I took this picture about 2 years ago when Jenn and I visited New York for a summer vacation. While its a bit blurry (sorry), I thinks its pretty cute. We made this little Mr. Potato head guy in the Disney store I think it was. They had all kinds of accessories you could use to customize the figure, and so we made him into a little statue of liberty eqe thing. Enjoy!

Statue of Potato

This is part of the Museum of Man building that is located in Balboa Park out in San Diego. That park is probably one of the largest most picturesque parks that I have ever been too. I think that this dome looks absolutely amazing, and then you look at all the details that are done up around the window, its amazing. Enjoy!

Ornate Dome

The Chrysler Building is one of the iconic buildings that when I think of New York City come to mind. Its not one of those touristy buildings like the Empire State (which you can go up in), its just one of those buildings that looks awesome. When we were in New York two years ago I made sure that got to see the building from a distance, and this is one of those shots. We were actually standing at the corner of the New York City Public Library, which also has some nice photographic aspects as well. Enjoy!

Chrysler Building

Today should be considered a real treat, two photos in one day! This first picture is of Max and his toy stuffed Hippo that he received for his b-day. He then promptly that evening utterly destroyed this little toy. The destruction and explosion of innards is what you see below. Enjoy!

The Gift

The Destruction

So like I said yesterday, here's the picture of Max enjoying his cupcake birthday cake. There's not much else to describe, so Enjoy!

The Eating

So Saturday we celebrated two birthday's. In the morning we celebrated with Max his first birthday, and in the afternoon Jenn's mother's. He's now 1 year (or 7) old. We've had him 9 months, and its gone by ridiculously fast! For his birthday we gave him a stuffed animal (already destroyed, pictures to be shared this week), a rope toy (still in action), and some cupcakes. As you can see here, we put one on the edge of the table with a candle (no fire involved), and then fed it to him. He obviously liked the cupcake, and we enjoyed sharing his birthday with him. Enjoy!

Max Turns 1

I was going to post this yesterday but decided to hold off one more day. I don't feel like its the most exciting picture that I could post, but I really like it, and I took it for a reason. I love how the twigs/branches are intertwined here. It just looks so cool to me. In the shot I also messed with some depth of field stuff so that the stuff behind the branch is blurry, helping to make the branch stick out a bit more. Enjoy!

Intertwined

So this morning Jenn and I got up to take one of the cars in for an oil change (that only matter because otherwise I would not have been awake when Jenn left). She then informed me that a new sweatshirt I recently purchased had been mauled by one dog of ours. I wasn't to happy. I'm still not very happy. I'm doing a bit better about it now because I think it can easily be replaced, but the point still is that he shouldn't be doing that. So thats something Jenn and I need to address.

He doesn't ever chew on things that aren't his when we're around. He does these things while Jenn is in the shower in the morning. So...looks like Maxy won't be roaming around during shower time any more.

As for this picture and the caption. I took a few nights ago when I was taking some updated shots of the kitchen to post. He followed me around the entire time. It was cute. Then last night, I was working in the basement, getting all of the audio/video equipment setup on the new bookcase (pictures next week), and he was there. Right beside me to help. So I guess he's not all bad. Enjoy!

There to Help

This is a LEGO rendition of the space shuttle and launching pad that can be found at the Kennedy space center in Florida. This model is on display with tons of others at LEGOLAND out in San Diego, CA. I wasn't to sure what to post today, as has been the case many days recently, so I went digging through my older photos to find something interesting to share. Enjoy!

Kennedy Space Center

This is a picture of Max and the box that our new projector came in. The box was gigantic. When you get something shipped to your house that is as expensive as a projector, and delicate, you want it to be well packaged, and I can say that this projector was. Inside of this box, were two more boxes, and then the projector packed with styrofoam on both sides. The point here though is just how big the box was with Max standing right next to it. Enjoy!

One Big Box

Yesterday was a big day for Jenn and I. We had an 8:45 appointment to get a sonogram done, and as you can tell by the picture below, it was successful. Jenn and I had talked over last few months about whether or not we would like to know the sex of the baby and decided a while back that we would like to know.

So yesterday we headed into the office with hopes of finding out the sex, but with the reality that they may not be able to tell us. Lucky for us thought they were able to tell us that we are going to be parents of a little girl. She is expected to arrive July 12, 2009, however I'm convinced it'll be later than that.

Jenn and I are extremely excited and can't wait. As for the idea of wanting a boy or girl...Jenn is beyond excited we're having a girl, cause now she can get all the little dresses, and cute girly stuff. I'm just happy she's healthy, something I've been saying since November when we found out. Although I will say, I've been working at the high school for 6 years now and each year I get more and more girl drummers. I can't wait to raise one of my own! Enjoy!

I'm Gonna Be A Dad!

So a few weeks back my boss at ACI took me and my co-workers out to lunch. We went to PF Changs up in Columbia and the food was really good. After lunch, we got the customary fortune cookies, and this was mine. I know they are 1. corny, 2. mass produced, 3. corny, 4. anything else you can think of. But, this one for reasons I will share tomorrow seemed to resonate pretty loudly and I felt like keeping it. Enjoy!

The Fortune

With it being Valentines Day and all I thought I would post this picture. Its of a statue out in San Francisco that Jenn and I saw last summer on vacation. The piece of art is known as Cupids Span, and the arrow was intentionally buried in the ground to avoid the connotation of violence. Enjoy!

Happy Valentines Day

Today's picture is another from Downs Park the other day. What I like here is how there is a well worn path straight through the woods. I love the canopy of the trees that you can see so much through. I'll have to remember to get back here and photograph this again once the leaves are back on all of the trees. Enjoy!

