Voicemail Happiness

Birthdays are a big deal when you're a kid. We may not remember when we turned 1, but our parents probably do. Turning 5 was another milestone, and you knew you were cool when you turned double-digits. When I turned 13 and became a teenager, I actually wrote a note to my parents apologizing in advance for whatever drama my teenage years might hold. (Who does that!?)

Turning 15 meant you got a learner's permit (mine came with a typo that made me 24 instead).

Turning 16 meant you could finally drive without your dad in the seat next to you, grinding his teeth every time you let the clutch out too quickly (or not quickly enough). (Pst! Love you Doad! :)

Then you turn 18. 21. And—30.

Then, you just turn... wait? How old am I again? I'm lucky if I actually remember my birthday when it arrives...so to figure out how old I am, I usually have to resort to math. That—or ponder the age my siblings are, and then add the correct number of years. :)

So this year, I've done the match, and apparently, I just turned 32. I'm grateful for all the Facebook posts, cards, twitter/text messages, and—voice mails. Particularly these three:

My mom was the first to call today, which makes me smile. How sweet is her voice? I love her to pieces. (And now you know that my parents call me "Pumpkin.")

This one is from my aunt. I love it when she (and the rest of my family) calls me "Kharita." (This is, of course, in addition to "Pumpkin," which is reserved exclusively for my parents' use.) My aunt was followed by mi Abuela (grandmother)—who calls me Princesa (as well as "Kharita) and speaks to me in Spanish. I treasure it. She also sent me a card, like she has every year for as long as I can remember. Her handwriting is impeccable and instantly recognizable.

Then, my brother-in-law, Adis, called and put little Haris on the phone. The sound of his sweet little voice saying, "Happy birthday Khara!" made my heart melt.

That was so much fun. I'm already looking forward to 33! :)

They're Back!

After completing her Ph.D in Oregon (and an internship in Iowa), my sister Gina, her husband Roy, and their son Dominic are proud Lincolnites again! I stopped by to help them with the aftermath of the move, and couldn't resist a few shots (with my beloved S95 compact camera). Dom is at the age where in order to get him to lay down with his head on the cushion, I had to ask him not to lay his head on the cushion. Worked like a charm. I'm onto you Dom!

Dom is such an expressive little guy... he always makes me laugh. :)

After a nap, he wanted some mama-snuggle time...

So glad you guys are back!

Spinach for Breakfast?

Over the past year and a half I've been doing a lot more reading about food, nutrition, and how to avoid the perils of the standard American diet. My journey lead me through a string of truly life changing books (listed at the end of this post), and ultimately found me at the grocery store this Sunday with a new recipe to try. This is what I filled my cart with:

The soup I planned to make called for juicing 5 lbs of carrots (the results of which can be seen in the pitcher below) and 2 bunches of celery (instead of using vegetable broth). I'd never used our juicer before, but it was pretty darn amazing! You drop in some carrots and magically—out squirts a bunch of carrot juice! (Look out David Copperfield—I was a magician in my kitchen this weekend!)

The whole soup included the carrot/celery juice, 8 zucchini, 4 onions, 3 leeks, oyster mushrooms, split peas, lentils, kale, cashews... and some spices. I'm a huge vegetable/soup fan... but was skeptical at first (kale!?). Happily, once it cooked down, it started to smell amazing, and with 10 servings, it will last Emir and I at least a few days.

My latest book also included a recipe for a spinach/chocolate smoothie. It sounded too interesting to pass up. The ingredients are:

• 2 cups of frozen blueberries
• 1 banana
• 4 dates (pitted)
• 1/2 cup almond/soy/hemp milk
• 1 tbs ground flax seed
• 2 tbs natural/unsweetened cocoa powder
• 5 oz. of spinach (This is MUCH more than you think! Roughly 3 huge fists full...)

I wasn't sure if the drink would be blue from the berries, brown from the cocoa, or green from the spinach... but as you can see for yourself in the photo below, it's pretty dark. It's also—DELICIOUS!!!!! Emir and I have had it for breakfast and a night time snack every day since. We ran out of blueberries this morning and substituted half the frozen fruit with strawberries. Also good. :) Can you believe there's 5 oz. of spinach in there? (We weighed it out on a scale... it's quite a bit more than I would've guessed.)

