Of course we are a bit bias, but we believe that photos are timeless and priceless and make the very best gifts. In the spirit of the season, the bad economic times, and just wanting to spread a bit of cheer, we are giving everyone 25% off any purchase until 1st January 2009*

Dennis turned 33 yesterday (mmm, he probably wouldn't want me to tell everyone that, but oh well). 

So there is this running thing with birthdays for us... I am a practical gift kind of girl, and for his 30th birthday I thought a really nice gift would be an electric razor. He always complained about having to shave everyday and cut himself often, so I thought it would be a very thoughtful gift. Well, he hasn't let me live that down since and teases me about it all the time. Ok, so maybe for his 30th I could have gotten him something fun... Anyway, I decided to make it up to him this year and get him a record player (for those who don't know, he is a complete record junkie). When we came back to the states this season he didn't take his precious turntables with him, but has been still collecting records - so he has a huge pile of them in the living room, but nothing to play them on. I really wanted it to be a surprise... so as sort of a joke and an extension of the 30th birthday present, I got him electric hair clippers! I wrapped it all up and gave it to him early and then did my very very best to keep the secret all day. He wasn't surprised at the practicality of it, but I could tell he was disappointed. Being the easy going Dennis that he is, he kept reassuring me that all he wanted was to be with me and Alex on his birthday. So, I made him wait all day and had Genevieve sneak in while we were at dinner to set it up in the living room with balloons on it. He was pretty surprised and totally excited! But as always, knucklehead Jaime always messes something up and didn't get him an amplifier to play it through (which I found out is needed otherwise it is really quiet through the speakers). So he spent the rest of the night with his ear pressed to the speakers listening to his records... finally. 

Here are a couple photos of him in his younger years... He has been upset about being so old this year. But looking through all these photos got me thinking... He has had such a great life so far, done some pretty amazing things and grown into a wonderful man, husband, father,  and son. I can't wait to spend the next 33 years with him... 

I love you darling, happy birthday! I hope now you can stop teasing me about the 30th one!

 

Betty and Troy were married in the most gorgeous Napa Valley wedding venue, Montington Vineyards. The two have quite the penchant for all things Lord of the Rings which was a connection we made back when they first booked us. At that time, we were working from our office in New Zealand. The two mapped out their venue and the surrounds of the Bay Area in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien's map of Middle Earth. We were sad not to see any hobbits - but the day, and our journey up to the lovely Napa Valley (which reminded us a lot of several of our favorite NZ locations) very memorable.  

In my hurry to get a seat for the dolphin show, I noticed that there was a free seat in the front row. I didn't realize, in my furry, that there was a reason for that. Had I noticed the signs from the 16th row down that said "SOAK ZONE" I might have reconsidered. It was a like scene out of a movie. I rushed down, Alex in one hand all of our stuff in the other. Dennis and Bonnie were just at the top of the stadium, looking down on us. All of a sudden I heard the trainer say "are you ready to get soaked"?! Still thinking nothing of it, I laughed at the people getting soaked a couple of meters down from me. Then all of a sudden there were waves of water coming over our head. I stood there looking like a doofus. Alex started crying, I looked up, Dennis and Bonnie were laughing, and tourists were staring. The dolphin must have thought it was really funny, because it didn't do it once like it normally does, but 5 times. Waves and waves of water came over our head and we were soaked, literally from head to toe. The whole crowd was laughing at us. The last thing I remember was looking up and having all the tourists point cameras and lenses in our face. He was still crying when we finally found our non-SOAK ZONE seats and Dennis found his camera. 

Please don't hate me Alex, I didn't mean to soak you... love you...