4th of July

For the Fourth of July we took a trip to California to hang out with our friends Eric and Karen. They have a party every year for the Fourth and we were finally able to make it out this year. Emma was in love with all the animals that they have around their ranch. She managed to wear herself out every day that we were there because she was running around so darn much. Unfortunately for us, that meant that she was in bed by 7 on the night of fireworks, so I didn't get to take any pictures like I was hoping to. All in all it was a great time, but it will be a while before we take a five hour car ride with Emma again.

Sprinklers and Gum

The last couple of weeks have been HOT here in AZ. It makes entertaining Emma a little difficult since all she wants to do is be outside. Luckily we have a nice extended dusk period where we can go on a bike ride or play around for a while. A couple of days ago we took Emma out back to play around in the sprinkler. She is really getting warmed up to playing in the water.

Another fascination that she's picked up on is gum. The girls across the street must have taught her about it because it's all she talks about. We give her little pieces here and there to appease her. While she was outside, Jill was trying to show her how to blow a bubble. She was making cute monkey faces as she tried her hardest to do it too.

IM

If you're a fan of instant messaging and use AIM or something compatible, my screen name is eric@erichildwine.com. Pretty easy to remember, huh??

Update-Yahoo or Gmail IM is erichildwine.

Dinner Date

Tonight Derek, Jen, and their beautiful kids came over for dinner. We had a great time hanging out and Emma was very excited to have some friends to play with. Unfortunately she had a horrible afternoon nap, so she wasn't able to stay up as late as she would have liked to. Derek and Jen learned firsthand how powerful her lungs were when we tried to put her down to bed.

Father's Day-Family Pic

Here's a picture of all the Hildwines (and Poetters) from tonight. We ran around today from lunch with Jill's family to dinner at Lindie and Dave's. It was a fun day and it was great to hang out with all the family. I hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

My Dungeon

This is where I spent the last four days of my life. I was working as the technical director at a conference and this was my view of the world. It was a bunch of long days in an uncomfortable chair, but we still managed to have a little fun. Sergio and The Duke (yes, we like to use nicknames) are in the second shot troubleshooting the system after a particularly problematic first conference session. We had a lot of wrenches thrown into the program, but we still made it look good out front and that's all that matters. I kind of felt like the Wizard of Oz and found myself saying "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" more than once.

Amy & Bryan Engagement Shoot

Here are a few shots from my engagement session with Amy and Bryan. These were a few of their favorites. I'm very excited to be shooting their wedding in Mexico this September, it's going to be beautiful!