The Hill family!

LOVE this image (above) of the little family unit known as TEAM HILL. And the image below is pretty much how the whole weekend felt. Lots of activity with kids and dogs and beautiful landscapes all around. What a beautiful weekend away!

Just got back from another vacation adventure to Maui, HI. We didn’t get much sleep [at all], but had a complete blast!!! Did lots of beach sessions, hiking, surf trips, scuba dives, fishing, seafood eating, whale watching, and other random acts of awesomeness on this trip. Here’s some of our favorite images from our time together. (FYI, the 3 square images next to each other throughout this blog post are all images we Instagram-ed)

Drove around the island for a day of waterfall swimmin’ and bamboo forest hikin’. That (bottom left) is Charlotte, our youngest, takin’ a nap in the trunk of our rental van… don’t worry, it was parked, with the hatch open, under a tree, in the shade :)

Our girls (above) weren’t the biggest fans of water on this trip for some reason… probably b/c it was “winter” and the water was only like “80 degrees” ;) We had the crazy privilege of boarding a privately owned yacht for two days of epic adventure out at sea (below). We were super duper “models” for a marketing shoot for the boat… so we got to fish, scuba dive, whale watch, snorkel with turtles and even swim with 75+ spinner dolphins off the island of Lanai. It’s an amazing boat! Luxurious AND loaded with every tool you might need for a fun adventure. It felt both awesome and weird living someone else’s reality for a few days.

Did some Stand Up Paddling together (mostly just swam around and hung out)… SUP-ing is all the rage now-a-days.

Charlotte was pretty stoked at the beach, and ate lots of sand :)

Gary’s mom, Laloni, joined us on this trip to make it a massive WIN WIN WIN. We’re so grateful for her help, and for watching the kids while we had some adventures with just the two of us.

Lots of fresh fruit, shave ice and early mornings with the girls (up before the sun the majority of the trip).

Back on the boat for day two of playin’ in the big blue ocean.

The following images were captured by David Hessemer from the photoshoot :) Saw lots of whales breaching and even a few baby whales and dolphins (right images in the couple frames below)

Back on land we snuck away to a private beach house near Makena for a few afternoons of swimming and swinging.

Did loads of hanging out with some of our besties: Mike & Ciara Woodard, Nate & Jenna Strubhar and Dave & Sally Englert.

Played with a GoPro for an afternoon. Here’s Court body surfing a li’l wave (below). Check out some of the videos here.

THANKS FOR STOPPIN’ BY :) If you wanna see more Maui goodness, please check out our last trip to Maui. For more travel related posts, please visit our “We Heart Travel” blog category.

It’s no secret that we love to travel. But for many people the question is WHY? Especially with kids? And why on earth do you love it so much? The flights, TSA, jet lag, hotels, long car rides, unfamiliar eateries, and PACKING…I mean, it’s not all fun and games, so what’s the deal? Let us give you our top 5 reasons for why we travel:

1) ADVENTURE
We LOVE to have adventures! “Adventure” (as defined by Gary) is anything that has great ‘story potential’. It’s stuff that makes the highlight list at the end of the year. New experiences that stretch you, challenge you, get your heart pumping and makes you say “Holy crap! This is amazing!” at least once. Shark diving, cliff jumping, snorkeling, sky diving, ATVs, hiking, boating, climbing, crazy foods, new cultural experiences, etc. When you travel, opportunities for adventures often arise and since you’re already having so many new experiences there is a sense of “why not?” so you end up stepping outside of your comfort zone and having adventures you would never have at home.

2) FUN
FUN is one of our core values, which means it’s a value we refuse to compromise. No matter what happens in our life, we will still strive to have fun. We have SO MUCH FUN together! It’s one of the reasons we fell in love and it’s one of the reasons we’re still in love! We love having fun with our kids, we love having fun with each other, we love having fun with our friends and family. When you travel, new fun things are everywhere! Because everything is new, it’s exciting and it’s easy to come up with fun things to do. Fun stuff also fills your relationships with happy, exciting memories… but we’re getting ahead of ourselves!

3) BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS
It’s a fact that you can’t just travel with anyone. When you travel your true colors come out. You’re exhausted, hungry, dirty and completely out of your comfort zone… so there is very little left for shallow politeness. You also end up in situations where you have to make decisions (where to eat/sleep, what to see, etc) that can very easily create conflict. It’s also a fact that experiencing a certain amount of conflict AND working through it leads to better/deeper relationships. So, done right, you get to build better relationships with your traveling buddies. You also get to build relationships with people who are different from you all over the world. This opens your eyes to other people’s perspectives, lives, struggles, joys and cultures. Relationships like that can only serve to enrich your life!

