Amanda | Senior Session

"Don't be delicate. Be vast and brilliant." 

My littlest sister is graduating undergrad in one, very short month! When we decided to do her photos, she mentioned to me that she wanted to include the family dog, Luke. Amanda has a special (albeit, allergic) relationship with animals. They just flock to her. I don't get it. Anyways, when she said she wanted to include Lukie, I was not surprised. 
I have photographed a 6month old, golden retriever puppy, who was FAR more obedient than our elderly Luke. Nonetheless, we had quite a giggle trying to get our teeth-missing, spazzy, twitchy, loveably Lukie to sit for photos. 
Amanda, Manda-Panda, I'm so proud of you! You've worked incredibly hard over these last 4 years to achieve your goals, all while balancing work, intramural sports, CHAARG, your relationship with Mike, and of course your family & friends. Writing it all down makes me feel exhausted just looking at it and I didn't do anything!  We have had many conversations about not feeling ready for the things to come, well let me tell you sissy, you ARE. And you will handle it with as much grace, enthusiasm and fantastic humor as you always have.  

And never forget your good pal, Dumbledore. 
"It is our choices that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

The Selby Stories | 1st Edition

Just like Friday's post, today is another new blog series! It's called The Selby Stories. In an effort to better document our moments, I wanted to start a new, reoccurring post on Mondays. Monday's are a hard day for me. Its getting back into routine after having the flexibility of the week. I want this series to help make Mondays easier. I want to reflect on the silly, mundane, love, and adventures of the last week. 

This post dates back a little bit, but thats okay! 

Last weekend we met friends in DC for an amazing brunch at Old Ebbitt Grill. Bryce and I don't make it to DC very often but really enjoy being tourists in our own city. Unfortunately, try as we might, the metro schedules were not in our favor. I'm sure most of you who commute into/out of DC have this happen to you routinely so I really can't complain. But man, those 24min wait times between trains was not fun. 

After brunch, Bryce and I had a course on flash photography. Bryce gave this to me as a Christmas gift. We had hoped it would be more about cool off-camera flash set ups but it was more of a beginners class. Still, it was fun to hang out together and see our friends for brunch! 

In typical Selby luck, Bryce had a terrible fall on ice, Sunday. He's recovering from a bruised sacrum, so activities this week didn't happen. 

BUT SPRING IS COMING! How many of you are doing a little happy dance at the 60 degree days we are supposed to have this week?? Yay for open windows and longer days! 

This weekend was low key, which is our favorite kind of weekend. A stroll through downtown,  a long walk and an amazing engagement session for a June bride and groom! We were driving home last night with our bellies and hearts full, and started singing Goo Goo Dolls songs together. If you've ever seen Elizabethtown, you might remember Kirsten Dunst's character miming a camera and taking a picture of different moments. Last night driving home with Bryce, singing to my favorite band, I took a picture of that moment. It was beautiful.


Hope your Monday goes well! 

Our Next Adventure! | Personal

House hunting is not for the faint of heart I tell ya. You should also be required to purchase a home BEFORE you get married. Its an amazing example of negotiations and compromises, and as we call them in our house, "come to Jesus" moments. 

I walked through at least 20 homes if not more. 
I caught myself saying the same phrases over and over: 

"Its got a great layout." 
"It doesn't have a great layout" 
"That carpet has to go" 
"Gorgeous kitchen."
"What were they thinking?"
"Can we afford this?" 

And we fell in love with one house. A house that upon walking into Bryce and I both knew this was the house we wanted. It had imperfections. All houses do. But we saw such stunning beauty and could imagine great gatherings there. 

Through this whole process we repeatedly told ourselves, if it's meant to be, it will be. The right home is out there for us. And when it happens its going to feel right. 

This house felt right. Felt really right. But we didn't get it. 

It was a hard thing to accept. There were tears. We loved this house! I had already decorated it for Christmas in my mind! But we reminded ourselves, it was not meant for us. I hope the family who did get it will love it as much as we did. 

So we moved along. Nothing really wow'd us. We started to doubt if there was something that we would both love as much as that first house. Then something fell into our laps. 

New construction. 

We didn't even initially consider this option. First time home-buyers, we didn't think we could even afford it. We met with the builder, priced out options (with lots of incentives-they know how to hook ya!) and sat dumbfounded. This might actually work. 

We talked out pros and cons for hours. Talked it over with our parents for hours. The more we talked, the more excited we got. This felt right. There was zero anxiety about this. 

Yes. We decided yes. We were going to do this. 

The morning after we decided we wanted to build, my favorite artist came on the radio as the alarm went off (Goo Goo Dolls). A sign. It was meant to be. The day we signed the papers, it was 60 degrees and sunny. Another sign. The day we had our mortgage meeting it flurried briefly on our way there-another sign. If you are looking for them you can "create" a sign out of anything. But as calm as I felt, these little signs served as reminders that we were making a good choice. This was the right house. It hasn't revealed itself yet because it wasn't the right time. I'm a big believer that if I'm meant to have a new shirt, it will be in the color and size I want. Otherwise I wasn't meant to have it. So you better believe, that something as big as buying a house is, I was going to trust in the process. 

So without further ado, we are the proud new homeowners of a plot of dirt that will eventually have our first home on it! 

We should be ready to move August/September! 

Follow along. #theselbyhome #yesterdaylane #theselbystories

Blizzard 2016 | Personal

Dear Winter Storm Jonas, 
I love you. 
Sincerely, 
Me

If any of you are reading this from up north/out west I know you must be rolling your eyes. You get this kind of snow all the time. And I am jealous. Bryce and I eventually want to move some place that has winter weather like this. But for now, this winter storm satisfied our craving. 

We got something like 30inches of snow?! I mean just look at that lump, it's actually my car!

I went out this morning around 7am when the sun was starting to peak through, and I was not disappointed! This evening I'm going to strap on our snowshoes (yes we own snowshoes) and adventure a little bit further. I just wanted a few quick shots before breakfast. 

Oh and this one? This one my husband shot through our window Friday morning before the storm started. We knew it was going to be a doozy! 
 

Enjoy the snow friends! 

Honeymoon Part I | Rome

I figured the easiest way to share photos is to break it down into places we went. This first installment of our honeymoon is Rome (the first time) days 1-3. 

Day 1: We arrived in Rome, dropped our bags at our Airbnb went and had lunch and created a game plan. We stayed in the most adorable town called, Trastevere and would absolutely go back. A gelato shop was 2 steps outside our door (Nocciola is my favorite!) With food (rice balls by the way are the most divine thing ever and you must try some!) and espresso in our bellies, off we went to the Colosseum. It was starting to get dark when we finished, so we decided to head back to our place to figure our dinner plans (Also, italians don't eat dinner earlier than 7. So don't try.)

Day 2: We got up early to go to the public mass at the Vatican. Which was very cool. Except it took much longer than anticipated. We got there at 8:40 for a supposed 9am start time. The Pope has a special audience at 9, and then he drives all around in his Pope-mobile so we actually got started about 10. By 10:30 we were only on the first and second readings (which obviously were all in Italian) so we decided to go get breakfast (paninis!) and visit the Vatican museum (which is really a 3 hour long tour instead the Vatican, ending in the Sistine Chapel). We never joined tour groups because they were so large, that we would never get through the things we wanted to see. Plus they were expensive. So half the time we didn't know what we were looking at in the Vatican. But it was beautiful and totally worth it (albeit much longer than we anticipated even in the off season). 

Day 3: We made our way to Naples with a train ride and another harrowing taxi experience. All to come in the next blog post!