Nobody hipped me to that, Dude.

I've been slammed for the last two weeks and I just got a chance to go through my own photos! Two weekends ago we all went four-wheeling up above Georgetown to Santiago Mine. I was a little ignorant to the "Colorado Aspens" because they appear to be a big deal up there this time of year. I have to say this was the most beautiful time we have ever been up there. Being able to get up above the regular tourists and see the scenery from a more private path was awesome! Everywhere you looked there were different colors. At one point I looked at Carl and said, "are we in a Bob Ross painting?" There were happy little bunches of trees all over.

We went to this exact same spot last year which you may remember here. That time there was still too much snow and we couldn't get any higher, but this is that exact same bowl...without so much snow.

  

This is what Carl, Andy and Dustin were doing....

While Carson was doing this - "Mom, rocks!!!!" (Not Mom rocks. Let's not get confused.)

This cave looked like it went back so far and was super deep. There were natural springs and run-offs like this everywhere up there. Those are my guys!

Next it was time to make the drive up the rest of the mountain to the mine. This was somewhere over 12,000 feet. Technically you aren't supposed to go up there, but we just walked around, hopefully not damaging anything as we went. This mine was from the late 1800's and it's still in great condition. Well, other than the bridge/train track which is a little sketchy.

This is where those tracks used to go. That gate opens up and Carl has been in there before. He said he went in around the corner and it was obvious that it has started to collapse so he booked it out of there. Carson thought it was to look in through the bars.

And stop the presses! I got in TWO different pictures this time! :)

On the way down Carl took us a different way that looked a bit scary, but ended up being so freaking beautiful. This trail was even more secluded with only a tunnel big enough for one car between the trees. We eventually came to a river with a small bridge that looked like it was for power maintenance. There sure weren't any people or houses up there!

Don't forget Christy and Andy!

I have so much more I'd like to share, but I had to narrow it all down. Exploring with the fam is so much fun!

I have an announcement...

NO, I'M NOT PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I know you're thinking it. :)

Actually I already had a new baby. My new baby is named Rachael Wooten Photography ::blush::. I have thought about writing this post many times and I'm still nervous now as I type. I haven't told many people so I feel like I've been hiding or lying or something. When I say "not many" I mean Carl, my parents and my grandparents were pretty much the only ones for a long long time. 

The journey to get to this point has been long and I'm happy to say that I actually know what I'm trying to do now. In the last year (all happening within my little internal bubble) I have gone from wanting to only create paper products to wanting a paper business that I could incorporate photos with invitations to being strictly a photographer. This also included three, yes 3!, official business names. To say that I am indecisive with my own stuff is an understatement. If you tell me what you are looking for I can whip it up and go on my way. If I sit down to design something for myself it can take me two years. Literally. In two years I have done so much changing while finding my real style and passion that I now can blog in front of you and scream it out loud. One of my weaknesses is that if I don't feel like something is 100%, I will share 0% of it. If I'm going to do something I want it to be right and a finished product before I put it all out there. Originally I started with something a little more cutesy and knew in my heart that it just wasn't me. There had to be a reason that my sub-conscience wasn't letting me gab about it all. I fought it for a while, but woke up one morning with clarity. In a world of businesses galore I want you to want me! Thus, Rachael Wooten Photography was born. I am the business so my name should be right there with no doubt. I only want to do what I love and hope that the people who like me will call and the people who don't won't. That works out for everyone in the end.

I am and always have been 85% book-y, number-y and literally...-y. But there has always been that 15% hanging out there that I've fulfilled with many types of creative outlets. I am so fortunate to have a set up in my career that allows flexibility and a lot of downtime; I'll have the best of both worlds. Granted, almost all of my new stuff is happening at night or on weekends, but it would be much harder if I were in an office all day. Whether he knows it or not, one of the best things I ever got from my dad was the principles of how to run an honest and profitable business. Most of you know that the car business isn't always, you know, truthful. I saw how my dad treated the people he encountered and heard those dinnertime conversations about what is right and wrong. I also saw people want to do business with him. Luckily I learned the ins and outs of business logistics in my work experience and in college, but now I realize how invaluable my observations of him were. 

