Waaaay back at the end of February, my family and I, along with two other families, met up on the island of Kauai. We had sun, rain, and everything in between over our week’s vacation. The kids learned how to boogie board, and I practiced my sun tanning skills. These images are from our trip.
We hit the beach even when the sky was grey. Telling the kids, “You’ll be wet, or you’ll be wet.” when they questioned why we were going to the beach when it was raining. As you can see, they caught on quickly and we were prepared with our umbrellas to keep towels dry.
We got a super awesome day of sunshine at Tunnels Beach. It took some serious work (not pictured) to wheel our wagon through the sand full of gear for 5 kids and 5 adults to the sweet spot. But it was totally worth it – and a good excuse of a work out to eat extra Doritos and sip a beer once we settled in. 
The house we rented was within a quick walk into Hanalei. So we made sure to take a few strolls into town. Early morning wanders led us to coffee, mid day for shopping, and afternoon walks for shave ice!
And we were also a quick walk to the beach. We made several spur of the moment, and not really prepared (no swim suits!) trips to the water for sand castle making. 
When the rain was too heavy for even the roosters to crow (and oh my goodness did they crow!), we had a sweet house that fit us all. The kids played a few fierce games of monopoly and soaked up a bit of screen time after all the sand and sun. 
It was so wonderful to be back on the island where my husband and I spent our honeymoon 15 years ago. We even hit up a couple of places that we had been drooling over since that last trip. Don’t pass up the ahi nori wrap at the Mermaids if you are there.
It was so good to have some of my best friends and the kiddos with us for the adventure. It already seems like a life time ago already, so I am glad to have these photos to remind me of all the fun!
Keep chasing that light, Vanessa
PS this post is a part of a blog circle. I would love if you hop on over to Staci’s blog to see what beauty she has to share with you this month.
Blogging gave me a place to not only share my photography, but a place to write. I have always loved to write and have kept a journal for a very long time. Now, I was able to include photos and illustrate what I was up to! I would hop from blog to blog, leaving comments on new pages. I would and gather inspiration and ideas and then share my own hoping to do the same for my followers. I made contacts and connections. Here were all these people interested in similar things as me – photography, knitting, sewing, cooking and eventually, motherhood. It was magic. 
Slowly and quietly though, the social media I used started to shift. Clicks and comments on my blog and Flickr page began to fade. I couldn’t figure it out until I caught wind of where all the cool kids were hanging out these days. They were down the street at a place called Instagram. I was sharing an iPod with my husband at the time and began to snag it at almost every chance I had. We still didn’t have smart phones, so the iPod was my tool. I started to snap fuzzy images on the device and ran them through funky filters within the app before sharing them on my new Instagram feed. It was fun, and no one took themselves too seriously out there back then. You couldn’t upload images from other cameras and so it was a level playing field. My blog was still around, and I actually expanded to write on two other community blogs as well. But at some point, I didn’t feel like I had content to share for both the other blogs and my own. I realize I was ignoring my own corner of web and life, but I had a mobile app that was faster and quicker and didn’t require me to sit down and upload images anywhere and then write. The blog’s long hand form wasn’t as appealing at that point – I was a new mom and exhausted most of the time. Quick and easy was good.
I could snap a photo with my (now upgraded) iPhone, run it through a couple of apps and BOOM, out to the web with a few hashtags and a witty comment. I was still connecting with photographers, and foodies as well as creatives of all sorts. New friendships were made, restaurants and yoga studios found. There was inspiration at every scroll. But recently, things have started to feel different, actually not only feel, but were different on Instagram (and social media in general). Instagram wasn’t so instant anymore, with the inclusion of algorithms posts would appear out of order throwing me into a social media time warp of sorts… And then there are the advertisements. Adds started to pop up every third or four image driving me crazy. Scrolling through started to feel like a chore…
And then there was the fact that my blog, this very website that you are reading now, it has been sitting neglected. Yet, words and stories and images were floating around in my head asking to be let out and put down in some form or another. I regularly write poems in my mind as I drive to and from work. I love to watch the light dance around and sing to me as I drive down the street. I wondering about the stories the people at each bus stop have to tell, and where the man on the corner with his shopping cart had slept at the wet night before. But I wasn’t sharing any of this. Maybe sometimes on my Instagram feed, but usually the words would be lost and forgotten as I parked the car at the office and started my day.
I started to change how I shared. And that was okay. I know I don’t need to share every moment (but I sort of was over on Instagram). What has been stirring in my mind is the fact that I have stopped telling stories.
Will I still share client work? heck yes! but what I also want to do is share my work. Share what makes me light up. 
6:20am I remember the full moon and step out in the blue hour to see it’s beautiful bright face.
7:20am Showered, and dressed. I say goodbye and head out the car. The fog is burning off, blurring the edges of the tree branches and tops. 
7:35am My commute is short, a quick up and over the hill. I love the downhill view as I make my way to cross the Foss Waterway and over to the tide flats.
8:15am The fog has lifted and the golden light dances off the buildings uptown and across the waterway to my office. I don’t know if I will ever get tired of this every changing view…
11:45pm I return emails, document projects I am working on, answer questions and mentor my team.
4:30pm When I come out of the office for the day, I smile as the the paper mill stacks pump out cotton candy into the evening sky. I could watch that magic at this time of night for a very long time if it lasted. 
5:45pm Taco night. The cheese is grated, lettuce chopped and the turkey has been browned. 
6:20pm Diner is over and the evening antics have begun. 
7:45pm She’s practicing and working hard on her reading, but it’s time to wrap things up for bed time. 
8:30pm Kids are in bed and it’s time to turn off the phone, sip on my tea, snuggle into bed, and back into my book.
