Ackleys Take on Austin

We spent most of last week in Austin, TX for my good friend Jared's wedding, where Bella and Rowan served as flower girl and ring bearer.

I was kind of nervous about flying with Rowan at this age. He is a busy 2 1/2 year old...but Dale and I were prepared and he did great! We just kept him as busy as we could (ok, I'll admit, we medicated him).


We had a super early flight with a stop in Denver. It wasn't supposed to be a lengthy layover, just long enough to get to the next gate with some cushion time. Well, at about the time we should have boarded for Austin, the reader board informed us that our flight was canceled.

Ugh!!

We were able to get onto Frontier's next Austin flight...much later in the afternoon. Altogether we spent 6 hours in Denver. I made Rowan run up and long corridors in the terminal to wear him out. He was all rosy-cheeked and out of breath, and as soon as he'd slow to a walk I'd be all "No, keep running!" I wanted that boy worn out! It worked! Here we are killing time in Denver.





When we finally arrived in Austin, it was dark out. We walked outside to get the rental car and it was about 75 degrees. It was SO nice. The kids and I were singing "We love Texas!" There was a heatwave while we were down there. It reached 91 degrees on Friday.

Entertaining ourselves in the hotel. Looks like these kids need to find a good hygienist!


Texas shaped waffles for breakfast.


We ate lunch at Chick-Fil-A. They have them all over the country...EXCEPT the west coast. They are the best!!!





I posted this picture of me napping to show how un-cooperative my hair was in the humidity! Flat!


We had the wedding rehearsal and dinner that night. That is were Rowan earned the nickname Drunk Uncle. Shows up in a Hawaiian print shirt, uncooperative, makes a scene, lays on the sidewalk, embarrasses himself, etc. We were pretty scared for the wedding day if that was how he "rehearsed".



I just love this shot of my little cutie-pies. They look so happy!




Courtney is my good friend that I have mentioned numerous times on my blog and Jared (the groom) is her little brother. I am friends with the whole family. They are a military family, and I had the amazing opportunity to spend a month with them in when they were stationed in Italy in 1997, then in 2002 I spent time with Courtney in Germany while she stayed there. This is Jared looking at Courtney.


Courtney and her Fiance, Mike.


Afterwards we had the rehearsal dinner held at a small, creek side restaurant that specializes in BBQ. Best food ever!! There was a back deck that was strung with lights where we hung out in the warm evening air watching fish being caught and turtles swimming around.



In this next shot I was explaining to Courts that with my new 50mm 1.4 lens (which is the only lens I shot every single one of these shots with, FYI) you can shoot in pretty low light, and at the same time it blurs out a lot of the background (creating a shallow depth-of-field). So as I talked about my lens, I told Jared to give Jenna a kiss so Courtney could see an image a wide open lens with low light could take. I intended it to be more of a test photo...but it ended up being one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip!


My dinner. Diet? What Diet? Healthy? Workout? What? You talkin crazy in Texas.
It was the best food. I realize this looks a little too zoomed in, but I only had my 50mm.


The next day as we are getting dressed and made up for the wedding, I recieve a text from Courtney. I look like a drag queen she wrote. So I hurried over to her room to assess. This is the face I see in the mirror:


Personally, I thought she looked stunning. I wanted her to see that. So once she was ready, I took her around the place and did a little impromptu photo shoot. I knew if she saw herself in pictures, she would see that beauty that I think she is.



I was a little disappointed that this on turned out slightly blurry on her face, but it is still a powerful image and is my favorite of her. She has the most amazing green/blue eyes, and I wanted to have the picture on the wall in the corner of the image to tie the colors in.



Getting the kids ready...




My kids started to rebel against me sticking the camera in their face. Ok, I promise Bella isn't using her middle finger with purpose here.


Ok, these next ones are some of my very favorites from the wedding...






















Jared and Courtney


We thought Rowan was amazingly well behaved during the wedding ceremony...Until we found out Uncle Mike's secret weopon...Gummy bears!