I've always known I would have a business, but never really knew what the "product" would be. You know, the indecisiveness. Whenever I think about what I want out of a company I represent, all I can think is "under promise, over deliver". In the last four or so months it all clicked with me and I've had so much fun figuring out the logistics. In the land of puppies and rainbows I would want to be shooting everyday, but there is so much more to it than that. I've designed a website, built my blog from scratch, created all my branding materials, developed my pricing scheme and made some great friends along the way. Oh yeah, I've taken a few photos too. ;)  

I know I'm rambling and spilling my guts, but I've been keeping it in for a little too long! I also know I don't have to explain myself. Again, I'm just really passionate about this new venture and hope that my amazing friends and family will support what I'm trying to do. 

As for the actual business goals, my focus is lifestyle and family custom photography. Kids aren't the easiest thing ever, but it kind of comes with the territory. I absolutely love shooting couples, single-person portraits and newborns. I shoot only natural light so mostly outdoors. The problem with that is winter in good old CO, but I can work indoors too. I know I still have a ton of growing to do which means I expect things to change even more. Hopefully that will all be positive as I get more definition in myself and what I am able to produce. Since I'm still building my portfolio I am running a pretty good deal through the end of the year. I would love to have my galleries full of the people that I love! What I'm saying is if you are curious about anything, just ask. :)

The main site is rachaelwooten.com and the blog is blog.rachaelwooten.com. I think if you read this blog and take a look through that you'll get a pretty good idea of my style and whether or not we'd make a good fit! I'm still going to keep doing all the family stuff here and some of it may cross over to the business blog. I feel like this is my own journal where I show the good, the bad and the ugly. I'll be able to be a tad more choosy over there. :)  I'm doing new stuff constantly so there will be new stuff all the time to see. Anyone can email me anytime at rachael@rachaelwooten.com. Feel free to share until your heart's content.
 
So.........thanks for listening if you got this far. I'm getting the Facebook page put together too so I will take all the "likes" I can get when it's up! (They make you have a certain number before you can assign the name...)

♥ rachael 

Go Bengals!

The past few Sundays have been cuteness overload in the Wooten house. Carson got a matching jersey with his daddy. Of course they're Carson Palmer. You think I'm going to put him in Ochocinco?!?!?! Carson knows Sunday is football day and loves getting dressed up with Carl. He runs around the house yelling, "Go Bengals!" Obviously when he's older he can choose his own team. Part of the most fun you have as a kid is doing what your parents do though. We had so many people ask us if we were naming Carson after Mister Palmer, but we really didn't! The name was completely my suggestion and at the time I didn't even know who CP was. It's super cute for the jersey now. 

I know there have been many times in Carson's short life that I've said "this ___" is definitely the cutest thing he's ever worn. But really, this is the cutest thing so far. :)

Carson Palmer, eat your heart out.

A chicken, a caterpillar and a cat.

Today was a daycare day so I could finish up a project. Carl didn't have to be to jury duty until 9:30 this morning so he wanted to grab breakfast. We figured we'd go to Chick-fil-A since it's by where we were going. On the way down I was asking Carson if he wanted to have chicken nuggets for breakfast, just to tease him. He thinks the only place to have go for breakfast is McDonald's so he told me he was going to go play at "BicDonald's" and have apples and fries. Then, after more explanation, he started saying he was going to "Chicken Play". Close...Playing at Chick-fil-A. He realized that's also somewhere we play and so that's what he came up with. It was cute. :)

Here were the boys at breakfast. Carl's head isn't really shaped like that. Great iPhone pic.

When I picked Carson up at daycare he had a present for me. He had made his very first craft to bring home and it almost made me cry. He's only ever colored/painted pictures so this was so cool. I absolutely loved it. His teacher said he was adimant that the paint only goes on the very tops and had a lot of fun making it. I could tell when we got home and saw he had blue paint all over his shirt and in his hair. This is definitely documentable. Not a word, I know.

