This past June my husband and I celebrated our 15th anniversary and we wanted to do something special.  For those of you who don’t know I grew up with my parents owning a travel agency. ( Some of you may ask what is that but it was a place where people would help you plan a vacation and find great fares before the days of expedia and travelocity.)  So, the love of  travel comes very natural for me.  Fortunately, the love of my life loves to explore and experience the world as much as I do.  We didn’t know much about Turks and Caicos.  We had read about it in a magazine a couple of years back luring us with its beautiful photos, so we put on the to do list.  Well, the perfect timing came for us and we were fortunate that some of our dearest friends were able to celebrate with us.  We had wonderful time.

I know many of you have seen Turks and Caicos on House Hunters International because many of you have told me.  But this is an amazing and beautiful location. I swear so many places were probably filmed for the Pirates of the Caribbean.  It hasn’t been commercialized much and because of that it has an island quaintness to it.  In fact, hotels can’t build higher then 5 stories tall and most of the resorts keep quite small except for places like Sandals and Beaches.  If your in to total relaxation, great food, deserted  beaches,  and love the water it is a perfect place for you.  The diving and snorkeling was fantastic and we had such a great time we did two different boat tours.  The first one was a much more typical tourist tour but we had a blast.  The sea was a little rough that day (a tropical storm/hurricane was headed in that night) but we dove in and harvested our own conchs.  It was fun but a lot of work as you swam in swells of waves.  Thank goodness they gave us noodles so you could rest.  They even taught us how to take the conchs out and then they made us fresh conch salad right there on the beach.  I’m not a huge conch fan but it was really good. (My husband on the hand had a daily dilemma of conch fritters or fingers?). The beach we prepared it on was deserted except for all of the Iguanas that lived on the island.  On the way back we even got to drive the boat!

The second boat trip was a much calmer day and not your typical tourist ride.  We showed up to a beautiful sailboat with about 15 other people on it besides us.  Simply an amazing day as we snorkeled and sailed.  I swam with a shark, baracuddas, and sting rays.  I so wanted to swim with a turtle but none were around.  We explored beautiful reefs, a shipwreck, and more untouched beaches. Simply said,  “Breathtaking.”  This was a day that my husband got to sail the ship and I think he was in heaven.

I think part of us being married 15 years is that I’m not allowed to take my work camera unless we are there partially for a job(he’s not allowed to bring the work computer).  It’s good because it does make us relax and step away but I still have my little tourist camera.  How could I not capture some of these memories.  But I couldn’t help but inquire about weddings there.  It’s a phenomenal backdrop for a ceremony.  Beaches alone had over 106 wedding there in June.  So, I’d love to go back if your in need of a destination photographer.

I feel so blessed to of found the perfect man for me.  I can’t say we have the perfect marriage but who does?  But I can say is we are the  perfect match for each other. I’m looking so forward to spending many more adventures with him and can only hope that the couples I photograph will be blessed in the same way.  I’m a firm believer that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been married a year or 50 years it is good to spend some quality time with the one you love.  Thanks to my family for watching my kiddos.

This was just the beginning of a very fun, and action packed couple of weeks for me as I left California for three weeks to spend some quality time with my family.  The first event started off with my nephews wedding and it was a great way to start off this vacation/business trip.  Laura and Alex have been a couple for as long as anyone can remember and they finally made it a legal union.  They had a beautiful and very colorful summer wedding full of bright yellows, oranges, pinks, and green the grooms favorite color.  They exchanged vows at Emmanuel Baptist Church which has been the groom’s family church for generations and the reception was at the Northbank Center in Flint, Michigan. ( Funny enough that is where I had my high school prom and it was so surreal to be there-lets say a few years later.)  The day was filled with joy, laughter and a little joking.  In fact, Laura’s step dad started the day off with having his shotgun ready as the groomsmen drove up to the bride’s house for photos.  One of my favorite parts of the day is when I saw an old barn where I wanted to photograph the couple.  We pulled the limo on to the farm,( which I later found out had been in the same family for over 150 years) and just knocked on the door.  Good ole Frank was so excited but couldn’t figure out why we wanted to shoot with the barn when he had a lovely pond in the back. It was a great property and we were able to get some of my favorite shots of the day.  Besides the ones you see here we were even able to get Laura hanging laundry in her wedding dress.  A tease about her new wifely duties.  One of the more special memories was their first dance.  They did such a great job and it seemed so very natural and not contrived as they spun around the floor together.  I have to admit this was the best lift I’ve seen for a first dance.  It was very impressive. If you know them they are not a huge couple who shows a lot of affection in public.  But you couldn’t help but see the love and the special sweetness the two of them have for each other.   To see more of their day click here to view their slideshow and remember to leave them some love on the post below so they know you’ve been here.

