October Photoshoot in Palmer...

One word could describe this afternoon shoot with the Evans family...WINDY!

well, that and COLD, because of the WIND!

This family was a trouper though.  The kids had to keep taking off their parkas and never once

complained.  They just slapped on a grin and went with it. 

 

 Beautiful kids, gorgeous couple, and an all around lovely Family. 

Thank you Evans for letting me spend the afternoon with you. 

Halloween

Well, its almost Halloween and here at the Stastny house we're in full holiday swing.

 

 

Ok, so we messed with Chandler's the most.  But it was fun.  Doesn't hardly even look like him....Gabe and Morgan insisted on the stitches across his mouth.  Wonder why? :D

What happened in Vegas...

We spend 5 days with Matt's family, and on the last day, I packed up my bags, and met my favorite Scentsy gals at the airport for a week in Vegas to attend Scentsy Convention.  We. Had. A. Blast.  But how could we not?  Check out the amazing people I got to hand out with! 

Becky, Renae and I after finding out what the new Scentsy Brand is. 

                                           Our Team Wickless on Spirit day.

Renae and I out on the Strip one night

One of the fun things about my job, is every Scentsy event is a family reunion with Matt's brother Mark, his amazing wife Caryn, and my awesome SIL and BFF Renae.

                  One of THE best things about going to Vegas, is Renae and I were able to meet up
with my cousin Bobbie, whom I haven't  seen since before I got married.  We figured it has probably been close to 20 years since we've seen each other.  Thank goodness for FB and blogs that keep us connected.  We went out to lunch at Buffalo Wings and enjoyed catching up on each others lives and watching what an amazing woman and mother of two Bobbie has become.  Thanks for the awesome afternoon Cuz!

Back to the reason we went to Vegas...convention.

The new brand I will be a consultant for is Grace Adele.  www.jennstastny.graceadele.us  Those of us who have decided to take on a new brand, in addition to Scentsy Fragrance  and Velata  could not be more thrilled and excited.  When the announcement was made, everyone there (all 12,000-ish) consultants were given a free Grace Adele bag, clutch, and accessories.  Yeah us!

My besties.  Stephanie, Erin and Renae

Me and my BFF.  She's been an amazing friend and partner in this Scentsy adventure, and I am very sad she's moving to Idaho. :(  See ya in Indi Renae!

The first morning of General Session, we were very excited to have a surprise concert put on by Donny and Marie Osmond.  How cool is that?

And lastly, the new warmers.  Here's a few of my favorites for the upcoming Fall/Winter season.

Awards night. And Colbe Colette concert.  (I'm sure I misspelled her name)

Seward Photos part two

I would never have guessed that Matt would have many more pictures of people on his iphone than I did on my Cannon, but when he downloaded pictures recently, I found a whole bunch of great ones of everyone.  Thanks hun. 

My kids are funny.  When it came time to go to the back of the boat and take pictures of our catches, they were a little squeamish at first.   So, here's me with on of my tiny catches. 

See, Gabe didn't want to hold his little Sea Bass with his bare hands, so he pulled his sweatshirt down so he wasn't actually holding the fish.  Funny kid. 

                                                  Me and my burly Alaskan fisherman. 

Oops, looks like my fish was eating Gabe's fish in the holding tank.

                                  
                                         My yellow eyed Rock Fish.  Matt, Morgan and I were
                                      the only ones on the boat to catch them that day, and I
                                       was very exited to try some new recipes for dinner.

                                     Morgan, still not quite sure she wanted to hold her big
                                   black sea bass she caught.  she was quite the little fisher woman.

The first fish on of the day went to little Morgan.  Captain Trent was amazing with her, and held the pole while she reeled in each fish.  Her first was a yellow eyed rock fish.  A nice one at that.

                                                 
                      Finally, after a lot of coaxing, Morgan decided to pull her sleeves down
                                      and hold up her halibut for a photo op. 

                       Captain Trent holding Morgan's pole for her so she could focus on reeling
                                                            in her monster of a halibut.

Pretty soon, everyone was shouting "fish on" 

Gabe pulling in his halibut.  We found one spot to fish for halibut, where every time the line went down, it was immediately taken and you spent the next 5-15 minutes reeling in your catch.  At one point Gabe asked the Captain if we could go to another spot because this one had too many fish.  I don't think the Captain or Matt knew what to say, they were laughing and shaking their heads too much.  Its a good problem to have little buddy. 

Gabe with his black rock fish.

And in no particular order...

These pictures are not at all in chronological order, but I have about 5 posts to update so you get what you get:)  After our amazing day of fishing, we decided to take it easy, and slowly meander our way back to Anchorage with Grandma Stastny.  We checked out of the B&B and headed to Exit Glacier. 

Its amazing how much it has receded in the last 20 years since I first moved up here.

Before we headed down to Seward to go fishing, we made a few stops along the way.  First was Portage Glacier.  Morgan and Chandler decided to take a walk alongside the lake.  I'd say its a little high this year...

 Then the Stastny caravan stopped off in Wittier to take in the sites and have some fish and chips.  Here's the boys with Grandpa Stastny down at the docks in Wittier.

Fish On

Our fishing trip in Seward could not have gone better.  I have been on many charters over the 20 years since we moved to Alaska, and I can honestly say, I have never had a better day of fishing.  The sky was clear, it was warm (for Alaska) the water was calm, and we all limited out on our halibut.  We then headed back and stopped a few hours outside of Seward to fish for Silvers. That's where mother nature decided to give us an extra special treat.  First we saw one, then two, and soon a whole pod of Humpback whales.  Once I saw that I wasn't catching an silvers and the whales were sticking around, I put down my pole and picked up my Cannon.  These are some of the amazing shots I captured of these beautiful creatures.



The whale coming up out of the water with its mouth opening.

I particularly like this one, because not only does it look like the whale is about to swallow the seagull but there's a puffin down toward the bottom of the picture.

My fisherman reeling in a beautiful Yellow Eyed Rock fish.

My little fisherman Gabe takin it easy in the sunshine while he waits for a bite on his line.

Sea Lions taking in the sunshine on the cliffs in Resurrection Bay.

Doesn't get any better than this, right?

I have never really been a big fan of whales, and know very little about them, but how cool is this picture of the whale's mouth open, where you can see the tongue and baleen?

Check out the clear blue water we had...

                                        Part of the catch laid out on the deck for pictures. 

Chandler got put to work as an assistant deck hand, bagging up the fish as it was being filleted.

And another couple of whale shots.  Sorry, I never get tired of these.

                      I love these ones, because on the right side, you can see the whale breaching, and nearby to the left is another fishing in the area.

 And yet another boat close to us, taking pictures of the whale approaching their boat.  Check out how seriously close it was. 

 The pod would make a circular pattern, the seagulls would all go nuts above the spot where the whale were, and then we'd see them all come out of the water with their mouths wide open.