The lovely Audrey Anne...

I know when you are a new mother, no other baby can compare the beauty of your own (even if your baby really is ugly). But I am convinced that Audrey Anne is quite lovely.

My little family and I took a little road trip to the hills of southeast Iowa to visit my parents one last time before they move to California. And we went to spend mother's day with my mom who happens to be infatuated with Audrey. We spent all day Saturday at my parent's home in Wellman (a little dot on the map where a very small population of midwesterner's live). My mom is in the process of going through all her "stuff" which is quite a feat if you knew her at all. She has been having large "garage sales", so to speak, every weekend but instead of having them in a garage she has set up a store of sorts in the bottom level of her two flat (which used to be her photography studio). While I was there I went shopping in her store. Got a lot of great loot, one of my favorite things being a fur shrug. I must design an outfit around it.

Well, on to the story I am wanting to tell. So, on mother's day Sunday, we went out to lunch at the usual place we go, Aoshi's. A delicious Japanese restaurant with quiet ambiance and great sushi (for my mom and brother, Nick who go hogwild for sushi). Since my mom is a photographer, every visit usually has some type of photo shoot involved in it. Even before Audrey came, there usually was some type of "family photo" being planned where we dragged out all the barnyard animals we owned and tried our best to pose and not swear while the animals tried to run in different directions. I will have to post one of these photos for your enjoyment.

So my mom tells me she wants to do a photo shoot of Audrey before we leave. But we are at a dark restaurant and are not planning on going back to their home before we hit the road to Chicago. My mom has the grand idea of this: we will use the hood of her old, beat up Volvo that she is constantly bragging about it having 230,000 miles on it.

Wouldn't you know? She set up a little studio on the hood. And Audrey came out and had her smile and dazzling eyes ready. It was pretty amazing the pic's that came from it.

The Japanese students walking by probably thought we were a little crazy.
And they are right. My family is a little crazy. But we get great pictures because of it.