I’ve been busy the last week – hosting a bridal party for a good friends wedding, arranging bouquets, and photographing the big event.  Here’s a few pictures of the celebration, taken by yours truly.

Here’s what I was up to yesterday…

An engagement photo shoot with my dear friends Derek & Simone!  More pics soon.  I promise!

It has been warm here over the past week, and then it snowed today.  Boohoo.  I want spring!

Since spring seems to still be a few days away for us here in Iowa, we’ve got another week of Virtual Vacation, and this week we’re going to Hawaii!  I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I’d love to go.  Censational Girl posted a couple of days ago about missing Hawaii, so I was inspired.  Go over there and check out some of her beautiful photos, and enjoy a few here as well. 

One last sunset…

I went to college in Maine, nicknamed “Vacationland.” I still remember the first time I saw the sign driving to college the summer of 2001.

I spent four lovely years in Maine, and I soon learned that it is indeed a wonderful place to spend a vacation.  So, here’s a few pictures for your virtual vacation.  Some are mine, and some are from the web.  Enjoy!

Boothbay Harbor

Acadia National Park

Wells Beach

Surfing in the chilly waters

Mount Sugarloaf

Skiing Sugarloaf - my favorite place to snowboard!

Moosehead Lake

Fall Foliage in Bangor, Maine

Wedding Cake House in Kennebunk

And of course, I had to include a few pics of my alma mater, Colby College.  It is a beautiful campus and a great place to visit!

My alma mater - Colby College

Miller Library

Academic quad

At night

I hope you enjoyed my little virtual tour of Maine.  Maybe you’ll visit sometime

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This weeks Virtual Vacation, we’re going to Italy! I’ve never been to Italy, but I’ve always wanted to visit. For some reason, I’ve always been fascinated by Venice. Enjoy a little vacation this weekend – maybe it will distract all of us from this never ending winter!

Exploring the canals and bridges of Venice.

Lunch at an outdoor cafe – sounds lovely!

Perhaps some shopping?

One more romantic gondola ride…

A nice warm sunset…

Ahhhh, that feels better…

An atypical winter vacation – today we’re going to Alaska.  I’ve always wanted to visit and everyone says it is BEAUTIFUL.  Here’s a little virtual vacation for you! Enjoy.

I’m writing this a few days ahead since I’ll be busy this weekend, but here’s a little “breather’ for your weekend. Enjoy!

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And for you winter vacation enthusiasts (I’m one of them)…

I found a few little places to relax in the midst of your weekend hustle and bustle.

Jade Mountain

Ladera

Ahhhhh.  I feel so much better

We were supposed to go to the zoo on Saturday during vacation, but the line of soccer-mom vans waiting to get in clued us into the fact that we’d be surrounded by whiny 8 year olds stuffed should to shoulder all day long.  Not our cup of tea.

So we pushed that back to Tuesday, and flip flopped – ended up wandering around Old Market in Omaha for a couple of hours enjoying a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

I loved all these cool painted signs on the side of the brick buildings in Old Market.

Inside Old Market – this was one of the indoor walkways.

This whole space was like a giant atrium – the ceiling was glass and it would have formerly been “out doors”.

A fancy French restaurant that DH’s dad worked at many years ago.

Where’s Waldo?  Haha – can you find DH?  We stopped at a used bookstore that had MOUNTAINS of books.  DH ended up finding a computer science book that he was looking for.  The store owner actually handed it right to him as he was sorting inventory and said, “Heres a few more that just came in.”  Nice timing!

Thanks for a lovely afternoon, Omaha!

Well, we’re back from our little get away – we had a great time!  Here’s a few pictures from our last day when we went to the Omaha Zoo.  We were supposed to go the first day, but the line of cars to get in clued us in that spending the day at a zoo on a Saturday wasn’t our cup of tea.  So we flip flopped our plans.  We had a blast checking out all the animals and walking a bazillion miles!  Here’s a few of my favorite photos from the day.

I have no idea what this little guy is, but he was the first animal we saw – so cute!

These little Lemurs were all snuggled up for a nice nap.

We saw a ton of Mackaws – they are a noisy bunch, that is for sure.

I thought this guy looked like my nephew when he’s pouting.

Giraffes! I was very excited to see these because I never had before. They were HUGE!

And elephants!

This gorilla was hysterical – he had his back right up against the glass with his arms folded. Either he’s one irritated/grumpy gorilla, or he’s REALLY enjoying a nap. Either way, this kid was a bit, shall we say…enthusiastic.

There were peacocks roaming all over the place. We probably saw at least 50 of them.

This might be my favorite picture from the day. Beautiful peacock!

The Omaha Zoo has one of the largest facilities for cats in the country – it was huge. This Jaguar (I think…) was enjoying a nice afternoon nap in the shade.

This lioness seemed eager to get outside – I have to say, it was a bit strange to see some of these animals in large display rooms that were sort of like concrete cages with windows. A few of them were outside too. In particular, when you consider that female lions are the hunters for the pride, it’s just odd that all their food is handed right to them.

If I didn’t think this guy could gnaw my arm off, I’d give it a nice pat on the head for looking so adorable.

One last close up…

We also saw zebras and rhinos and cheetahs and bats and many creepy-crawly things.  Fun times