4) ADJUSTS OUR PERSPECTIVE
We don’t know about you, but its easy for us to get really comfortable in our little privileged bubble. We’re by no means rich, and we are in no way referring to the privilege of the “1%”… even the majority of the other “99%” are privileged when compared to the rest of the world. It’s easy to sit here and begin to see how much we DON’T have when in fact we are incredibly blessed by so much. Freedom, rights, food, safety. For us, stepping outside our bubble and into someone else’s readjusts our understanding of the word “need”, makes us grateful for our abundance and more generous with everything we have. Traveling drives home and reinforces the desire we have to positively impact the world and the people in it. Travel also makes you think BIG. When you see how big the world really is and yet how interconnected we all are it makes your ideas bigger, your inspiration broader and your dreams more far reaching. 5) HELPS US APPRECIATE GOD
We know that there are people of all different spiritual backgrounds reading this and we are not trying to force this idea on anyone… we’re just sharing with you where we’re coming from. Our relationship with God is the most important thing in our life and travel vastly enhances that relationship. We believe that God created this amazing planet and we think He wants us to experience and appreciate it! Seeing all the beautiful places and meeting all the incredible people He made enriches our life and vastly increases our appreciation of God and everything he made. We are better able to worship and appreciate His handiwork having seen more than our tiny little piece of the pie at home (though, that’s pretty freakin’ amazing too!).

Nothing at Billie & Scott’s wedding was less than completely awesome. They got married in Burlington, Vermont at a museum… but not your ordinary museum. The Shelburne Museum is a collection of 30+ historic buildings (and a steamboat) that a rich eccentric lady from NYC collected over the years and moved to her property in Vermont. They have tons of random collections from stagecoaches to straight razors all on a huge gorgeous piece of property in Northern Vermont which lended the perfect amount of quirk to Billie & Scott’s big day. Gary and I had a phenomenal time shooting there (though deciding which of the amazing parts of the venue to shoot at was extremely difficult) and we had so much freakin’ fun with these two and their generous and fun loving families. They prioritized their photo time which allowed us to go all over the place and really capture the things that make the museum so unique. Thank you Billie & Scott so much for bringing us with you, and for being so incredibly amazing. Now move your asses down to San Diego so we can be beach buddies.

View Billie & Scott’s wedding day story by watching their slideshow. For more details and vendor information, please see their feature on Wedding Wire.

Introducing North Dakotas most awesomely awesome couple, ever, Carly & Amos.

Kaila & Paul…what can we say? They blew our minds! Not only are they crazy in love, they are also loads of fun and a perfect match for each other. And we loved that they wholeheartedly embraced the location of their Palm Springs wedding! They wanted to capture the raw beauty of the desert… and we can honestly say it was a true pleasure to be out there midday photographing these two despite the soaring temperatures. It was literally 102°F of AWESOMENESS!

We have a deep love for the Hackbarth family. We had the absolute honor of photographing John & Maggie’s destination wedding in Colorado last year (Paul’s twin brother) and we’re a little bummed that we won’t get to shoot anymore Hackbarth weddings. They are the kind of guys every dad hopes and prays his daughter will find. They are true men. Strong, grounded in faith, committed, encouraging, accepting and loving.

Kaila & Paul, your love and excitement to begin your marriage was beautiful. It was an honor to be there to see it!

April & Corey are producers, actors and delighted by all things theatrical which was evident in every detail of their wedding. They got married at the historical Arlington Theater in downtown Santa Barbara, CA which in itself speaks to their love of the dramatic. From her shoes (a reference to The Wizard of Oz) to their first dance (to “When You Wish Upon a Star” from Disney’s “Cinderella”) everything was a nod to the fantastical side of Hollywood. On top of all that, April and Cory are deeply in love, insanely fun and throw an amazing party, so it was truly our pleasure to be a part of their day.

