I know, seriously adorable, right?

Our son recently got a puppy too. This gorgeous Australian Shepard, Louie…and to make things even crazier…his roommate got a Chesapeake Bay retriever, Hudson.

That’s going to be one crazy apartment, isn’t it?

Anyway, we were all about puppy playdates this month. And belly rubs…and playing tug-a-war with our other puppy, Maggie.

No, I didn’t get much accomplished this month except puppies…why do you ask??

Could you resist this face??

Hop over to  Los Angeles Photographer, Amy Shertzer and see what she has been up to this month, then click along out blog circle and see what this month held in store for all our friends in our Ten on Ten group.

Anyway, I give you THE JOURNEY

As a surprisingly apropos photo…this is what we saw as my husband and I headed out. We decided to go antiquing…a past time we both enjoy. We weren’t sure which direction we were heading, or which antique mall we were going to. This intersection decided for us.

We drove about an hour or so south of St. Louis to St. Mary’s Antique mall in, you guessed it, St. Mary’s. It’s in an old school and huge and always has the most interesting things.

I was looking for some interesting food photography props for the monthly food photography and styling challenge group I’m in. Here are just a few of my finds:

Such a great time. Then we headed back north to St. Genevieve to eat in one of our favorite places- a cute little restaurant, The Anvil. Look at their amazing wooden bar across the length of the restaurant.

They serve the coldest beer there. The. Coldest.

But my favorite? Their onion rings! So delicious!!

I know! Don’t they just make you want to drive to St. Genevieve right now and dive into a plate of onion rings? So yummy.

We headed back out driving, chatting and watching the scenery.

I absolutely love our slow, wandering, antiquing, road trip days.

(It was hard to pick just 10 photos from the day!) Hope you enjoyed seeing a glimpse of our life!

Hop over to Rachel Noah’s blog to see her 10 on 10. She’s a friend an fabulous Vancouver WA photographer.

We’re also trying to grow some agapanthus. Here is a photo of when I first saw them in bloom during a trip to Carmel. I love the spread of the bloom and the amazing purple color.

Sigh. I’m really hoping the ones we planted this year will bloom for us. Such pretty flowers, aren’t they? Stay tuned for the saga of the tuberose and the agapanthus! Wish us luck!

This year the target was a pirate. Yeah, no clue…but there you have it. A pirate.

Then we take a large slingshot…and, well…shoot at the target.

There is a lot of competition between the boys.

…and the girls

We have so much fun with our silly family tradition.

It’s one of my favorite afternoons. Year after year.

Since the kids get bubbles in their Easter baskets each year…there is usually a fair amount of bubbles floating around. (Yes, I still do Easter baskets for my grown kids.)

We believe in an equal opportunity shoot out. We’re forever young in our family.

Since the weather has been so mild this year, we still have a few zinnias blooming in the garden. In October! Amazing.

It got down to 29 degrees last night though, so I think the flowers will soon be all gone. Sigh.

As expected, Nichole has outdone herself on the beautiful packaging of this Lighting Workshop in a Box.

See the luscious leather box the workshop comes in?

She doesn’t miss a trick on making her workshop look wonderful. From the pretty bow on the box, to the faint damask pattern of her branding on the box.

Inside the box are all her goodies for this workshop.

I’m sure I’ll miss telling about some of the goodness, but here are just some of what is in the workshop. The manual, of course. Oh, I love the size of this one. Much easier to hold than the size of the original workshop in a box manual. Yay! The DVD of lots of goodness. A gift certificate to her online shop. A envelope of vendor specials. A troubleshooting guide and lighting practice cards. Pen, stickies. Well I’m sure I’m missing something.

I’ll post a review after I’ve had time to read the whole workshop and work with more with off camera lighting. While I have played around some with off camera flash, it’s on my list to really master next.

I did go to Nichole’s in person professional workshop and it was the best workshop ever. She’s an amazing teacher and I’d recommend her workshops to anyone who wants to take their photography business to the next level.

Well, I’m off to immerse myself in the workshop.