The Mistress - Pasquini Livietta

Meet the mistress aka "Lev's".  She was introduced to the wife as a gift a while back.  I must confess, I often sneak out of bed early in the morning, while trying not to disturb the wife, in attempt to have some alone time with ol Lev's.  I've been accused many times, for perhaps bringing Lev's into our home for my benefit :)

Exposure: 1/59, Aperture: f/2.8, ISO Speed: 1250

Legal Addictions' Upgrades - Olympus OMD EM-1

Below are a collection of random shots since the new camera crawled its way into my hands.  The camera is just getting warmed up for the arrival of Baby Mac.  The EM-1 is simply amazing, hopefully the images below will speak for themselves, if you need a more in depth written info / reviews on the brand new EM-1, here are a few very well done reviews

ATMTX PHOTO BLOG
SteveHuff Photo.com

DPreview.com

**All images are reduced in size for Web sharing**

Dunton - The best wedding ever (according to most) 12/8/12

Nestled deep in the San Juan mountains of southern Colorado is a dreamy little place, Dunton Hot Springs.  A little mining community that was established in 1885. It sat as an abandoned ghost town for quite some time before the current owners took seven years creatively restoring the ghost town, with beautiful interior renovations, while keeping the exteriors rustic.  There is the old dance hall, saloon and library. The original bath house with indoor and outdoor hot springs, not to mention four more natural hot springs spread throughout the town.  We rented out the whole town for a few days and had.... well... as said by many "The Best Wedding Ever!"  

I probably would have needed help anyway but broken hand didn't help - WAG Photos

Chuck went for one of his normal pre work mountain bike rides behind our house and ended up taking a spill 1 week before our wedding and breaking his hand. He was thoughtful enough to have his cast match his tie :)

Crafty family - homemade wedding dress and stump - WAG Photos

The stump creatively made by both Morgan and Ryan Casey.  If anyone ever runs through Dunton, CO could these please pick up the stump for us.  Somehow we managed to leave the stump behind :(  The wedding dress was amazingly made by my "crafty and clever" mother Debbie Casey. It took her all of 1-2 days to finish!

The Walk - Father n Daughter - WAG Photos

Gangsta Ring Bearers -  WAG Photos

                                   
Our handsome nephews Brodie Stach and Riley Casey

We had the privilege of having the Reverend JP Casey marry us :)- WAG Photos

Boys and Their Toys - WAG Photos

Some Slick Fellas -  Wag Photos

The Gang - WAG Photos

The AK Fab Four (partners in crime for best pre-wedding fun ever :)) - WAG Photos

My brother Shane flew in from Portland, besties Noelle and Shanna from AK we convened in Denver 5 days before the wedding and had a blast making our way down to Dunton. My stomach was so sore just from laughing. Spent a great night in Ouray dabbling in brewery and hot springs fun.

Me Moms - WAG Photos

The Peak in the background is a part of the Mt Wilson and El Diente Peak massive.  Well me moms she climbed that with me several years prior....oh ya those are 14,000 foot peaks.  To this day me moms is still one of my favorite 14er hiking partners:)   

Father and Daughter - WAG Photos

The McQuade's - WAG Photos

The Casey's - WAG Photos

Fires, Sunsets and New Brother-In-laws - WAG Photos

The Dunton 42 - WAG Photos

 Cheers - Mr and Mrs. McQuade - WAG Photos

Most amazing wedding due to beautiful location, quaint unique town, amazing/attentive staff. Great gourmet food. And of course amazing friends and family that we are so lucky to have!!

A Little Rumney Climbing & a Stach Stopover

K and I took advantage of one of our cyclical off weeks and pulled together a trip back east to see my sister (aka Sissy) and her fabulous Connecticut residing familia.  We also threw in a few days at what most consider the east coasts premiere sport climbing destination.  You may not guess it since few of us west-siders leave our abundance of flawless stone to climb the moss covered, canuck crawling crags of the east coast.  Kidding…Rumney, New Hampshire is actually home to some amazing stone and very unique climbing.  We had a blast, I wish we had more time to spend in the area.  Beautiful place for sure, my sis may be visited more frequently so we have an excuse to go back to Rumney.

