Randy and Caitlin....

So, the real reason we went to San Diego was for my Brother-in-law's Wedding...Below are a few pics from the wedding, I am still playing with most of the photo's in Photoshop and still am converting some to Black and White, but here is just a taste of some of the pics. Also click on the link --------> http://www.blvddrive.com/wedding.htm for more...

PINKS...

So, Katie really hates it when I watch Food Network(mainly "Diners, Drive-ins,and Dives") because I begin to get ideas on either what to cook or places to eat at...We actually had three places lined up to go eat during our trip to Southern California(1)Hoodad's (a fairly normal Burger joint owned by a surfer in Oceanside) (2) Tioli's Crazee Burgerhttp://www.tioliscrazeeburger.com/ where I was ready to either eat a Kangaroo or Alligator Burger,but we went on a Saturday night and there just wasn't room to eat and we did not feel like waiting (3) Pinks http://www.pinkshollywood.com/, we're in luck,we were able to hit it on the way back from Hollywood...


69 years and still going, constant line of customers...



That's my girl...10" Chili dog with mustard and saurkraut...none went to waste!!!

Mr.Plain Dog...Still polished of a 10" dog and some fries...

California...Land of the Fruits and Nuts

One of the reason I like going to Santa Monica and especially Venice Beach is because of all of the street performers on Venice Beach and the boardwalk. Even though we didn't get to make it to Venice or Santa Monica, we did meet some interesting characters in Hollywood...


Getting ready for Christmas a little early....Notice the elf in his lap...

Elvis Lives.....and wait, Peter Parker isn't the only one to catch Spiderman on film....

Yoda challenging Logan and Jake to a Jedi Dual to the Death...Sorta unfair since all they had were balloon swords freshly made by Captian Jack Sparrow just seconds earlier....

Talk about weird, for Two days we just kept hearing this woman talk about here obsessions for a cartoon mouse....

We're going to Hollywood baby...

So,a few days before our trip back to Southern California for my brother-in-law Randy's wedding, I get a phone call from Jakob and he says,"we're going to Hollywood BABY!!!! So here are a few pics of the kids in Hollywood.

Overall it was a good trip, except for hitting a snowstorm in Flagstaff while driving back. We saw most of what we wanted to, Disneyland, Hollywood, some friends, some family. The only thing we missed out on was a trip to Santa Monica and Venice beach, we just ran out of time, an extra 2 hours in L.A. Traffic put us behind schedule one day...maybe next time...

Logan and Kellsie saw a few names they recognized and had their picture taken by the stars, so Jakob kneeled down and said, "Dad, take a picture of me by this one" It was Britney Spears...only Jakob would randomly pick that one.

Logan next to "Vinnie Mac" owner of the WWE

Jakob in Donald Duck's footprints in front of Mann's Chinese Theatre

Bills -vs- Cardinals part 2

So after all the anticipation, the Bills got their butts handed to them by the Cardinals, 41-17. But we still had a blast. The Stadium was awesome, there were a lot of Bills fans there. Besides getting beat, the only bad part was all (3) of the Bills scores were at the other endzone. We were seated (2) rows from the field at about the 10 yard line. Oh well, I was hoping for some good pictures, but unfortunately, due to the Arizona heat, the roof of the stadium was closed and the artificial lighting made actions shots a little harder to take than sunlight would have...Oh well, still got some good shots...

http://www.blvddrive.com/bills.htm

Bills -vs-Cardnials...part 1

So right after the Balloon Fiesta, me and Logan jumped in the truck and started our 6+ hour journey to see the Bills/Cards game in Phoenix. It was cool to spend some time with Logan and we had a great trip.

We arrived in Phoenix and found our Hotel, then we went to a Buffalo Original, Ted's Hot Dogs. Phoenix is the only location outside of Buffalo. http://www.tedsonline.com/ After stuffing ourselves we headed back to the Hotel. Logan wanted to go swimming...Unfortunately, even though Phoenix is still in the 80-90s during the day, it gets a little cooler at night. Logan got as far as putting a toe into the water before coming to the conclusion that swimming could wait until next summer, the pool was ice cold.

We woke up early the next morning, got some breakfast and headed to the Stadium. To my surprise, there were a ton of Bills fans, everywhere...

Below are a few pics of Logan. Both the statue and memorial pool were dedicated to Pat Tillman.

Balloon Fiesta...

