Since I am NOT on vacation and am dealing with a mother workload (of over 16,500+ delightfully yummy images, I might add), I want to take a minute to remember the sound and smell of the ocean, the multitude of popcorn shrimp, the margaritas, the laughter while Millie was playing with her cousins, and her precious 4 year old sandy booty complete with wedgie.  These were taken during our 4th of July family trip down to South Padre Island to celebrate Bobby's dad's 70th birthday. 

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.  Much better.  Okay.  Back to work!

Hi all!  So, I'm back from family vacation (father-in-law's 70th bday family get-togethah) but about to fly out on Thursday for Jennie + Kris' fabulous Santa Barbara, CA wedding.  Busy busy. 

However, I did NOT want to miss out on telling you about my gallery show and reception.  Mokah Gallery inside Life in Deep Ellum (on the corner of Malcom X and Taylor) is currently housing my gallery show entitled Feel the Love:  The Little Big Men of Vivero Boxing Gym.  I would LOVE it if you would stop by if you are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area...mostly for the reception that will be held on July 24th from 4-7pm.  It will be extremely kid friendly, since...duh, I have one.  Plus, the show features loads of them.  ;-)

If you have any questions about it, please feel free to email me at katemefford@me.com, and I will be happy to help ya...would love to see all of my family, friends, and readers there.  Bring friends, bring a date, bring your mom, and bring your kids!

Court + Alex are two of the sweetest, most appreciative kids I've ever worked with, and every time I revisit these images, I am catapulted back into the fist-pumping, laughing, bear-hugging and singing chaos that was their beautiful wedding day.  Their families, their cah-razy friends and the joy that surrounded them were refreshingly ebullient and I know that everyone who was present will not forget that night for a long, long time!  Jersey kids can party...especially when ya mix it up with some Texans!

While I hate to give you just the tiniest sliver of goodness from their wedding, I hafta let you know why I am waiting to blog more.  My gallery show opens tomorrow at Mokah Gallery (in the Life in Deep Ellum Building) in Dallas and the reception is July 24th (more to come on this later).  I have been working like a D-O-G (or maybe that's D-A-W-G) on getting everything organized and set up for that while trying to maintain a business.  Never mind that it is summer and Millie's not in school.  And I wouldn't want to forget about my adorable husband (who is INCREDIBLY SUPPORTIVE and AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL!)...or the piles of laundry that are about to morph into towel monsters and eat my poor little Noopsy.  In the midst of all of this chaos, my hard drive failed.  Damn you, computer!  I have had to reinstall gobs of applications, rack my brain to remember passwords and reconfigure X, Y, and Z till the wee hours of the morning.  I am desperately trying to catch my breath.

But I know that there are oodles of you who are {thisclose} to beating down my door to see Courtney + Alex's wedding images.  And I love you for that, because I know how much you care about this couple.  I do, too!  Do you know how much I care about this couple?  I even rooted for their beloved Chile in the World Cup.  That is love, people.  L-O-V-E.

Some of my favorite moments on our NYC trip were spent with members of the Atrero family.  Ed and I have been friends since we attended the Anti-Workshop in 2007, and have been further bonded like home skillets through our involvement with the raddest group of photographers in the world, Foundation Workshop.  For Courtney + Alex's wedding, I decided to fly Ed in from San Diego to be my second shooter.  We got to have fun family bonding time with our spouses (Bobby and Karen) and kiddos (Millie, Amelie, and Julian) on our days off, and have tons of memories that are already tempting us all to visit NYC again soon!

I can't wait to get back to the city to have more time to explore NoLIta and Little Italy.  I could have stayed at DeSalvio Playground for hours watching and photographing the old men play dominoes!  When I return, that will be on the top of my list.  The pizza we ate at Lombardi's was yummers, but I would love to check out some of the other neighborhood restaurants next time.  We walked by so many cute dining spots on the way that were very persuasive in distracting us from our pizza mission!

For our dinnertime with the Atreros, we decided to take a picnic to one of our most adored sites in the city, Bryant Park.  It was a gorgeous evening (though steamy), and it was a wonderful time for Millie and Amelie to get to know each other and of course, let me take oodles of pictures of them!  It doesn't get much cuter than these girls, folks!

We got brain-freeze from our frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3.  We had to suck it all down because the lunch we had before it sucked.  Double suckage, just two different kinds.  One bad, one good.

Drunk Runway Barbie caught my eye at FAO Schwarz.  She spoke to me as if she was from my past circa 1996 and quite possibly my pledgemaster at TCU.  Yipes.  Needless to say, I ran away and fortunately smack dab into the Big Piano.  Mills did a way better job at Chopsticks than Tom Hanks.  Not really, but she's so cute that no matter what she does, she wins.

After an entirely too-long nap, we were running late for Mary Poppins.  Had to pay a guy named Jesus in an Escalade (now that's my kind of Jesus) $40 to get us there on time.  He must have answered his cell phone 72 times from 34th and Lexington to the New Amsterdam Theater saying, "Digame."  If you aren't familiar with Spanish, that's "Talk to me."  It quickly became the catchphrase of the trip.

Mary Poppins was worth every last red cent.  I have never witnessed anything like it, and am spoiled for life.  I will try not to make comparisons and judgments when Millie's middle school theater department does their rendition of My Fair Lady/Sound of Music/anything involving a stage, but it will be difficult.  There may need to be alcohol involved.  The New Amsterdam theater, the set, the lights, the acting and singing and even the freaking snacks were otherworldly, and I would pay to go see it again, much to Bobby's dismay.  I mean, he liked it, but all he sees are $$$ when I talk about going back to NYC, and somebody, please throw my love a Valium.  =)

I'm in love.  Yes, I'm in love with Bobby and Millie and even our sometimes smelly little dog, Noopsy, but I have a new love to add to the mix...New York City.  We recently visited as a prelude to a wedding I was commissioned to photograph in New Jersey, and I was instantly hooked.  I never thought in a million years that I would even find the city remotely likable.  All I'd ever heard was how dirty it was and how grumpy the people were and how everyone talked really fast and only wore black and how freakishly expensive everything was.  Well, after living in France for a summer and traveling abroad multiple times and being repeatedly pleasantly surprised, I should have known not to be so closed-minded.  Duh.

The ONLY truth about NYC that held was the fact that things are more costly.  The entire time we were there, I only saw TWO girls dressed in black from head to toe, and BELIEVE ME, I was lookin'.  People were SOOOO nice in NYC, and even more so than my other favorite city, San Francisco.  It was a little dirty, but I didn't see any rats or witness murders, and I could mostly understand everyone with whom I spoke.  So, rumors were dispelled!

As a TRUE extrovert, the city just radiated with energy and made me feel like I was a part of something.  It was addictive, and each morning, I awoke craving the social interaction more than ever.  I am pretty sure my tiny extrovert, Millie, felt the same way.  Bobby, who is HIGHlarious and often the life of the party, is actually a true introvert, and even he loved it.  There are just so many things to see and devour.  The history, architecture, food, smells, fabrics, accents, city life protocol, people all walking with PURPOSE...it is now a possible contender for my version of heaven.

I'm proud of her because she is finding out who she is and not just taking the classes because I suggested she should.  It is a beautiful process, watching someone discover what they love and what they are good at, and I feel so lucky to have front row seats to Millie's show for the rest of my life.