If you're curious and want to get started with a healthier diet, here's the books I read (in the order I read them... which I think was helpful....)

• Skinny Bitch - Pretty extreme, great if you need a pretty stern kick in the pants  to kick your bad habits :)
• In Defense of Food - Fascinating exploration of food, culture, and putting our society in perspective
• Eat to Live - A good review with some delicious recipes (like the chocolate smoothie above and the yummo cancer fighting soup)

All in all, I've had a ball in the kitchen while exploring healthier eating options. I've learned how to prepare leeks, oyster mushrooms, and have come to love tofu, dates, and even spinach for breakfast. :)

A Joyous Tuesday?

The sun is shining, my to-do list is filled with exciting things, and—I lost close to 5 lbs. If that doesn't inspire a blog post, I don't know what does! ;) Have you ever had the feeling of being completely, 100% over overwhelmed with joy? Not just on your wedding day, or the day your child is born—but on an otherwise uneventful Tuesday? I find myself struck right now. I'm not sure why—it could be any number of the countless things that I am grateful for on a daily basis: my one-of-a-kind awesome family, the work I feel honored and privileged to do, the people who are part of so many different aspects of my life, and the exciting calendar of events stretching into 2012 and beyond.

My guess is that whatever it is, it probably isn't related to the dead bird the cats dragged into the house this morning... but it could have something to do with the clean-up number I did on my inbox today, or the fact that I turned in the final version of Chapter 9 last night.

Who knows? Right now—I'm happy to just ride the wave.

I'm celebrating with a latte. Happy Tuesday everybody!

Gettin' My Yurt On

It was roughly three years ago when I first heard the word "yurt." According to wikipedia, a yurt is portable, wood lattice-framed dwelling typically used by nomads in central Asia (commonly associated with Mongolia). And though it is technically portable, it's definitely more home-like than tent-like. I liked the sound of it, and started researching them. What they're made of, how they function, how we might build our own... and even contemplating buying an acreage and putting up a yurt until Emir and I could get around to building our next home (that may take awhile....).

Thankfully, this past weekend (only three years later), I finally got to experience one first hand. Our friend Jason is a professional outdoor adventure leader with the University of Nebraska - Lincoln who regularly takes people (students and non-students alike!) on all kinds of amazing experiences. He and his wife Christina are living-breathing adventure/fitness advocates who ooze a contagious passion for an active lifestyle that will absolutely (and happily) infect anyone who comes in contact with them (they are directly responsible for the fact that I started running last year, which in turn got Emir into running too). So naturally, when they approached us and said, "Let's take a fun trip somewhere!" Emir and I responded with a resounding, "Absolutely!"

Last Wednesday morning we climbed into a van with another couple of great friends and headed west to the backcountry of Colorado for a weekend of cross-country skiing, good food, good friends and... a yurt. The inside of the yurt had three sets of bunk beds, a propane powered stove for cooking, some firewood, a table and folding chairs, and a wood-burning stove. No processed garbage or canned junk food, each couple would be responsible for a home-cooked/healthy meal. Christina & Jason cooked up our first dinner of whole-wheat pasta with fresh vegetables in an incredibly yummy sauce. The next morning Emir and I whipped together some buckwheat pancakes with 100% real maple syrup. For lunch we ate pitas stuffed with fresh veggies and that night, Paul & Stephanie put together an unforgettable veggie & peanut stew that disappeared in record time. Learning to cook and wash dishes without running water was actually... fun. The wood-burning stove kept the yurt more than warm enough while serving double duty and melting the continual supply of snow we placed in the large soup pot on top for drinking water and washing dishes. (See below.) When we weren't cooking... we were skiing. I had only ever down-hill skied before, so the whole cross-country thing was entirely new to me... but after wiping out a few times (and stepping through a few snow banks that reached up to my waist) I'd say I caught on fairly well. :) The scenery was gorgeous! The feeling of gliding over the snow while surrounded by sunshine and tall aspen trees was surreal. The view from the entrance to the yurt was breathtaking, day or night (that's the outhouse in the bottom left corner). Of course, we had to have a little head-lamp/night time/long-exposure fun! :) If your tail is wagging and you're thinking to yourself, "I'd like to go on an adventure!" Check out the current trip schedule and see what tickles your fancy. Jason and his staff lead folks on all kinds of trips like rock climbing, canoeing, camping, and biking. No experience/equipment required, they will get you the full hook-up! The pricing is unbelievably reasonable and... you don't have to be a university student... everyone is welcome!

