Allen Wrench vs. Patio Door

My oldest son has been letting his temper get the best of him quite regularly as of late. While trying to show his displeasure with the teasing of son number two, he threw a 5/16 allen wrench at the sliding GLASS patio door behind which #2 was standing. Have you ever heard the crunch of safety glass as it's integrity initially fails, followed by the sort of popping sound that occurs as spiderwebs grow and refine throughout the pane?

I spoke with number one son about how glad I was that he had made that mistake. The consequences are so much less now than they will be in a few years when such recklessness could lead to limbs or even lives lost, and he will remember this mistake and it's consequences for the rest of his life. We all make mistakes, and the best we can hope for is to learn from them and not repeat them.

Cars

Here it is wedding season. I have been really busy wrapping up my last major construction job of the summer so that I can be more involved with watching our kids and photography.

Over the last couple of months, I have been involved in a project with Tom Brake of The Good Car Company. He has some great classic cars for sale down at the Korner Shop Showroom. I took some pictures of cars for him and they are now on his website. My favorite car so far is this Corvette. I'm not much of a car fan, but I like this one.

Family Changes

A couple of months ago, my wife's parents rented a house at the Deep Bay Center in Lakeside. All of the family that was in town got together for an overnight stay. It was a good time, but somewhat sad as well, because it was the weekend before Alicia's older brother went to Basic Training.

The steps down to the lake are really steep, but once we reached the shore, the skipping rocks were perfect. It was good to focus on simply spending time with family.

The house we stayed in was lovely. There were plenty of beds, and the view from the lake-facing windows was as good as it gets.

We played Pounce (Nerts to all you uneducated) until quite late. Nobody wanted to stop.

In the morning, we had breakfast together. The weather was in turns rainy and sunny, and we did a little more exploring, but sometimes we just sat and looked out the window.

Soon after our trip to the lake, some of us got together again to roast hot dogs and hang out together. It was hard for all of us to think about Matt leaving, but it was especially difficult for his wife Jessica. I took a few pictures of the two of them together that evening.

Matt graduates this weekend as a Sailor. We are all very proud of him, and we know he will do well at whatever he puts his hand to. He starts school for his specialty soon and his wife and children will be joining him in not too long. We are going to miss having them close by. Our children have grown up with their children, and we hope that we will get to all see each other as often as possible, but it won't be often enough. It is time for Matt and his family to enter a new chapter in their life together, and we hope all the best for them.

Our New Son

This is our new son.

We don't know what to call him yet.

He was born on May 21st at 12:47 in the morning.

He was a big boy and was worn out after the birth experience.

Our midwife's assistant took a couple of pictures for us after he was born.

He was born in this room.

He tipped the scales at 9 pounds and 11 ounces. The next day he was down to 9lbs 4oz.

He had lots of bruising on his face.

Our midwife, Melissa Brake, was amazing. She and Pam Wright have delivered all three of our boys, and Melissa did a wonderful job.

Our "little" guy's head measured in at 14 1/2 inches.

He is 21 inches long.

He passed every test on his first big exam.

Sometimes he is awake, but he sleeps most of the time. I didn't get much of a chance to just look at him for a day or so. Lately I get to hold him a lot more when everyone but him is trying to sleep around here.

We still don't know what to call him, but that doesn't matter much. He is who he is, and

he always will be.

To see more pictures of our new guy, check out Lindsey Jane's blog

Douglas and Co.

We have not yet had our baby, but my sister, Emily, has. His name is Douglas, and he is most welcome in our family. I was blessed to be able to take some pictures of him and his posse this past week.

My Week In Moments

This past week I have been working on my timing a little (ninja photo skills and all that), so these next few pictures are really nothing to look at except to note that I was doing a moment anticipation exercise while the boys ran matchbox cars down the eight foot ramp. I was shooting with a very narrow depth of field and low light, so these are the few shots that turned out anywhere close to clear.

Okay, so none of them are really clear.

I had the opportunity again to take pictures with Alicia during a couple of her sessions over the past week or so. This little guy was just fifteen days old and we had a nice time taking pictures of him and his mommy.

And this family was a joy to be with. Aren't little red shoes on little girls the bestest?

Oops. How did these pictures get in here? Oh, I remember. These are a couple of shots of a bathroom I drywalled, taped and textured last week. Looks like I need to go to realtor photography school!

I made a gardening box in the back yard and helped fill it with dirt. The boys also helped.

Jamin and Mailli have been working with their mom on some sewing projects lately. Alicia has the nesting urge bigtime and was in a serious sewing production mode for awhile there. Now she is going into a different kind of production mode.

I love summer-type weather. I got the above picture in two tries. It is straight out of camera. The one below is at Dry Bridge Park on Sunday night after a "fishing" trip. I did adjust the exposure and the blacks somewhat in Lightroom. I really like my family.

We are going into the "Any Day Now" mode regarding our new baby's arrival. If I skip a week or two of posting, I will hopefully make up for it with some SPECIAL DELIVERY pictures.