From the couch in California - We're back!

A few days later and I'm back in CA and waiting for the truck to deliver our MD lives. I decide to run out for a quick cup of coffee and grab this shot of the entrance to our neighborhood on the drive home. There isn't a wide enough camera lens in the world to do this view justice. It may not be noticeable in this picture, but the top of my car is down...in MARCH. Gotta love this place.




As I round the corner I see a familiar orange truck just in front of me. They're finally here!



You think you know just how much crap you have - and then they open the door of the moving truck. We only had the first 3rd of the truck, but still. And this crew was amazing. I don't know how they did it, but in 6.5 hours, they had everything off the truck and were headed for the next house.

From the couch in California - We're back!

I knew it had been a long time, but September...of last year? Ridiculous. I grabbed my camera, surely we must have something to share. A move to California, Rachelle 29 weeks pregnant, foothills outside our door, Finnegan, Estelle, Sebastian kickin' it West Coast Style...




I spent the first few months of the year traveling back and forth from MD to CA. One trip included the production of the new Delsey print campaign for 2011. We were scheduled to have a once in a lifetime experience - actually shooting on the SF tarmac. I was really looking forward to this. I mean, really. How many people get to spend a day shooting on the tarmac of an active airport?

Clearance took weeks making the anticipation all the better. The week before the shoot our photographer called to tell me his concerns about a bad weather system that was moving into the area.

"How bad," I ask?

"Bad," he says.

We move the shoot date, check weather.com hourly hoping for a change. But no luck. It rained for 10 days straight in San Francisco, and I was there for three of them. Honestly, I've been drier taking a shower for work - and it went on for 8 hours at a stretch. Fortunately, the photographer saw this whole mess coming and shot what we needed while on the scouting trip.

Here's a plug to our photographer and my new good friend Dan Escobar. Not only did he do an amazing job with the photography, but he braved the storm, saved the day, never went over budget and did it all without losing his cool once. You're a good man, Charlie Brown.

A Day at the Duck Pond - With Doughnuts

On a recent trip to the Duck Pond, Finnegan shows his best Big Brother by sharing his Saturday doughnut (with sprinkles!) to a curious Estelle. Until this moment, she had never experienced doughnuts, or frosting, or sprinkles for that matter. After a hesitant start, Estelle got into the groove and, with Finn's permission, managed to revisit the Frosting Trough three more times without incident. In fact, Finn laughed himself silly over the whole affair shouting, "Estelle likes my sprinkles!" I wish I'd had the video camera with me.


Once fueled by said doughnut, Super Finnegan kicks it into high gear for a little Duck Chasing.



The world once again safe from a Duck Invasion, Super Finnegan cools his feet while enjoying a milk cup. Then, on to another great adventure.

Easter Treat

I ran across this picture today and realized I'd never put it on the blog. The Easter Bunny was kind enough to leave a chocolate bunny for Finnegan this year, which we kept for a special occasion. Here, Finnegan (looking a bit like Friar Tuck with that haircut) sings the bunny his Before I Eat You song. Maybe the cutest thing I've ever seen was watching Finnegan inspect the bunny for the perfect first bite. For the record, he avoided the obvious choice (ears) and zeroed in on the tail instead.

Finnegan on ... Chocolate Overload

While in Marco this year, Finnegan sampled a double-chocolate milk shake courtesy of Grandma Harper. Here he is discussing the finer points of "Chocolate Love" before warping to light speed for about 3 hours. The transition was nearly instantaneous - both on the way up and down - and resulted in a longer than usual nap and an agreement between the adults not to do that again any time real soon.

Marco Island Sunset

One of Marco's best features are the sunsets. We have the luxury of seeing one of these each night for a week off our balcony there. It's an amazing way to end the day.

Playing nice

While in Florida, Baby Estelle and Finnegan had one of their first true Brother/Sister moments. One afternoon they began playing together - after trying to wake Daddy from his afternoon nap. It was really cool to see them like this. Lots of hugs from Finn and lots of laughter from Estelle. Rachelle got some pictures of them - this one is my favorite. It looks like they're Kickin it Old School... well, except for the binky and all. If they ever start a band together, I think this should be their first album cover.