Thank you so much to all of you who helped support us on this journey.  It was a last minute decision to do the walk but there was something in me that said to just do it and take your boys.  Over the last couple of years Cancer has touched many of my friends and family.  We arrived in time to see the Cancer Survivors take their victory lap to start the walk off.  I was so glad to share this with my boys as they had a lot of questions.  Men and woman of all ages walked the tracks with loved ones giving others hope. I had to admit you couldn’t help but well up a little and scream for them all at the same time.

If you have never done this kind of event it is very entertaining and upbeat along the way.  The entire circle where you walk is surrounded by tents of different groups and organizations  trying to raise funds and educate on the many different cancers that are out there.   Many of the tents are base camps for different teams for people to rest and then keep going.  Every team has to have a member on the track at all times.  The whole concept for the 24 hour period is that cancer doesn’t sleep.  Music is playing, bake goods are abundant, and activities that help earn more funds for each team are busy.  My boys loved that you could get your hair or in some cases your mustache colored pink in support of breast cancer.  The funniest and best one was you could rent a decorated bra for a lap or two to help “Save the Tatas”.  This I thought was cleaver and they had so many designs to choose from.  Since we are in the midst of hockey playoffs my boys chose to wear the Sharks bra. Other things were simple reminders.  One that touched me was about a girl named Andrea.  She is currently battling cancer and she loves the ocean. In her honor they had little shells for you take  and asked you to pray for her on one of your laps.  I loved this and it touched something in my kids as they decided to pray for the people we were walking for.

Other things like the statistics on tobacco use and too much sun started alot of great questions from my kids.  There was things they knew but I think they took information home with them that they will now remember.  I was so proud of them because they walked longer then they had too and walked an impressive 6 miles in about 90 minutes.  We were able to stay for the Lumiere ceremony which was a little overwhelming.  These were bags you could purchase in honor or in memory of a loved with cancer.  The entire track was surrounded in light from these bags for the people who would be walking thru the night.  It was such a positive thing that my kids asked to do it again next year.

The boys school team of Carlton Kids Care raised $3,310.00 toward the cause and this one event raised close to $215,000 and the donations are still coming in.  What was even better is that I just received news from my oldest nephew Tim that he will be walking in the Relay For Life in Michigan and will be a 24 hour walker.  That means he doesn’t get anyone to take over his shift.  Know there is a goal. If you would like to show him your support click on this link here and it will get you to his page.  Thank you for all of you who helped us reach our financial goal and supported the boys.  They were very proud of themselves and they were so glad to help people they loved.  We walked for Cordelia, Leslie, Darielle, Sue, Joanne, Jill, and Kelly.  Keep up the fight and help find a cure.

