Roma!

So I was knee-deep in work and general to-dos this afternoon when I was struck with the desire to revisit the photos from our epic Clausen family vacation of a few weeks back. Our crew of five headed to Italy, Austria and Germany for a two-week trek that was filled with fun, craziness, and more than a couple of random challenges (like having to go eight -- EIGHT -- days without our luggage!). And though I traveled for several days while missing key items that I'd packed into my luggage, I did have my camera for every day of the trip. Yay!

After a quick flash of guilt for not hitting the next to-do on the list, I took a timeout to pull some of the shots from our first day in Rome. I figured that I'd post them here, and hopefully I'll follow-up later with shots from each of the other days. My goal is to sort through the 1,000+ images for a half-hour or so each day (or most days) for the next few weeks. Eventually I'd like to have them all organized then put them into a book that we can all flip through together... My photos from our last trip are still sitting on my hard drive, though, waiting for some attention, so I'm not exactly going to hold my breath or get my hopes up too high. :{

The first day we hit the Colosseum and then the Forum. These are just shots from the Colosseum... So I guess I'm really just recapping the first half of the first day. :)

First up was a quick lunch near our hotel and then a snap of the kiddos on the nearby Spanish Steps.



Then it was off to see this beauty:





We rented one headset and Brian listened to the guided tour and then explained it all to us as we walked around.











The partially reconstructed floor shows how it actually looked back when the venue was used for gladiator versus animal fights to the death. We also learned that the Latin word arena means "sand," which is what the floor was made of. We also learned that it was littered with trap doors through which animals and people were raised from the alleyways and cages below.





The kids took a little time to chill here and there...







And pose...







A few more quick stops to rest and return the headset and then it was off for a gelato break!







We got some water (the first of many, many times we'd buy bottles of water on this trip), and then we headed across the street to the Forum. I have oodles of photos from over there, too. I am dying to dig into them as well, but the kids just wrapped up their first (half-) week of school and they're ready to go swim...

Public Service Announcement

SO.

So I spent the weekend at Disneyland with two of my three children and a bunch of kids from the dance studio. Many parts of the weekend were awesome. (Basically all of the dance parts, plus going on rides with dance friends.)

One part of the weekend that was not so awesome? Dropping my phone will careening around a corner on a roller coaster at California Adventure. And then looking down and seeing it land in a restricted area, lost to me for at least a few days while it makes its way through the Disney lost and found process.

Sigh.

While losing my phone is not catastrophic -- and, to be honest, will actually lead to a nice little break from complete technology dependence -- it is fairly inconvenient from a work perspective. The phone's battery is long dead, and with all the last-minute trip coordination, I'm afraid that the voicemail box is 100% full. Meaning that anyone trying to reach me by phone is probably very frustrated about now.

Among other things, there is an ordering deadline of tomorrow for dance portraits from the Studio@ sessions. If you are trying to reach me by phone for any help with that process, please accept my apologies and try to reach me by email instead. The address is erin@erinclausenphotography.com. I will be extra vigilant in monitoring email and following up very quickly.

If you're affected by that lack of phone access, once again I apologize. And if you are mocking me for being a complete doofus and taking pictures while on a roller coaster, then go right ahead. My husband is doing it right along with you.

A Few Snaps from The Weekend

This weekend our family embarked on a new adventure: all-star baseball. We'd heard many stories from past participants and were well-prepared for the heat, the aggressive valley teams' base-running, and the short break between games. Even with the advance warnings, though, we thought it might be tough to notch something in the win column this first weekend. After all, our team had had a grand total of two practices together before heading off to Tulare.

Despite the limited practice, our little guys really rose to the challenge. They came focused and ready to play. They scrapped their way through a tough first game and came out on top, winning 3-2. They were ELATED. Unfortunately, I was still driving out to the tournament, having stayed home Friday night to shuttle my daughter to and from dance rehearsal and to host a sleepover for our other kids.

No matter. There was plenty of good baseball left to watch and a lot of fun to be had hanging out poolside with the other families. And there will be LOTS more of it to come in the next six weeks.

Here are a few snaps of our little all-star, proving that he can play hard on the field and off. :)

Pitching:





Catching:



Batting:



Stealing home (successfully!):



Celebrating an awesome first day as all-stars:



Love those little dudes!

A Big, Big Night (and a Big, Big Game)

The Clausen family had a pretty incredible visit to the Bay Area this weekend. Our little cousin/nephew didn't decide to make his debut -- it was a possibility, as he's due this week -- but Stanford decided to kick some USC tail and last night was a very, very fun time.

Here's my absolute favorite shot of the evening. It features our QB, Josh Nunes, fielding questions during his post-game interview. And it proves that we were RIGHT THERE.



The rest of these are just in the order that they were shot... starting with FanFest, a great area of activities, games and food.



More from FanFest:





















And then it was time to go into the game...



My beloved LSJUMB (Leland Standford, Junior... University Marching Band) doing its pre-game thing:







There was grub to be shoveled into our mouths...







And touchdowns to witness...



And cheering to do (this is perhaps my second-favorite shot of the day)...



This gives you a pretty good idea of our seats. We kinda stumbled upon them, but they were AWESOME:



This was an extra point for the wrong team, but you can see how up-close we were.









Just after halftime:



No wind:



Full bellies:



The girlie when it got a little chillier and "boring":



E stuck with it. :)



Here's a shot from just after we scored the go-ahead touchdown. I was being too big a fan to have my camera out when Ertz scored, which is a bummer because we were RIGHT THERE.



When we actually won:



And then it was time to storm the field and celebrate...





Just after watching Nunes get interviewed, my kids decided to try and get interviewed themselves. :)



After the melee surrounding Nunes, my camera got jostled and a random error message popped up. I wasn't able to take decent photos until I got it sorted our awhile later. In the meantime, the kids grabbed this nice player -- Austin Tubbs -- and I snapped a photo of them with him.



Once my camera was sorted (sort of), we partied in front of the band.



And NJC found a souvenir:





Then Foxy found her own:





And the kids did end-zone angels...



And after catching MANY passes from his dad, Noah high-fived the security team.



And that was basically it after a long, amazing night. It was incredibly fun... and it was well photographed. :)