We were greeted by all sorts of greenery when we were approaching the aquarium. I loved these little boat planters in the window outside of the ticketing booth. I definitely think this could be a fun decorating idea for your home if you have a four season room!

You get to see animals right away in the ticketing area, which is cool. I loved this bird, even if he was keeping his back to me. PS this beautiful bird is a Shoebill Stork.
Learn more from the DWA website: ​https://dwazoo.com/animal/shoebill-stork/

DWA is gorgeous, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

This is definitely not an aquarium just for kids, it has gorgeous landscaping, wonderful exhibit set ups, and several restaurants that range from family friendly to targeted more for adults.

I absolutely loved this little waterfall they put into the landscaping, and the water it falls into is a sea life exhibit.

I also loved how most of the birds were able to fly around somewhat freely.

The little green bird below, called a green oropendola, was quite curious about me and my camera. To learn more about this cutie, check out: ​https://dwazoo.com/animal/green-oropendola/ 

PS I love how Dallas World Aquarium has informational pages on their animals. If you are stuck at home and have the desire to learn more about animals, it's a great website to check out!

I was so happy when I captured this electric eel swimming right for the glass. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't have been so excited, maybe he saw me as a snack. Who knows!

Just kidding ;)

Seriously though, I'm so glad I was able to get the reflection in the image too. And look at the little face! 

https://dwazoo.com/animal/electric-eel/
​
​The bird below reminded me of the brightly colored tropical birds you can find in your local PetCo or PetSmart. The little guy below is a hawk-headed parrot. I can confirm that I have never seen a hawk-headed parrot in stores, in case I triggered anyone with my previous statement. Just love the colors!

https://dwazoo.com/animal/hawk-headed-parrot/

Is it just me, or does the freshwater sawfish above look bloody. Uff da!

I believe the coloring is actually from a mix of its diet and dyes that get on its skin from the bottom of the exhibit. At least, I did not witness any "fish killings" while I was there!

https://dwazoo.com/animal/freshwater-sawfish/

You can also see him in the photos of Jeremy and my mama checking him out below. Props to my mom for doing a scream pose!

One of my favorite sea creatures is the sea horse. Fun fact, I actually did a project on them back in fifth grade. The one pictured here is a Longsnout Seahorse.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in California is a very popular attraction on the coast. It opened back in 1984, and was the first aquarium to have a living kelp forest. The kelp forest is pictured above and to the left, with the aquarium life swimming amongst the greenery in the tank.

A leopard shark decided to hang out for a bit fo a picture in the left image. 

One creature that you could find in several locations around the aquarium was the anchovy. The aquarium had this round tank where the fish swam around in circles, and all I could think about was that scene from Finding Nemo where the fish are playing charades by making shapes.

I did learn that when these fish are hungry, they swim forward with their mouths open. I can relate, fish. I can relate.. 

One of my favorite creatures to photograph at aquariums is the jellyfish. They are so majestic and poetic with the way they move.

I love watching their tentacles ribbon through the water. It's like watching music play. 

Also, for some reason, the lighting is usually the best in the jellyfish tanks, making for super clear shots. Maybe the glass is flatter for the jellyfish than for the rounded tanks that warp the imagery for other creatures. 

I could definitely spend a large portion of my time just watching the jellyfish move.

One of Jeremy's and my favorite animals that we could watch all day long is the otter. Especially when they are lazing around with their little paws on their face. Yes, please! I could adopt you right now, little otter, but that would be irresponsible. 

After the aquarium, we stopped at a little coffee shop and waited for mom and dad to join us. 

We ended up dining for lunch at Bubba Gump, which was sort of on its own mini pier. We had to scare away some birds several times to ensure the safety of our food. It's all good!

After lunch, we drove to Carmel-By-The-Sea for a very, very, very brief visit. My parents essentially drove us to the parking lot down by the water, said "This is the beach" and then we left.

We made our way down to Capitola, where we actually got to go to the beach.

Jeremy was so excited to walk along the shore. He changed into his flip flops when we arrived and was ready to go dip his toes in the ocean. We both discovered how cold the water was in February, but we still had a lot of fun.

I loved the sea-worn wood of the pier in Capitola, the roughness complimenting the ripples in the water as it meets the sand.

