Awesomeness in the first degree..

What a truly fun family I had the pleasure of photographing a week ago. They flew up from Las Vegas to Portland for a friends wedding and also thought they would book a photog session with muah during their trip. We went to the beautiful Portland Rose Gardens and Washington Park for some good times roaming through the roses and seeing the gorgeous view of Downtown PDX. They were so playful and full of Love, their 3 year old daughter was sooooooooooooooo good, I wish I had a truck full of lollipops for her because she deserved everyone of them! I had to share a little tidbit about their history of how it all began. This is told from the beautiful Ms. Tolentino….

How we met~
I was dragged out by my girlfriends to some run down local club for ladies night, and he was dragged out by his brother. I was standing as a purse rack for my girlfriends while they danced. He was eying me the entire night and finally got the “liquid” courage to approach me.
“you wanna dance?” he asks
“No” I said
“can i stand here?” he asks
“if you really want to”
a couple minutes past and I agreed to go dance with him. We didn’t even dance a minute and my girlfriends said,”we’re leaving.”
we just looked at each other and I finally ask him,” well, do you want my phone number?” with my snotty little attitude, HA!
I wasn’t really in to him. I was young and broke, so I used him to take me out to dinner. We went out every couple weeks and he finally confessed (after we were married) that he couldn’t afford to take me out often because I was too expensive. How Ironic?
a few months later he was deployed to Iraq to serve. He wrote me a letter and I wrote back, but never sent it. I feel horrible about that now. I didn’t know how important letters were for him at the time.
When he came back we hung out again, and he was very persistent. After a year of hanging out and enjoying each others company. I realized “wow” this guy really wants me…lol. He never disrespected me, never tried to kiss me or make any moves on me. I finally came around and fell in love with him. We had our beautiful little girl Jonalynn a year later.

Once that day came~
I took him to Eiffel tower restaurant at the Paris hotel for his birthday. We both had too many drinks and decided to get married “drive thru” style. Unfortunately it was closed so we had to go inside. It was horrible! The place was so ugly, the guy that married us looked like a carnie in a tux and it smelled like pee. We did it and I don’t remember much else that night.
Before we got married people used to tell us we were living in sin and that we should be married. It used to bother me, but I finally realized that everyone has their own opinion. We knew we were in love and we didn’t want to get married for all the wrong reasons. We did it when WE were ready.
We’ve never gone on a honeymoon or any trips without Jonalynn and quite honestly, we don’t mind that. We’re thankful for everything god has given us. We’ve come a long way!

And may I say Boun ROCKED the camera!