The end of the story is.....Jed is now sporting a big punk rock mohawk.

The beginning of the story goes something like this.... Earlier this spring Jed mentioned that he was thinking about getting a mohawk this summer. My response? "Excellent! I think that'll look great. Let's do it." So we made a plan....sometime during the summer, we'd get out the clippers and I would create the masterpiece. That was the plan. And it was a good plan.

But the plan went oh so wrong.

Or I missed a crucial piece of it.

Because the other night, Jed got the razor out.

I was downstairs, completely oblivious. Just watching tv and innocently eating an ice cream cone, when I felt the tiniest twinge of instinct kick in. Something was wrong. I ran upstairs, followed the light...and when I got there, my jaw dropped.

There was Jed. With the razor on the lowest possible setting -- the setting you put it on to TRIM SIDEBURNS -- not cut hair. The ridiculously low setting. The bald setting. And he had shaved off one whole side of his hair. And because he had apparently been shaving with one hand, and unable to really see what he was doing while he worked, not only was it extremely short, but there were clumps -- huge jagged clumps and spaces where it seemed he had pushed down a little too hard on the clippers, and the hair was just missing altogether....

"BUT.... WE HAD A PLAN!!!!" I yelled out, ice cream cone still in hand.

A little late for that.

There was nothing to do but take over the job and try to make the best out of what he had already started. Of course, he would have had a mohawk either way, but I like to imagine it wouldn't have been quite so....frightening if I had had my way with the clippers from the start. But with Jed, that's how things go. He keeps life exciting and unexpected, even when you think it's just an ordinary hair day.

So back to the end....Jed is now sporting a big, sweet, gelled up mohawk, and may be until the end of summer when he goes back to work at the high school where he teaches.

And it's pretty hilarious.

Except that now when I get up in the morning, I have to do my hair....and Jed's. I never would have imagined he'd be so happy to plop himself down on a stool in the bathroom and endure the pulling and yanking and blow-drying and the application of product upon product upon product that I have to go through to get his hair to stand up like it does....but he is.

So for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing him yet....here he is -- my very cute punked out husband and his new prized possession: the 'hawk. :)

How Carmi managed to finish med school in Boston, trek out to New Jersey less than one week later to arrive at her wedding completely gorgeous, relaxed, and the perfect picture of a gracious bride -- I'll never know. But, she did it.....and it couldn't have been a better day. Of course, her excellent planner Stacey Kallenberg of As You Wish was there to take care of all of the details, which I think may have helped a tiny bit.

Carmi & Mike (you may remember them from their sneak preview) were so sweet and so much fun to shoot. They were married at the gorgeous St. Stephen's Parish in Kearny, New Jersey, and their reception took place at The Palace at Somerset Park. Their excellent band Vali brought some crazy sound and I risked getting jabbed in the face by a rogue elbow to get a few of the crazy dance shots, but the party was so wild, it was 100% worth it.

I thought I'd change it up and do a slideshow this time. To start the show, just click the play button below and give it a few seconds to load. (Be sure to turn your volume down if you don't want to hear the music!)

(Also, big thanks to my buddy Jan Thiessen who came out to second shoot with me for the day!)

Yesterday we took the boat out for the '08 inaugural ride....about two months later than normal, but it's the first time we've actually had enough people out on the lake to ski!

It was a little choppy out on the water so I didn't break out the wakeboard for my first ride like I wanted to, but we did get a few shots of me and Jed ripping up the water.

He got the nice tree-lined background for his shot:

And thanks to Jed's "artistic photo skillz" (as he calls them), I got the blank rocky cove for a backdrop....sigh. I think his skillz may need a little more refinement, but we're getting closer!

So...who's up for the next ride??

Every summer, in an effort to avoid falling down the burned out/workaholic/miserable person trap, I block a bunch of weeks off for some hugely necessary vacation time. Usually Jed and I use that time to travel, but this year we couldn't travel for a couple of reasons, so we decided to use that time to just C H I L L.

It started last week, and so far it has been 100% bliss. Of course, I'm still processing images, designing albums, blogging, etc., but for the rest of July I'm on break from my wedding travels and that means I actually have time to go on my own adventures. We've already hit the wineries, the movies, and some great restaurants. This Saturday I drove out to Arts Fest at Penn State to meet up with some friends. My buddy Eric Himan was playing the Allen Street center stage, so I brought my camera (I know, I know...technically I'm on a photo break....but you know, the thing is just kind of superglued to my hand.) and grabbed some shots of him in front of the crowd.

It was brutally hot out, but he still played for over an hour straight....such a trooper.

State College is a crazy place. You really never know who you're going to run into. While I was shooting Eric, I made friends with some random guy who asked me to take his picture. He was so excited when I actually took it. By the way....I never say no to a photo op. If you run into me on the street somewhere and I have my camera with me, go ahead and ask me for a photo. I dare ya.

Then, a little further up the street we ran into this guy. He looked like a little stiff in his suit, so my friend Jess offered him some lemonade and kisses.

Today we're hitting the lake for a little wakeboarding and waterskiing, but don't worry....I'll be back at my MacBook tonight!

While we were out in Aruba for Wendy & Chris's wedding, Elisa and I were pretty happy to spend our free time lounging around the resort's gorgeous beach, turquoise water, and our amazing salt water pool. But we did manage to tear ourselves away from the lap of luxury for a day to rent one extremely dirty, rusty, salt-water encrusted jeep and bomb around the island on a hunt for the not so popular Aruba images.

Even if you haven't been to Aruba you've probably heard about the sunshiney beachy part of the island...

But drive inland a bit and it's an entirely different story.... A mixture of cactus, dirt, a never-ending wind, and last but not least....a pack of wild donkeys?? See for yourself.

I LOVE this shot. Everytime I look at it, I think it looks like a funny little couple....