So,we woke up early, 4:30am early, on Saturday to go to the Balloon Fiesta...This is one of the one bright spots of living in New Mexico. Every year it amazes me how many Balloons are in the air at one time during the mass ascension. Anyways, below area few pics. This was just the start of an action packed weekend for me and Logan, we drove out to Phoenix immediately after this event to go to the Bills game.

If anyone decides to visit us, the first week in every October is the time to do so...

http://www.balloonfiesta.com/

Some of the First few Ballons to take off as the Sun is coming up

Just a small idea of the how many Balloons take part of the Mass Ascension

If I owned a Balloon...

Cemeteries...

So, I was able to get out and find (2) cemeteries today, unfortunately, not even close to anything I was used to seeing in Buffalo.

http://www.blvddrive.com/cemeteries.htm

Headstones and Statues, especially ones that are aging, are what usually catches my eye, but not much luck here, so far...Any suggestions for here in NM, please letme know.

Anyways, it did feel good to get out and take a few pictures. I even had my apprentice Jakob following right behind me with our little point/shoot digital camera snapping shots. He was a little shocked when I told him that people were buried underneath the ground.

Been a While...

It's been about a month, so I thought I'd post a few newer pictures. I started vacation today and will hopefully be able to take some shots, maybe even get back to what really first got me interested in photography and play with some black and white photography, maybe even find a good cemetery around here...

They Have Arrived....

"They" meaning the tickets to the Bills-Cardinals game on October 5th that I got for me and Logan for his 7th Birthday gift...Ok, so maybe his birthday was a little bit of an excuse to get the tickets, but it worked!!!!! Got them off EBay from a season ticket holder and paid less than the face value for them. The cool thing is we are (2) rows off of the field near the Bills sidelines, arounf the 5-10 yard line. While it will be a little tough to watch the action near the other endzone, I thought the experience to be so close to the field and the Bills players would be cool for Logan.

Chicken Bone

A little background...As far as eating goes, Logan is just like his mother, very picking and absolutely unwilling to try new things, food doesn't even hit Logan's lips and his face scrunches up and he starts to turn pale. Kellsie and Jake take after me, they will try almost anything and are not very picky when it comes to eating. Jakob has even become more daring lately(we've been watching a lot of "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" and "No Reservations with Anthony Bourdaine" on the travel channel). He even asked if we could make his turtle into soup the other day.

Anyways, I made some fried chicken the other night, and as usual with previously frozen chicken, there is a little blood that rises to the top when you fry it and also the bones and meat near it, often takes on a dark reddish brown color. So Jakob is tearing threw his drumstick when he asks, "Is this blood", of course the answer is "no" from me, because I don't want him to get grossed out. Anyways as I look over at Katie, her face has already gone pale and she is about to gag as she sees her youngest offspring, not even think twice and continue to gnaw away at the remainder. Then when he gets done, he puts the bone in his mouth at gets closer to katie as she is still try to recover.

Day 2...The Zoo

So we decided to hit the Zoo on the final day of rest of my mini-vacation. It was a typically refreshing New Mexico July afternoon...who am I kidding, it was extremely hot and miserable, normal for New Mexico in the summer. We were all dragging along at about the halfway point and Jakob at one point decided to dramatically fall to the ground by the gorillas and in a dying voice said to me, "I can't walk, I need to be carried" That never happened and some how he miraculously made it to the end. By the time our 4 hour adventure was over, we were all in the hurry to get back to the air conditioned car and drive home. I was able to get some good pictures of the kids, a few below and also to the side of the page and Katies also posted a few more, including Jakob's above described collapse.


As usual the boys can't stand still
for a picture...



Jakob in another "I'm Cool" pose




Kellsie looking cute as usual



And a relative from Katie's side of the Family

Post #1...

Well, I decided to take a few days off from work this week. Working for Staples, we are about ready to hit our biggest time of the year, Back to School. For those of you outside New Mexico, this may sound a little early, but not only does New Mexico have some of the worst educational scores in the country(this subject could be a whole seperate post by itself, so I won't get started, at least not now), but New Mexico probably goes back to school before any other state in the country(I believe this year it starts back up on August 12th)...So anyways, I decided to take a few days off before work gets hectic and also to spend some time as a family before Kellsie and Logan head back to school...Today was the Botanical Gardens and the Aquarium, tommorrow is the Zoo....

Jakob usually doesn't stand still for a picture unless it is something that he really wants to do. Most of his pictures he is either making faces, giving rabbitt ears to someone, or flashing the "loser" sign, so you either have to catch him off guard or make him believe the picture will turn out really "cool".

Just some random pics from the Bio Park....