Night on the Town

After how successful last Tuesday's outing was, we decided to do Downtown Tuesday again.  We found another new section of the Riverwalk (new to us, that is).  Most of the time, however, we walked the more popular part of the Riverwalk since we didn't spend much time there last week.  Note to self: if we move away from San Antonio and decide to visit again one day, come in March/early spring.  But make sure Rory brings every allergy pill, spray, tablet, patch, shot, strip, and filter known to man.

I love the bridges and stone at this part of the walk.

It's just cute.

 Those are some sweet pants!

Sorry, should have forewarned about the PDA.

I Even Wore a Western Outfit

Last Saturday I cooked a southwest chicken slow cooker recipe (I'm not going to share the recipe because it actually wasn't very good), and I thought why not give the whole evening a western theme.  I ambushed Rory with a Nerf gun when he got home from work.  I feel a little guilty admitting this, but I was really looking forward to shooting him with the Nerf gun once I decided to do it!  I gave him a gun as well so that the shoot-out was fair. We even watched a western movie (well only 1/3 of a western movie because in my opinion, westerns, as a general rule, are terrible).

Rory likes his drink like he likes his women, er, woman- neat and... nonalcoholic

Woah, Rory... easy on the rootbeer

Date Night, Downtown San Antonio

On Tuesday we spent two hours... let me say that again... TWO HOURS at the DMV to get our Texas driver's licenses.  It was awful.  I know no one likes going to places like the DMV, but for me it is particularly loathsome.  Especially when they give me a waiting number, and I watch as all the people before me get to go take care of whatever unfortunate occurrence brought them there.  Then I watch as 10+ people who got there AFTER me get called up. 

My blood pressure rises.  Anxiety sets in.  What if there was some sort of technical problem, and the computers aren't registering that my number is out there? Should I go ask? Or would that make me one of those people? Can what I wanted to get done today get done tomorrow since clearly I'm not going anywhere else? I've been here so long... can I remember a time before this?Anyway, I'm pleased to say that despite the dreadful start to the day, we had what turned out to be one of the funnest nights we've had since moving to San Antonio.

Rory's work assignment got canceled last minute, so he asked me what I wanted to do.  I told him I wanted to check out HemisFair Park and La Villita since I had been told there's photographic potential at those locations.  Rory discovered that parking is FREE downtown on Tuesdays (cha-ching!) so we headed downtown for sort of an impromptu date night. 

The weather was GORGEOUS! It was that perfect spring weather where you can walk around and be neither hot nor cold.  (The same weather exists for only about 2.3 days in Utah.)  Complete with the scent of blossoms in the air!

This is a section of the Riverwalk we'd never seen before.  It's very pretty!

HemisFair Park.  Definite picture potential here!

Tower of The Americas.  We haven't been up there yet.  One day, when we're feeling rich and luxurious, we'll eat dinner at the top!

Rory on his phone getting ideas for where to eat. 

The last time we went to this popular section of the Riverwalk was shortly after we moved here.  It was about 100 degrees, humid, crowded, and smelled of b.o.  I couldn't understand the appeal of the place.  But this time I found it very charming!

For dinner we settled on a little hole in the wall pizza place.  We were happily surprised by the quality! Especially when they gave us a pizza larger than the size we ordered! (I know that the popular thing to do nowadays is to post on your blog a picture of all the food you eat... but it was a pepperoni pizza... I'm sure you can use your imagination to figure out what it looked like.) The night solidified the fact that I really do love San Antonio!   

Hey There, Good Lookin'

This could, quite possibly, be one of the worst photos ever taken of me. So naturally, I want to share it with you, dear Internet.

I'm giving a little photography presentation for the young women of the ward tomorrow.  This is the photograph I'm going to use to show what happens when you break all the posing rules.  In case you're wondering just what photographic calamities came together to cause this perfect storm, here's what's happening: (i.e. what not to do)

1. I'm standing straight on... doing nothing.

2. Rory (the photographer) is shooting a full-body portrait from above eye-level, thus making a relatively tall, thin woman look both short AND squatty.

3. I stuck out my hips a bit so they are the closest thing to the camera (whatever is closest to the camera looks the biggest)

4. Rory shot at a low millimeter (28mm) which always causes distortion.  In this case, it makes it look like my upper body is the same length as my lower body. 

5. Of course all of those things could possibly be excused and the photograph saved IF I had a really fantastically great expression to distract from all those other elements.  I don't.  I'm not exactly sure what expression is on my face (maybe a cross between looking like I'm stuck in traffic and looking like someone around me just passed gas).

You have now both laughed and been educated with this post.  Your welcome.

Catchin' up on your R&R!

We live in Texas now- San Antonio to be exact! At the end of May, we moved to where "the stars at night are big and bright!" 

Prior to moving here, I had never been to Texas (unless you count a layover in Dallas a decade ago- which I don't). Since moving here, I have learned all sorts of interesting things. For example, before moving here, I thought that San Antonio was located in southern Texas. Now I know that is not the most correct answer. The most correct answer is that San Antonio is 5 MILES FROM THE SUN!!! In other words, it can get hot here; like your-sweat-starts-to-sweat hot.

I have also learned that Texas drivers are never in a hurry... ever. Nor could they possibly fathom why anyone would be. I never thought going the speed limit to maybe 5 over the speed limit qualified me as a Speedy McSpeedster, but out here I might as well have taken driver's ed from the cast of The Fast and the Furious.

Now the summers and driving aside, we really do like San Antonio! We live in a great area, our ward is fantastic (Rory is the assistant Deacon's advisor, and I'm the Beehive's advisor), and we are both loving what we're doing out here.

I will now proceed to brag about Rory: He is doing extremely well in graduate school. For the most part, his classes are interesting and applicable to him. He also keeps very busy with his graduate assistantship, where he works as part of a community outreach program covering, for the most part, high school athletics as an athletic trainer. I'm a proud, proud wife.

As for me, I got a job working for a real estate company for the first couple months we lived here. Now, I'm fortunate enough to be doing my own photography (see here for my website or here for my blog). I take pictures like this...

And like this...

And like this...

Of course we miss our Utah friends, but life is great! I hope now that things have settled down a bit to be better about updating our blog. (I make no promises, however) Don't hesitate to drop us a note- we'd love to hear how our far away friends are doing! 

St. George (Part 1)

Rory graduated from BYU. He got accepted to the graduate program at Texas State. He got offered an assistantship position. He passed the BOC exam. And I... well, I quit my job. To celebrate all that (and our one year anniversary!), we took a much needed vacation to St. George! Grant and Granny were kind enough to let us stay in their casita (a BIG thank you to them!). Here are some pictures from our adventure down by the Virgin River.
I love the landscape of southern Utah.

The river was actually pretty deep in the middle- must be all the rain this spring.








This is the golf course behind Grant and Granny's house. Rory spent 90% of the time he golfed being frustrated. He claims that's part of what makes golf so great. I don't understand it, but I'm glad he had fun(?)

This was not the picture I mant to upload, but I'm way too frustrated with blogger to figure out how to change it and put the new one in this spot. Anyway, here's Rory throwing water while playing in the river.

*More on St. George to come later.

Sports Photography

Those of you that know my husband know that he loves basketball. It's probably unhealthy how much he enjoys the sport. However, I benefited from his recent intramural tournament by practicing some sports photography; an area of photography that I have zero experience in.

After an initial struggle to try and figure out the lighting (the courts are terribly lit), I really started to enjoy myself! Here's what I came up with!