Color Factory!

Somehow I heard of the Color Factory way in its early stages, and from the get go I wanted to experience it. Because I found about it so early, there were even tickets available – but my schedule wasn't aligning to allow me to go. Cut to the opening, the ensuing excitement surrounding it and sold out tickets for the run of the show. I was so disappointed that I couldn't make it happen, but was resigned to just live vicariously through the #colorfactory hashtag instead.

But then! My dear friend and blogger extraordinaire, Kachet of The Kachet Life swooped in with a fantastic surprise - an invite to join her at Alaska Airlines' private event! #yesssssWe left Sacramento on a Thursday afternoon and had an easy drive into the City. (Can I just also add that in addition to all of Kachet's other skills, her city driving and parking game is STRONG?) We enjoyed some drinks and toasted her recent engagement (!) nearby at Pacific Cocktail Haven before heading in.

From the minute we laid eyes on the building, visual treats were around every corner.

That olfactory wall! The balloons! Every room was more fun than the next.

That ball pit... There were 200,000 yellow balls in that thing. When I got in there, I started laughing so hard. All the weeks of stress just bubbled up and out of me. I felt so light and happy in there – I can't even explain the release. I had never been in a ball pit before and had very low expectations., but who knew it would be so fun?! That gif just makes me so happy.

There was a room where confetti rains down continually from the ceiling. You wouldn't believe where that stuff can get lodged. ; ) And getting that perfect confetti shot isn't easy, as evidenced below. In case you're wondering, this confetti tasted salty. I don't know if that was a special Color Factory treat or all confetti tastes this way, but I may never know. : )

All in all, this was one of the most fun experiences I've had in a long time. Hanging out with Kachet is always fun, but this took it to a new level. I don't know if they're ever going to open up tickets again, but if there's a way for you to get to the Color Factory, I highly recommend it! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go see if I can install a giant ball pit in my house. ; )

JUNE RECAP

another month, another video!

1 SECOND EVERYDAY: MAY EDITION

May was full of end of school milestones and parties and the start of summer. I'm so glad I started this 1 second everyday project - it's so fun to sum up the months this way!

30 SECONDS OF APRIL

April, you went by in a flash...

March in 31 seconds

I am determined to do a better job of memory keeping this year. I want to capture more everyday moments and I want a cool yet easy way to look back on the year. I found it in 1 Second Everyday. Have you heard of it? It's an app where you take a snippet of video every day and the app stitches it into a cool little video. It's so easy and once you see your life put together in one second bits, it's addictive. Here's March in my world:

I think I'll post each month here. It will be so cool to see the whole year boiled down to 365 seconds at the end of this project!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I know that somehow it's already the middle of February (whaaaat?), so the year may not feel so new anymore, but because my birthday is in February the year always starts here for me. 

This photo sums up the year: crazy, fun and together. (BTW: you can't tell here but more than one child was on the verge of tears from being hungry and/or freezing in this photo. Way to pull it together to get the shot, kids!)

This year was FULL. Full of driving the kids to and from school in a city 30 minutes away, all four kids playing soccer in three different cities, school projects and their inevitable drama, driving lessons, filling out college applications, getting meals on the table and laundry folded (again and again and – again?) all while working an office job as well as doing photography sessions and Isis working a demanding job made for full days and weeks that just whizzed by.

This was also the year of The Great Sewer Backup of 2015. Getting the phone call at work that, "Um, there seems to be a leak? In the bathroom?" turned into sewage flooding our downstairs bathroom/hallway/kitchen and needing to remove the bottom three feet of drywall of our walls and take out all the flooring in the entire downstairs...the flooring we had just put in exactly a year prior. The fridge was in the dining room and we would go on a scavenger hunt to find what box held the kitchen items on a nightly basis. We added a couple of workmen to our family for a few weeks there. I think we saw them more than our kids! Even though things were topsy turvy there for a while, everyone had the best attitude. Our life is crazy, but it is great.

Watching Isis and the girls break into spontaneous song and dance in our kitchen last night after our smoke detector started chirping, you'd never know this room used to be in a shambles. And even when it was, things were still pretty darn great. We are luckier than most people on the planet, and better still, we know it. 

I'm excited to see what this year holds. We're excited for more home improvement projects. We have launched a year-long family service project that we are all super inspired by. And we have some things on the calendar to look forward to.

I know I've promised this to myself before, but I'm looking forward to keeping this space more up to date with what what's going on here at Christie Spencer Photography and at home, both for any readers who may have stuck around through this blog drought and for myself, as a record of this life that is speeding by. I have so many sessions from last year that never made the blog, as well as some other photography-related topics that have been on my mind. I also want this space to reflect more of the whole picture around here. I'm excited to share more from our regular life, from DIY house projects to organizing and memory keeping to other things I'm passionate about. 

I hope you'll stay tuned! I think 2016 is going to be amazing. : )