We made it to the beach just in time to watch the sun set, and it was a beautiful thing to witness, and I'm so happy I was able to watch the sun go down with my fiance. Next time we are in California, we will definitely spend more time at the beach!

Before Jeremy and I went to the beach, we ran into Jaqi and her babies who had previously planned on meeting us in Capitola.

Giovanna and Oracito were very interested in Aunty Boo's camera, and I let them take pictures for a while. Well, Oracito can't figure out the button, so he just kept telling people walking by, "PICTURE!" and they'd stop and pose for them. It was great.

Giovanna really enjoys taking photos of murals and the art around her.

Jeremiah and I decided to go on a day adventure over to the Bonnie Brae neighborhood in Denver. Bonnie Brae is Gaelic for "Pleasant Hill". I originally thought the neighborhood was named after some pioneer woman, but it turns out it's not!

The touristy part of the neighborhood is one short block, but it boasts an adorable ice cream parlor, a quaint gift shop, and a great coffee shop to hang out at.

The ice cream parlor was the first place Jeremiah and I went to, and in case you're wondering, it is fittingly named Bonnie Brae Ice Cream. We had to park around the block, this place is so busy!

It was a super nice day today in Denver, at 70 degrees, we decided to sit on the bench outside and enjoy our cones. Jeremy got chocolate with cappuccino crunch, and I got chocolate with coffee.

The coffee shop was awesome. Not only was the coffee excellent, but they had giant Jenga out on the patio, along with corn hole!

Jeremy and I played a game of Jenga, and we did pretty well considering the blocks were a bit wobbly. The top half was like a leaning tower for a good while, but eventually evened out as we kept removing more blocks. In the picture to the left, you can see the stack with several missing blocks.

After we played Jenga, we played several rounds of corn hole. I greatly improved my tossing skills today thanks to Jeremy's coaching, and actually shot the bean bag into the hole at least five times. I don't think I've ever scored in corn hole before today.

After the coffee shop, there wasn't much else to do, so we went for a drive. Jeremy ended up showing me the first home he lived in as a child, his first elementary school, day care, and childhood friends' houses.

After we got home, we let the bunnies out on the porch since the weather was so beautiful. It was Midna's very first day out on the porch! She's the little black bunny :). As you can see in the pictures below, she's about half of the size of Tetra. After I had them settled outside with their water and food, it was time for me to give the Golden Girls a bath while Jeremy swept up the condo.

You can just see the anticipation in Sequoia's face.

The Golden Girls each got shampooed and rinsed off. I let Sequoia out of the tub first, and had to hold her in a wrestling position to rub her dry with a beach towel. Autumn, of course, was much more calm and let me dry her off. Of course, I couldn't get them completely dry, so they went to hang out with their bunny sisters on the porch.

All the girls are back inside now that it is dark, and they are all tuckered out. It was a great day!

Throw back alert! Like waaaay back. This was one of my very first sessions! This technically was my very first Senior Portrait session, actually.

I decided not to share all of them, as my quality has improved GREATLY since this shoot. Big thank you to Taylor and her family for putting up with my trials and errors back in the day as I worked out how to properly do a senior portrait session.

Taylor is a full-blown country girl from Wisconsin, so naturally, her senior portraits took place on a horse ranch and at a dairy farm, as well as on the edge of a corn field.

We started the photo shoot on a neighboring horse ranch, but I decided to not share those pictures.

After the horse ranch, we went over to the dairy farm, where Taylor worked through high school. It was her grandfather's farm (might still be, I don't know where her family is at currently), and Taylor showed dairy cows in 4H at the county fair. She wanted one of her senior portraits to be with one of her cows.

We did several different poses within the barn with the other cows, but it was a bit distracting for the bovine. We had to put a lead on her and get her to go outside, where we got this sweet picture of Taylor with her cow touching foreheads. This is a common pose for clients to do with horses, so we decided to play it up and mimic it with her cow!

We ended the shoot back at her mom and step-dad's house, where she changed outfits. She emerged in this light purple dress with cowgirl boots on,  and I tucked her into the corn for the last group of shots in her senior portrait session.

Thank you, Taylor, for being one of my very first clients!