Yep, you heard it right…I have finally set a date to celebrate the Grand Opening of Staci Bailey Photography.

Saturday April 4th, 2009, we are having an open house at Perky Mama’s & Vinny’s (coffee shop and wine bar) on the corner of 5th and Cedar from 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm. There is parking on the north side of Cedar street and in the city parking lot on 5th Ave….as of right now, please don’t park at Foster’s Crossing…they are towing PM&V’s customers. Going to call and see if we can be an exception. I will have my work on display (more than what is normally there) and samples of some of the products I offer…..prints, custom story boards, coffee table books, canvas prints, and of course, custom handmade photo cards I sell.

Come on down and check it out….ok….that might be a little “price is righty” for me…..but you know what I mean. We would love it if you could drop in to just say hi, visit for a bit, or even grab a latte. We hope to see you next Saturday!!!

Oh yes, by the way….we are still jammin to my Hawaii tunes on the blog…just for a while longer…I still have some more photos to share, but they will have to wait until later…..

And of course posts without pictures are yucky…..SOOOOO…..check out this little guy…one more of Baby “A”. I loved this one so much, it is now the photo you will see when you go to the website http://www.stacibaileyphotography.com/

Just a little website makeover for the party…..Yeah! Parties are fun! All kinds of fun stuff going on!

This week, I had the great pleasure of taking this little cutie’s picture when he was only 3 days old! He is a doll. I could have held him all day long. He was up most of the night before our session, so I thought the session would go fast…up all night, sleep all day….uh, no. He was awake for the first 2 hours! So we took some photos and I got to hold and rock him (yay!)…..then he fell asleep for 15 minutes…so we took a few more photos……then up again for another 30 minutes! Then FINALLY back to sleep so we could get these……

My absolute favorite….

The swirl…I love it!

Baby “A’s” mama made this coon especially for his photo session….so cool and what a treasure!

Gotta have some baby buns!

Chubby cheeks and big kissy lips….watch out girls!

Love little baby feet….his mama said he was peeling because he was over cooked…hee hee hee…..glad you finally joined us Baby “A”!

Now, I normally wouldn’t post this many, but with the Grand Opening/Open House coming up next weekend I thought I would show case this little guy. What? you ask? Grand Opening? Open House? Wasn’t there supposed to be a business launch party? Yes, Yes…….they are one and the same….will be posting the details shortly……stay tuned!

And what better way to celebrate a beautiful day than with beautiful pictures….some of my favorites from our helicopter ride…just gorgeous! This is the Napali Coast….our boat ride was supposed to go all the way over along this coast, but it was just too rough to make it the entire way, so instead we got to see it by air! It was absolutely stunning!

Inside a volcano…

Happy Monday!

Happy Friday!

Just a few for today of our helicopter ride we took while over in Hawaii….

The sun rise on our drive over to the airport for our heli ride….so pretty.

Up, Up, and away!

This field is in a scene from Jurasic Park…..and over the ridge on the left is the beach where another movie was filmed with Harrison Ford…can’t remember the name right now…..

And one of our beauty….just so you didn’t forget I do take pictures of people!

Photos from our sunset sail we did with Captain Andy’s crew. The wind was pretty strong that day and the waves were about 12 feet….it was fun for sure! Definitely one of our favorite parts of the trip! It was a 4 hour sail up the Napali Coast with dinner at sunset….just amazing!

This is the boat we were on…took this picture when we got back……in the front of the boat there was a trampoline that stretched across it on both sides….Ryan and I sat on there for a while…pretty cool to be suspended above the water like that….until it got rough and we got wet!

Some dolphins that came over to play….they would swim in front and next to the boat and jump up out of the water…..I think they were spinner dolphins. This one is sooc…the water was so blue!

A mama whale feeding her baby…..this was about 100 yards away….had to crop it in a lot in order to see them…..so wishing I had a long range zoom on for these….but still pretty cool!

The coast of Kaua’i…..

One of our first rainbows we saw……

And a few sunset photos…..glad I took them when I did, because once the sun actually got down to the horizon, it was cloudy and there was no beautiful sunset….

My favorite sunset picture from our sunset sail…..more tomorrow!

OK, so normally my ten on tuesday (a list of 10 random facts about me) is reserved for my personal blog, but I want to keep my word on the Hawaii picture a day statement, so this week is special. And of course if there are any readers out there that would like to see my ten on tuesday’s every week over here….just leave a comment or send an email! Thanks!

1. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!

2. I hardly wear…or own…any green clothing….just not my color….except for my winter coat….it is this putrid yucky green down coat and it is my favorite! My dad has or had? a down vest the exact same color when I was growing up and I love(d) that one too. Oh yeah, Cabela’s baby…..

3. I have never been a “green” beer drinker….even back in college….I HATE keg beer so I think I have had one “green” beer in my life?? Don’t drink anymore….so that point is mute I guess?

4. I don’t care for corn beef and cabbage….yuck.

5. Little leprecauns are creepy.

6. Don’t pinch me or I am likely to punch you.

7. I would love to see Ireland….when the kids are grown and on their own of course….I am not sure I am the best traveler right now that they are little.

8. I do like searching the ground for 4 leaf clovers….used to do it at my grandparents when I was little and still do it today…we have lots at our house! Does that mean I am lucky, or just have some weird reproducing clover?

9. I do like rainbows….we saw many in Hawaii…..now I know why U of H mascot is the Rainbows.

10. So it sounds like I am not a real fan of this holiday, but I will have to say that I really do like this holiday, because it is my Grandma’s Birthday…how cool is that to have your birthday on St. Patrick’s Day!….lucky girl! And her name is Patricia! Happy Birthday GG!!! We love, love, love you lots!!!

