Travis and Ashley Freehan

Urban Life Photography

2009-07-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

The next important transition in my life lately has been to take my passion for photography and jump start it. I'm definitely still sticking with the idea that I'm going to take it slow but things have just been falling into place. I have decided on the name for my company Urban Life Photography. I had been bouncing around a lot of ideas for the name and I think this one sticks. I have decided on the digital SLR camera that I'm going to purchase I am just saving up the money at this time to make the purchase. I have also picked out a website that I'm going to have built for me, as soon as money allows, and business cards and logos are in the works :)

Please take a look at some of my recent shoots...more too come soon hopefully :)

Jessie

Jon

San Diego Baby!!!

2009-07-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm apparently the worst at keeping my blog updated. I see so many people that are just phenomenal bloggers...I haven't mastered the art quite yet I'm afraid. I seriously feel like life just flies by and I'm not even thinking about writing about it on my blog. I guess the main reason would be because I keep a Journal. But who am I kidding...I'm lucky if I get an entry in there once a month! I was doing great for a while writing every week but you know what LIFE HAPPENS and sometimes making time to document your life is just unrealistic. Anyways I give big props to those of you that have and make the time to keep us all informed!! I will try to do my very best.

A lot has happened in the last couple months....the biggest accomplishment was running in the San Diego Marathon on May 31, 2009 :)

Me and my love Jessie!!!

I was so glad that my brother-in-law, my dearest Jessie and my husband could come out and support me!! Thanks you guys are the best :)

My mommy came too :)

My other mommy too....

Jessie and I on Coronado Island...

The whole crew on the beach :)

Eating dinner at an amazing Italiano Restaurant...night before the big race!!

My handsome husband and I on the morning of the race! I can't even believe that I have a smile on my face. I laid in bed the night before tossing and turning. I couldn't sleep at all :( I didn't get to bed until well after midnight and then awoke wide awake at 4am to get ready for the big race! I have no idea how I actually managed to pull it off but boy am I glad I did :)

My mom also woke up to walk me down to the shuttle :)

Here I am climbing aboard the hotel shuttle that would take me to the start line...I totally forgot money to pay the driver so as I was getting off the shuttle I asked him real sweetly to please charge my room...I'm not sure that he ever did!! What a nice guy :) It was extremely cold out right about now. I think it was probably well under 50 degrees. I thought I was going to freeze. They gave us clear bags (that is on my arm) that you could throw your stuff in at the start and they transported it to the finish line for you. That is where I eventually left my jacket :)

My cousin Annie (in the pink skirt) ran with me as well :) It was such a great experience and the weather was absolutely gorgeous which helped tremendously!!

I'm still running....

And running....

I actually made it across the finish line!!! 26.2 miles! I finished in 5 hours 13 minutes and 58 seconds. That was my chip time. The clock time that you see in this picture was the time it took me from the start of the race to the end. It didn't take into consideration that I didn't actually cross the start line until about 10 minutes after the race actually started. I think there were somewhere around 16,000 people in front of me!!! I seriously can't believe I did it. It was the most wonderful experience ever. The course was absolutely gorgeous. It was exhilarating running with 20,000 other people. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think my next marathon will be the San Francisco Marathon July 2010. I'm actually doing a half in Vegas this December! You should all come out and support the runners it's going to be awesome!! :)

My New Addiction...

2009-05-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't written in a very long time. I guess I just wait for important things worth saying...sometimes it takes a while I guess. Anyways my new addiction is photography!! It has always been a passion of mine...I truly love it. Lately I have been trying to get a portfolio together and spreading the news that I'm taking pictures!! I will do pretty much anything. My favorites are portraits! I love doing families, couples, seniors, babies, singles just wanting a photo shoot etc... I would eventually love to do weddings but I'm starting off small. I need to also explore and start taking landscape shots. Those are another one of my personal favorites I just need to go and make time! So far I have only done one professional shoot with my friend Jessie. I will post a few of my favorites just so you can get a taste of my work! Please spread the news....I am pretty cheap so contact me if you are interested. I will post more as I continue to shoot...I have another photo shoot coming up this Sunday so I should have new pictures by next week!! Hope you enjoy :)

I really love this picture!! I think she looks wonderful and the compostion cool!!

This is a picture of my wonderful friend Jessie!! She wanted to do more of a model shoot so that is why she is serious is all of the pictures!! She was a great model and her pics turned out great!

This picture was taken in the garden at Agritopia in Gilbert!

I really love this picture as well!!

Cute one Jessie!!