• Sleep is precious… if you don’t have kids, we strongly encourage you to sleep like crazy. :) Our kids don’t sleep much so we’re planning on catching up on that in 4 or 5 years.
• Time is flying… it’s moving waaaayyyy faster than we’d like it to right now. (Thank you Julie for the images above and for freeze-framing this moment in our life. We are SO grateful for you and the photography community that surrounds us here in SoCal).
• Our two little girls (Joelle = 2.9 years, Charlotte = 9 months) are growing up so quickly, it boggles the mind to watch them become walking talking little human beings. We kinda don’t want them to grow up and leave :( At every wedding we shoot we both break down in tears during EVERY father daughter dance… what a hard thing that must be to do. We’re praying for the men that our girls will one day fall in love with and marry. I hope their parents value them and teach them how to be good men.
• We’ve lived here in California for 2 years now…that’s crazy! It feels like yesterday when we first met in Maui and got married. It’s hard to believe we’ve already spent several years remodeling this old house… it still has plenty of face-lifting to do, but we’re very pleased with where it’s at today. It’s not fancy and there are little red painted hand prints all over our couches and stickers all over our coffee table, but it’s a good house and it feels like a home – lots of laughter and love. Precious memories are being made within the colorful walls of this place and we hope our girls feel safe, loved and secure here…forever.
• In October we’ll celebrate our 5 year anniversary!!! Marriage is a very beautiful thing. Growing old with someone and raising a family together is the one of the best and also one of the most challenging things in life and we like it that way. We are fortunate to be best friends, business partners and spouses…We are so blessed by our current set-up and the time it allows us to spend together! To celebrate our 5 year together we’re planning on doing a little diving adventure over on Catalina Island to relive our glory days of  dating and diving in Maui.
• Busyness and balance. You know that carnival ride that spins super fast until you’re stuck to the wall and the bottom drops out and you just hope against hope that someday it’ll stop and your feet will land on solid ground again? Life can feel like that sometimes while raising two small children, running our own business (for which we travel a LOT), and starting a new one. Don’t “they” always say that BALANCE is the key to a happy and successful life? Striking that balance feels impossible some days, and other days I think we nailed it (though, admittedly, the “nailed it” days are fewer and far-between). We are also doing our best to take some moments to slow down and enjoy the ride because in the midst of the craziness, these are some sweet, SWEET times. Joelle won’t play pretend forever, and Charlie won’t want to cuddle or think we’re the best parents forever either. Gotta soak those things up.
• Re-discovering goals and priorities: Business is good, but also kinda weird. Our business has grown by leaps and bounds each year we’ve been in business (which we’re super GRATEFUL to the LORD for)… but we’re reevaluating whether or not it’s growing in the way we always SAY we want it to. We’ve never really been money-motivated people, but for the last couple years we’ve kinda lived like money was important. Don’t get us wrong, we need money (can’t pay the mortgage without it), but we’re trying harder and harder to be smart with our money and to pick and choose the type of work that means something to us and that brings value to our life… work shouldn’t BE or RUN our life… we work so that we can live. So what exactly does that look like???? When is ENOUGH WORK enough? What if we decided to make less money this year and live more simply? What if our priorities really were our children and our time together having adventures? And seriously…what does that look like??? (These are not a rhetorical questions people! Input, ideas and advice are being sought here!)
• We are really coming back to our priority of giving back. In all different ways. We want our children to grow up knowing that THEY can make a difference… that they can truly change the world by giving selflessly of themselves. And we want them to know that faith is the thing that gives all life (and good deeds) meaning. The best way to teach them this is by living it, so we’re going out of our way to do it.
• We want to help other entrepreneurs and creative folks develop a business that aligns with their priorities and facilitates their values. Not because we have all the answers (’cause seriously…have you been reading this post??? We clearly do NOT), but because we think that by collaborating and encouraging each other we can make it happen.
• We’ve been learning A LOT about community lately. The last couple years we’ve struggled with being authentic, approachable and helpful to those around us, mostly because we were really trying to find our way in this [photography] industry and were figuring out where we should land. Our sincerest apologies to those who have experienced this from us… we’re trying to get better at being others-focused. So please help us get there… let us know how we can help if you need it. Seriously. Stop by, skype with us, grab coffee with us, slumber party with us :) Anything! Lets just hang out!
• We don’t know it all or have everything in our life under control… we don’t drive fancy cars or buy expensive toys, we live simply and pride ourselves in dreaming big, and having lots-o-adventures with our little family. We hope you will join us on this journey called life and stay in touch. We hope that we can be encouraging towards your goals in life!

What’s somethin’ honest that’s on your mind right now?

We’d LOVE to hear from you!

Brittany & Javier tied the knot down in Los Cabos, Mexico and we were so stoked to be a part of it. Their wedding was incredibly beautiful and every single detail was perfectly executed. Being a destination wedding, the festivities took up an entire weekend and we got to be a part of it all. Every piece of the occasion struck the perfect balance of fun/party and romance/elegance (much like their lovely engagement photos from Union Station in LA), from the beautiful Mexican Catholic ceremony and custom cocktails to the cigar roller at the reception and the fact that Brittany’s dress shortened for the dancing. Gary and I had so much freakin’ fun at this wedding and by day four we truly felt like a friend and guest, rather than a vendor, which says so much about this beautiful couple (both inside and out!) and their incredible friends and family. Thank you guys SO much for letting us be a part of your wedding weekend and making us feel so welcomed! I hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much as we enjoyed capturing them. (To experience this wedding in full, please check out the wedding slideshow. For more details about the wedding and vendor information, please see our feature on Style Me Pretty).

THURSDAY: Arrival, scouting, meeting everybody, and having drinks together with new friends :)

FRIDAY: portrait session and rehearsal dinner on the beach.

SATURDAY: The wedding day

VIEW SLIDESHOW |  VIEW BEHIND THE SCENES | VIEW STYLE ME PRETTY

Here’s a few behind-the-scenes images from our trip to Cabo for Brittany & Javier’s destination wedding. As you may notice, we had a complete BLAST playing, scouting, testing and capturing all the raddness that was this 4 day wedding extravaganza.

Played a bit of volleyball with some of the [rad] wedding guests on our arrival day. Also, did some underwater jowling :)

Light testing shots (above and below)

I spy with my little eye a “Courtney” (above). That shot required some sand-face to capture it correctly ;)