I’m not a doctor, biologist, or scientist.  I don’t have the knowledge on how to help cure the many facets of the disease called CANCER.  But, I can walk to help raise funds for the many people who do have the knowledge to  find out more on how to beat this disease.  This year my husband and I have made a conscious decision to help our kids learn to think about others.  That they have been blessed with many things and that even at their young age they can help make a difference in the world today.  In the last couple of years Cancer has touched my college roommate, my 2 sister-in-laws, my friend, my client ( a newlywed who is fighting to celebrate her one year anniversary), and my best friends daughter who was born with this disease.  Yes, I said born with it.  Who ever knew?  I’ve watched and my family has watched as each of these loved ones have had to fight their own battle/or are currently fighting with this disease.  It doesn’t just affect the one with cancer but those that love and support them.  The boys and I decided just last night that we wanted to participate in the RELAY FOR LIFE and we wanted to walk for them.  A this point I could spout off all the statistics etc. about cancer  but I know many of you now a lot already the effects of this disease. It may have already touched your life in one way or another.   Our journey is to help fight this by giving just a hour or two of our time by doing the simple act of walking we can help make a difference.  WE do have a very short time to raise our funds of $100 each and we hope you can help us reach our goal.    The Walk is this FRIDAY, APRIL 30-May 1. I know times are tough for everyone right now.  I’m not asking for huge donations, just the cost of your morning cup of coffee or your $5 foot-long at Subway.  In fact, if just everyone on my facebook page alone donated $5 to one of us we could easily raise over $2000.  If you feel moved to donate more we would love to raise as much as we can.   I just really want my children to learn that by a simple act of walking for someone and especially people they love,  they can help make a difference.  Please help us with just not fighting this disease but teaching a new generation to think about others and that by a simple act of kindness and time they help make a change.

Donating is simple and easy.  All you do is have to click here!  You can either type in by team which is Carlton Kids Care and find one of our names. Or type in Jill, Cole, or Aidan Johnson and it should lead you to our team page and show you how you can participate with us on this fight against cancer.  Please look over the site for ways that you may be able to double your donation through your companies match a gift, or sponsor a luminaria.

If you can’t help us financially we would love any prayer support you would be willing to give us as we try to reach our goal in such a short time, and as we walk.  We will be walking Friday night around 6ish.   I would also love it if you could share this blog post with anyone who you might want to help us.

Thank you so much for your support, love, and prayers.  We are excited to be doing this!

It is so hard to believe that my oldest has traveled in to the double digits today.    I know you always here how time flies and they’ll be gone before you know it and I now officially believe them.  Cole is a wonderful kid and I’m so glad that he is  1/2 mine.  For those of you who know Cole he has a heart of gold, a contagious laugh, and is an animal whisper.  I don’t think he has ever met an animal that doesn’t warm up to him.  He is wicked smart (sometimes too much for his own good) and so very creative.  He is the kid that doesn’t mind being by himself.  In fact, it usually turns out great.  Is creative mind cracks me up because he loves to build and create things.  I can’t tell if I have an artist or engineer in the making orboth if we are lucky a very creative, artistic engineer.  Or we may just have the next screenwriter or writer of all times if you have ever read or heard one of his stories.  I always joke” It is to bad our kid lacks a personality, NOT”.

Below are some of the creations he has made lately from the school mission project, to his duct tape hat, and the ever impressive bow and arrow that actually works.  The kid made it out of bamboo, a stick, Christmas string, and duck feathers that a good friend gave him for the purpose of his arrows.   He is amazing and I am so happy to be his Momma!  He makes me proud.

Oh yeah and his new love, Flag football which he had for his 10th birthday party. I loved it and couldn’t of picked a better theme.  Coming from Michigan the Big Ten is huge.  But he wouldn’t let me get the shirts in Blue and Gold and White and Green.  He never lets me do anything .  Love you Cole.

San Jose, CA Febrruary 09, 2010 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced Jill Johnson Photography has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for Wedding Photography.

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Jill Johnson Photography is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Jill Johnson is among the very best Wedding Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards.

I’m sitting inside the Kirkwood lodge at the bottom of chair 5,  ironically the name of the lift is “solitude”.  Solitude is far from what the outside is like.  The wind is making us hear its voice as it howls across the resort, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf and twirling the snow in every direction it can manage.  We are on day 3 of being snowed in here and this is the worst day of weather yet but we are still having fun.  Growing up in Michigan snowstorms are nothing, but to be honest I haven’t been in a storm like this since I was young and it can’t help but bring memories of my youth.  Just yesterday my kids dug themselves out a tunnel in one of the snowbanks.  My best friend Sherry and I use to do that all the time along with our stylish moon boots.  The boots were so huge that we use to make footprints in the snow and play “hunt for big foot”.  Thank goodness we made a tunnel because when we heard the big “bumble” we had a place to hide. Plus, it made a great place to throw snowballs from to hit the other kids.  Every kid should have at least one chance to build a snow tunnel in their lifetime.

