While I have been trying to make some progress on my 30 before 30 list, I wouldn’t say that any of those items are really on my “bucket list.”

When I think about what I want to do the most, it comes down to one thing: travel.

My parents gave me an amazing childhood filled with travel, and I want to be able to provide the same for my kids. Whether it’s road tripping all over the USA or flying to a far-off country, I just want to give my kids the experience of seeing new places and learning new things the way I did as a child.

In addition to lots of amazing vacations, I also want to be at a point where we can afford to take off for a month during summer vacation and have incredible experiences living somewhere else… like San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Portland, etc.

Being able to give my kids experiences that not many other children will have is really important for me. It made me feel special to go with my parents on lots of vacations as a kid. I got to see the glaciers of Alaska, the pyramids of Giza, and the Rialto Bridge in Venice before I turned 18. I would love to give those same opportunities to my own children one day.

Here’s a photo of me and my mom on an actual glacier in Alaska when I was a kid:

The festivities started last night — Since my mom & dad were watching Zachary for the evening (including a sleepover!), Adrian took me out to see The Avengers at the new iPic theater in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park. We hadn’t had a date night in a while, so I was looking forward to getting out of the house. Especially with the whole bedrest business… I really enjoyed doing something special. :)

Anyway — the theater was amazing! What an incredible experience (yes, really an experience) if you really want to go over the top for a movie. The entire theater is made up of special leather reclining chairs and every customer receives a pillow and blanket. They have a call button if you want to order drinks or a snack (there is a high-end restaurant attached to the theater property), so you never even need to leave your seat! The movie itself was awesome… but I really loved the whole experience.

After the movie, we went out to dinner at The Dubliner, one of Adrian’s favorite restaurants at Mizner Park. He’s been there a couple times since his office is located above the shopping center. They have a mac n’ cheese dish that is made with Guinness. I’m a huge fan of any sort of macaroni & cheese, so I couldn’t resist! Adrian had duck with a black cherry balsamic glaze. Both were fabulous!

After dinner, it was still early, so we headed over to IKEA to buy my new office desk! I decided on the Hemnes desk and am really happy with my choice! We spent the rest of the evening chilling out in front of the TV and headed to bed early.

Sleeping late is the best part of having my mom & dad take care of Zachary, and I did just that! We did not wake up until 11am! It was great to enjoy a relaxing morning, and then we headed to my parents’ house for lunch and enjoyed some time with my mom, dad, and grandma.

I’m not sure what’s going on with my hair in that pic… LOL. But I look about as tired as I felt, which was very tired. The last month of pregnancy is not easy, but I’m glad I was able to have such a fun day! I’m wearing a handmade necklace that Zachary made for me at school. I love it!

Me and my boy, playing with his new Mobi Go that my mom and dad bought him. What a fun toy!

My beautiful mom! My dad actually took this photo with my camera, and I just love it!

I took some fun photos of me and Zachary goofing around with my iPhone. I love the iPhone camera, it can be like a photo booth! Wehad a lot of fun taking these cute images.

When Adrian, Zachary, and I went home, I got to rest (yay!) and Adrian and Zachary put together my new desk. Zachary especially had a really good time using his kid tools to “help” Adrian. I couldn’t resist snagging a shot of him helping out. It was adorable!

What a great Mother’s Day! I think this was definitely the best Mother’s Day since I got to start participating when I was pregnant with Zachary!

As a wedding photographer specializing in South Florida Destination Weddings, I rarely get a chance to go down to the Keys unless I’m shooting a wedding there! I absolutely love it though, so this vacation was really fun for me since I didn’t have to work!

We started our vacation in Key West, one of my favorite places! One thing you’ll notice about Key West is that there are lots of birds – especially lots of chickens hanging around near Mallory Square as well as dockside.

Lots of birds for sure…. and lots of cool trees and plants as well.

Key West is chock full of interesting attractions. We stopped by The Little White House, walked by the Shipwreck Museum (which I would love to go inside of some time), and my sister in law posed with the statue of the photographer taking a picture. ;)

We were also glad to make it to the Sunset Celebration in Key West. It is a nightly arts festival held at the cruise ship docks by Mallory Square. There’s food, vendors, and performers. We also made sure to watch the old-timey trolleys go by (Zachary liked that part), and stopped for a delicious slice of Key Lime Pie at the Key Lime Pie Factory.

We stayed our first night in Marathon, at Tranquility Bay Resort, which I didn’t really photograph since it got dark pretty fast. I did take some iPhone shots before we left. It was a really relaxing resort and I hope we can return again some time in the future!

The rest of our trip was spent at The Cheeca Lodge! My favorite wedding venue in the Keys and also an amazing place to stay!

One of the nights we were there, we ate at Morada Bay Cafe, which is an incredible seafood restaurant that is also part of the property of Pierre’s – another of my favorite wedding venues in the Keys. The sunsets are always so spectacular seen from Morada Bay.

This photo of me and Adrian is courtesy my awesome sister-in-law, who is a great photographer! I also photographed my parents-in-law, Debi & Dan, as they watched the band play.

Finally a photo of my little guy! :) Zachary absolutely LOVED the sand and spent some time making “sand angels” before we sat down for dinner. He loves sand and the beach.

