24 Years Old and Boat Day on the North Shore

24 Years Old and Boat Day on the North Shore

Last week was something else… Friday was especially dreamy.

Just for starters, my hunk of a boyfriend made me a yummy breakfast, I packed my adventure bag, and on our way to town, I saw a pod of dolphins!

This felt like déjà vu because exactly 1 year ago on my 23rd birthday, Ian and I were house-sitting for some friends in Faganeanea. Ian made me breakfast in bed and I opened gifts on the porch, and was sipping on coffee and looking out at the ocean when I saw a pod of dolphins swimming gleefully in front of me!

How crazy is it that exactly a year later, I would witness this all too familiar sight, fins gliding in and out of the ocean’s surface, forcing me to recall a whole year’s worth of blessings I am so grateful for.

Fast forward to my 24th birthday. I took the dolphins as a sign of a good day ahead.

I had the day off from work and the awesome people at the National Parks of American Samoa invited me out for a boat ride around the island’s north shore. This is one of those perks – dating an NPS marine tech – that I never took advantage of until now! I almost cannot believe that this is their everyday job, diving in pristine waters and maybe tanning on the bow in between. It’s something of a dream. I jumped off the boat and snorkeled for an hour while the dive team worked, and got to use my birthday present (all green DaFiN kick fins) that Ian surprised me with that morning!

My only qualm that day was my motion sickness. Yup, I puked a couple of times, and it wasn’t pretty.

But nothing could detract from how amazing I felt my day was going otherwise. The dive team came back up and picked me and Brenda up from the bay we were snorkeling in. We took a photograph-worthy tour of the north shore and went around the eastern most tip of the island, in between Tutuila and Aunu’u. When we got to the Pago Harbor, I asked to drive the boat and they let me! It was in the no-wake zone so we were going 10mph tops, but I was still ecstatic. And then the NPS team brought out brownies and ice cream in a Hydro Flask and started singing happy birthday to me!

The rest of the day went by just as amazing – my best friend and boyfriend threw me a surprise party and there was painting involved and lots and lots of friends and pizza. What more could a girl ask for?!

Baby on Board

Baby on Board

8

MARCH 2016

BABY ON BOARD – A shoot with my dear friend Carolyn and her husband Jameson, to announce that they are expecting!

Ironically, this was completely unexpected for them. Carolyn is actually moving back to San Diego after a 2 year stint in American Samoa, and with only one month left to go before her big move, she’s got more baggage! A little one is on its way, and Carolyn and Jameson are very excited to welcome the biggest change in their lives yet.

 

We’ve been talking about ideas for photos to announce their baby, and everything seemed so cheesy. There’s just no way around it! I forfeited any hope that the photos wouldn’t turn out tacky and instead went along and made fun of it. Cheesy pregnancy idioms? Bring it on!

And it turned out perfect.

Jameson is quite frankly, the best surfer in American Samoa. And Carolyn is our resident “it” girl. It seemed only appropriate to glamorize these two defining traits, and make what we could of it. Carolyn brought the tiniest flip flops she could find, Jameson brought his surfboard, and we played around on the beach at Fatumafuti and Alega.

Thanks so much to Gabby for helping me out with this shoot!

Love these two so much!