 Even though we have woke up every morning here to either duck hunters guns or the sounds of avalanche booms it has been a wonderful get away.  The fun part for my husband and I is that our kids are getting “snow days”.  For both of us this was one of the best memories of both of our childhoods. Today was the first day the slopes didn’t open due to high winds but the kids are playing outside, throwing snowballs, and jumping off picnic tables in to huge drifts.  No matter how stressful it was earlier today with us needing to get back home nothing was worth killing ourselves.  We attempted to leave earlier today and got a mile down the road and had to stop because you couldn’t make out the ground out from the sky,   a little scarey.  You know it was bad when your husband turns the car around and you didn’t even need to nag or beg to stop and stay.  But we are determined to make the best of it.  Enjoying the beauty of the fresh powder, the warmth of the fire, the comraderie of fellow stranded guest, and the laughter of our kids will make for a great family memory. 

For those of you who ski or board the last couple of days have been amazing.  So much better then the rain we’ve been hearing everyone in San Jose is getting.  In fact, yesterday only 2 lifts were open and one of them was the one we use the most.  It was a great day.  At times it was like we owned the mountain being the only ones on it.  I loved it!  It was so peaceful and surreal and we were exhausted because of how many runs we made.  You can see how empty it was from the photo below of my boys and me at the picnic table.  Last we were so bundled up it was kind of a pain to go inside to eat so we had a snack picnic outside.  One of my favorite things is how they made snowcones out of the fresh snow and Dr. Pepper.  The kids loved it.   As fun as it has been we hope  to make it back down the mountain tomorrow.  I know Eric will have a hard time giving up his corner office but its time to get back to real life. 

This past summer my youngest son told me that he was going to go to the Olympics one day.  I told him you have to work hard and give up a lot.  Well, this past weekend I have to say I feel like I need to brag.  My little guy did his second gymnastic competition and he won first place.  We were all shocked when his name was announced.  We were so excited and stunned I almost forgot to get a picture.    I can’t believe how strong he is for a 7 year old.  He blows us away daily.

I had to admit this was an unusual year for the Johnsons.  I feel like Halloween snuck up on us this year and went right by.  For me I was sad because between everyone’s schedules this year we didn’t make it to the pumpkin patch which I love.  These are usually some of my favorite pictures of my kids all year long.  But for those of you who have been asking here are some picks  to our very quick Halloween season this year.  I had a nerd and football player.  Enjoy!

Someone mentioned to me that they missed hearing about some of my crazy adventures in my personal life.  With the introduction to facebook I have to admit I’ve been doing more personal stuff on that and keeping the blog a little more business.  More out of convenience then anything.  So by request I thought I would make an attempt to start adding a little of the behind the scenes life of Jill Johnson.  Here are some photos from our trip this summer to Minnesota.  Our first visit to the land of the Vikings as we visited some of our best friends.  We had the oppurtunity to spend some relaxing days at their cottage.  I loved it because my kids were getting a similiar experience to how I grew up in Michigan. Here is the gang from the cottage.  Quite a crew!

The next couple of shots is the boys with a Schultz character which is all over the twin cities, the dino from the science museum, and the yellow brick road in Grand Rapids where Judy Garland is from.

The next couple the view from the cottage after a rain, a walk in the woods with a sprinkle, and the boat ride on the jungle cruise in Disneyland. (not really but it felt like a hippo was gonna come out of the water)

The Tubing, the water slide, my initiation in to the cabin life, fishing with daddy in the rain, and dancing in the river by door.  It rained like 4 inches in 2 hours it was amazing.  We had a great time, relaxing before the big rush of fall.