Growing up in the midwest there were many days you would wake up to a world of white.  These were exciting mornings because if it snowed enough they would cancel school.  I think these days were almost better then Christmas morning.  Fresh snow and nothing and nowhere to go but to play outside with your friends and everyone’s house had hot chocolate waiting for you.

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 This is what it was like in Tahoe last week.  With all the rain the sierras got dumped on and it was a magical white world up there. We had a couple of days to play in Genoa, NV and Lake Tahoe.   We took the boys skiing and snowboarding one day.  I’ve been a skier for almost 30 years and have attempted to snowboard twice in that time span.  I’m talking like 20 years ago and 14 years ago.  I can’t really be that old, Just lived a lot of experiences.   But I tried again along with my 7 year old and husband.  We had a blast and so much fun.  We were exhausted but just being outside in the beautiful surroundings was so invigorating.  It felt like just like a ”snow day”. Here we are after our lesson.  Can’t wait to get in to have some hot chocolate.  Check out our whip cream mustaches.

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One of our favorite places to have breakfast in Tahoe is called the Red Hut it is off highway 207.  This is the best place, excellent food, and so much atmosphere.  There is always a little wait and they only take cash but it is worth it.  I don’t know if you can see the entire from the shot below.[photopress:3_1_2.JPG,full,pp_image]

This was officially my last shoot of 2007 and what fun it was. It had been 6 years since this family was able to be together. You could just tell by their excitement what a wonderful time they were having together. Here are a couple of their shots and a glimpse at their slideshow. It was a great way to wrap up 2007.

www.jilljohnsonphotography.com/slideshow/franklinfamily

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I’ve always heard what a beautiful location Byington Winery was but I’ve never had the oppurtunity to visit there. On this day I was able to photograph an extended family sitting up there and people were right. It was a beautiful location. What was perfect is that it had a very fall theme to it with the vines turning colors. We had a lot of little ones for this shoot and some of them weren’t the happiest of campers but I love that eveyone’s attitutude was take the picture. This is the stage of life we are in and we want to remember it. I loved that. Here are a couple of images from their shoot. The one of the family and two kids has a fun little story. The little girl was ready for her nap. In fact, she just about snuggled up with her Panda and did if it wasn’t for Grandma. These smiles are not for me but for the fun-loving grandpa behind me dancing and jumping and just being silly. The noises he was making even made me laugh.

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This photo was taken at Jeni’s wedding in December.  This was such a great moment for my husband and me.  Almost for our entire 20′s we worked with a teenage choir and drama team.  My husband started with 5 kids and when we ended 8 years later, the group had grown to a strong 50 or more at times.  It was such a great time with these kids as most of them were junior high and high school kids.  Many of them have stayed in touch with us and have become extended family.  Others we don’t get to see so often,  so at moments like this when a few of them get together it is so much fun. We had so much fun mentoring them.  For most of our newly married years we constantly had teenagers in our house for fun or just because they needed someone to talk to.  It has been so rewarding to see what so many of them have done with their lives and how many of them are involved in helping junior and high school kids in their spare time.  The weekend of the wedding would of been the weekend we would of done our annual Christmas show.  We all had such a wonderful time remembering, and for me it was just hiliarious for them to realize that the age they are now was the age that we were when we ran the group.  They just thought we were so much older.

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This was the last wedding of the year and it was a sentimental one for me that ended the 2007 season. I was so honored to be able to photograph the wedding of Jeni and Kenny.  I’ve known Jeni since she was about 12 years old and it was such a great day to see her marry the one God intended for her.  The wedding took place in Anaheim Hills just outside of Los Angeles.  It had to of been one of the coldest weekends of the year. As cold as it was, Jeni and Kenny still braved being barefoot as they exchanged their vows at the small garden at Kindred Community Church.  It was a beautiful ceremony filled with a lot of personalization, from the pastors who married them, to the song Jeni sang, and to the simple act of washing each others feet. This was something new I had never seen during a wedding and I wasn’t sure what to expect. But it turned out to be a very powerful moment during the ceremony.

 One of my favorite moments from the entire day was her father daughter dance.  They were so funny.  They did the dance from Pulp Fiction.  Her dad did his best Travolta impersonation.  Then they invited her mom and siblings out and it turned in to a family dance.  It was very sweet and so much like their crazy, fun-loving family. [photopress:feet.jpg,full,pp_image][photopress:prayer.jpg,full,pp_image][photopress:pulp_fiction.jpg,full,pp_image]

 I’m wishing them many blessings as they start this new chapter in their lives. 

 www.jilljohnsonphotography.com/slideshow/jeniandkenny