Engagement Session with a Twist

Two weeks ago we drove to Concord and met up with Wendy, our niece, and she introduced us to Rob, her Fiance. We had a little photo session which proved to be a bit unusual. You can see for yourself:

First of all Wendy helped Rob get ready:
Then they did the poses...you know, the usual bride-t0-be/fiance poses..lovingly looking at eachother, showing their excitement:


We did a few shots of Rob, just to get to know him better:

(i think the wedding shots in June will be a bit of a challenge, if you get my drift).

He likes to call himself "Dr. Rob", so we humored him. He seemed jolly enough.

All in all, Wendy seems happy to be with him, so that counts for something. But, dear Wendy,
all I can say is, "I hope he is very rich".

These Guys are Good!!!

Once again, the competitors from Elite Instinct traveled to Santa Cruz for the US Open XV Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament, October 15-17, 2010. Eleven members of the team competed and brought back SEVEN medals!! Can you imagine? Ultra heavy weight white belts Jordan Taghavi, John Thurston, and Matt Zonfrello dominated their division, and took home 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. And Laura Bradford also got the gold in her division.
This is an amazing team that works hard, practices almost every day of the week, and is intent on perfecting the intricate skills and moves of BJJ. They have had a great trainer, Brazilian black belt, Mauro Ayres. Owner and trainer, Michael Quigley, a blue belt, is coaching now.
They are right back at work, preparing for the next tournament. Congratulations to all of you!

Annalisa Returns (or, My Garden Elf)

"Blow me a kiss, Annalisa!"


I had so much fun photographing Annalisa. You might recall my "Annalisa Ballerina" blog last spring. Annalisa is a year old now and she still has the most amazing repertoire of expressions! She is a photographer's delight! Luckily, she lives way up north, so I can't pester her too much. (but i really wish she lived across the street).

Here are some of the many faces of Annalisa:




"What to do with all these weeds!"

The Twins

As you can see, I haven't blogged for quite a long time! Happy New Year to all!
But I couldn't pass this up...we just got back from photographing and frolicking with two of the cutest little one year olds! I'm so glad we got to meet them and their mommy and daddy today.
We headed out to the arboretum, despite the cold, overcast day, and we found plenty of leaves and trees and benches to use as props. And...we found the ducks! Both kids had fun herding the ducks. The ducks were not afraid of two little toddlers and let them get very close to them.

Name That Bird

This will be a really different journey for you all. I am going to go
backwards on my reports. So this is the day before Costa Rica. Hope
you can follow me! This is the bird that followed our boat. We were
out to sea all day, no land in sight. The sea was pretty calm, but
still hot and humid. We managed to stay busy all day, mostly eating,
going from the buffet to the aqua deck, then to the restaurant. Todd
spent half the day photographing the bird. So we have quite a few nice
pictures of the bird. The exciting part of the day was being invited as
special guests of the Captain to come up and visit the bridge. No
cameras were allowed because of security. So Todd had withdrawl
symptoms, walking up there without his camera! It was very interesting,
but the thing that kept me entertained, was watching the beautiful birds
drafting off the bridge, just floating along, catching the drafts. They
would glide right next to the windows, so we got very "up close and
personal" with the birds! Also, I was amazed by the steering wheel of
the ship...it is no larger than a dinner plate! No wonder they don't let
many people up there to see! We still don't know why we got special
invitations... no one else in our group of 7 got invited!! There were
about 20 in the tour, so we felt pretty special!
I hope someone out there can name this bird! Even the first Mate didn't
know.

Costa Rica...heading home

We are now in the Pacific,and we stopped for the day in Costa Rica.
Since we have had zero internet access,
I haven't been able to blog. I'll do the rest when we get home, I guess.
Here is where we went swimming today . The last time we came south on a cruise, I had the time of my life swimming with dolphins. But this time we got the Bargain Excursion to
the nearest beach. There was one problem...well, FIVE big problems!
This is not the best way to lose all that weight we have been packing on
in the dining room this past week.
As you can see, we made it back to post this blog.

The Three Barbaras

Barbara Louise, Barbara Jean and Barbara Elizabeth (my beautiful niece)


Today my Aunt Barbara passed away suddenly. I will really miss her. I didn't see her very often because she lived in Southern California, but it was always comforting just knowing she was there. I loved calling her and saying, "Hi, Barbara, this is Barbara!". Then she'd laugh and say, "I know that is you". Just a little family tradition we had. The last time I talked with her, a few weeks ago, she was happy and healthy, walking daily and playing Bingo at her retirement home.
She will be in Heaven and meeting up with Al, her husband whom she missed so much after he passed away. I'm glad she believed in God. She was my mom's younger sister and our last close blood relative of that generation. We still have our Aunt Ruth, tho', who was married to my mom's "big brother". I'll be sure to keep in contact with her.