Shawn's Birthday. . . sorta

Shawn's birthday was almost 2 months ago but we just last week used the gift I gave him so I figure it's an appropriate time to talk about it :)

For starters, Shawn's parents visited last month. Visiting him for his birthday was Chuck's surprise gift to Barb for her birthday. So they came out for that weekend, and the first thing they wanted to do after arriving here was, naturally, go to Target- a well-known favorite San Francisco past time. But the trip was a success as you can see here- Shawn and Chuck in their new Target Top Hats.












We had a great weekend with them- we went to see Teatro Zinnzanni, which I have to say, I wasn't super excited about; I always see advertisements for it when I'm in tourist areas but I've never heard of anyone I know actually going to it. It sorta looked like a less impressive version of Cirque de Soliel, accompanied with what I could only expect to be sub-par food. But from the pictures I thought his parents might like it . . . . and it turns out it was wonderfully entertaining! It was in fact less impressive than Cirque de Soliel :) but it was also quite different- lots more acting involved, and funny. So yeah, that was great!

We also went to dinner with Jason on Shawn's b-day; Jason hates it when I take pictures of him. Occasionally, I respect his wishes, but I just couldn't this day because it was the day after he FINALLY finished his PhD. I think it's been about 13 years or something- clearly a reason for celebratory pictures.


Ok- now fast forward six weeks, I had given Shawn tickets to see John Prine in Carmel for his birthday and last week was the concert. We made a mini vacation out of it and went down to Monterey Wednesday morning to go to the aquarium. I love that aquarium! Sometimes, I wish we lived in Monterey just so we could go there more.

The otters are always my favorite (it's hard to get good pictures of them though). They totally remind me of Tatanka! Seriously, doesn't that just look so much like him?


The special exhibit right now is the seahorses, and they were AMAZING. My pictures don't do it justice at all- you have to go see it for yourself! It was truly beautiful.




So itty bitty.


These were the most fantastic of all- I seriously couldn't believe my eyes! If I were ever to write a fairytale, all the characters would be versions of these guys.


No seahorses in this picture, but Shawn is pretty amazing too :)





The jellies always come in a close second to the otters.




After the aquarium we went to dinner at our favorite little spot in Carmel and then onto the concert. And the concert was so so great. If you add me and Shawn together, our ages would probably equal the age of the average person there- so yeah, we apparently have a really. . . refined taste in music :)
Anyway, I loved John Prine, but the really exciting part was opener Josh Ritter. Heather has always been a huge fan but I never knew anything about him until this night, and now I'm kinda mad at Heather for hoarding him :) . . . Pretty much an instant and shameless crush. I bought 4 albums there and have listened to them almost NON-STOP for the last week, and every other song is "my favorite".
But I think it was this song that stole my heart. If it hadn't of been Shawn's birthday gift, I might have left him that night and tried to latch myself onto Josh's tour bus.

Kash's Birthday

Last Sunday was Kash's 5th birthday, and it was on one of those wonderfully warm days perfect for a backyard bbq and a 5th birthday party!

BTW, I'm not sure why Kash looks like a rabbit here- really he's just a kid turning five.


And here we have just a small sampling of some of Maria's handiwork- a Ho Ho tire for a Car Cake (obviously) and Leah's French braid (also obviously)


Sometimes it's really hard for it to not be your birthday.


Kash was super excited by some of his toys. . .


as was Toby, but Leah remained a bit skeptical.

Blossoms

We have this beautiful tree out behind our studio and it has honestly the most wonderful blossoms on it in the springtime. Last year, I told myself over and over again to take some pictures of it before they went away- it's not like it's a major undertaking when it's about 9 feet away from where I sit at my desk for 10 hours a day, but somehow they never got taken. So this year, although it took me until the week before they were almost gone, I made the trek to the back of the building to get these shots last week.

Dog Sharing!

I had an interesting unexpected visit one afternoon last week. Tracy was just walking by my studio, saw the dog focus, and I guess figured, "What the heck!- it's worth a try". So she came in, daughter and dog in tow, and we spent the next hour plus chatting.

This is her cute dog Boeing

And this is her cute daughter Audrey with her cute dog Boeing


Kinda a long story, but basically, Boeing is a wonderful dog, perfectly trained, and a great great companion, but because of some of Audrey's issues, he is making their lives a little too stressful. Boeing is 12 years old and incredibly loved by Tracy but they unfortunately really need to find a part-time home for him. I found my heart quite tugged at hearing her plight, and as usual, I didn't really know what to do or say to be comforting, so I pulled out my camera (When someone is hurting, the best thing to do is take pictures of them, right? yeah- my sensitivity is amazing)




So anyway, I told her that there's only like 3 people who read my blog, but I would post some pictures anyway, and see if anyone knows of anyone who wants a dog part-time, all expenses paid.





So, let me know if you know of any good solutions for Boeing.

(oh, and remember, not an official photo shoot, so pictures not really the best :))

Josh's Bar Mitzvah

Josh's Bar Mitzvah was last November, in the middle of this fun Mitzvah Photography stint of mine.







You might remember these 3 from the pictures I posted of them at Drew's (here on the right) Bar Mitzvah a few months before this one. Alex, on the left, is what I will be working on next. I just think it's so great how close the 3 of them are! In each of their party slide shows, they all had pictures of the three of them together since the time they were born!




The party that night was a sports fanatic's dream come true- golf and baseball stations, beachball-style football, and of course, virtual "ball" of every kind. Ah- Boys and Video games- could this image be any more telling!?