by the side of the road as the men changed a flat tyre. The sky really is that blue.

Rays from behind the clouds on Easter eve.

A very calm St. Kilda Beach.

One last sunset.

There HAD To Be A Kangaroo: More Aussie P365

Now you know I couldn’t possibly post all of my Aussie photos without at least one picture of a Kangaroo. Once again we found ourselves at a small farm near my parent’s house where we could feed the rabbits and guinea pigs, collect a few still-warm eggs from the chickens and throw some bread at a couple of emus.

Sadly the kangaroo population has dropped somewhat since our first visit and this little guy was the only one who came to see us when we shook the can of food. Well, him and a few extremely-aggressive deer. I was afraid to pull put the camera without a fence to protect me, although we were able to get behind the fence and pet the animals.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, we had a great time and definitely had our fix of animals. A few of the Australian variety…

and some of your general, run-of-the-mill farm animals…

It was a fun day for my city kids, even if Samuel was a little traumatized by the experience of being surrounded by animals that towered above him, one of which stole a can of food right out of his hand.

Thankfully he’s young enough that he’ll recover and I’m sure we’ll visit the farm again on our next trip to Australia. It’s become something of a tradition, although admittedly a very smelly and dirty one. Yes, I’m a city girl too.