A Book, A Bad idea, and a Business Plan

Hey Readers!

Just a few quick updates from my neck of the woods

FIRST

This book

It is officially in my top 3 favorite books of all time. I don't even know where to start! Well, first off you get hooked from the get-go. Mary Ann Shaffer has one of the most charming writing styles I've ever experienced. By the time you've finished with it a few hours later (because it is not possible to put this book down after you've picked it up) you've laughed and cried and you feel like every single one of the characters you've been with for the past few hours are your best friends. I can't recommend this book highly enough! This is going to sound pretty cheesey but it was literally a joy to read. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go read it and tell me what you thought of it because I've been DYING to share this little book with others and see if it makes you as happy as it made me! You won't be disappointed if you have any taste in books at all.

Warning: This quotes definitely applies here "reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones"-From The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

If you would rather keep your dime a dozen, cheap paperback novels around you'd better pass this book up. ;)

NEXT

A Bad Idea

So last weekend myself, Rach, Corey, and Marissa went up to Rachael's cabin in island park. It was a great time overall but we did end up making a bad decision...

We floated Big Springs

On a Sunday

The day started out really nice

Notice the happy, smiling faces

and the beautiful blue sky

Well, after a few hours we were chastised for our bad idea

and we ended up walking our innertubes 2 hours down the river in a lightning storm

On my honor I will never break the sabbath again.

It was terrifying

Alright, that was a bit of an overreaction but we did learn our lesson.

LAST

A Business Plan

Well, as most of you that read this blog know, I haven't had a job in a while. School/traveling makes it kind of hard to keep up steady employment I'm afraid

So, I've decided to start up a sort of business using one of the only skills I have...

Photography!

Pretty obvious right? I've noticed that lots of people without professional photography experience starting up "businesses" so I figured, why can't someone who DOES have some photographic experience under her belt contribute to society?

So, I'm officially announcing my unofficial photography business!

As of right now, I'm charging about $10 an hour which translates into about $30 for a 1 hour session plus editing and we'll see how it goes!

I'm hoping I'll get some business by word-of-mouth and if that's going well, I'll get a website going and start advertising a little more!

If any of my readers are interested, Bethany's official/unofficial photography business is now in operation!

I'll photograph

Kids

Engagements/Bridals/Weddings (See THIS post)

Families

Seniors

Pets

Anything else you can come up with!

.... If you do schedule an appointment with me..... I might just make this face for you.... just sayin

PS All photos of the boy in the blue (cute little Trevor) are from one of my recent sessions. He made it pretty easy cuz he's just so dang cute.

If you like what you see, give me a call!

Peace Out!

Viking Adventures! Part 1

Hey All!

I'm alive I promise!

And yes, our trip was amazing. There are going to be a LOT of pictures to go with this post (2 posts actually) so be prepared!

Our last day in London was filled with lots and lots of sight seeing

This is a dragon statue that guards the city

We hit up the Tower of London as well! Pretty awesome history there and of course the little brothers loved it

An Executioner's mask

And some graffiti from some of the prisoners held in the tower

All Hayden wanted to see in London was the London eye... London delivered

And of course a classic pic with Big Ben himself

Kind of a cool pic of the House of Parliament

The Fam by Tower Bridge!

Later that night, I talked my family into going to see Les Mis. SO amazing! If you haven't seen it yet it's definitely worth your time!

However, I was shocked to see this lil guy walk out on stage...

On my honor, this is the only time you will see a picture of a Jonas brother on my blog.

Ever

Lil Nick actually did a pretty decent job! He wasn't nearly as talented as the other performers but he didn't rock his usual nasally voice so that was a pleasant surprise!

After rockin London for 2 days, we drove down to Dover and jumped on our Disney Cruise ship!

Here's some pics of my cute family.

Love Hayden's face in this one :)

AND... I just thought I looked real sassy in this one.

I'm a little vain sometimes

Our first port of call on our lil trip was Oslo Norway! We ended up just doing a little city tour which was pretty fun. We got to try some Norwegian goat cheese which was a very interesting experience. It's like eating fudge it's so rich! Here's the little butcher shop where we tried it.

