What are the odds?

I couldn't help noticing that the majority of the children I photographed during my trip to Texas have blue eyes. Maybe I noticed this because I'm a genetisist or maybe it's due to how much time I spend looking at eyes while editing pictures.

I'm sure one of my fellow nerds will calculate it for me, but what are the odds of 75% of these children having blue eyes, when brown is dominant?



Fig 1. Lower right-hand corner, the 25% with brown eyes

In college, a party trick of mine was to calculate a couple's chance of having a child with blue eyes if they had offspring with their current partner. Yep, I'd draw out punnett squares at parties on napkins. Recently, I learned that everything I thought I knew about eye color genetics was really oversimplified, so I don't know if the odds I calculated are close to the true odds. If they are, I have a 1/6th chance of not "contaminating my husband's gene pool with my brown eyes." Those are his words. He comes from a blue-eyed family. I like to remind him that my eye color will dominate over his. Yeah, that's what two married scientists joke about.


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A day with Sara - the last day of my Texas trip

This trip made up for missing my 10-year class reunion last summer. Allyson is another friend I've known since high school. We met on the Victoria High swim team. She was my "big sis" my freshman year.

We started the shoot at a park. You'll see in the next few pictures that Sara found a nook she didn't want to leave.


Happy right here


Sara's idea of swinging




Finding a stick for her dog





Her new favorite game is having her mom push her around in a car.





Family story time


Getting excited the birds in the book





Horsey!


Let's go!


My favorite...a silhouette before nap time


Story time before nap time



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Cousins at the park - even more Texas fun

The day before Thanksgiving, I met up with two friends I haven't seen in 8+ years. One of the best parts of doing photoshoots across Texas during my Thanksgiving trip home was seeing old friends & meeting their kids.

watching for the ducks



my favorite duck is the one with the fluff top







Mount Victoria (I think this might be the biggest hill in Victoria, TX)







I love this one. I like to imagine he is thinking, "Big brother keeps hogging my picture."











Why do you keep following me?






Now for some playground fun





Look at that expression :)















Tube slides generate a lot of static

















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Paige at the beach - more fun from my Texas trip

After Thanksgiving, I drove down to Corpus Christi for a beach shoot with Paige, Amy & Paul. I was born in Corpus & so was Whataburger, so it's always fun to visit Corpus not just for the memories, but also for thick white gravy & fancy ketchup. It's funny what you miss when you move to another state. After family & friends of course, Whataburger's #8 meal is next. OK enough about food (I'm making myself hungy)...here is Paige.

She was pretty excited to find this little pumpkin


She never managed to figure out where the other little girl was. I think she wanted to take her pumpkin from her so she'd have two.





Paige loves the beach. If Amy wasn't holding her hand, she probably would have jumped in. She is leaning towards the water in most pictures.


Super excited that her dad gave her a sea shell. I don't think she even remembers the pumpkin from an hour ago.








let's go!








Her mom said there wasn't a chance of getting her to wear the hat, but she still wanted to try.


Take that silly hat!





Her new thing is pointing & saying, "What's that?" It's really a rhetorical question. Usually she is just making sure you know she likes something. Other times she wants you to give it to her.


Paige's little smile while looking at the kite is so cute :)






The sun is setting. Time to go home (and pick up Whataburger).






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