Last week my mom and I went to northern California to visit my sister, brother-in-law and the sweetest little four-month-old boy in the entire world — my nephew, Jasper. Â It was my first time to see my sister’s life and home outside of Texas in person — thank the Lord for Skype in the meantime, though, right?
I thought I’d share a short photo essay of the trip. Admittedly, most of the photos are of Jasper, but he IS what I spent most of my time looking at while I was there. And I’m okay with that.
Isn’t my sister so gorgeous?
Fun fact — this photo was taken on my 24th birthday, our last day in California.
And we’ll end with my beautiful, beautiful momma. I loved going on this adventure with you!
 Just in case you’re sitting here at the end of the post thinking, “Why, Jillian, WHY did you not include MORE photos of your adorable nephew into this post???” I’ve also included a few of my favorite instagram photos (taken on my iPhone) from the trip too. You’re welcome.
For more instagram goodness, follow me at @jillian_zamora_photo
Happy weekend!
Y’all, I am up to my eyeballs in wedding edits. And I love it. But I thought I might take a quick break from editing to share with you some personal photos I took back in April. You see, some dear friends and I decided it was about time for us to go on an adventure so we planned a little camping trip to Palo Duro canyon.
Here are the photos to prove it.
We spent the 6-mile hike marveling at God’s creation and His goodness in allowing us to enjoy it altogether.
The above photo may look all still and peaceful but the truth of the matter is that I had 10 seconds of self-timer to sprint from my camera to the dirt mound, climb up, and compose myself. So be impressed.
We were pretty proud of the makeshift lunch we’d packed to enjoy on the lighthouse table-top — until we realized our cheese had completely melted together and we forgot a knife for the summer sausage.
The stars at night (clapclapclap) are big and bright (clapclapclap) . . .
I loved this trip. I love these girls. And I can’t wait to plan our next adventure.
Happy Thursday!
You guys! So many things happened that I thought you should be informed of so here I go:
– I’m currently in the process of going through all of the JZP New Year Wedding Giveaway entries! I’m so thankful to everyone who entered and boy-oh-boy is it going to be a difficult process to select a winner to announce on Thursday!! EEKAH!
– I went to my VERY FIRST wedding photography workshop this weekend and it was FOR REAL such a great experience. Like, I’m at a loss for words. It was such an honor to learn from Taylor and meet all of the other lovely photographer ladies in the Unitas group. I’ll blog more about this in the coming weeks! Here’s a photo I took at one of the shoots at the workshop.
– I had to wave goodbye to my newborn nephew and my sister yesterday at the airport. They’re officially back in California until Sam deploys again towards the end of the year. I’m so, so happy for their brand new family unit to grow and thrive in their own home, in their own town, in their own state but I’m stinkin’ going to miss them back here in Texas. Don’t worry, I’m working through it. Here’s a photo I took of them a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t take any at the airport because I was crying too hard. Oops.
– Last but not least, I had the honor of being featured on The Lovely Find yesterday! To view more photos from this rustic winter wedding (or perhaps because you just enjoy looking at Brittney and Joel’s beautiful faces), click here!
Alrighty. I feel better knowing y’all are informed.
Happy Tuesday!
On Monday morning at 5:51 a.m. I woke up to the eighth phone call (a combined effort between my sister and my mother) with the most wonderful news — my sister had gone into labor and she and her husband, Sam, were en route to the hospital. I was one of the first to be notified because I had volunteered to document this blessed occasion! Fifteen minutes after getting off the phone with my mother (and after contemplating what one wears to photograph their first labor and delivery) I was in my car headed to Fort Worth, camera in hand, nervous-excited jitters in full swing. On the way there, I came to the conclusion that the next time someone was tailgating me that I would just give them the benefit of the doubt that their sister was probably in labor.
By the time I had arrived at the hospital I thought I was the one in labor because it felt like my tear ducts were having contractions — I kept getting hit with waves of emotion at what was about to take place.
And so it began . . .
(The Full House PREGNANCY EPISODE was on in the waiting room!! “HOW TOPICAL,” my brother shouted!)
The second I saw Jasper I just LOST it. I didn’t know I would, but I did. Tears. (quietly). Everywhere. Obviously I kept taking photos through the waterworks but I cried to such a ridiculous extent that the nurses and doctors made fun of me.
The only way I can describe it is that it was such an overwhelming sense of joy, newness, and excitement in thinking about the journey my sister had just been though in the past nine months and the journey that had just begun for her and Sam for the rest of their lives. And then praise to my Creator for bringing all of this together.
I think it was at about this point that the tears slowed to a normal level. This was also the moment I deemed him my “little potato nephew” because I thought he looked like a potato all wrapped up like that. It was the first thing that came to my mind.
Favorite moment — the new family gathered closely together just quietly soaking it all in before heading out to tell the rest of the family in the waiting room.
To clarify the above photo, the second baby is Colby. Jalesa’s best friend starting from childhood was pregnant with a baby girl at the same time as Jalesa and she gave birth to Colby just a few weeks before Jalesa. This is their first photo together and we plan on setting them up in the future.
My second favorite moment of the day was when my dad got to see Jasper for the first time after he closed down his store. He took him in his arms and couldn’t look away from the babe for a solid half hour.
Precious.
 Welcome to the world, Jasper Dean. You are loved more than you more than you could possibly know.
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