Lake Suprior... For a Moment

In a perfect world with ample amounts of time and no cares in the world, I would have spent a whole week kayaking along the shores of Lake Superior in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. But, that wasn't the case this year during a busy summer of working and running a business and.... I think that is it:) So, we just had one day. And sometimes one day well-spent is better than a week off spent...twiddling my thumbs or something like that. All I wanted was a moment to sit on the dock and watch the water and break from routine. And that is what I had... plus a pizza and a beer :)

From my iPhone....

Blog Round-Up

Since I blog on and for a few different sites, here is an update of what I have been up to!

On the Wisconsin Outdoor fun site, I recently did a few blogs about summer. And no just being lazy, but also doing the duathlon last weekend.
Marshfield Hub City Duathlon
On training.... kind of for the Duathlon
And another blog on totally being lazy!

For my photography business I have been really busy!

Gorgeous Wisconsin Summer Engagement
Marshfield Wedding! It was a total blast :)
I loved this Eau Claire wedding!
And one of the sweetest weddings...

Yep, been pretty busy! And I have more to share and edit! I will post some more photos at some point!

I'm Still Here :)

Yep, I am still here. Here as in occupying life, but definitely not here as in blogging. I am super busy with photographing weddings, engagements and life, so when I am not photographing one of the three, or editing said photos,  I like to stay as far away as possible from my computer. It is summer in Wisconsin and it only comes around once a year, so I must take full advantage. Here are a few photos that I have taken lately. Since life is busy, I haven't been using my Holga much. But I have been using Instagram!

Green Bay Half Marathon

This is a little late, but here is my blog from Wisconsin Outdoor Fun about the Green Bay Half Marathon!

Good news! I was able to finish the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon! For two reasons; because I was able to do it, and two; because I finished before they stopped it.
I am not sure if I was nervous at the start or not. I was more excited than nervous, and just glad that I was there and ready to go. I haven't been running when it was that hot, but I was fully hydrated and prepared to take it slow if need be. Besides, I figured it couldn't get too hot before 9 am. Um, yeah, it got hot.

I started off pretty quick with my first mile around seven minutes. I knew I was running faster, but was ok with it because I wasn't going to tamp down my adrenaline and the atmosphere was really fun.  My first five miles were around 41 minutes. And then I got tired. My normal run length is about 4 miles, so I was kind of expecting to slow down around mile 5.
Miles 5, 6, 7, and 8 were not that awesome. I was running near a pace group of about 8:12 and then 8:23 and then.... I slowed down. People were starting to get pretty warm... walking... and some even stopping. I knew I didn't want to have to walk, so I figured I would rather slow down than walk. There was a lot of water stations and people along the route had their sprinklers out, which was nice. Although every time I ran through a sprinkler I lost my breath. I don't remember sprinklers being so cold when I was 8!

Around mile 9, I started to feel good again. I'm not sure why... maybe because the end was only 4 miles away. That, and I just started to pretend everyone was cheering for me :) At mile 11 I  started my "End of Race" playlist and felt like I was going to kick  I must say though, when the half marathon runners split from the marathon runners at mile 12, I was not hoping to go another 13 miles. I honestly have no desire to run a marathon. My attention span is too short for training and for the actual run.
The last mile I felt like I was really kicking it in, but according to my time, I probably wasn't. We had to run behind porta-potties, which kind of made me gag on the last home stretch. And then people started sprinting and I thought, "Oh no you didn't" and then started sprinting too. Yay! I finished with 1:52:05 with an average of 8:33 miles. It was ahead of my unannounced goal, which was 1:54, so I was pretty pleased. I was able to recover pretty quickly too, enough to be able to enjoy a beer and brat shortly after.

In all, I would run the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon again. I thought it was a fast and flat route and well-organized. I may feel differently if I was stopped at like mile 16 during my marathon, and told I can't finish, but decisions have to be made and it was really hot. Hopefully next year it will be a nice 60 degrees and not 87 degrees like on Sunday!

Wausau, Wisconsin Wedding Photography

In case you missed it, I am now blogging all my weddings, engagements and portraits on my new photography site www.lauraschmittphotography.com. Last week I photographed Lindsey and Alex's Mosinee wedding. Check out all their photos on my blog! http://lauraschmittphotography.com/lindsey-alex/

Spring (And Fall) Film

I finally got a roll of film finished.... only six months in the making! Here are a few shots from the roll. I love the look of these... makes me miss almost miss the days of scanning negatives all day..... Almost.

Cedar Strip Canoe

I just realized that I haven't posted about the cedar strip canoe that Dan built. Here is my blog about it from my work blog on Wisconsin Outdoor Fun. So far we have taken the canoe out a few times and it has gotten a few scratches too.

This Friday I went in search of open water. With temperatures in the mid-seventies, I felt that every lake around would be open. My fiance just finished building a cedar strip canoe and we couldn't wait any longer to test it out. After my initial disappointment that we might be driving all day after seeing our destination still covered with ice, we drove around the lake to where we heard geese. Fortunately, enough water was open to paddle up the creek and the ice was melting away as we watched. We slipped the canoe in the water to head out to explore to first of spring in our new canoe.

This is the first canoe he has built... and I might have him blog about it, since my help was pretty minimal.  I did lay a few strip here and there, but not enough to blog about the process. It is for our wedding... so we can paddle off into the sunset....awwwww :) It was gorgeous to paddle and completely silent compared to the old aluminum canoe. Silent enough to sneak up on birds around the bends. I can't wait until we take it on a "real" paddle and can spend a few days in it. It did get the first few scratches though, so I am glad that is out of the way.

We also paddled around the the Eau Pleine Flowage on Sunday. I know it isn't spring and it will probably snow again, but it sure felt like it this weekend!

I didn't take all these photos, Dan took a few of the detail shots.