 And just to share my old girl... I was taking that picture and turned to see her baking in the front window. She is so old, but she is still truckin'. We are pretty sure she's 14 now, but she ages very well! She is constantly cold because she weighs next to nothing. She often can be seen laying on her own heating pad, laying on the heating vents and curled up inside blankets. She will attack your lap just to soak up every bit of warmth possible. It's no surprise she was loving the sun.

Who likes to rock the potty?

Not my son!

That is the ring tone that has been playing this morning every time the "potty alarm" goes off. That one seemed appropriate since it always makes Carson dance and I then realized I could change party to potty in the words. I was planning on waiting a little longer to start potty training again, but yesterday made me change my mind.

We spent the day at our friends' house (aka my friend and her two sons). Her oldest son is 3 1/2 and I'm pretty sure Carson saw him using the potty. The boys were all over the house while the mommies were doing their thing in the living room. At one point I hadn't seen Carson for a while so I went looking. You know, the "it's a little too quiet" moment... I found him in the bathroom with his pants around his ankles, diaper on the ground and both toilet lids up. He may or may not have actually peed while there, but I was pretty excited to see he just took the initiative himself. Then in the afternoon the exact same thing happened in a different bathroom.

I told him today would be potty day, but it hasn't worked at all. He loves talking about the potty, but doing is a different story. I figured if I stick to diapers for the first while and try the timer then it should work like it does for everyone else. Now the alarm goes off, he yells "rock the potty!", I say it's time to go to the potty and he yells NO. Actually his last response was, "I thought I said no potty time! I'm playing Thomas game." And then he makes a face like you told him Santa died. I guess we'll just keep going, fight and all. I've even very clearly let him know that when he really does go potty in the toilet he'll get to pick out a sticker from the special sheet and get an Oreo. He just tells me he wants an Oreo anyways. I asked Christy this morning if I could just hire some magic person to come do this for me. She politely told me no.

And I'd also like to publicly apologize to my dear friend Jamie. Yesterday Carson also managed to find a black marker and write ALL OVER in her son's room. I'm talking on the window, the lamp shade, the night stand, some book covers and the top of the nice Thomas train table. I seriously feel horrible. I know boys will be boys, but man. That was a bad one. Luckily she's pretty awesome so I don't think she'll kill us this time. :)

At our house the crayons, markers, chalk etc. are kept under lock and key. They only come out with direct supervision because I know that's exactly what he does when he gets a chance. We are pretty good artists though! Be jealous.

Naughty Pants Magoo

The last two weeks here have been fun and a bit crazy. Our house is definitely full now, but it's great having family around. Carl's sister Christy, her fiance Andy and Carl's little brother Dustin are all with us for now! Dustin got to start school here in our neighborhood and Christy and Andy are on the job hunt. Carson loves having new faces to look at. Every time one of them comes in the room he says, "Oh, hi ______!" like it's the first time he's ever seen them. 

Then we got kind of bomb dropped on us in the last two days. Carl got called for jury duty and he just had to show up yesterday as one of about 200 people. After all was said and done he was chosen for the 14-person jury and it is a murder trial that could last up to two weeks. Everyone was telling him to say everything outrageous to get out of it, but he said there was really no way to lie since you didn't know what the right answers really even are. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but he is about 2 weeks short of his 90 days at work so his benefits to pay for this haven't kicked in yet. His boss fought for him, but corporate won't pay. It's pretty lame to just miss an entire pay period out of no where! Sucky suck suck.

Grandpa Rick came to visit again this week too. He slept in the recliner. :)  We've been doing a lot of playing outside, going on playdates and working in between. Carson is always obsessed with our neighbors' Razor Scooters. He has never been able to ride them on his own, but he tries all the time. I have to drag him home after he plays with them. Well, Dustin shows up and guess what he has.....a Razor Scooter. Carson quickly claimed it as his own and has been attempting to master it ever since. On Wednesday night Carl was trying to teach him how to balance on one foot and push off with the other. He showed him twice and all of a sudden Carson just took off! Every time before this he would try to put both feet on and obviously just fell right over. Once he figured out what he was supposed to do you couldn't stop him. The funniest part (which I didn't get on video) was him trying to copy Carl and do a 360.

