{Personal Expressions} Learning by seeing - Grateful to Mother Nature for all that she gives

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

What a glorious long holiday for us here! - we had so much fun doing everything that we love to do. We continue to explore the world around us and train ourselves to first "see" and then "learn" about what we see! and boy, oh boy! are we having fun doing that?

We are so grateful to Mother Nature for providing us a warm Thanksgiving break. With tempreatures in the mid-50d, we just had to step out and explore. We rode bikes, had a picnic and explored areas around the house.

The areas we explored were deserted but we are not complaining - more for us to see and learn. We loved looking at the dry trees and imagining what spring and summer must look like here. We found so many abandoned bird nests and wondered what type of birds had lived there in the past. Almost everyone had a different answer. The nest above must have been that of a hawk because it was so high up on the tree. The kids seem to think Mr.Eagle lived there...we are surely coming back to see who is right!!! :)

The burst of color all around us was so refreshing....perhaps Mother Nature has all of us confused a bit...looks like this little tree does not know whether to shedd the last few leaves or start growing new ones!

What a wonderful contract of colors around the sidewalk!

We saw so many unique bushes and shrubs - the color pallet was stunning. Brown might just become my favorite color!

We spent so much time analyzing what type of animal footprints these were...dogs, coyotes, bunny and even the elusive fox! :) - what vivid imaginations we all have :)

Thank you Mother Nature for a wonderful time! - we loved spending time with you and will surely be coming back for more! :)

{Lifestyle Portraiture} Giving for the holidays @ the humane society

My latest session fits so well with what I want to focus on this holiday season - Giving Thanks!

Being a volunteer at any organization says a lot about you are as a person. But I find this particularly true for pet shelters and food banks. There is something so very selfless about it. Especially at the pet shelter, where these animals cannot really express their gratitude in words. Instead they do by wagging tails, barks of recognition, belly flips and paw shakes that say "Thank you - I am so glad you are here and haven't forgotten me!"

 I choke up almost everytime I got to West Suburban Humane Society to help them with pictures of adoptable cats and dogs for their website. I always come away with a great appreciation for these guys and the countless volunteers who come there day in and day out to care for these abandoned pets.

I love all the cats and dogs that I meet there but everytime there is that special someone who I want to smuggle back in my camera bag :). Mostly it's one of the dogs but this time I was suprised it was one dog and two cats!!! - I need a really BIG camera bag next time!

Meet an extra special Volda. She has lost one eye and the other is failing her too. She was really scared to come out but once we got the cat toy out, it was as if she got a second wind!

West Suburban is going through a major catery renovation so all the resident kitties were camped out in the office. They were everywhere - in garbage bins made into temporary housing, under filing cabinates, under desk chairs. Zinfindale was not a happy camper with all the guests around him. You see, he was returned back to the shelter recently and he wanted some peace and quiet as well as my full attention and he was not afraid to show it :)

Oh Carol!, sweet Carol! - you stole my heart away!. Carol was really afraid of all the other dogs and the loud noise at the shelter. She was barking and growling at all of us. So we had to go into her cage and take pictures from far. Poor baby! - She is the one I REALLY wanted to get back with me. She was so sweet as long as I did not get too close. But I figured that kids and a bigger dog was probably not the best for Carol right now!

Just look at those eyes and the floppy ear!

As we all go through this holiday season with our "wants" and "needs", let's also remember the shelters that seem to be working overtime around the holidays. Even if they are CLOSED to the public, their job really does not take a day off!. They always have a wishlist of supplies that they really need and remember every little bit helps!!

{Personal Expressions} Giving for the holidays!

Really excited to participate in a concept that I have been reading about in many places this year - "Giving for the holidays".

Help us spread some joy and cheer. Nominate a family in need to get a free family photo shoot along with free prints. You can sponsor additional prints and frames as well. Just let us know why you think the family is special and let us spread some cheer together. Spread the word! - Thank you and Happy Holidays!

