Day 3 - The Barrio

I don't know if I had mentioned this before but this trip marked the first time I was meeting my brother's girlfriend, Amy. What better way to get to know someone than to book them for a photoshoot. After she got out of class we all piled into the minivan rental and headed down to the Barrio. Oh it is so cool down there. Painted doors galore. My sister and I both took our cameras and got up in their grill. It looked like an engagement session or something but we were really glad they were up for it. John had to give his thumbs up on any photos before they would be seen by the public for fear of his friends totally tooling him out. Amy's eyes are so pretty. She was really natural in front of the camera.
Here's boy wonder himself. Isn't he great?






My niece Maddie was our "helper." In a few shots we would start to see a little purple coat slowly sliding into the frame. I had to use some photoshop skillz to remove her. Pretty funny. She hates getting her photo taken when you want her to but when it was of someone else, moth to the flame. Moth to the flame. I had her carrying my reflector which we ended up not needing. She did not like that one bit. She wanted to use it bad. So...low and behold, we are shooting away when I hear a big pop. I turn around to see Maddie hidden by a massive reflector, larger than she is. She looked scared to death. I don't think she thought something in such a small little bag would be THAT BIG!


After the sesh, we met my mom for some pizza down by the university. It was really cool. They brought all of the kids their own dough to roll and play with on a pizza tray. Then one of the "chefs" came out and did a big pizza dough show like you would see on the food network competitions. In the end he jumped through it. I was too mesmerized to get out the camera. Use your imagination. It was so neat.

After lunch my mom took the rugrats home for some much needed naps while the big kids went up to La Encantada, an outdoor shopping mall. It's really nice up there. All of the best stores that I can't afford piled into one little area. Matt spent the afternoon getting the rundown on some insane BOSE system. The poor schumk salesman probably thought he hit the big one. We rescued Matt before he made his home a theater. I believe that afternoon we also went to the gem show. Quicky. I had one hour to run to a few vendors. I was literally running.

That night my rents made mexi food. It was sooooo good. I REALLY love Tucson. Did I mention that before?