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• CHP Portfolio

Sometimes you just need to getaway…

Posted on April 24, 2010

… and get away, I did. A couple of weekends ago, I flew, SOLO, to Miami to meet up with some dear girlfriends for a weekend of girl time and photo ops. I mean, hello, its South Beach.

For those of you who don’t know me, I used to L O V E to fly…. anytime, anywhere. I even used to say that i “loved turbulence.”

** insert beginning of tangent ** Of course, that went out the window one fateful 30 minute flight from San Antonio to Houston in 2002. It was the flight from hell. I had just watched “Castaway” that Christmas break and remember specifically telling my mom how unafraid of air travel I was… I believe the words “hey, if its my time to go, might as well be on a plane,” even came out of my mouth that conversation. However, at 25,000 feet on the flight from hell, I quickly recanted, repented and begged God not to say “times up.” I also got incredibly nauseous and felt like screaming with the rest of the plane (oh yes, there was much screaming and dry heaving into barf bags on this flight). When we landed, my legs turned to jello and all I remember is wobbling my way to the airport store and grabbing some Dramamine and taking a double shot of it. You see, I was about to get on leg two of my journey… back on the plane, back into the vicious skies. Ugh. I feel sick remembering it. Of course the absolute highlight was landing in Tulsa and being met by the guy of my dreams (aka my now husband) who I was just starting to dig and who I was hoping was digging me. The only problem is that I was WAY over-medicated with motion sickness medicine. And I looked the part. John’s first words were, ” Man, you don’t look very good.” Yeah….. Charisma isn’t his strong suite. Granted, he was with it enough to totally regret saying that and tried to back-pedal, but alas, it was done. Let’s just say it was a memorable meeting.

And ever since then, every time there is the least little bump in the air, my heart starts racing and my stomach threatens to jump ship. Its awful. One stinking 30 minute flight ruins years of turbulence enjoyment for me.** end tangent **

Anyhow, what I was trying to say is that turbulence aside, I L O V E traveling/flying alone. OMG. Its like a vacation in itself. No diaper bags, no strollers, no checked luggage, no lap baby, nothing. FREEDOM. Its beautiful. And I love flying places.

So I flew to Miami. We lived in Miami for 7 months back in 2004 right before moving to Europe. One of my dearest friends ever was made during that time in Miami (we bonded while barricaded in a house a couple of times during hurricane season). So I needed to get out and see my friend Shannon. At the same time, another dear friend, Alyssa, and I had been talking about doing a photo trip for a long time. She is a mom of seven. She needed the getaway even more than I did. So she met me in Miami  and we both crashed at Shannon’s house. It was a great time had by all to be sure. Lots of chilling, talking, walking, driving, eating, walking, hanging out, laughing, and sleeping. Well, sleeping for everyone but me…. my cough decided to take over at night and robbed me of much sleep over the weekend. But the fellowship with mom-friends made up for it in a big way.

Lakelyn loved Miami. Thought she was in a parade the whole time and just waved excessively to everyone on South Beach. She was a hit.

welcome to SOBE yo.

ok, what you don’t see in this next pic is the 4 other containers of dessert that Lys treated us to on our last night. Mmmmmmmm……..

On the last day in Miami, Shannon arranged a fun shoot with two models from her/our (we used to go to the same one) church. These gals were the best… very chill, very fun, very laid back, and of course knock down gorgeous. They let us dress them up any which way we wanted, which was way fun. Alyssa is the fashionista of the group and it was fun seeing her throw together outfits that would have taken me a week to piece together. The only unfortunate thing is that a storm blew in and dumped on us literally as we were getting into our cars and heading to scout out some photo locations. Well, we thought it was a bummer, but when we found this abandoned parking lot under a bridge with reflective pools of water and funky colored walls all around, we realized we just scored a fantastic photo op.

Meet Sierra (yup, she models and acts… look for her on the big screen, yo!)

And Kirah (uh, huh…. amazing model)