{Travel Log} Indoor fun for the coming winter months | Minneapolis Outdoor Travel with kids

The MJ household loves being outdoors - be it hiking, camping or just waking around taking in all the sights and sounds of nature. But living in the midwest, we have to resign ourselves to bringing the fun indoors for 4 to 5 months of the year. Of course, we are also know to put on our snowshoes and head outside for a quick walk to the park or hike in a deserted forest preserve. But last weekend, we decided to do something different - actually spend time indoors! :)

We headed north and spent a couple of days being in a huge gigantic mall.  We were probably one of the few families there that did not enter a single store or come back home without a single shopping bag! - yet, we had such a blast being indoors.

What did we do? How did we spend time inside a mall without shopping! - Well, I will let the pictures speak for themselves but it involved screaming, walking under water :), screaming along with squeals of delight and more screaming :) :)

A fire-breathing dragon!!! - of Legos :)

What can I say - a certain someone was very motivated to start building something - we believe in starting them young! - only 15 million more pieces to join together!

I loved loved loved the jelly fish exhibit...they were so serene - gliding and floating through the water!

Never underestimate the power of water, be it in a water slide, or indoor hotel pool! :)

Of course, we did spend sometime outdoors and had such a blast! - the specifics can be found in the previous post here.

Feel free to contact us if you want to spend time indoors and have a ton of fun too:). We will be happy to put together a custom travel package on where to stay and what to do!

{Lifestyle Portraiture} Learning by seeing - Old favorites and New discoveries

---- Warning - this is a long long post with tons of pictures ---

For those of you following the MJ family, know that we love animals - wild and domesticated. Most of our travel jaunts involve animals at some level. Be it seeing coyoties and bears while hiking like we did during our summer trip, observing the great blue heron during an afternoon walk, or spotting frogs during a swim in the lake. We love the unexpected animal sighting but also enjoy a visit to the zoo. So much so that when we travel to other large cities we try and take in a quick trip to the zoo to get our fill of animals.  Most zoos including the local ones in Chicago have the typical old favorities - lions, tigers, bears and the like. But we were in for a treat when we visited the zoo during an weekend getaway trip (check the next post on the getaway details ;)). We saw animals that we had not heard or seen before. It was a great experience as we learnt something new and rediscovered some old time favorities. This zoo is definitely worth the visit and maybe a repeat the next time we are in town.

Old time favorites - Mr Bear was almost giving us a "so glad you came, come on give me a five" look.

Have you heard the expression "to stare like a leopard" - no, that's cause I made it up. But if there ever was such a phrase, this is the most appropriate picture to go with it. I am so glad for being on the other side of the fence. This guy was so focused on something - he was staring without blinking for a good 15-20 minutes.

Have you ever seen a Malaysia Tapir? Well, now is your chance.

Or a Tarkin who seems to be smiling :)

How about performing dental work on a camel?

We saw a blue jay and a woodpecker busy at work. Notice the worms that the blue jay is eating! - yummy :)

My hands down absolute favorite was this guy - so majestic yet so deadly. The lone wolf - he was simply stunning. He was pacing up and down and stopped to howl something. Maybe it was the coyote in the next enclosure.

There were so many different kind of monkeys that were either sleeping like this guy or swinging around from branch to branch like this one.

How about a kimono dragon and a crocodile?

Of course, who does not love sweet lovable tortoise or the dangerous puma/mountain cat!

I guess you can say that we really did have a great time at the zoo and learnt so many things including some really sad facts.
1) Did you know that there are three subspecies of tiger that are extinct! - three!!!!
2) Did you know that the Amur tiger is the largest cat in the world
3) Did you know that a common kitty cat can out run a tiger...imagine that!

{Personal Expressions} Happy Halloween y'all

Happy Halloween y'all...from ghosts, to goblins, to scary scream characters and blood eating monsters. Hope everyone had a safe and happy time trick-or-treating. This year we gave organic suckers that I pickup at a recent visit to Peaceful Parlour. They were delish!

Here are some sights seen on Halloween around our neighbourhood and at the school parade!

I totally dig this pumpkin...looked really festive.

Now this is clean and cute!

This was by far the most ingenious costume! - how fun :)

Cool shades on bumble bee!

Granny was so adorable - right down to the stockings that kept slipping down :)

Would you open the door if a devil rang it asking for candy????

My fairy and devil going trick-o-treating!