gone fishing. I'll be back on saturday the 19th.

i'm going to be up in the "mountains" for a week with my family at forest home family camp. i'll be back on the 19th. i'll be checking voice and email when i return.

i also wanted to post about a fun experience i had this week. as you know, i have twin boys - which always makes finding time for them as individuals a challenge. so, this week we made a point of giving them some individual time. i took each of them fishing for the first time. i woke them up at 5:00 in the morning and made it to lake cachuma just as the sun came up. noah went the first day and caught his first fish ever! the next day micah got to go, and he caught his first fish ever! they were not exactly big enough for dinner, so we threw 'em back in the lake. but, they can't stop talking about their first fishing trip ever!

i have so much more to blog about when i return. including a beautiful engagement session and an amazing wedding from yesterday.

happy and hot 4th of july!

i thought i ought to post before the power went out again, its been off and on for the past several days. the fires are currently burning about 1 to 2 miles from my house, and many of the homes in my area are threatened. so far, everyone is safe. my neighborhood has not been given an evacuation warning yet, so we are thankful for that. otherwise, life is carrying on like normal - and we did our best to enjoy our country's birthday. i hope you all did too.

here's a few pictures...

...the first is a picture of the sun through the smoke and ash. the second is the fire behind our house (taken from my roof). the rest are our patriotic little munchkins.

happy mother's day!

we just had a wonderful day with family. after breakfast in bed for jenny, and some time with the kids, we headed to "the farm" where i grew up in the santa rita hills- to spend some time with my mom and dad. for those of you who don't know, my dad has become a gourmet chef in his retirement - and he cooked an amazing meal (my mom's favorite) of panko crusted scallops and jumbo shrimp, dill sauce, and spinach salad with an apple balsamic vinaigrette.

here are a few shots of the two best moms in the world! plus, the kids on a rope swing!

my mom and i

kaitlyn wasn't quite as sure about it as the boys

tell me can you feel the thunder?

here's how the story goes...

we entered the park the first day at 9:30 am, and didn't leave until 11:00pm that night. the last time we went to disneyland, the boys (noah and micah) were 3 and kaitlyn was 2. I was was stoked because the boys were tall enough to ride the matterhorn - and they loved it, but for the most part we went on all the "kiddie" rides. so this time, a year later - i was almost as anxious to get into disneyland as they were (i had checked online to see the height requirements - 40"). that meant that the boys were half an inch taller than the required height for most of the rides in the park! i started thinking along the lines of space mountain instead of dumbo. our disneyland experience was so much more enjoyable as my sweet mom (a.k.a. "nana") came with us. this way we could have a 1:1 kid to adult ratio.

the first ride the kids wanted to go on was "the rockets" - which just so happened to be in tomorrowland - next to "star tours". in line for star tours with the boys they became totally convinced they were in a real spaceport with real robots. so when they strapped on their seat belts and and we "took off" - micah turned to my wife (jenny) and asked,"are we still at disneyland?" the boys absolutely loved the ride, so convincing them to try "space mountain" was easy. of course my mom was upset that i would actually take my 4 year olds on space mountain! she may have been right, because when they got off, micah said,"i don't want to go on that again until i'm 5." to which noah said,"i don't want to go on that again until i'm a grown up." after mellowing out with nemo, autopia, toon town, and the train, we finally came across the most epic ride of the day for the boys..."big thunder mountain." i thought i had ruined roller coasters for them with the space mountain experience, but they were eager to try it. and after the first time through, they were convinced that it was the best ride ever. they were able to ride it 4 times each, and probably would have been content just doing that for the rest of the weekend. other highlights included splash mountain, pirates of the caribbean, and soaring over california.


just before we entered

finding nemo submarine ride

minnie mouse is a celebrity

time for a 30 minute power nap

noah on big thunder mountain with nana

micah too.

micah, as he tells us all about the ride.

yeah for disneyland!!!

right after pirates of the caribbean - we no longer had children - we had pirates.

they're convinced they can pull it out and then become king of disneyland

save the date!!!

leslie and jamie are going to have an amazing destination wedding at the beautiful occidental grand xcaret in riviera maya, mexico. well, leslie wants all her friends and family come join in the fun - and to make sure everyone saves the date on their calendar, she wanted her wedding date written in the sand - so she could put it on a card and mail it to them. the only problem...she is landlocked. so, she asked if i could help her out. i had fun watching the water come up and erase all my attempts at drawing a heart - i was finally able to complete it...a few times. here is one of them. I can't wait for their wedding!

also, a shot from the website of the occidental grand xcaret...don't you just want to be there right now!

chris and traci's engagement session

chris and traci live in texas but met at ucsb, so we returned to campus to shoot their engagement session. we had so much fun cruising around before ending up at the beach. i love traci, before she chose her date at the rincon beach club, she kept checking with me first to see if i was available! i can't wait for their amazing beach wedding in september!

chris and lauren's engagement session

chis and lauren are beautiful people inside and out. I had so much fun tonight shooting their engagement session while we bathed in gorgeous sunlight. we were at the ventura pier, where chris and lauren had their first date! lauren is also a fan of the 80's band journey - so of course it had to go in the slideshow. its takin' me way back!

I'm so excited about their wedding at the beautiful maravilla gardens this july.

kids say the darndest things...

if you have children, you know that one of the most interesting and informative things you can do as a parent is to observe your children playing - when they don't know you're watching. it gives you a truthful glimpse of their character. sometimes your disappointed, sometimes your thrilled, and sometimes you just say "aaaahhhh." today was one of those days. my kids were playing in the front yard with some neighbor kids, and i was a little distance away painting a mural for their bedroom. my 4 year old son, noah, found a dandelion - so he says "ooh, i've got to make a wish!" so, not only am i getting to watch him from afar as he plays, now i'm going to hear what his heart desires - because - of course he wishes out loud. here is what he said,"i wish my mommy and daddy won't leave me and go to heaven." made me say, "aaaahhhh."

its good to be loved.

happy easter!

So here's how the story goes...

on saturday, we decided it would be fun to go to an easter egg hunt with our kids. so when we got there, everyone in town was there too. they had the field split into several different hunts...1-3 year olds, 4-6 year olds, 7-9 year olds etc. well, neither jenny or i wanted to miss any of the action with any of our kids. so, we decided to put them all into the 4-6 hunt - figuring there were plenty of eggs to go around. and our 3 year old daughter would be able to find the eggs that were passed over. big mistake. the eggs were too easy to find, and our daughter was left in the dust. she was dazed and confused as the big kids ran past her and took all the eggs. she didn't find one! poor thing, she just sat there as the multitudes grazed across the field collecting all the eggs. you can see in the first picture how far from the action she was. so much for our promise of finding lots of candy...

...so the next morning we made everything right. we hid eggs in our back yard, and as soon as the kids were up (which is always too early) we had our own hunt with plenty of eggs to go around.

waiting for the signal...

...and they're off! we of course, let our daughter go first.

...here's a shot just before getting in the car to go to easter service.