The Closest I May Ever Get to Appearing in a Music Video...

A few weeks ago I got an email from my friend Lan Bui who had this fun idea to make a lip dub video with a bunch of photographers who have enough loose screws between them to actually go through with something like this. :) (Just one of many reasons why I love this industry so darn much!) When I found out the song of choice was "Firework" by Katy Perry, I thought it was pretty apropos, considering we were all getting ready to head out to WPPI, one of the biggest (and most fun) conferences in the industry, where pros from all over the world come together to be inspired, share with others and continue the quest to master their craft.

Some of the cast gathered in the Los Angeles area to do a group shoot, while others filmed their segments remotely and sent in the finished files for editing. My segment was filmed locally at Marz in dear ol' Lincoln, Nebraska... you can see the result at 00:51 and again at the end.

Huge shout out to everyone involved... The Bui Brothers rock it again! :)

Camel Trekking: Morocco's Sahara Desert (Erg Chebbi/Merzouga)

We knew when we booked our air travel to Morocco, that seeing the Sahara Desert was at the top of our list. The dunes of Erg Chebbi are some of the largest and most picturesque... but, how to get there from Marrakech? Scrapping our plans to rent a car, we bought two last-minute bus tickets from Marrakech to Merzouga and settled in for the 12.5 hour ride (yes, you heard me right... 12.5 hours. yikes!). The bus itself was pretty nice... it was the mountains that made the trip rough (just ask my stomach). But, we were able to make it to Merzouga without getting lost, we reduced our carbon footprint by not driving personal transportation, and... we saved the cost of the (pricey) car rental and gas. Not bad!

If you want to see the desert on a camel trek, there are countless ways to do so.  A quick google search will turn up lots of websites eager to help, and a simple stroll through Jemaa el-Fna square in Marrakech will have your head spinning with offers from personal tour guides.

Luckily for us... we had Moha. I found him through Google and we exchanged several emails before we left for the UK conference. All I knew was that he seemed like a good guy, and that he ran a hotelof sorts somewhere in the town we would be leaving from (Merzouga) to start our camel trek into the Sahara.

We had originally planned to rent a car and drive to Merzouga over two days, arriving in the afternoon, just in time to jump on the camels and head into the dunes... but now that we had traded our rental car for bus tickets... we would be arriving a day early... and had no place to stay.

Thus, from my ever helpful iPod touch, I emailed Moha the morning before we got on the bus and told him we'd be arriving early, and asked if we could crash at his hotel. Without a wifi connection (and no cell phones) we had no way of knowing his response, but when we pulled into the bus station at 9pm that night... I saw his smiling face waiting for us through the window, and knew that we were in good hands.

To say that we lucked out when we found Moha would be putting it midly. In fact, Moha, and our stay at his hotel (Le Petite Prince), is largely responsible for making our trip the fantastic experience that it was.

After we got settled, Moha had dinner waiting for us!

This map of Morocco shows the distance we traveled from Marrakech (on the left) to Merzouga (on the right).

After we filled our tummies, we headed out back to get a glimpse of the dunes in the moonlight, and decided to snap a couple quick pics.

The next morning, we got a better look at where we were staying... adorable!

Cats are welcomed visitors in Morocco, and being cat lovers... we felt right at home. This little guy hung around the hotel and happily (or not so happily) posed for this photo.

The patio at our hotel...

The rooms...

The tile work was impeccable and everything was impressively clean. The whole place was extremely comfortable... we felt right at home.

After a quick run, we got cleaned up and Moha took us to have a look around town. He showed us the community gardens and the self-regulated  irrigation system they use where every plot is assigned an hour time slot. The canal runs through the middle, and when it's your turn for the water, you just remove the dirt dam and let it flow into your field. When your time is up, put the dam back and the water runs down the canal to the next person's field.

Back at the hotel, the crew had shown up and was working on putting in a new, extended patio. With the sun up, we could see just how close we were to the dunes we'd be hiking over in just a short while.

With turbans in hand (er... on head), we were ready to go! Camel trekking, here we come!

Our camel trek group consisted of Emir and I, Moha and our pro camel wrangler, Ali.

