This blog is SO dead

Ok folks, so I am currently thinking about so many things, and with the New Year coming I have some great things planned, goals I have set for myself, lots of changes, and lots of exciting things. One of the things that I have been thinking about is how I have two blogs. This one for our personal lives and adventures and my Joy Jill one for, well, obviously, my photography business etc. Since I started up my JJ blog I have been slacking immensely on this one. Not to mention there was one post that went to the JJ blog that was supposed to be on here. So reasons why I am ending this blog:

1) For me to accurately update my blog I cannot have two
2) There is no reason I should not post personal things to my JJ blog
3) Even if I want to keep business - business and personal - personal any slightly computer savvy person could easily find my personal blog anyway

AND 4) I am not that embarrassed by my personal life that I cannot share it with my clients and I am sure I will be better off making my JJ blog more personal and interesting instead of only posting shoots (cause as cool as that is it can get a little boring).

So the short story is I am ending this blog and if you want to continue to follow me online go check me out at my Joy Jill Photography Blog

Merry Christmas!

So here are some pics from our Christmas :) We were SUPER lucky that Brian did not have duty on Christmas :) Last year he had duty on both Christmas and New Years so we had to celebrate one day late. This year though was great. We slept in, opened presents, Brian made breakfast (french toast and eggs) while I made some cookies and pies for later, started the turkey, then we got the house in order for later, went for a run with Shugo, and Brian went to get his camera and pick up some friends for our feast! Some pictures.... Shugo loves sitting in front of the heater, Twiggy (our friends dog that we are watching for a bit) likes to just stay on her bed.

Shugo clearly smelled that part of that box was for him...
He was happy! Thanks Chris and Tara! You have AMAZING timing! Your stuff always gets here just in time. I picked up the box on the 24th :)
Slightly out of order. This gift went down in history as the "best gift ever". Definitely won't be able to top this... He has been asking for a fisheye lens for bout 2 years now. He was surprised and VERY happy :)
Thank you Chris and Tara!
This was before he found the lens... he really enjoyed this little panda too, can't you tell? It's a special panda from Beijing, you puch a button and he sneezes.... no. Not really.
but Shugo wanted to eat him.
Breakfast with Tara's awesome rasberry jam! Tara your jams are AWESOME! And we also loved the salsa you sent Brian for his b-day.
This is the first apple pie I have ever made. Crumbly top.... not quite as crumbly as Ikeda's, but pretty darn tasty!

All in all, it was an awesome Christmas! Great time spent with Brian and great to have friends over to celebrate with :) Hope y'all's Christmas was just as good!

The Great Wall

OK, let me start by saying, I am an idiot. I posted pics and stuff from Hong Kong, but I posted it on my photography blog thinking it was this blog. Woops. Not like it matters, but I never planned to post so many snapshots onto my photo blog, and definitely never planned to put a pic of Brian sleeping in bed on there... :) Anyway, it is already done. Here are some pics from The Great Wall! Above is some corn. The small town outside the part of the wall we visited had lots of corn and we had some cornbread with our lunch. Very tasty. Below is a very steep part of the wall. It looks like it just drops off, but it keep going. I timed myself and ran up it in 35 seconds. I then thought I might die and fall off the wall, but I survived.
The cool thing about our trip to the wall is on our way to the wall (we hired a guide and driver for the day) we got stopped at a toll road that they closed off due to fog. We sat in traffic for a while before we were able to make it out. Our guide suggested we go to another spot. She said it would be more hiking, but it is even less touristy than the area we were planning on going to, and less renovated. It was totally awesome cause we had the whole thing to ourselves. It looked pretty small town out there and almost 3rd world country-ish, but it was great and we had AWESOME lunch and the video of how it was made is below :) It was the best fish I have ever had. Absolutely delicious. Thank you Jesus for the fog cause we loved the area we visited :)
Kristan loved the wind :)
Awesome

Yahooooo!
Self portrait time
Another steep part :)

Yes, I did a handstand for crossfit :)



Below is the look we got from everyone. People are not ashamed to stare in China and that was a bit weird for me coming from Japan...

....And I'm Off!

I know you've all seen this pic, but it just fit too well :) I am off to China! I leave tomorrow morning bright and early at 4:30am (leaving the house that is). Our flight leaves at 9am and we are headed to Hong Kong first. My friend Kristan is on a plane at this very moment (probably panicking, but hopefully sleeping) and we probably won't get to my house until 8pm tonight at which point I still need to throw my stuff in a bag, shave my legs (oh so important), do the dishes, and any other last minute things.

So we will be meeting Brian in Hong Kong traveling all around there for a few days, and then Kristan and I will continue on to Beijing without Brian... definitely wish he could be there, but no way that's gonna stop me from having a blast! I am SO excited to see the Great Wall. So excited. Not to worry (those of you who do) my brother-in-law's cousin lives in Beijing (though I just found this out a day ago), but we at least have a contact there in case Kristan falls off the Great Wall :)

We will have no internet (both our laptops are too old and retarded to be worth bringing) so there will be no updates or contact of any sort to any person. BUT please look forward to some great pictures coming your way! Farewell! And as they say in China... Adios!... wait... I don't know what they say in China :( So much to learn...