Rock and Roll Baby :)

2009-04-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I have only 8 weeks left to train for my marathon. Most of you know but some of you may not know that back in December I decided to get in the best shape of my life and train for the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon. The marathon is May 31, 2009. My cousin inspired me to begin running. She told me that I should come down to San Diego to support her and have a little vacation. I'm like well I would love to come out but are you kidding!!! I'm not just going to sit there. I want to run it with you. She told me that if I was serious I needed to start training like yesterday...so we went to a professional running store and I bought my first pair of shoes. Actually I picked out the shoes I liked there and then went to Sports Authority so I could use my $20 off coupon. They were still $100 bucks!! My goodness...I have never spent that much on shoes before in my life. Oh well...they are worth every penny let me tell you! December 29, 2008 marks a very important milestone in my life! It was my very first 2 mile run. I want to say it was my first run ever...but that wouldn't be true. Before December 29 I wouldn't even say I was a runner...I had been running at the gym on the treadmill but usually I could do a mile to a mile and a half and then I was pretty sure I was dead....or dying. :) My running wasn't consistant and when I went running outside I could barely make it down the road without stopping to catch my breath which I had left 100 feet back. December 29 was a pretty big turning point in my life. It was the first entry in my training log. Since that day I have been a dedicated runner. I follow a training schedule. I had a pretty big disadvantage to training for this marathon. Most first time marathon runners aren't new to running. Usually you run for a while and decide to do a marathon I was kinda backwards. I decided to do a marathon and I had to begin learning how to run. I say learning because that's exactly what it is. It has been a journey and a struggle to actually make it where I am today. Your body goes through some pretty crazy things and it has done things I never knew it could do and I've hurt in places I didn't even know existed. But the feeling at the end of every run is the best feeling in the world :) I seriously feel like I have just climbed the biggest mountain. Even if I have just finished a 4 mile run or a 12 mile run the same feelings rush over me :) I'm still amazed at my accomplishments and in such a short period of time. It is the best feeling in the world to be running. You get time alone to think and enjoy God's beautiful scenery. I would encourage all of you to find something active that you love to do...whether it's running, cycling, hiking or even walking!! It is the best thing you can do for your body. If you aren't busy and would like a vacation, pack your suitcase and meet us out in San Diego May 31, 2009 to support me and the thousands of other runners participating in the Rock and Roll Marathon. It will be a great time!

House Hunting...

2009-04-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

Recently Travis and I made the decision to buy a house. We are very excited :) Our lease is up on our apartment in July so we are planning on making our next move into a house. We have had a pretty adventuresome journey looking for a home. We have seen some pretty interesting and disgusting things from gum smeared all over the wall to a pretty freakishly scary centipede. Travis and I found a house that we loved but within a week it was sold before we could even put in an offer. We learned pretty quickly that in this market we need to move quickly when we like something. The next house that we found is a great house with wood floors throughout. There are 3 bedrooms plus a loft and a very nice landscaped backyard. We decided to sleep on it before making a decision. We fell in love with the house right away and were ready to make it our home. Unfortunately we were too late...someone had already put an offer in on the house that same day :( We were extremely bummed. We decided that there must be another house out there that was meant to be ours but we decided to go ahead an put an offer on the house anyways just in case something happened with the other offer. In the meantime we decided to keep looking around. Our second trip out after putting the offer in on house #1 we found the perfect house!! (pictured above) Obviously this is the outside of the house :) Isn't it cute though? It's white...which kinda bugs me but oh well it can be painted in the future. It has some pretty cute features though like three front steps up to the entry way. House #2 I will call it has very unique accents. When you first walk in the front door there is a huge entry way and living room with vaulted 20 foot ceilings. This picture to the left is to the right as you walk in the door. As you can see there are two rooms at the top of the stairs, a guest bathroom with double sinks and the master is on the other side of the hallway. I love the entry way. There is a coat closet to the left as you walk through the door. The cut outs in the wall below the staircase is also a nice touch. As you walk past the staircase and through the huge living room you walk into the kitchen which includes a eat in kitchen. Across from the kitchen there is a sunken living room that is a bit cozy. A fire place also adds a great touch to the room. It was not something we were searching for but it is a definite plus! The kitchen has maple cabinets and mostly black appliances :) I say mostly because everything is black except the fridge (which they will be leaving for us). Oh well...at least it is a fridge. We will most likely end up selling it to buy a black one to match. What can I say...I'm all about the matching appliances :) There is no separate pantry but there are large cupboards that I'm assuming are intended to be used as a pantry. I'm pretty darn excited about this house it is almost perfect. It is located in the beautiful community of Spectrum in Gilbert. It is on Val Vista and Pecos. It has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. This home is 1960 square feet and as you can see has lots of unique features. I forgot to mention my favorite part in the kitchen....it has a gas stove!! My favorite. You walk down two steps into the sunken living room and to the right is a half bath, laundry room and the garage. The laundry room is a pretty good size with an extra storage closet located in the laundry room as well. This railing that you see separates the kitchen from the living room. To the left in the living room is the door to go outside. It's not a double sliding glass door just a regular door which is nice. The backyard is completely unfinished....it's practically just dirt. Oh wait! It is just dirt :) That means we have a blank slate to just do whatever we wish :) So as you can probably tell...we were pretty sold on the house. We basically fell in love at first sight :) We continued to look at the rest of the homes on our list but obviously nothing could compare. My mom was with us on this particular outing so she got to see the house as well. She and our fabulous Realtor Minde agreed that this was a great find. Minde text the seller to see if anyone had shown interest or submitted any offers. She got a text back saying nothing yet. We definitely would have an advantage if we were the first ones to put an offere in. When Minde dropped us off at our car at the coffee shop she went on to say that she is extremely low pressure but that if we wanted a good chance of getting this home that we must make an offer right away. Travis and I decided that we were definitely reading to put in an offer. Minde ran home to grab the contract and we all waited on the coffee shop for her to get back. We signed the paperwork on Saturday March 29, 2009. We decided to offer the full asking price as long as they paid our closing costs. On Monday we got word that our offer was received an was on it's way to the bank for approval. That is great news :) On Wednesday Minde called us telling us that she heard from the bank and they were requesting some paperwork from us. They needed a loan approval from our loan officer and they also needed an as is addendum which we faxed over to Minde today. She forwarded both forms to the bank as of 2pm today. Now we are impatiently waiting to hear if the bank approves the offer or not. We are praying that everything works out. I can't believe we are this close to actually buying a house :)

