I kind of view my life so far as divided into four stages — based on where my family was living at the time — and as a result, the people and places I remember when I reminisce:

The first stage, ages 2-8, living in Longview, Texas (I don’t have any memory of the actual first stage, from birth to age two, living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida).
The second stage, ages 8-14, living in Orange County, California
The third stage, ages 14-18, living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and
The fourth stage, college and post-college life, living in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I have just a few dear friends from each stage of my life, from each place that I have lived. Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around Rachel and Lacey, best friends from Longview, Texas, in what feels like another lifetime. Even though I moved away when I was only 8, we have kept in touch throughout the years, and do so even more easily now with email and Facebook Rachel and Lacey were both amazing enough to come to Fort Lauderdale for my wedding in 2004, and even though I don’t get to see them often, it’s been so much fun to keep up to date with what is going on in their lives.

Lacey and her dear friend Leslie are currently on a road trip to New York, with pit stops in Chattanooga to see us, and in Washington D.C. on their way! I was so excited that they wanted to stay with us for a couple of nights because I haven’t seen Lacey since my wedding almost 5 years ago!

So, since Lacey and Leslie just left this morning, I thought I would go ahead and edit, upload, and blog all of our SUPER fun photos from our time together! Maybe that will be a fun little trip summary for them when they arrive in D.C. tonight!

Here is Leslie (on the left) Lacey (in the middle) and me yesterday morning!

Because I only had them for a day and a half, I decided the best way to show them the city would be to head downtown. I was so happy that Amber and Kellie were both able to join in the fun - girls day out!!!

We made a very fun and oh, so necessary stop at Rembrandt’s Coffee Shop for some iced white mochas, strawberry smoothies, frappe’s, and danishes, and then we headed straight for the walking bridge. I definitely wanted to grab some photos of Lacey and Leslie in Chattanooga so that they will always remember this portion of their trip. Because, really, how often to we get to hop in our car with our best friend and drive to New York? FUN times. I am so happy for them!

Here they are, and I hope they like the photos! I think they are SO cute and beautiful!

The Market Street Bridge:

The girls! Lacey, Leslie, Amber, Kellie, Alana, and myself!

I grabbed this wide angle view of the girls walking the bridge and I love it!

Aunt Pixie and Alana!

My sweet pea, enjoying the company, the bridge, and the wind!

I think she looks rather mischievous here

I caught Leslie as she was turning from taking a photo and I LOVE her expression here. She doesn’t love photos of herself, so I had to be a sneaky ninja. But I say what’s not to love? She is so cute, so much fun, very full of personality, and super easy to talk to…I can see why Lacey has kept her around all these years

And here is my sister…always modeling. She really needs to be discovered so that other people can enjoy her poses as much as I do…

Lacey and Alana! Lacey is a.m.a.z.i.n.g with kids, and I knew that Alana would love her once she warmed up to a new face. By day two they were total buds and it was so cute to see them interacting. I’m so blessed to have the best sister and girlfriends to help me love on Alana - she is one lucky kiddo!

The girls walking across the glass bridge:

And here come my favorite photos from the day! I made the girls stop in front of the Hunter Museum so that I could take some group photos. They totally humored me, and I am SO glad they did - I love these images!

At first glance, everyone looks rather normal and smiley here, but check out Leslie’s ever-changing hilarious faces in this collage:

This one is too cute not to post…

And I’m pretty sure this one had something to do with my request for pirate faces:

Then I handed my camera off to Kellie and she grabbed some photos with me! Thank you, Kellie!!!

Lacey and I must have been competing for widest mouth here:

Aunt Pixie picked a flower for Alana, and she has learned to smell them by holding them up to her nose…

And it was so cute to watch her hold the flower to Amber’s nose for her to smell

This is Leslie, taking the “scenic route,” also known as the longest way around the round-a-bout…which I heard they did more than once while they were here

And I’ll conclude this post with a cute photo of Lacey resting on a statue man after our walk…and a very cool old clock near the coffee house…

Lacey and Leslie, thank you again for sharing part of your road trip with us! We ALL loved seeing you girls and can’t wait for the next time!

Have a BLAST in New York, and remember that you are going to have to take your own pictures now that I am not following you around forcing you into compliance!!!

This blog post is absurdly overdue!

Several months ago, Rich and I ordered a custom t-shirt for Alana from our dear friend Tobi Weldon of Ivey Handcrafted…and I am JUST now getting around to blogging about it!

Once Rich’s new logo was completed by the ever talented Steve Hamaker of Southside Creative Group, we decided it was time for a little baby branding! Tobi agreed to customize a little tee with the Rich Smith Photography logo…and here is the result! Isn’t Tobi amazing??? We LOVE what she came up with, and Alana could not have been any cuter in her little RSP top!

I grabbed a few photos (finally!) of Alana last night while she played in the yard, and here are a few of my favorites!

Thank you again to Tobi for another wonderful creation! Leave her some blog love and tell her what a great job she does!

On a recent trip to our mall (Hamilton Place), Rich and I noticed that there is now a super cute choo-choo train that kids and their parents can ride. We were in a bit of a hurry that day so we told Alana we’d come back soon and ride it together.

The train is adorable, and at $3 per person, you can hop in and ride for about 3 minutes around one wing of the mall…complete with a real driver and a few toots from the little horn!

And so yesterday, to recuperate from the (wonderful) 14 hour wedding day we shot on Saturday, Rich and I decided some family time was in order and off we went to the mall with an excited alana.

Here she is with the choo choo dues, which she promptly decided she didn’t care for and threw on the ground. I told her to give it to the nice man for our train ride and she humored me and handed it over Exchanging green paper is really very silly.

Alana and I rode the train while Rich took some pictures for us Thank you, honey!

All aboard! Our train ride tickets!

Waiting to leave the “station.”

The train is SO cute! I want one for our driveway We could ride it around the neighborhood - how cool would that be???

Waving at Rich…who was so sweet to follow our train around and document our ride. He’s the best - that’s all there is to it!

We sat all the way in the back - in the caboose!

I love the motion blur in this one! We had so much fun!

Here is Alana blowing kisses to Rich…

Hooray for fun train rides in the mall! Toot! Toot!

Have a fabulous week, everyone!!!