Rowan, Courtney and Mike


Ok, this was like the best wedding cake ever. Each layer was a different flavor. I chose tiramisu, to honor the time I spent with Jared in Italy.



This pic was Jared's idea.


I was kind of worried that I would annoy the wedding photographers, being that I was often on the heels of one or the other, asking questions and peering over their shoulders. But they didn't care it all. They were both SO nice (I have spent time in Texas before, and that is by far my favorite thing about it. Everyone is nice. It's that good old southern hospitality.




I found it kind of funny that one shot with Nikon, while the other shot with Canon. The Canon shooter was even letting my use some of his stuff...his idea!! He stuck his wide angle on my camera and was like "Now go play around with that. You'll love it." I turned the camera around and captured this one of myself.



We spent our last day in Austin on one final mission. Ok, now don't laugh at this story...my husband is a huge fan of the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The house where the original movie was filmed back in the early 1970s is now a restaurant in Kingsland Tx, which is about an hour outside of Austin. So Courtney's parents agreed to watch my kids while Mike, Courtney, Dale and I made the pilgramage this restaurant. Everytime I had the slightest urge to make fun of my husband for being a TCM groupie, I had to remind myself that I am a Twilight groupie, and at some point this summer I will drag Dale along on a pilgramage of my own. Luckily, Twilight is set in Forks...just a few hours from here.






We were all prepared to try Rocky Mountain Oysters (Mike joked that he'd order his still in the sack) but then they ended up not serving them anymore. I tried frog legs...they were foul!! Watery and bitter. Bleh!



Courts and I with our matching Vera Bradley bags.


They headed to one coast while we headed towards the other. See you guys in June!

Email Me!

I am planning to password protect my blog very soon, so if you are one of my faithful readers and still wish to enjoy it, shoot me an email. I will add you to my list of accepted viewers and then you can set yourself up with a password.

Email me at Jackley17@hotmail.com

A great post about our Austin, TX trip coming soon!

I Cheated in Las Vegas

How's that title for an attention getter, eh?

It was my New Year's resolution to quit eating sugar. I made this decision because A) sugar is not good for you, and B) I always strive for self-improvement. So, as of Jan 1st, 2009, I went from a sweet tooth giver-inner to a strict, disciplined, healthy eater.

This was really hard for me. I craved sweets everyday for weeks. I don't know how many times I had to tell myself The cravings will pass. It won't be this hard forever and pretty soon you won't even think about it. I actually had to tell myself this many times on a daily basis.

While in Vegas in line for a latte at Coffee Bean, my eyes wandered about the goodies on display. I honed in on a cookie, and thought What the heck? I am in Las Vegas. Things that happen here don't count. You are away from home, it's Sin City, and the rules don't apply. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?

So I treated myself to said cookie. Since my motto's always been If your going to cross the line, then leap across it, I chose the chocolate cookie dipped in milk chocolate.

Then the strangest thing happened. I sat down with my coffee and had a few bites of what I'd anticipated to be chocolate nirvana...and I just couldn't get into it. Too sweet, not worth it. I couldn't even finish it. Deep down inside I did a little victory dance. I was really, really proud of myself. I had stuck it out, gotten past the hard part, and was no longer taken to that "special place" that chocolate used to take me. Heck yeah...I conquered.













Ok, this isn't the exact cookie, but ya'll get the point :)

My Las Vegas Trip

I just got back from a solo trip to Las Vegas for WPPI and I am wiped out. SO happy to come home to my hubby, my babies, and most of all...my own bed. Here's a picture of my feet last night. So much walking. I rotated through four pairs of shoes, each gave me blisters in their own special places. There were 4 Bandaids that don't show in the picture, for a total of 10.














While at the airport today, I couldn't help but think of something my sister said once. "Vegas is the only airport where you can tell whether people are coming or going". It's so true. I had an inside laugh as I saw person after person, looking haggard, tired, hungover, dehydrated, wallets drained and a look of shame in their eyes.





On the flight home I snapped this picture out the window. I thought this was kind of funny...Perhaps the little symbol is there to say This is a jet engine, not a men's room.