I actually didn’t take as many photos during this trip as I had anticipated. I was really having a nice time enjoying the atmosphere of the Keys, the beautiful water, and relaxing as much as I could!

I only took a few photos with my iPhone from the actual Thomas Event, but they are pretty cute. These first two images show me, Adrian, and Zachary riding the tram that goes from the parking lot into the museum. The third is a cute shot of Zachary riding the train. You can see lots more pictures of the Day Out With Thomas event on my Part One post.

After we left the Gold Coast Railroad Museum, we were all super hungry! Adrian took a look on Yelp to see if he could find a good burger place nearby, but the one he was interested in was located in midtown Miami – about a half hour from where we were. I had hoped to find something a bit closer, but once he mentioned that the burger joint had a nutella burger…well, I was sold! The burger place is called The Filling Station and is located right next to Miami Tower and the Knight Center. I didn’t get a chance to take any snaps inside the restaurant, but it’s basically decorated like a bar/burger joint located inside a mechanic’s garage. Really cool spot. The food was very good (and yes, the nutella burger was simply incredible), and I look forward to going again!

We never go down to Miami for fun (I’m always there for work though), so Adrian thought it’d be a good idea to do some exploring and extend our family day instead of just heading home. We’ve never taken the Miami Metrorail or Metromover and we were delighted to find out that rides on the Metromover are free!!! After a morning of riding on Thomas, we were about to take Zachary on a different kind of “train” – a public transit tram through a major city! Once again, he was totally thrilled!

Zachary was so excited when the tram pulled up and even more so that he got to go inside. He was so good holding on to the rails and loved looking out the window. As he looked out the window, he actually sighed and said, “Mommy, this is my favorite!”  Our hearts melted! Adrian and I were both so happy that we had given our little boy such a wonderful day.

We took the tram up to the next station – Bayside and Bayfront Park. I’ve done a few photoshoots here so I’m very familiar with the area, but I’ve only ever been here once before on my own time. It was so nice to walk through the park and enjoy the atmosphere without holding my big heavy camera! I was thrilled to see there was a great looking playground at Bayfront Park, so we took Zachary over to play for a bit. I wish I’d taken a few more shots of the playground, but he was all over the place and really loved these slides! The happiness on his face is so apparent.

I never realized what a joy it would be to have a toddler! We are able to have so many cool experiences now with Zachary, and we can really see now what a great personality he  has. He is growing up so nicely and is such an amazing kid. We have so much fun hanging out with him. I can’t wait until our next family adventure!

In these images, I had recently found out that I was pregnant and am about 10 weeks or so along. I was excited to take these shots because I wanted to use them as my big reveal when I posted on Facebook and blogged about baby #2 being on his way!

I only blogged one image at the time, but forgot to post the rest of the session. Stacey photographed us at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek and I really loved how these came out. It’s crazy how these were taken in November and now it’s just four months later and I already see such a change in Zachary. Time flies so fast with kids.

Anyway — here are a few of our favorites. Hope you enjoy them!

Zachary was very excited about carving the pumpkin and drawing the jack o’ lantern’s face with Daddy!

Touching the “pumpkin brains” was a new experience. At first, Zachary thought it was yucky, but then he got into it! Another “first” was trying candy corn. We had a bowl out as a treat while we carved the pumpkin, and Zachary loved trying it! I remember how much I loved candy corn as a kid, but it’s definitely much too sweet for me now that I’m older!

Then it was time to carve the pumpkin. Adrian handled the carving while Zachary ate candy corn and I separated the seeds from the guts!

Zachary had a fun evening carving his first pumpkin with Daddy, and afterwards we all enjoyed the glowing candlelight emerging from the carved face.

Zachary loves Halloween! between our jack o’ lantern and our colorful Halloween lights, it was a very festive mood at our home!

Finally, Halloween arrived! Zachary was so excited to wear his Spider-Man costume and go trick-or-treating, that I was only able to snag a few photos since he was jumping up and down and would not stay still due to the anticipation! He was definitely the cutest Spider-Man ever!

Here is one of my favorite images, but you can check out all the photos on my Karen Lisa Artistic Photography blog!

We went out to lunch on the 4th of July to celebrate anniversary #7! We have also now been together for 9 years, too. I can’t believe it’s been nearly a decade!

I took these photos outside the restaurant (California Pizza Kitchen – Zachary loved it!) with my Canon G11.

Then we all went home for a relaxing nap! When we woke up, it was time to head over to the Tamarac Sports Complex! The city we live in has so many great programs and one of the best is the 4th of July event. They always have live music, food, and fun for the kids at the Sportsplex each year. We usually catch the fireworks but have never actually attended the event to watch from the field. I am so glad we went this year. We plan to make it a family tradition!

Here is a shot I took of the live band, and a picture of us right before the fireworks began.

It was so hot outside, but well worth the great fireworks display.

Happy birthday, USA, and happy anniversary to me and my hubby! Love you!

All images were captured with the Canon G11!

I share pictures of Adrian & Zachary all the time, so this post is dedicated to my wonderful father! Here are two pictures of me and my dad, one from when I was a new baby, and the second one is from a vacation when I was about 15 years old!