happy new years from bree…

here the little lady is… she is not being her usual smiley self- maybe she is working on her range?

we are having such an awesome summer!! she is a total rockstar and so much fun to hang out with everyday. i am the luckiest mama!

here is a little peak into our ultra fabulous vacation. as you can see my muse was my bree. most of our personal pics are of our little babe now!!

enjoy, and i will be back tomorrow with pics from bree’s birthday and some family shots in hawaii.

:: a couple of the shots were taken by drew and my dad snapped the pic of the three of us in the pool! thank you both for letting me be in front of the camera for a bit!

i am in hawaii for three weeks with my family so will be super slow with returning emails! thank you so much for your patience with me.

here is a peak at my favourite little wahine on the beach…

: don’t you just want to kiss those little feet?!

: thank you florabella for the awesome card template!

“Kelly Kokolski, you. are. an IronMan.”

at just after 7:00pm on sunday november 21st, after months and months of intense training, these are the words that were heard over the speakers at tempe beach park in tempe, arizona. yup, it is true. my sister and brother-in-law are amazing. they are elite athletes and amazing competitors. what they accomplished is incredible.

and no, there wasn’t a dry eye amongst us!

an IronMan consists of a swim, bike, and run done in that order, one after another. the difference between a triathlon and and ironman is the distance of the events.

swim- 3.8 km
bike- 180 km
run- 42 km (that is a marathon!)

for my birthday in september my parents bought drew, bree, and i a trip down to scottsdale so that we could cheer abby and kelly on. second best birthday present ever (f.y.i. my first best present was my engagement ring!!). we had a fantastic holiday (more pics of that to come!) but the highlight was most definitely the IronMan. i tried my best to capture the event and tell the story of the day. easier said than done, let me tell you! i was super jealous of the official race day photographers- riding on the backs of motorcycles right on the course, laying on their stomachs on the course, front and center at the finish line. so cool. i did my best though and am thrilled with the results.

other fans from edmonton who came down to cheer abby and kelly on were my parents, colin and susan (of course), my aunt and uncle valerie and bob, and kelly’s parents, garry and bernie. it was so fun to hang out with everyone throughout the day and all share the excitement together!

here we go… enjoy.

Abby and Kelly arrived at the race location at around 5:00am!!! my dad drove them and then drove back to the hotel to pick us up so we could sleep-in (ya right!) a little. we arrive at about 6:30am and quickly scored a space on the bridge looking at all the competitors as they entered into the water. below is the scene we saw. you can see the over 2000 racers and all of their bikes and gear in the background. it was a site to see.

during this time there was wicked “pump-you-up” music being played over the speakers and the crowd was getting really into it!!

after standing around for only about 5 or so minutes we spotted abby and kelly amongst the racers. it was so cool to see them and they spotted us too. they were making their way to the waters edge to jump in!

ahhhh, and they are off. at exactly 7:00am the race started. there were two bridges… look at all the spectators on the other bridge. our bridge was just as packed and down along the canal were hundreds more fans and supporters.

once we saw the swim start we went to go secure a spot along the beginning of the course to see them right after they transitioned. we knew we had over an hour so drew and bob went to get everyone hot drinks. it took SO long so drew wasn’t too impressed (that and being up at 5:00am. drew hasn’t been awake and alert that early since who knows when!). don’t get me wrong… he was thrilled to be at the event to cheer them on just not so thrilled about waiting for an hour for coffee!!!

ahhhh!!!!! there she is. we spot her because of her blue arm-bands (and that is my mom’s arm in the way! everyone had cameras out to capture their friends and family)!!

i love this shot. this is about 8:30am i think.

yay! and there is kelly. he is easy to spot because of his super awesome orange shades.

go 222

ok, so now we are off to secure a location on the actual bike course where we will be able to see them 3 times. this ironman route is supposed to be the most spectator friendly because they do loops so we can see them a number of different times. the bike course is three, 60km loops. we find a great spot, lay out our blankets, and hunker down.

we are SO SO SO excited when we spot kelly so we all jump out onto the road to scream and yell and cheer for him.

a while later there is ab! she looks to be in high spirits as she is waving at us!

after we see them for the first time we decide to head out for lunch. it was so cool. everywhere you went there were ironman fans. we ate quickly, bree had an outfit change and then were back to the race. after seeing them again on the bike we make our move to find a great location to watch them start the run.

bree is very interested in the race. she is her aunt and uncle’s #1 fan!

we were all amazed at how well bree handled being outside from 6:30am-9:00pm. she was our little IronBaby!!!

after moving around a couple times we found the perfect spot and here comes abby. unfortunately, i missed kelly the first loop of his run (i was waiting for abby to finish the bike but ended up missing her too). there abby goes waving again and looking super fabulous to have just finished a 180 km bike ride. this was about mile 6.

yay! i spot kelly on his second loop. those glasses are not hard to miss. doesn’t it looks like running is totally effortless to him!

and there is miss abby again on the second loop. she is still smiling!!!

now it is getting dark and us spectators are mighty hungry and cold (but feel like we can’t complain cause we have only been *watching* the event!) so we head to a nearby restaurant to grab a bite for supper and time it so when we are done we will see their last loop and then head to the finish line.

well, it doesn’t go exactly as planned and this is the last shot i get of abby or kelly at the race. after our supper we head right to the finish line where it was really raining and i couldn’t risk having my camera out

i really wish i could have captured images from the finish line and of their amazing finishes. it was truly magical. i am linking to two awesome youtube videos done by other spectators at the event. if you have a couple minutes you should really watch them to get the full picture of the event.  click here and here! so motivational and moving.

i love hearing abby and kelly talk about their experience and share my experience as a spectator with anyone who asks. in case you are interested i asked them both what the best and worst parts of the actual race were…

Abby- Bib #2082- time 12:12:19

Best part? I can’t narrow it down to one. Seeing Kelly at various points throughout the race—during the swim, four times on the bike, and once on the run. Having so many people there to cheer us on; it gave me extra gusto each time I saw our family. High-fiving countless people while running through the finishing chute. Racing ‘with’ Chrissie Wellington and being a part of the race where she broke her own world record.

Hardest part? Definitely the bike and especially the third and final loop. The winds coming back towards Tempe were insane (40mph gusts.) At one point, they actually almost knocked me off my bike. I unclicked my shoe last minute and had to wait for a good three minutes until the wind died down a bit.

Kelly- bib #222- time 12:26.14

Best part? two things come to mind. Treading water in the lake before the race started—the energy from Mike Reilly, the commentator; the other athletes; and the spectators; and the music was incredible. Getting off the bike was also a great feeling. I knew that whatever happened I would finish.

Hardest  part? Not being able to eat during the run. I just couldn’t force myself to take in proper fuel because everything made me feel sick.

Here they are right after they finished and my mom caught up to them (photo credit :: susan kerr :: my mom)

thank you mom and dad for allowing us to be there to watch abby and kelly accomplish something so amazing. abby and kelly, you two are an inspiration!!

and yes, i have been m.i.a. from my blog!! definitely not m.i.a. from my business though. i have been SO busy. every month i say things are going to slow down and every month i feel the same amount of busy. as soon as i think i am getting through my business to-do list 90 more things get added. lol. i pinky swear promise though i am going to do my best to not neglect the blog. i have SO many session to blog and share and more shoots coming up. check back soon!!