Other than all that, I just have some random photos to share that I've snapped over the last while. ***Disclaimer: He got a haircut last night. It wasn't by my choice that he looked like a poor homeless child with twangers galore.

One day last week we went out for the day and we didn't get home in time for Carson's nap. He was fine, but when we got back we tried to get him to lay down with us on the floor on his couch. We watched a movie and he ran around for over an hour. At one point it got really quiet and this was why:

Then he eventually came to lay by me and crashed out of no where. We rarely ever get to see him sleep so we basically just sat there and stared at him. Apparently he sleeps with his eyes open sometimes. And my arms go to sleep incredibly easy.

He loves helping Daddy make pancakes every weekend. He's finally figuring out how to stir without flipping the whole bowl out onto the counter. 

We've been out playing in the backyard a lot during the days. I don't know what he'll do when it gets cold. It already is starting to feel chilly and I'm not ready for it at all!

Since he got his Jeep, the Cozy Coupe lives in the back. He goes "four-wheeling" in the grass and rides it all over out there. Lately Elmo has been coming along for rides too. "Mommy, Elmo NEEDS to come with me."

We can't even believe how well he is talking still. He can put sentences together that I had no idea he would be able to at this point. Last weekend we told him we'd try to go to the park, but it got too late and we had to run other errands. When we pulled into Target he screamed from the backseat, "I thought I said no Target!" We just looked at each other like, uh, he really said that.

Yesterday he wasn't feeling well and threw up on the way to daycare. He seemed fine last night, but I was still watching him. When I got him up this morning I asked him how he was feeling and he said, "Grumpy". I didn't even know how to respond. It is so amazing that at this age they can 100% comprehend what we are saying and answer with the right words

At my office we just signed for a third arm of the study we've been doing for a while now. That one looks like it will go until 2013 which is GREAT news!! My boss is already talking about planning our February trip to Carmel again. I don't know if that's really awesome or really mean since it's still 5 months away! :)

And in case you're wondering, Naughty Pants Magoo is one of the many nicknames I have for Carson. I have no idea why, but most of them end in Magoo or Magee.

Mt. RushMORE!

Carl has been mentioning that he wants to go see Mt. Rushmore ever since we've been in Colorado. Last week he decided that it was our last chance if we were going to go camping at all this year and begged me to check into it. I looked around at the KOAs there and they actually looked promising. I say this because I don't camp. Want me to say it more clearly? I. Don't. Camp. My family was never an outdoorsy one and I am a city girl because of it. I gave in though and agreed since the KOA had a lot to do along with real bathrooms and showers. I'm okay with tents, just not tents while you are covered in filth for days at a time.

We took off early on Saturday, excited to go somewhere completely new to both of us. We told Carson about it a few days before so he talked about sleeping in a tent constantly. Luckily he loves car rides too so we just set off without worrying about time or anything. 

To start I will say.......how in the world does anyone live in the state of Wyoming??????

We decided that you could basically keep Jackson Hole, Yellowstone and mayyyyyyybe Cheyenne and give the rest to the aliens. I'm sorry to say it, but that is mostly a useless state. We stopped at this rest stop at a main turning point and saw a playground which we thought would be great. But it was so stinky and dirty with a broken playground. We couldn't wait to get out of there.

See the beautiful Wyoming backdrop? By the way, Carson is in love with his "Stoy Story" pajamas. I bought him Toy Story which he has watched once and wasn't even interested in, but he loves the PJ's for whatever reason. He wanted to keep them on for the trip; at least he was comfortable, but it looks funny!

Next we stopped in Torrington to eat lunch at a real park. Carson was thrilled to see real playground equipment. This was the kind of place where you can feel that everyone is watching everyone. You know, in that creepy small town kind of way.