We hiked as the sun set, eventually reaching our camp site where we enjoyed dinner (courtesy of Moha!) before building a bonfire and turning in for the night.

The next morning we awoke to the gorgeous view of the sand dunes...

and... breakfast!

We found a snowboard in the dinner tent and couldn't resist putting it to good use. :) Coming down the dunes was 100x easier and more fun than going up... that's for sure!

After playing around for a bit, it was time to move on. Moha had plans to take us to see the lesser known "Black Desert" of the Sahara.

We didn't know much about what the plans were for the rest of the day, other than that we were supposed to be having lunch with a nomad family who apparently lived somewhere in the Sahara's "black desert." As we got closer, we started seeing things like this, which I later realized belonged to the children we were about to meet.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, we arrived at this family's homestead. I wasn't sure what was happening or why we were there... all I knew was that these people didn't have very much... and we had baskets full of food. So... I asked Moha if we could give it to them. We were planning to hike to an Oasis to have dinner and spend the night before returning to the hotel the next day... but we decided to cut our camping trip a day short, giving this family the food we had planned to cook for dinner that night.

The family consisted of a single woman and four beautiful children who all looked to be under the age of 5 or 6.

They make their home in the desert, living in these various tent structures. From what I could tell, this big one was a sleeping tent, and the other (smaller) structures served as a kitchen, among other things. I marveled at the family's resourcefulness and ingenuity...

I'm assuming these are some of the kids' toys... including little camels made out of cloth and wire...

After packaging up the food and leaving it in the tent for them, I found the kids off playing in the desert...

After we headed out, we stumbled across more of their toys...

We hiked about 1.5 hours back to the dunes before stopping at an oasis for a break.

One of the people we met on the road had said, "You will find people everywhere in the Sahara. Like, even if you break down in the middle of the desert, someone will appear, out of nowhere, to help." When we landed at the Oasis, I felt like I had a sense of what he meant. Here, in what truly felt like the middle of nowhere, was this refuge--- complete with tents, a proper toilet, and even a Coca-Cola, if you so choose. In fact, you could even rent skis and snowboards here if adventure called!

While at the Oasis, we ran into the British couple that was camping at our same hotel. They kept us laughing with stories of their camels and the tales they've collected over four months of traveling across Europe (and Africa) in their RV.

With the sun getting lower in the sky, and at least an hour or two to go before arriving back at the hotel, we started the last leg of our trek back to the hotel.

As I've said before, our desert guide, Moha is largely the reason we enjoyed our trip to the desert so much. He picked us up at the bus stop, made sure we had great food, a warm place to sleep, and even arranged our departing bus tickets before personally walking us to the bus station and waiting around to see us off. He taught us how to play the African drums, introduced us to what he calls "Berber whiskey" (green tea with a dash of absinthe), and showed us the land he lovingly refers to as "Mama Africa" with a  passion that makes us eager to return again.

Thank you Moha!

In the middle of our 12.5 hour bus ride back to Marrakech, we stopped for a break and I caught this sight that so perfectly captures the beauty of the area. Bright blue skies, the snow capped peaks of the High Atlas mountains, the warm browns of the other Atlas mountains, punctuated by the colorful architecture of the city below.

Will be be back? As they so routinely say in Arabic, inshallah. Inshallah. :)

PS: If you want to see the rest of the photos from this part of the trip, you can find them here.

Marrakech, Morocco: Photo Safari in North Africa

After presenting at London's Society of Wedding & Portrait Professionals conference, Emir and I added an additional continent to our journey when we hopped a quick flight down to Marrakech, Morocco. I've been itching to explore Morocco for quite some time and with such great prices on carriers like Ryan Air (2 round trip tickets from London to Marrakech for a total of only $160 USD!) and easy access from London, how could we not?

Our first look at Africa was from the air. We found out later that most of the green fields we saw from the plane were either oranges, olives or dates.

We decided to stay at a riad in Marrakech's ancient kasbah (an older, walled part of the city) instead of a traditional western hotel located elsewhere. Best. Thing. EVER! Riad's are like homes with a small number of rooms instead of a hotel, whose room numbers may number in the several hundreds. It creates a feeling of comfort and personal connection that is hard to find in any other way.