Down the Path

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently took another trip to Downs Park, hoping that I would have the opportunity to photograph something different and interesting on such a nice day. Because we took the dogs to the dog beach, there wasn't a lot of time left over for me to roam and photograph, but I was able to take a few interesting shots that I'll be sharing.

I like this picture because of the way the tree branch is arching. Looking at the picture now, having not looked into the tree roots in depth at the time of the photograph, I have no idea what the tree is doing here. I don't know if its dead, or just growing weird or what. What I do know is that it looks cool. Enjoy!

Natural Arch

One of these dogs you all know, the other maybe not. The red collar dog is named Kelvin, and is owned by Mike and Tina. We met up at Downs park on Sunday and took the dogs to the dog park beach portion so they could run around, fetch and play with other dogs. They both had a good time, although Max was a bit shy and nervous at times.

Afterwards we headed back to our house for some hanging out and dinner. Mike took me to Ikea to get a media cabinet for the basement that I didn't think would fit in the car. More on that later (once I post its final construction). The dogs got to hang out together while Tina and Jenn fixed dinner. I took this picture while Mike and I coaxed them into submission with treats. Enjoy!

Doggy Playdate

I wanted to say "Complete" in the title today, but that just wouldn't have been accurate. This is how our dining room/kitchen currently looks without the wall in place. We both love how open it looks, and its a really nice feeling to do that kind of work and have some immediate impact.

As you can see, no more wall. Next on the list is to get the electrical work redone/rewired up so that there isn't a light switch dangling in the middle of the room. Once that work is done, then I'll enlist some help to get the drywall patched up where the studs used to be and then we're onto the cabinets. Enjoy!

The Dining Room (Current)

So this the sameish shot as yesterday, only now were in the middle of the demolition process. As you can see that big red well is gone and in pieces on the floor of the kitchen. Also, gone is the pantry in our kitchen, but you can still see where it was framed out. I won't miss that pantry, the door never wanted to close.

As for the demo work, taking out the drywall wasn't that bad, it was the studs we had issue with. And they probably wouldn't have been such an issue if we were trying really hard not to damage any electrical wires. It all worked out in the end, and as for the drywall, the trashman came and took it away in 17 bags today. Enjoy!

The Dining Room (Midway)

So the next few posts I'm going to use to show the work that Jake and I did yesterday in the dining room/kitchen of our house. This is what the dining room looked like (from 1 angle that is) for the past 3 years. It served us well but Jenn and I are both really excited about all that we're going to be doing. And I'm excited to do it and share. So this is the before. Check in tomorrow for the midway shot, and then Tuesday I'll reveal what it looks like currently. Enjoy!

The Dining Room (Before)

Not to much to say. Taken of a little critter while driving up the California coast. I think this was taken while we were stopped to see the sea lions lounging on the road. I like how the critter and its branch are in good focus but everthing else is all blurred out. This was due in part to the 160mm focal length which once you get up that high, the aperture starts to close in and you get shots that have in focus subjects and blurry backgrounds. Enjoy!

Critters

Three nights ago Jenn and I hosted our first growth group meeting of the spring, and we had some guests that had never been to our house before. So, I took the opportunity to show them around quickly, if nothing else to ensure they knew where the bathrooms where!

In the process, I showed off a picture that is hanging in the office that I took this summer of the Bixby bridge, one that I posted here on the blog a few months back. That encounter made me think of posting another image or two from that trip. So the image below was taken while driving up the Rt. 1 coastline of California. As we neared the end of our trip the sun was obviously headed down, and produced some amazing colors on the water, hopefully captured somewhat here. Enjoy!

Golden Sunset

Two days ago was Brandon's seventh birthday. Which when I stop and think, just seems crazy. I told him on the phone I remember when he was little and he came to my apartment in college and vacuumed. I have video of it, and I told him this. He didn't believe me. One day he will...

We saw Brandon and his brother for a bit over the weekend when we visited Jenn's parents. Since we had the opportunity to see Brandon, we wanted to get him a gift, only we had no idea what to get him. With Christmas gift giving just behind us, we were at a loss. So Brandon got the first of what I'm sure will be many more...gift cards. To Target's credit, they had a birthday one that had stickers with it that could use to "pin the tail on the donkey". Brandon had no idea what to do with the card, but once we explained he seemed pretty excited to have his "own money" to buy something. Happy Birthday Brandon!

Belated Birthday

Its now been two weeks since President Obama took office, and I must say that there has been a ridiculous amount of information about him made available in these two weeks. Probably not the information that we need to be hearing about, but there has been information. There has also been tons of pressure its seems, and as I read, for him to do great things these first few months in office.

I post this picture sort of as a "I can't believe that many people were there" kinda thing. I've been down on the mall quite a few times in my life having grown up so close to D.C. I just can't imagine what it was like to try and squeeze in with over a million other people on this little strip of land to catch a glimpse of Obama. Wow. As for the picture, this was taken almost a year ago when Jenn and I took the boys down for a day trip, it was a good time then, and a good memory now. Enjoy!

Capacity Crowd

I took this picture while riding on one of those sightseeing tour buses, something I would suggest if you decide to visit San Francisco. The bus tour covered a lot of what Jenn and I wanted to see, and it helped us get around pretty easily from place to place, instead of walking all around.

What I like here, is that you can see the sloping city streets and one of their famous trolley cars. Something I didn't know until we visited is that its pretty much just tourists that use the trolley cars. Rides are expensive, and wait times are pretty high to ride the cars. Locals stick to the light rail for their mass transit. Enjoy!

Getting Around