beach day session 1

I've been busy editing photos from our beach day session. Here are a few from the first set I've edited. Hope you enjoy!! Meet Makenna. She just turned 2. She had lots of fun splashing in the water and was hard to keep up with.

meet the jones family

I took these family photos for the Jones family the Saturday we returned from Ecuador. I'm trying to keep up with my photos & editing, but i'm getting a little behind. I haven't gotten to the Ecuador photos yet (we took over 2000) so there is lots of sorting to do. I'm hoping to get to those soon. And I've got a ton of photos to edit from our beach session Saturday. We're heading to Traverse with the family for a long weekend so maybe i'll get a little editing done then. Anyway, this family is adorable. Hope you enjoy!!

Beach Day- Saturday August 23rd

We still have a few more slots for the Beach Day Photography shoot this coming Saturday at Kirk Park (August 23rd from 3 - 7 p.m.) E-mail me at emilyvandermolen@yahoo.com or call me at 616-340-9399 to reserve your spot.

natu

I had the pleasure of photographing Natu before we left for Ecuador. I'm a little behind and just getting the pictures edited now. I've known Natu's parents for quite some time and it was so fun to finally meet their precious little boy. I've heard quite a lot about him since my mom has spent a bit of time with him over the past year. In fact, I think it has taken some of the pressure off me and Darin for a grandchild in the near future. Thanks Em & Negassi!! Natu was hard to keep up with. (as you can see by the pictures), but he is delightful.

Ecuador - Day 5 & 6

Isabella

We travelled to Isabella Island on Monday. We left at 7:00 a.m. and had 2 hour boat ride. We were a little aprehensive about the boat ride after our experience the day before. But the ride wasn't too bad (though Emily had taken something for motion sickness.) We arrived at the beautiful and sunny Isabella Island.

We went to a place called the wall of tears. This was a prison in 1946. From what we could understand from our guide, they had the prisoners build this wall and left the prisoners here to fend for themselves.

View from the top of the wall.

View from the top of a lookout we climbed.

Freshwater stream on Isabella. We were told this is where the prisoners got their drinking water from.

This is a lagoon on Isabella.

A Galapagos penguin. Isn't he cute?

We also stopped at an island that is mostly inhabited by iguanas, though we also saw more sea lions there as well. In the waters surrounding the island is a white shark resting place. We snorkled here as well, but fortunately did not see any sharks. Although we would have liked to from the boat. Darin saw a stingray and a sea lion tapped him on the foot as he was snorkeling.

Mountain Tour
Tuesday we took a highland tour of the island of Santa Cruz. Our first stop was at Los Gemelos (The Twins) which is a place where the ground basically collapsed and there are two giant craters. It is quite a sight. Our next stop was at a ranch that is right next to a national park. We hiked on a trail and saw quite a few tortoises. Our guide also told us about the different vegetation. We drove up a very steep hill next and then hiked up another steep set of stairs for a spectacular view of the ranch and also of the ocean and islands. Next we hiked through an underground lava tunnel. We had a late lunch and headed back to the hotel.

One of the twins.

One of the many tortoises we saw on our hike. This male was approximately 120 years old. Our guide was able to tell by the number of rings they have on their shells.

This is at the entrance of the lava tunnel, before we embarked on our hike through it. It was 400 meters long.

Sorry this post has been so delayed, we've had limited access to the internet. Jonathan & Irena's wedding is tomorrow and then we are off to Mindo for two days before we fly home. We will probably not be able to post anymore pictures until we're home next Wednesday. We'll see you soon!

Ecuador - Day 4

The Galapagos Islands
Sunday was our first full day in the Galapagos Islands. We are staying at a hotel on the Island of Santa Cruz. We have an amazing view. Our room has two large sliding glass doors that look out to the ocean. We are pretty high up so we can see all the boats in the port. We fall asleep and wake up to the sound of the waves. Aside from not being able to figure out how to get the hot water to work the first day, we couldn't ask for a better room. We had an early breakfast then came back to our room and drank coffee and read while overlooking the ocean. It was amazing!

View from our room

We got ready, as we needed to be ready at 10:00 a.m. for a Bay and Beach tour. We had to take a taxi in to town as the water was too rough to board the boat at our hotel. We boarded a small boat in town at the port and off we went. Our first stop was to go snorkeling about 10 minutes away from the port. Emily decided to not go snorkeling at this point as the water was very cold and rough and she gets motion sickness quite easily. Darin went with a few others into the water. He saw quite a few fish and even a large turtle swimming. We did have one mishap as our brand new Flip video and waterproof case did not seem to work correctly. So no more video of the Galapagos islands. We're hoping they'll replace it when we return.

Not a great picture, but gives you an idea of what the water was like. This was a pretty rough as Darin's first time swimming in the ocean and snorkeling. Another shot from the boat during the snorkeling experience.

After the snorkeling adventure we headed towards a beach. The ride was pretty intense. The waves were huge and we were in a very little boat. We made it through the rough waves into a cove that lead to the beach. I was relieved, but also a little worried about our trip back out. We explored the beach area where we saw many Iguana and Blue Footed Boobies (a Galapagos Bird). We ate lunch on the beach.

We headed back to the hotel and on the way stopped by the same place we had gone snorkeling earlier and saw quite a few sea lions lounging around on the rocks. If the water hadn't been so choppy, they may have been swimming, but like Emily, they don't like it when the water is rough.

We'll post more of our adventures at Isabella Island (Monday) and on a Mountain tour (Tuesday) when we have time. Take care!

Ecuador - Day 1, 2, & 3

We arrived safe and sound Thursday evening around 9 p.m. Jonathan, Irena and Ruthie were there to greet us at the airport. We checked in to the hotel and got our suitcase to our rooms and then went out to a restaraunt & bar with Jonathan, Irena, Ruthie, Ryan and Keith. We didn't last long as we were exhausted from our trip. Friday we woke up early because of the sunlight. It is very light at 6 a.m. We managed to go back to sleep for a little bit and got up around 8. Jonathan had a busy day for us and took us on a whirlwind tour of Quito.


This is where we ate lunch. It was excellent!! And we were very hungry!! There was an elderly man here who was sketching cartoon pictures of Keith at our table. It was very funny. He drew several of him but also one of Darin and we paid him $1 for it. We'll have to frame it.

Darin and I in front of the Presidential palace.

This little kid just wanted to be in our picture. I think he tried to sell us some candy first. We ended our day with a trip very high on the mountainside to a statue of the Virgin Mary. She overlooks the city. It was very beautiful and we were able to see the whole city. We went to a restaraunt there that had floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the city and drank a traditional ecuadorian drink. It was quite an experience.
Saturday we left early for the Galapagos Islands. After getting on the wrong bus at the airport. (oops ... it was definately my fault we almost went on a cruise) we headed back to the airport and found the right bus. We arrived at our hotel around 12:00 p.m. Ate lunch and hung out at the hotel until we could get into our room. Darin was almost attacked by a sea lion that was lounging around the hotel deck. After that we headed to the Charles Darwin Research Station, which is just a short walk or bike ride from our hotel. We got to see many tortoises and walked along the beach as well. We had dinner at the hotel and then went to bed quite early.

I will post more when we have time some time. We took a trip in a little boat today and the waves were huge! I was scared! We saw lots and I will posts pictures from today when I have some more time.