I did have my favorite Hawaii sunset picture ready for today’s post….but this fits much better. Took this at a botanical garden we were going to tour….but we ended up passing on walking thru it….it was $30 AND raining….so we looked around outside the office and headed on down the road….I would have been really mad to pay to see all the amazing plants and trees, and then not be able to take pictures!!! Plus, we were feeling super yucky and were still about an hour or more away from the hotel….but I did get this one……I can’t say enough about how amazing all the colors were! I love all this green!

Happy Monday! This should cheer everyone up! As if Monday’s aren’t bad enough already! Beach photos in the middle of March with tons of snow on the ground still….ha ha ha.

This week is going to be Hawaii week…..new pictures everyday if I can manage it. I have so many, but only edited my absolute favs to share. AND I added some fun music to the blog for a while anyways….some of the songs were one’s that we listened to on our boat ride, so they really take us back to that day….so fun!

All of these photos were taken on the beach right in front of our hotel. These seals come up on shore and just soak up the sun….I think just digesting their food if I remember correctly. Anyways, we thought it was cool…..

Just playing around with the camera……dipping our feet in the ocean water. Let me tell you, before this trip I did not like the ocean…..the Oregon, Washington coast is yuck! It stinks and the beaches were dirty……nothing compared to Hawaii beaches. There was no stinky smell from the ocean….just that tropical smell I was telling you about earlier….and all the beaches we went to were super clean. So I do like the ocean….just in Hawaii though. We didn’t go swimming, just waded a little bit…..next time we hope to go snorkeling……

And here is Ryan surfing…….no just kidding, it’s just some surfer dude we were wathcing….Ryan really wanted to take surf lessons, but the weather just wasn’t up to par, so he passed…..again, another next time……

But this really is Ryan…..just soaking up the sun and the beautiful ocean….it is mesmerizing…..one of my fav pictures of my lovie……

A cool cliff kids were jumping off of so we decided to go over and check it out…..

The green algae on these black lava rocks was so vibrant….this photo doesn’t do them justice….some of the colors were just crazy!

Finally made it up to the top of the cliff…..it was super windy up there and my hat actually flew off with the chin strap attached! Luckily some kid was over the edge of the cliff on a bench of some sort taking pictures of his friend jumping off the cliff so he caught it and brought it back up to me…I was so happy because Ryan had just bought it for me that morning! All the green roofs over the entire word “photography” were part of our hotel…..

Also, part of our hotel…..and some Idaho sun bathers…..we didn’t know them, but there were a lot of people (plumbers) from the north west there thanks to Consolidated. Such a super cool trip!

After cleaning off the bird poo, it was soon time to board our plane to Li’hue….that flight was nice and short….and very bumpy. After landing we were greeted in the luggage area with a lei and then taken to our rental car….some of the others prefered to upgrade their rental to fun stuff, like Jeep Wranglers, mustangs, convertibles and the like….but we stuck with the basic that we were given…after all it was free! So we were cruising in a Jeep something all week and it wasn’t so bad. Our drive over to the hotel was crazy….we had never seen anything like it….the plants and trees….I swear every tree had some sort of bloom on it! It was just beautiful. I wish I would have been able to take more pictures of the plants and trees while we were there….but there was just so much to do and see! And the smell….oh man….it just smelled wonderful….so tropical, if that makes sense…flowery? Coconutty? I don’t know how to describe it other than yum!

This is the road that led to our hotel….you had to go thru this tree tunnel….it was super cool….at one time the tree tunnel was 3 miles long! Took this later in the week right before the sun was setting so it’s kind of dark….

Our hotel was amazing….here is a link you can go to if you want and if you click on photos on the bottom right hand side of the picture on the main page, it will take you thru the hotel….what our room looked like, the views we saw, the Poipu Bay Golf Course, the lagoons, beaches, etc. http://kauai.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp

On our last day there we were either going to go golfing – the golf course was amazing – or go to the spa….but ended up doing neither as we were in bed all day trying to sleep off a terrible head cold. Next time…..

Here is the view out on the balcony of the room we stayed in….took this the first night as the sun was going down….the weather was in the 70’s and there was a nice warm breeze….ocean is on the left and you could hear it pretty well….. We just hung out on this balcony until our luggage was delivered by the hotel….then starting getting ready for the night….

The lei…..I didn’t care for it too much wrapped around my neck….it was heavy and sticky….but very pretty. I just put it on this table and was taking pictures playing around while Ryan got ready for the welcoming party we had that night with Consolidated. THAT was wild….there were over 350 people there that Consolidated paid for! And pretty much any food you could imagine to eat….it was pretty cool….

One of my favorite parts (that I did not get a picture of) was when you first walked into the hotel you saw a covered check in area…then a jungle looking area (where these birds lived)…then the terrace….then the ocean. It was all open and you could see the ocean the minute you got out of your car at the hotel….it was gorgeous! Oh yeah, did I mention we had valet parking paid for us?? So nice! Especially since the hotel sits on 52 ocean front acres and the parking area was quite a ways away! Anywho, these birds just lived in that open tropical area and I think about once a day you could go to the terrace in front of the jungle area and a hotel employee would get the birds and have you put your arm out for them to perch on….no thanks…..I’ll just take pictures….birds creep me out! Could be that I always thought they would just fly in my hair and start clawing at me? Well, in high school my girlfriend had a bird and she let it out of it’s cage and guess what happened….yep….flew right into my hair and starting clawing at me…..I screamed of course and now keep my distance…..yeah, yeah, keep laughing……

They were pretty……

A waterfall at the hotel…..

Views from the hotel…..it really was paradise……love this silhouette…..

Stay tuned….the beach tomorrow!