Oh The Places You’ll Go: Houston & Colorado

I’ve never been good at documenting my life. Others’ lives? Yes. But MY life? Never. Then Colorado happened… The past couple of weeks have been a complete whirlwind of adventure. In late September my sister visited Houston for the first time ever, which was followed by me visiting Colorado for the first time ever, which was followed by my parents visiting Houston for the first time ever. (Hence the whirlwind.) I made it a priority to document all of these firsts, and can happily say that I’ve fallen in love with photography all over again. And I have my family to thank. Here are some shots of our adventures!!

Okay, okay.. I lied about documenting much of what Lorae’s visit entailed. It was literally ALL food that looked disgusting but tasted WONDERFUL. And cooking borscht for six hours doesn’t leave much time for photography… Here, however, is a shot of our flight from Houston to Colorado!!

It’s my momma, after flying into CO from NY to meet us!! She’s probably my favoritest person on the planet. Next to Dylan. And Sully. (Just play along..)It was about an hour and half drive from the Denver airport to Lorae’s new home in Colorado Springs. But this? It’s the view outside her front door. And it was SO worth it.Meet Dima, Lorae’s demon kitten. He is literally out of his mind. But he sure is cute!Dad fell in love with him. It had me worried that Sully would never measure up, haha. ;)I, on the other hand, wanted to eat him. And he obviously didn’t mind.Favorite. :)Our first adventure was had at the Garden of the Gods. This day was seriously one of the best days of my life.
Oh, we’re just getting started Internet. It was BEAUTIFUL.This is Lorae’s car “Cardelia” from the outside… Just kidding. But that would be awesome.Totally in CO!!Getting my “hike” on. I can totally handle flat sidewalks…I like to think of the picture on the right as an album cover. Let’s call them “Smile, You’ve Got French’s.”
The only thing missing here was my brother Cam. We missed you so. :(Seriously?! SERIOUSLY.God’s definitely an artist..If only my arms were long enough to be included… :)
Dad got this shot of me and mom. And I LOVE that its out-of-focusness makes it look just like a painting…Aren’t they cute?My interpretation. With dad clearly admiring my hystericalness.AH! Okay… My parents finally let me shoot them!! After much convincing, here are a few shots we came away with. :) They make me soo happy!!I don’t know the protocol for captioning a situation like this. But dang, they’re hott..Bahahah. MOM!! You’re the cutest. Ever.And the prettiest. :)If you haven’t already realized… My dad is wearing burlap TOMS, skinny jeans, a mustard color henley shirt, and some pretty hip shades in these shots. I’ve taught him well..For the sake of redundancy… Here’s my mom. She’s pretty. And cute. And short. And she snorts when she laughs.And this is Rae, the Coloradoan. Coloradite? Whatever.. She moved to Colorado a couple of months ago. And here she is owning it. And those fabulous boots.Diane French Photography, ladies and gentlemen.Are captions even needed?Nah, I don’t think so..Later that day we headed over to Old Colorado City. The sweetest, quaintest, most colorful little city ever.My parents, outside a handmade chocolate shop that rocked our worlds.Coolest bike ever, right?Hence the following picture. Which I forced my dad to take. :)
Mmmm. I love it, I love it, I LOVE it.And before the night was over, I was able to sneakily capture my faaavorite picture from the whole trip… A picture of my dad’s hot pink armpits. Stained by his new mystery deodorant. (He wasn’t very happy. But not to worry! It came out in the wash!!)
The next morning we hit up Manitou Springs! So much character and charm.Listen up… If you EVER find yourself in Manitou Springs, you MUST get brunch at Adam’s Mountain Café. It was to die for.
And so totally fabulous.Huevos rancheros!We then toured Lorae’s new workplace, Children’s Hopechest. It’s a beautiful building, with an even more beautiful vision.
And THIS is Rae’s view at work. NBD.One of the absolute highlights of our trip was hitting up Focus on the Family. And more specifically, Whit’s End!If you’re completely lost as to how I could be enjoying myself THIS much… Do yourself a favor and step into my childhood by visiting THIS website..Me with my wofamchocsod!!! AKA, my world famous chocolate soda!I was in heaven.And then we were sequestered into a small recording studio, to record our own Adventures in Odyssey radio show. Sure my part is usually played by an 8-year-old. But I had the time of my life. :)
Skip ahead a bit, and you’ll see Sully with his grandparents when they visited Houston right after CO! Pretty sure he stole their hearts. He is a little heart-stealer.My constant (and I mean constant) documenting began waning, but not before I grabbed these shots at Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods. This place was my dad’s dream come true. As you can tell by his wine dance below. ;) And this is Dylan’s Brooklyn Lager dance…
On Friday we FINALLY went to the Houston Zoo! My parents relentlessly joked that it took them visiting for Dylan and I to finally experience Houston for all it’s worth. :)I wanted to be a zoologist for the first 12 years of my life. And if I had known that THIS zoo existed, I’d probably be working there today..
The monkeys were my favorite part. Which is why I only have pictures of monkeys… :)My little friend, Willy. I just want to be his best, best friend so badly. :(Being THIS close to chimps was insane.The following day we visited NASA! I can assure you that I have no idea what the thing on the left is..
Gorgeous.
Saturday night was spent consuming sushi at our favorite place, Osaka on Westheimer.Where we were able to introduce the parentals to the wonder of edemame. :)And lastly… We ended mom and dad’s visit with our new Morrissey family tradition… Red Mango Sunday.

Happy Friday!!