Traditionally, riads are hidden treasures featuring 3-4 rooms with windows serving up generous portions of natural light from the central courtyard/garden. They are true havens of peace and serenity in an otherwise buzzing part of the city.

Our riad's driver met us at the airport and gave us a tour of our surroundings while taking us through the gates into the kasbah.

We stayed at the riad Maison Mnabha where we were treated to incredible breakfasts of fresh fruit, breads, jellies and my personal favorite: fresh squeezed orange juice (If you've never tasted fresh squeezed, it is drastically different than what you buy at the store. Simply amazing!), all served on the gorgeous roof-top terrace.

The view from our roof-top terrace.

Are you kidding me!? Look at our room! The level of attention to detail and ornamentation was out of this world. (The place was also absolutely spotless. Clean, clean, clean!)

The main receiving room where we checked in was lavishly decorated with lanterns, rugs, columns, etc... and at night, it becomes even more inviting as jazz tunes flow from the stereo and light patterns dance on the walls from the countless candles strewn about. (This room heavily influenced our current obsession with lanterns. We happily brought some home from the shops that line the streets of the kasbah.)

Exploring the area, we walked down some other quiet streets before hitting the kasbah's main drag, eventually leading us out through the gates and into the rest of the city.

We headed towards the famous market square known as Jemaa el-Fna to marvel at the musicians, snake charmers, and countless "souks" (shops).

The colors were astounding... I was in photograph heaven! Traveling only with backpacks, we weren't able to bring much home with us (though we did end up packing (and paying for) a 9kg box of treasures to fly home with us). Of all the traditional goods/wares the local artisans made, my favorites were the lanterns. We managed to bring home a few. :)

The shop owners and local artisans are more than just crafts people... they're incredible sales people. Here, I couldn't resist a classic henna tattoo and a mosaic mirror. :)

After spending the morning in the market, we were ready for lunch and needed to find our way to the bus station to get tickets for the next day's journey east to the Sahara... so we asked around and continued exploring the city while en route. Our path brought us past the city's opera house...

and down one of the main streets, lined on both sides with these orange trees!

We found the bus station, bought our tickets and celebrated over lunch before heading back to the market square to see it come alive in a different way at night. On our way back, we saw this gorgeous sign letting us know we were headed the right direction.

Headed back to the market, we passed "Cyber Park" (kind of like NYC's Central Park) with free wireless!

Back in the market square, things were getting busy!

One night, a few days later (after returning to Marrakech from Merzouga and the dessert), we decided to go out for a schmancy dinner to enjoy our last night in Africa. Around the corner from our riad was by far, the most over the top, lavishly decorated restaurant I have ever seen or even heard of. La Rotonda features ancient antiques and collectibles from around the world, stylishly showing them off in an upscale eatery that appears part restaurant, part dance club, part... museum.

They were quick to point out that their guest list has included folks like Penelope Cruz, Matthew Maconaughey and even Hilary Clinton. I offered to let them put photos of Emir and I on their 'star wall,' but they didn't seem interested... go figure. :)

We found the people in Marrakech (and Morocco in general) to be incredibly outgoing, very friendly and quite welcoming. Already can't wait to go back! (PS: If you're hungry for even more photos from Marrakech, check out my FaceBook album.)

Speaking at London's SWPP

Well.... fancy that! Yours truly was invited to speak at the UK's Society of Wedding & Portrait Professionals (SWPP) annual conference in London and it was everything I hoped it would be, and more.

The conference was held at Hammersmith's Novotel hotel (lovely!). After presenting, Emir and I headed out to explore the city. The weather was classically cool and rainy, but surprisingly warmer than we expected. (All of these images were captured with my new Canon S95... traveling light, I made the conscious decision to leave my big rig at home.)

Buckingham Palace.

I'm in love with British phone booths, even though I'm guessing few people use them anymore...

Everyone I talked to told me I should ride the London Eye, but alas, it was closed for maintenance while we were there...

Making use of 'night portrait mode' on my S95 with the London Bridge in the background.

The bridge from the north bank (I think...)

Big Ben.

Fountain at Trafalgar Square.

View looking out at the street from Trafalgar Square.

Of course, one of the best things about our trip was all the people we got to see, including Emir's cousin Nela and her husband David who live just north of the city and came in to meet us for dinner and celebrate Emir's birthday!