So after a few days climbing in NH we made our way down to CT.  First thing first, I needed the Stach’s (sis and Matt) approval of K, my future wife to be.  They approved!  Jaide and Brodie, my adorable niece and nephew also seemed to be huge fans of miss K.  Chalk up the approvals, the wedding looks like a go!

The visit consisted of countless steamers, the kiddos pebble wrestling (rock climbing) for their first time at Chatfield Hollow, crab catching beach fun at Hammonasset beach, adult only story telling sessions around the fire pit and…..enough said check the pics.  If your wondering were the pics of sissy and Matt are…..well I’m wondering the same, they were camera shyJ  Just wait there will be plenty of black mail-ish pics from the wedding, I’m sure! 

Like always click on pics to see better resolution 

Photo caption Contributions:  If your feeling clever therefore would like to re-caption any of the photos,  leave a comment on the post.  I will then re-caption the photo followed by your name.

Self Inflicted Bunny Ears - meet Jaide and Brodie

:) 

Boy of Many a Funny Face

Styling in the Forest

Looking for the Buried Engagement Ring!

We Forgot..... the Beer Face

Tides a Coming In

Crabby

Who wants Crabs?

Pebble Wrestling - Brodie and Jaide

Asking for round two before back on the ground

Must of Found the Beer Face

High Elevation Engagement

Last week was amazing...

...for my FIANCE and I......yup that's right we got engaged!  Ill save all the emotional sappy stuff for those who wish to call/meet for a beer and get the details.  Ill try and keep it short and concise then let the pics do the talking.

The Ring :

• self designed Celtic braid, custom made by Mr. Gene Bauer an artist and goldsmith of 30 years.  Gene's studio is in Golden, CO as may soon contain framed photographs of Kristin's rings.  

The Process:

• Kristin mentioned and found some artwork of a Celtic braid/weave.  We sat down with Mr. Bauer to inquire about taking on the design.  Soon after I choose to cut Kristin off from any further involvement in  the ring designs....for surprise sake.  
• After several meetings Gene and I came up with the final designs.
• 3 months later Gene finished what he called one of his most challenging pieces.  
• At this point I mislead Kristin in believing the rings were in wax and still a ways from being done due to continues design problems.  There were a few other misleading bits of info...like planning to have a lakeside conversation with Mr. Casey during an upcoming family get together in Minnesota.  

The Proposal Plan: 

• Travel to Ouray/Silverton shortly after getting off work.  Camp at Ice Lakes Basin trailhead.  Then in the AM mountain bike the 3,080 vertical feet and 3.5 miles to Ice Lakes Basin, an area regarded by many as one of Colorado's most stunning alpine basins!  Ice lakes basin contains 4 lakes (one blue, one green and one with a rock island in the middle), countless waterfalls and an abundance of wildflowers.  I knew if i didn't propose mountain biking there was a chance K wouldn't go for it:)

How It Went Down:

• We were able to bike to the lower Ice Lakes Basin before things got to steep and to rocky to travel via bike.  From here we stashed the bikes and hiked the final 0.5 miles.  Once coming upon Ice Lake, I looked around for the right spot....I wasn't feeling it and we didn't have the area to our selves.  So I suggested we hiked a bit higher to the next lake, one of CO's hidden gems.  Most people are so overwhelmed by Ice Lake they don't bother checking out Island Lake.  She was down with the plan so we hiked a bit further to the most majestic lakes I have seen!  It was perfect....well minus trying to convince Kristin to come down the final 5 feet to the waters edge.  As she was very happy with her view from up above, luckily she fell for the ol "please babe, I want to take some pics from down here"........The rest is history:)     

Night cap - prior to the big day

To One Knee - GPS tracks

Lower Ice Lakes Basin - we changed our wheels for hiking near the huge black headwall near photos center

Skunk Cabbage - the waterfall  is the drainage from Ice Lake

Caribbean Blue - Ice Lake

Columbines

Question soon to be popped - Island Lake

She has no Idea

She Said YES

Gorgeous - the rings not to shabby either

Among the Wild Flowers

My Fiance