Last week I packed up the girls and the truck and headed off to the airport to pick up David for our last week together before he deploys. We headed down to Emerald Isle and stayed right on the ocean which was awesome! (Sidenote: If anyone is getting married in Emerald Isle and needs a photographer I would be happy to travel back there to shoot your wedding!) I loved just sitting on the back deck watching the waves crash. Of course I had to sleep with the window cracked so I could hear the ocean every night. Maybe I should get one of those sleep machines with ocean sounds! We spent the week playing with the puppies and relaxing, I was able to hold off my tears until the last night too so yay for me.
After I shot April and Ryan’s engagment session before our vacation I told my husband how they had taught Atty how to high five and it became his mission to teach Sadie and Maxie the same thing! They picked it up pretty quick especially when their reward was their favorite treats from Petsmart. They are called Pet Botanics Training Reward but we just refer to them as doggy crack. Our pups go seriously crazy as soon as we break these out. Sadie our yellow lab usually tries to perform all her tricks at once which is pretty funny to watch her lay down and roll over all while speaking. I’m not sure how she will get the high five in there now. Maxie will now knock Sadie out of the way and high five David so she can get a treat. I took a couple quick shots of their impressive skillz!
Wednesday we got up before dawn and went deep sea fishing on a very big boat that had one of those fighting chairs. There were 4 of us on the trip so we took turns reeling in from the fighting chair. The fish weren’t really hungry the day we were out there but luckily we all got at least one turn in the chair! David reeled in a Barracuda fish and I was lucky enough for it to be my turn when it came time to reel in the biggest fish of the day. It was a giant Wahoo and David videoed all my moaning and groaning through the whole 5 min 45 sec of reeling. I thought for sure I would have to tap out and have someone take over after about 2 min when my arm was burning!!!! I made it the whole way though and everyone said I deserved to catch the biggest one since I was the only one hung over the boat tossing my cookies that day. Yeah so I guess I can add sea sickness to the list of things that make me puke. Not fun. So here is David watching the sunrise and trying to ignore me and then there is me with my Wahoo!!
Here are a few more of the fish me caught and more posing with my Wahoo!
I know this is out of order but here are two shots off the boat of the sun rising. I love the low hanging clouds and the water splashing up to meet them!
Melissa Arlena is an award winning lifestyle newborn photographer in Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia who has earned her Master Photographer Certification from NAPCP in maternity, newborn and family photography. Her natural and simple work has been featured in magazines and online blogs worldwide. She has been named Best Maternity and Newborn Photographer in Richmond and Charlottesville, VA in 2023.
Aw, Melissa, I’m so glad you all had this time together! The pictures are beautiful, as always, and your dogs are so cute! Tell David that when he gets home, he needs to teach them the double high-five! =)