I only got a few more pictures processed tonight, but they’re stunning. I’m learning a lot more about processing, particularly in doing some sharpening to really make images pop. I got my test prints back from the other pro print lab. They’re nice, but I don’t think it’s worth the extra money to go with them over the other company that is slightly cheaper on my costs. They do have awesome little accordion, wallet-sized albums though that are decently priced. I’ll certainly be ordering a couple of those in the next few weeks to use as brag books.

As always, there’s more pictures on Flickr:

Clearly tonight was the night for dramatic black and white photography. Tasty tasty Photoshop. I shall leave you with this parting gift:

I’ve been plowing through the 450 or so images that I took at the beach, so notably it has been taking quite a while. I have made it through 200 of them so far (including Olivia’s birthday party pictures). I didn’t want to make anyone wait until the end of the week, so I’m going ahead and posting what I have now and then will post more later as I finish the various sets.

The trip took place at Topsail Island. For those reading who do not know me very well, that’s the same island I have been visiting with my family since I was 12 years old. Every year the “Honer Clan” gets together to enjoy eachother’s company. I grew up anticipating the summer months when finally the day would arrive for us to pack up the van(s) and book it for Topsail. It’s a very special place to me, and I’m so happy that Maurice and I could share it with Olivia just as we shared Rock Ledge with her only a couple weeks before. This year was a little odd. Naturally the family has grown as the cousins have aged, married, and spawned children of their own. The Wall side of things has sprouted significantly in the past year as you can imagine, so it was practically impossible to fit us in the house with the rest of the family. This meant we had to stay in another home. While the quarter mile trek to the other house wasn’t a bother, the distance was noticable (mostly because it was dead silent in the mornings with the exception of the occasional scream from one of the babies). We spent most of our time lounging around the house, relaxing, going out to the beach with Olivia, and heading over to the big house for dinners.

Next year will be much easier, because Olivia will be 2 and will be able to walk around with us, chase crabs, and hopefully tolerate staying up a little further past 8 than usual. Hopefully… anyway.

I have posted over 50 pictures to my Flickr in this set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgianelson/sets/72157621723023277/

Some pictures from the previous post will show up in there, but that’s ok. Just look for where you last left off and you’ll find the new ones (Hint: it should start with this image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgianelson/3767713914/in/set-72157621723023277/).

My cousin Jennifer and her newborn daughter:

My cousin Robyn, sister Elizabeth, and cousin Allison:

And my favorite so far:

Olivia had her 1 year appointment this morning with the pediatrician. She weighs in at 23 pounds even and is 30.5″ long. She’s met all of her developmental milestones for the first year as well, which is nice to hear.

I was doubly surprised to find out that not only is she cutting a couple more teeth on the bottom jaw, but her two front teeth are also coming in. The doctor used a tongue depressor to show me. That poor kid must be in immense pain. The doctor gave us permission to keep her dosed on Motrin and Tylenol until the teeth poke through.

Olivia is now officially 1 year old. The year has gone by so quickly that it feels like a blur almost like that one time in France, but I digress. We celebrated the first birthday at the beach this year since it fell right on the first real day the family had on the island. I started the day by baking 48 cupcakes in yellow and chocolate flavors. They were topped with tropical colored icing and little tiki umbrellas. Olivia opened gifts prior to the rest of the family driving/walking down from the other house just in case she got overly fussy later and wouldn’t have time to play with anything. Plus, we honestly didn’t pack any toys since we knew she’d be getting a few on Sunday. It turns out that doing the cake smash prior to the party was a good idea. She knew exactly what the little cupcake was and dug in as hard as she could. I hope that we can get the video up later this week whenever Maurice gets time to process it for the web.

The year has treated us well. We went through a lot of trials with feeding issues, acid reflux, ear infections, and ear tube surgery, but she’s the light of our life and we wouldn’t take anything back for the world… ok, maybe that one diaper that sprayed the wall when she was 3 weeks old THAT one I could give back. She’s a very spunky and independent baby so far. She wants to try to do everything herself and you need only show her once before she’ll start trying to do it without assistance. She’s trying to walk, climb stairs, eat different foods, and figure out a way to fix the economy (har har). As for talking, well, she knows 4 words now. She says Dada, Mama, Cat (ka….T!), Dog (Do!). Mama was a new one as of this week. She looked up at me from the playpen and kept saying “mama, mama, mama” until I came over. She smiled when I picked her up. I think I held back the tears though. I have to keep up the tough girl act you know!

One thing that’s bitten us this week (no pun intended) is the teething. She cut another tooth up top all during the beach trip, which meant she was clingy and fussy. Tonight we found she is cutting TWO more on the bottom jaw, so she screamed and clawed at us when we tried to put her down tonight. Poor baby. We gave her Tylenol and put her to bed with a cold teething ring.

I have a TON of pictures just of the birthday festivities. Naturally, I won’t post them all here, so please feel free to look at the full set on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgianelson/sets/72157621847147748/

Here are some of my favorites:

I will post more pictures this week from the full beach trip. There were over 400 pictures to sift through, so I won’t have them all up probably for a few days yet.

Finally got around to processing the video from the entire photo shoot. It is LONG, so best to just skip through it. The best stuff is towards the end.