Yabusame!!

Check this out!!! The saddle I thought was VERY interesting. Almost looks like an endurance saddle, and the stirrups are just something else. This is by far the COOLEST thing I have (and probably will) photograph the entire time we have been in Japan! I have never watched horseback archery before and definitely never seen Samurai horseback archery (Yabusame). It was really cool. Of course it only made me want to tackle one of those little Japanese people and jump on their horse to try it myself, but I thought better of it. Seriously though, it was awesome! And apparently Santa Claus is in Japan, he was trying to hide behind that flag though... Melody, this guy is giving your dad a run for his money :)
How cool is that Bridal and reins??
The samurai!
This I thought was awesome! Reminds me of MXC, and I can just hear the voice over... "Charge!"
Yes, even chicks are Samurai :) This might be my favorite... great colors. And look at her hat... it is tied on like a freakin' halter. Weird...
This guy looks like he is running with the horse... if he moves his arms like that the horse goes faster too :) Hahaa!

great details. I want those chaps. I bet dad would wear them too :)


This horse looks so nice and collected, but that is the trickery of a camera... he was actually limping on his front right. He was limping significantly (though I am sure it was worse because of the deep sand) but I was still surprised that they rode him.


This is me, Kahori, and Ryo... somehow my face looks fat. And they make me look really red... and not just my hair.

Of course though this horse looks nothing like Almond aside from the color, he still reminded me of him.... Almond! For all you in the states... be warned that I will be spending much of my time in March with my horse... though all are welcome to come along :)
Couldn't pass this up. The guy on the right actually spoke great English!
And Kahori... we are both officially samurai now :)
The end... that was my Sunday. It was cold, but SOOOO worth it. I would have gone in my bathing suit and got frost bite if I had to... it was cool.

Adventures!

So much going on! I should be posting pictures of some sort, but I am posting from work... *Shhhh... don't tell!* Soooo, the latest is that I have been wonderfully busy with my job and photography work. If you don't follow my photography blog (shame on you) but I have been having a lot of shoots every weekend for that last month. It is definitely portrait season and I am SO happy for the first time in my life to feel like I am actually doing photography as a business :D I have never had so many photography gigs and it is really awesome. I know that it will taper off in January, but I am wondering what the spring will hold. If I continue to get as much work as I am (and more) I will probably have to quit my day job. I definitely would not have time to do everything if Brian were home now, so yay for perfect timing on the deployment!

On the horizon we have CHINA! Woohoo! Brian is going to be in Hong Kong for a bit and I am going to visit! I am SO excited! My beloved friend Kristan is flying out here to come along. We will be flying to Hong Kong to be with Brian for a few days and then we will be heading to Beijing for a few days. Lots to see and do. In Hong Kong there will be hiking, shopping, beaches, city, night photography and so much more! In Beijing we will have The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, Hutongs, rickshaws, and again glorious photography! Kristan and I depart for this wondrous adventure on Thanksgiving! Great way to celebrate, AND I will be able to enjoy Thanksgiving with Brian in a foreign country :)... not like we aren't already in a foreign country, but it will be a new foreign country! We plan to go have a bird cooked Christmas Story style with the head still intact :) Should be fun!

Also, on the horizon are many more adventures, but we will have to wait and post pics of those things as they come :) I am excited for this weekend and hope to be able to gather everything I need for the trip and get any and all shoots from Saturday up online before we head out Thursday!

For those of you who like to read... a good story for you:

I got to work on Tuesday morning and my boss asks me, "Joy, are you taking a psychology class?" I instantly get slightly worried cause I had just signed up for this class while at work on Monday and printed my syllabus here (which I am not supposed to do really, they say I can print a few personal things though so I should be fine)... So I say, "Yeeeeaaaaah, why?" Tom- "Well, your stuff printed out to the Fiery printer on Tyvak..." Ah! The fiery printer is the one we use for BANNERS! and Tyvak is nice paper that is for the outdoors! I go over and say, "Hmmm, well, that's embarrassing..." as I quickly snatched up my seven feet of syllabus to roll up and throw in the trash... I realized I sent it to the Fiery on accident, but I thought that I had canceled the job. It was the end of the day, so clearly I was not there to do anything about it. Oops.

Vietnam

So Brian emailed me some pics to post for him... This is from his time in Vietnam. He said it was pretty much like a 3rd world country. Took lots of pictures... here are a few to look at. I have no idea what he did other than playing a soccer game one day. He doesn't always send the most detailed emails... anyway, so here are the pics. Sorry they have not been color corrected or anything... I figured he would rather have them up fast than wait a few days (or even a week) for me to color correct. Not that it takes me that long to do, I just know I wouldn't "get around to it" for a while :) Enjoy!


These fish are disgusting with their ugly little mouths...


Doesn't he look like he's having fun!??