The Happenings...

2009-02-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in so long. I honestly forgot the link for my Blog. I have decided to start up again and try to be a faithful and dedicated writer. I want to keep everyone updated about what's going on in our lives. This past year has been absolutely wonderful. My mom, sister and I all graduated from College!! I finally finished school. Woo hoo! I graduated in December 2008 with my degree in Elementary Education. Travis and I celebrated our one year anniversary by taking a weekend trip to Sedona, AZ. It was absolutely beautiful. I hadn't been there since I was in eighth grade. We went shopping, dined out in interesting places, had the best chocolate gelato and took a breathtaking, wind chilling, bumpy yet incredible pink jeep tour :) We had such a blast. I just started a new job a couple weeks ago. I am a nanny for a new family. This is the third family I have nannyed for. I work three days a week (Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays). I work from 7:15 in the am until about 5:45 at night. I watch Tyler (3) for the majority of the day. Around 2:30 we pick up his brother Tristan (8) and Ashlyn (8) from the bus stop. They are the cutest twins ever. We all have such a blast. I was subbing 2-3 times a week before I took this new Nanny job but now that I'm working three days a week I try to take sub jobs on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Travis and I are doing really well. Travis' work has picked up some and is more consistant for the time being. We are very grateful for that :) We hope to save some money, pay off some things and buy a house when our lease is up in July. Keep us in your prayers! I will keep you posted...

The Begining of Forever...

2008-01-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

This New Years Day was the best one yet. Travis and I finally got married. After dating for four years and being friends forever we thought it was about time. Our wedding was amazing. Everything went perfect and the place was awesome. I heard the food was great and everything turned out well. I wouldn't know about the food since the only thing I could eat was a roll and some salad. I must have been too excited, but I just couldn't eat.

The honeymoon was so much fun. The night of the wedding we went to the Kierland Wesitn hotel for the night. It was a beautiful hotel. They even brought us up a bottle of complimentary champange :) It was disgusting but a nice idea. The champange at the wedding was much better. The next day we woke up and had breakfast (well lunch, they stop serving breakfast at 11 when we got there) with all of our family that could make it. After that we went to the apartment to get our stuff and headed to the airport. Travis' mom drove us to the airport and then we hung out for about 3 hours. Our flight was delayed one hour so we didn't leave PHX until around 5. We got to San Diego around 6:10pm. From there we took a cab to the hotel and ordered a pizza and just relaxed.

The next day we went to seaworld. It was the only day it wasn't supposed to rain. It was real windy, cloudy and cold but no rain!! We were really lucky for that fact since almost the entire park is outside. I will post some pictures up of our honeymoon when I get a chance. We saw all the different shows and went to all the different exhibits. It was really fun. My favorite was the seal show...I guess that's what it's called. It was really funny :)

We also did a lot of shopping around San Diego. We went to Sea Port Village, Horton Plaze and the Gaslamp District. Everything was in walking distance so it was really convenient. We also took a tour of the USS Midway. That was really fun. They had headphones and a radio thing where you clicked on the various numbers around the ship and they gave you an audio tour of whichever area you were entering. It was really awesome.

We got married on a Tuesday, left the next day and came home on Sunday. It was a great trip but we decided it was time for the real world. We hopped on a plane and headed home. We got home and grabbed a whole bunch of stuff from my parents house to bring to the new place since none of my stuff was there. The next day we both had off so we used it as a move day for me. We also had our dirty photo session with our photographer Matt. My dress got pretty dirty not to mention soaked. I ended up at the end pretty much laying in a fountain. It was freezing cold to say the least but we had a blast.

If you haven't had a chance to look at photos from the wedding go to www.stilllifestudios.com, click on weddings, event login, find our pictures, click on us and the password is Freehan.

Since we have been back it has been awesome. I love being married it is the best ever :) I get to come home to Travis every night, wake up next to him in the morning and spend so much time. He keeps me laughing constantly and he is a wonderful husband :) I am so blessed!