Happy 50th, Monica!

My great friend, Monica, just turned 50. I am lucky to have a person like Monica in my life. She is a talented hygienist who is loved by her patients and is a fun co-worker. I liked her the moment we met and we've been friends since that day.

I admire Monica in many ways...She is caring mother, a genuine person, and she and her husband are still just as in love today as the day they met 31 years ago. She has one mood (happy) and one expression (smiling).

We started running together not long after completed the STP. I thought I was in shape...Right! I definitely have to work hard to keep up with her! Lately we have been kicking around the idea of doing a triathlon together. She doesn't give herself the credit as an athlete that she deserves (I don't know if I could do it! she says). She can, she's strong. She has even beaten cancer twice!

Happy birthday, Monica.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Last night was haircut night at the Ackley house. First I did Rowan, then Bella and Dale last. When I got home from work this evening, I checked my email to find one from our good friend Mike, titled The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Mike, mind you, is also Dale's boss, his wife owns a hair salon, he once attended barber school, and is one of my blog readers.


Jessie,



You are so good at so many things; a mother, a friend, a great hygienist, photography, blogging, and so much more. The bad, haircutting seems to be a talent that has escaped you. The ugly, I must admit that I can’t remember a time that we had so much fun at the expense of Dale. Did all my lessons go to waste? Don’t you care about the way your husband looks at work? Or is it that you see haircutting as a way of getting back at Dale for something he has done in the past. If this is the case, good for you, you evil woman.



Here are some tips for the next haircut.

And he actually pasted in step-by-step haircutting instructions.

I seriously laughed for about 5 minutes strait.

I'd post a picture of Dale's hair, but perhaps deep down I am afraid you will agree with Mike. Really, it's not that bad...He doesn't have patches of bloody scalp showing or anything. Rowan's haircut is actually pretty choppy, but hey, I was literally cutting a moving target. Bella's hair, on the other hand, turned out super cute, but as I was trimming the scraggler hairs along her neck I had the scissors really close to her skin and...












I snipped her skin. She screamed so loud and was crying so hard. I felt so bad...I kept hugging her and telling her how sorry I was. Poor baby.

Maybe haircutting is not my forte. This is weird considering total strangers trust me with sharp instruments near their head all day long, and pay me good for it too.

JessicaJessicaJessica

I received my official name tag for WPPI in the mail yesterday. A bit redundant. I'll be introducing myself like this:

"Hi. I'm Jessica. Jessica Ackley. Jessica Ackley. It's a pleasure meeting you."

Facebook Schmacebook

Several months ago my sister showed me her Facebook page. I had never been on Facebook before. It was crazy...so many of her old highschool friends that I hadn't seen in years. Then I decided right then I want to be on Facebook too! So I created an account. But I didn't make it too far before I quickly came to my senses and realized that A) I don't need to be hooked to yet another internet site, B) to me, there seems to be this whole MySpace/Facebook culture that I do not understand nor have a desire to be a part of, and C) Dale already complains about how much time I spend on the computer. So I create this account (no picture, nothing) then abandon it.

Then I start getting these email requests saying "So and so wants to be your friend on Facebook!" For a while I was just ignoring them (sorry if I've offended anyone ;)) and then I thought duh, just delete your account. Well, I go back to the site that I haven't gone to since I started it months ago...and don't even remember my password.

My formal apologies to Chris, Michelle, Amy, Courtney...and all of the others who wanted to be my Facebook friend. We're friends in real life, and that's what matters!

BTW...Courts, I chose that photo just for you! See you soon!

My Site Meter

So I have this little thing on my blog called a site meter, which tells me, basically, the location of who's reading and when. I have figured out most of my readers, but a few have left me stumped. I am flattered, some of you are very faithful readers. So come out of hiding...leave a comment. Who are you? How did you find my blog? What keeps you coming back?

Who are my Portland and Seattle readers?
Spokane, WA
Hermiston, OR
Renton, WA
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Come say hi!