Monday was Jessica’s birthday, and it worked out perfectly — no work for her and no school for the kids. She spent most of the day hanging out with a couple of close friends from work, but the morning started off with something pretty special. Elise woke up early and surprised her with breakfast in bed: two sunny-side-up eggs, toast, and even a cup of coffee. Not bad for an 11-year-old!
After breakfast, Jessica came downstairs to open her presents. Each of the kids made her a card and wrote her a sweet letter, and then it was time for the big surprise — the gift the kids and I had been quietly working on for almost a month. To explain it, I need to rewind a bit.
A few years ago, Jessica mentioned that she really wanted some nice portraits of the kids taken in the Arts District in Downtown Las Vegas. It was Mother’s Day, and my mom was visiting, so we all went together. Jessica has always loved the colorful murals in that area, so we spent a couple hours wandering around, taking pictures with my Sony vlogging camera. What we didn’t realize until the end — and you can probably see where this is going — was that there was no memory card in the camera. None. Jessica had borrowed it recently and forgot to put the card back in. We didn’t notice until it was too late, and every single photo we took was lost. It was heartbreaking, and we never got around to trying again.
Fast forward to this year — since moving to Vegas, I’ve gotten more and more into photography, and over the past few months, I’ve been diving in deep. I picked up a used Nikon DSLR and a few lenses, and when I heard Jessica was planning a long weekend away with her friends in Tucson, I saw my chance.
While she was off hiking and catching up with friends, the kids and I got dressed up and headed back to the Arts District. We timed the shoot for golden hour — that perfect hour before sunset — and I took hundreds of photos with my new camera. Afterwards, I spent a ton of time going through them all, choosing my favorites, and editing. I ended up editing 50 shots, then narrowed it down to my absolute favorites to print. I had one group shot printed on a big 16×20 board and printed a handful of others in different sizes. On the morning of her birthday, I gave her the prints, a letter explaining everything, and a USB drive with all the edited photos.
Her reaction was everything I’d hoped for. She was shocked — in the best way — and couldn’t believe how many amazing shots we got or how we managed to keep it a secret for so long. Normally, one of the kids would’ve cracked, but they held strong and kept the whole thing under wraps. It was such a fun project to do with them, and I’m really proud of how it turned out. The kids are growing up so fast, and I’d love to start doing this kind of thing more often.
Scroll down to see some of my favorite shots from that day. We’ve got the full set saved in high quality, so we can always print more whenever we want.
In other family news, the end of the school year is sneaking up on us — which means our long-awaited trip to Mexico is almost here! Ava’s softball season is wrapping up soon, and with less than two weeks to go, my first run as head coach is just about in the books. We’ve also got Mother’s Day coming up, so there’s a lot happening all at once.
School officially ends on Friday, May 23, and the very next morning we’re hopping on a plane to Puerto Vallarta for a full week of beaches, adventures, and delicious Mexican food. We’ve booked a couple of excursions for the first two days, but after that, we’re keeping things flexible and just going with the flow. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to write about in next month’s update. It’s been a while since we all flew together — the last time was Disney World in May 2021 — so this trip is way overdue. Everyone is seriously excited.
Not long after we get back, Uncle Jim and Aunt Brenda will be visiting from Washington for the first time, and we can’t wait to see them. Then the kids’ summer adventure continues with two weeks at Grandma and Grandpa Martin’s house, and more visitors coming to town in July. Summer always seems to fly by, but we’re doing our best to keep it full and fun for the kids since I’ll be working and Jessica will be in school.
That’s all for now — I’ll have a full update from Mexico soon. Hope you enjoy the new photos, and Jessica… we love you so much. Hope your birthday was everything you wanted and more.
