camping at trail river

Two weekends ago my family went camping to Trail River campgrounds, which is my favorite spot out of all the places we've been camping. And it is for obvious reasons. I will never get over how beautiful Alaska is, and I love being near the water in the sun just soaking up all the creation around me.





my cute parents




We actually went with our church, hence all the random children in the photos. Kids are probably my favorite people to photograph. They are just so carefree and happy and more than willing to do crazy things like jump in a freezing lake. I love capturing their joy and just being around them.




I hope you have a great day!

passing whimsies

dress: Passing Whimsies (here) // shoes: thrifted + diy // twig bracelet: diy // flower earrings: diy






This dress from my friend Lauren came at seriously the most perfect time. First of all, it totally matched my nails. I'm one who doesn't really care if my nails match my outfit, but boy do I get excited when they do. Second of all, with crazy high temperatures scheduled for this week, this is the perfect, lightweight summer dress to run around in. Plus I love love the open back. It's perfect for the cutout trend that I've been wanting to try out. (Now I just need to get some really cute bralettes to wear with it.) I think this is the first solid colored dress I've owned in a long time, so I can't wait to remix it with a ton of stuff. If you want some really beautiful pieces of clothing for low prices, be sure to check out Lauren's online store, Passing Whimsies! Also see how she styled it for winter!







Hope you have a beautiful day today!

russian river creatives

As promised, here are some more "creative" photos from my first camping trip of the summer.








Hope you have a great day!

the color run!

Saturday was the color run! It's been a dream of mine ever since I knew about events like this to actually attend, and finally I was able to, alongside some of my best friends. It was so much fun being able to do it with Matt and Joel and Marquel. I love being able to do exciting things with people I love just because we can share something together. Matt almost wasn't able to do it because of work, and I was so disappointed when I thought he couldn't do it with us. But thankfully everything worked out. It was so great to run beside him and get sprayed with fun colors. This was definitely high up on the list of best dates ever. I love you, Matt! You're the best ever and I'm so glad we got to do this together. :)




Joel, Marquel, and I

Joel and Marquel were celebrating one year of marriage and dressed up in wedding attire. (Also later on this day, we all got to eat dinner together and I got to hold their new baby ... soo cute!)




There's something awesome about you and 15,000 strangers gathering for a fun experience, and the event certainly disappoint. There were familys with little kids, friends, and co-workers all together to hang out and have fun. For the actual run, there were different color stations throughout the course where people sprayed the runners with color. You could see the cloud of color and when you were in it, everywhere you stepped puffs of color burst up from under your feet. It was so magical. The great thing about the color run is that even though it's a 5k, it's a pretty laid back one. We actually only ran for about a fourth of the way total, and jogged the rest of the time. I think it is a great first 5k for anyone interested in getting into running or marathons or triathlons. And now I can say that I've done a 5k!



What a babe.





After the run, there was a huge after party with people throwing packets of color everywhere and jumping around (as white people do) and dancing and having fun. It was really magical being engulfed by colors. I felt like I was a little kid again in an atmosphere of pinks, blues, greens, and yellows.

The only downside of the color run? Having colored boogers days after the event. I'm still blowing gunk out of my nose, haha. Was it worth it though? Most definitely. One hundred million percent. I can't wait for next year when we can do it again!






before and after!