My Second Home: Costa Rica

The past two weeks have been such a blessing as I had the amazing privilege to be back in my second home in Costa Rica with my beautiful family!

Every time I come here I feel more and more rooted here and it makes it that much harder to leave. I love everything about this magical place from the musty smell when you step off the air plain to the sticky black sand between your toes. I love the language, the people (especially their smiles see pics below), the food, the heat, the colors, and the screeching birds everywhere. This is truly a magical land and I really do pray that one day hopefully sooner than later I can call it home!

Here are some snap shots from the past weeks. The top surfing pic is of my brother-in-law Simon and the others are of my hubby Dan. This surf break is such a fun one for them but name Roca Loca really is true!

The other pics I will explain as we go as there were so many magical moments spent playing and serving the beautiful women and children here. We came along side a missions team and were able for two days this past week paint nails and cut hair in two of the really poor villages in the city of Jaco Beach. I hope you enjoy the beautiful faces of the children. Just a note not all the photos here are mine my beautiful sister Sophie took most of the kid ones and the ones of me as I was painting nails and didn't have a chance to document! :) Here is her blog for more of them www.mikelarson.com/sophie (she is also the lovely gal with the camera on her head below).

Dan ripping it Sophie being Sophie

George watching the break

Dan about to get tube

Dan and his youngest sister Claire

The beautiful Cliare

Us at the beach Chloe, Claire, Adam, & Katie

My beautiful sisters: Claire, Sophie, & Chloe (yes we have the same name)

Heading in to serve

Claire & Katie Painting nails (what a beautiful image of a servent washing feet on a dirt floor!)

My new Beautiful friends

Me painting my new friend Teresa's nails.

Yellow Sun Shine Wedding: Jeremy and Niki

This past Saturday I had a blast photographing the wedding of Jeremy and Niki at the San Luis Obispo Country Club. The vibe of this event was just pure joy as the family and friends were all smiles and seemed to be having such a great time. The beautiful flowers just echoed the emotion as they had cheery and classic yellow roses every where. Sophie and I had so much fun shooting here as it was both of our first time shooting at the club! We added on a sunset shoot after dinner and it was so much fun I hope you enjoy the images.

Jeremy and Niki thanks so much for allowing us to be a part of your wedding and I can't wait till we are all back in town to you your image viewing!

Sara & Andrew

Yesterday I got to photograph the fabulous couple Sara and Andrew.
It was so much fun as we raced around SLO chasing the light from spot to spot!
Sara and I have become good friends over the past few months and I am so excited for their wedding later this summer on Sept. 12th. It will be at the Santa Margarita Ranch so keep your eyes open for it as it is going to be a photographers candy shop from her fabulous blue Christian Louboutin shoes,

to the picturesque barn!
Sara and Andrew, I hope you enjoy the photos!

Paul & Andrea: Vina Robles

Last weekend I photographed the beautiful wedding of Paul and Andrea @ Vina Robles.

Everyone had such a wonderful time at this wedding from the guests to the Event Coordinators! It was such a beautiful day and the mellow flow of the day really made it such a pleasure to photograph. The ladies from TOS Events were such a huge help and are always a blessing to work with as they make the day run so flawlessly and are always so accommodating to even our photo schedule changes!!! Thanks you two!

Additionally, it was so much fun working with the wonderful men of Cana VP as they made me cry once again with their amazing video!! Click their link above to see the show it is a tear jerker!

It was also such a unique event for me personally as I knew so many people at the wedding. Most of the grooms men were friends of mine from college and there were like 5 couples that were guests who's weddings we have photographed in the past year!! :)

Andrea and Paul thanks so much for allowing me and my team the pleasure of photographing your wedding. I hope you will enjoy the images for years to come.

I can't wait for you to see the rest of the images (as you will see from this post I had a hard time narrowing it down)!