The weather was beautiful. We packed for 60 degree weather and it ended up being about 85 the entire time we were there.

Norway is famous for their trolls. These little guys were all over the city so of course I had to show him some American love.

Alright, this picture is kind of random. I got Shirley Temple's every single night I was on the cruise just so I could practice tying cherry stems with my tongue. By the end of the trip, I was pretty skilled!

Alright next stop was Copenhagen Denmark!

This was pretty much a typical moment with my dad. One of my favorite pictures of him. :)

This beautiful city has a ton of canals going through it and people actually live on their boats! Pretty charming place

A kind of cool shot of the cathedral through one of the fountains

One of the most beautiful waterfronts I've ever seen!

Next stop after Copenhagen was Berlin! We had to take a 3 hour train ride to get there but the countryside was beautiful

This is the east side of the Berlin Wall. It's called the east side gallery because after the wall came down they hired a bunch of artists to come down and paint one of the remaining sections

Life goal #287-Touch the Berlin Wall... Check

Of course we had to stop at Checkpoint Charlie and the brothers found some pretty great souvenirs...

And the general joined in as well

Part 2 continued below...

Viking Adventures! Part 2

Alright, the next part of my trip was probably one of my favorite parts

St. Petersburg Russia!

What an amazing city

The buildings were massive. There were THOUSANDS of palaces there that literally took up entire city blocks

good news was the buildings were beautiful. This is "The Church on Spilt Blood" Probably my favorite building ever

Next:Catherine's palace. Keep in mind this is the SUMMER palace. The royal family only lived here for about 2 months out of the year...

We got to wear these attractive booties to protect the floor

The Ballroom! Alright, everything you see that looks like it's gold, is gold. Amazing right?

A little more detailed shot

This isn't a mirror you're looking at. It's a hallway! The royal family liked gold a little bit..

Pretty excited to be there. :)

And of course, it wouldn't be Russia without vodka and champagne! The Russians were pretty disgusted that we wouldn't try their most famous product, but I thought it was pretty funny they offered Hayden some.

We also got to visit the Hermitage museum that happens to be located in the old winter palace. The rooms were almost, if not more beautiful than the artwork on display

Here's a little piece by a guy named Michelangelo.. you might have heard of him before.

Just check out those back muscles and remember that he carved this out of MARBLE!

Mom was pretty excited to see some of Van Gogh's work in the flesh. He has always been her favorite. :)

This is her in front of a Monet

Our next stop was my favorite of the trip which really wasn't expected because I had never ever heard of the place until the day we got on our ship. It was a little town called Tallinn in a country called Estonia! It was seriously the most charming place I have ever been in my entire life

It was a little medieval town. The buildings had so much personality and all of the roads were cobblestone

And of course there were the street artists. Every once in a while you would just walk by some person sitting there painting a watercolor and selling their paintings.

Yah... we might have left some money in Tallinn because of these guys.

My handsome brothers, taking a breather

And the familiy in front of the city!

Fantastic right?

More views of the buildings and such

This picture is kind of an inside joke between my family. Yay for Icons! :)

Another highlight in Estonia was stopping at this little medieval restaurant. The place was so legit!

They even had bear and reindeer on the menu!

Here's Britton and I drinking our non-alcoholic shnaps. Non alcoholic shnaps AKA black current juice. Tasty tasty!

Here's my meal! Complete with barley and that pastry looking thing was called a bean bag.

Our last stop on our lovely little cruise was Stockholm Sweden! Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures of the actual city because after Tallinn, it was kind of a let down. However, we did go to this place called the Vasa museum that was pretty amazing.

This ship is almost 400 years old! She sank on her maiden voyage out in the harbor and when they found her the brought her to the surface and restored her for us to enjoy!

Well, after the cruise wrapped up we stopped at Dover castle to get a little more sight seeing in before we had to head home.

Heading up the LONG flight of stairs to the top!

The view was pretty great if you ask me.

That just about wraps up my most recent adventure!

Now, it's onto being a responsible adult and doing some summer school and actually starting to do real summer things! Snow cones, camping, and bike rides are at the top of my list at the moment.

I'll keep you updated!

XOXO