Amazingly, about 20 miles into South Dakota it turned absolutely beautiful! It was interesting to be in the mountains, but it was different than the mountains we are used to. The rock, trees and overall look was just different. It was pretty funny going into the lobby of the KOA. We had to "check in" like at a hotel and it was nicer than some actual hotel lobbies we've been to! They had coffee shops, a wine and chocolate store, a pizza and ice cream shop, two swimming pools, water slides, miniature golf, a theater and on and on. It was about the most spoiled camping we could have possibly done.

The boys went to work right away on our tent and camp site. We were up on the top of a hill and pretty secluded (except for the obnoxious jerks in that cabin you see behind us that were up being so loud until 2am...). Carson loved every minute of it!

After it was all set up we went down to find all the fun stuff to do. We were hoping to swim, but it was 5:00 by this time and the clouds were rolling in. Carl wanted to cook hot dogs, but Carson and I were starving and I wasn't going to wait for it to get dark to start a fire. We went to the pizza shop instead, then headed over to the playground area.

They seriously had all their bases covered and couldn't have been more family friendly. This was an entire hill of sand covered in Tonka trucks. Carson=happy.

The playground was enormous. Carson goes straight for the slides right now. He's getting to be pretty fearless!

Next he wanted to get on this huge balloon that was buried underground for you to jump on. I was terrified that my little baby was going to get trampled. Nope. He totally held his own and squealed as he bounced back and forth. 

My guys after a round of mini-golf.

It was getting late so we headed back to our site. Just as Carl got the fire going it started to rain. And then started to rain really hard. While we were down at the gift shop we found a Thomas watercolor book. Carson has been painting a lot at daycare and I didn't have any for home so I wanted to get it. Luckily we did because I was able to grab the crayons and we colored in the tent while it was raining. I think this was my favorite time of the trip. It was so peaceful and fun to be out exploring with my family. I can't get enough of seeing Carson discover new things and just be a kid having fun. I was able to really take it all in while sitting there watching him in this moment.

The rain eventually let up and we all sat by the fire. Carl made us smores and Carson discovered his new love for marshmallows.

The next morning came way too early, but that was only because Carson slept great and was bright eyed at 6am. I hardly slept at all because of the aforementioned jerks in the spot above us. Well, that and the 30lb. sack of potatoes I had attached to my side all night. :) Luckily I had a hot shower and we went to have $2 all you can eat pancakes. 

We were only a few miles down the hill from the actual Mt. Rushmore monument. The way it's positioned is up at the peak of the mountain facing the backside so you actually have to go up there to see it. We both thought it was really surreal to see it in person since it's an image you grow up with and know, but it was really neat in person. You were able to get a lot closer than I thought you would be able to. They have a large area in front to look right up at it and then you can take a walkway down and get even closer. Carson kept telling us he could see the faces. 

I was FREEZING when we left camp so I stayed in my warm camping clothes. Luckily the sun is 100 degrees hotter up top so I was dying of heat. When we left I had to do an impromptu wardrobe change on the side of the road. Oops!

It wasn't anything new or unexpected, but I'm really glad to say that we have seen it in person. It would have been cool to see a real person up there for some scale because it is even bigger than you think it is going to be.

On our way down we stopped at a small lake (you know, where I had to change clothes...haha). There were quite a few fish in this area that you could easily see so Carson parked here for a while.

The amazingly great put-the-camera-on-a-bench-at-an-angle and set the timer shot. I really need some more timer practice. :)

The last stop on the way out was to see Crazy Horse. It was $10 to park at Mt. Rushmore which was worth it so we figured this would be the same. Umm, no, it was $28 just to drive in! No thanks. We pulled into the information lot way at the bottom and I grabbed this picture. I had to crop it way down to see it even like this, but it's pretty cool too. Apparently it isn't even close to being done and the rock under him will be his horse and much more of his body.

So.......that was our quick 2-day trip! I'd highly recommend going if you are thinking about it!