We *finally* got to meet my dear friend Carly who I first came to know through an email she sent me, then a phone call, more emails, twitter messages, and finally in person! What a treat!

Scoring points for the most surprising encounter, after I had just finished my first presentation where I had literally just recommended to everyone in the class that they rush out to buy Robin's book, Emir and I walked out the door, turned the corner and ran into Robin while crossing the street! I knew she was in England working on her Ph.D, but I had no idea she was near London, let alone in Hammersmith. So fun!

After London, Emir and I jumped on a train and headed west to Wales to connect with our friends Amy & Matthew. Emir met Amy when she was presenting at a conference he was attending in Chicago, after which he started following her on Twitter. But-- he did so while unknowingly signed in to my account. When I started seeing her tweets, I was like, "Who's this?" We've been great friends ever since, finally meeting in person on this very trip!

Matthew & Amy's adorable neighbor Sylvain, drove us around the next day on a sightseeing tour of Swansea, Wales (Catherine Zeta Jones' home town!). It was gorgeous!

Sylvain claims to be 70 years old... but I'm not sure I'm buying it... look at her! She was a spit fire. So full of life, she had recently returned from a trip she took (by herself, at age 70!) to Kuala Lumpur. I love this woman.

Emir looks adorable... as usual. Totally unfair... the man requires zero primping. Pft!

We were honored to witness this sheep crossing while driving back to town.

Just the girls---What fun!

We left Swansea and headed back to London where we caught a flight to north Africa's Morocco (separate post all its own). When we returned from Africa, we had another day to spend in London before coming home and were finally able to connect with my cousin Joel, his wife Martina, daughter Phoebe and my aunt Maria Elena... who had all just welcomed new baby Zoe to the world. What fun!

After our brief visit, we caught the train back to the city to grab a quite bite (I love this napkin from Pret... I was impressed by the UK's selection of healthier fast food options), before...

Catching the evening performance of WICKED! Woot woot! I've been meaning to see this show forever and just couldn't seem to make it happen until now.

Great conference, great city, great friends & family. A truly special trip. If you want to see even more photos from the trip, click here. :)

NYC for Some Book Writing TLC

We left for New York on Friday morning, and Thursday night found me in a fit of stressed out frenzy, desperately wanting to cancel the whole thing so I could stay home and enjoy four gloriously peaceful days to get ahead on all the projects on my plate. Surely that would be more relaxing than driving an hour to the airport, taking a shuttle, catching two flights, another shuttle, a 1.5 hour train ride followed by a subway jaunt, only to repeat the travel mania on the way home a few days later (getting back super late, with an early start on the agenda for the next day, of course). Emir, on the other hand, knew that if I we canceled... I'd be equally bummed about having missed out on the great trip we had planned (not to mention some of the sample files for my book), so... we made a midnight trek to the store to grab a few last minute items before coming home to fret a bit more about which bag to take (or not). Seriously. It was almost comedic. Roller bag(s) or backpacks? A camera bag, or just tuck all my gear inside my clothes for cushioning?

Ultimately, we finished packing just before we left the next morning, fitting everything (for both of us) into a single carry-on roller bag (yes!). We even got my laptop in there so I could write along the way! (My camera gear came along in a purse/bag from Epiphanie)

We spent our first day strolling from Central Park West towards downtown. We shot along the way, snapping examples for my book and a few group shots for tourists who asked.

As expected, the city was swarming with mobs of people anxious to do some holiday shopping, and it wasn't uncommon to see lines of people waiting to get inside stores that had already reached capacity.

Not a fan of the mob scene, we crossed some shots off our list at Grand Central Station before jumping on the 2 and escaping to the quiet promenade of Brooklyn for lunch. LOVE.

We strolled Brooklyn for awhile before deciding to walk back to Manhattan across the infamous Brooklyn Bridge.

How funny is Emir? I don't know what I'd do without him...

More from Manhattan...

The next day we awoke to the sound of rain and and decided to spend the morning working at the neighborhood Starbucks before heading back downtown to B&H (deserving of a blog post all its own) and later, show tickets to "American Idiot."

After the show, we played with my new S95 in Times Square at night before devouring some more NY pizza and cheesecake, later heading back uptown to catch some z's.

I'm so, so, so glad we went after all. Emir is a saint. Thanks love.