Happy 40oz. Birthday Melissa!

Sepultura in San Francisco!

As many of you know, I hold a few things and people close to my heart. One of them being this band, Sepultura! I have been following this band since its inception in 1984, yes, nearly 28 years as crazy as that might sound! I have the glory days, the low days and the cold days! However, it never seems to matter to me what day they are on, Sepultura will forever be a part of me, Derek Novaes. This past week I was fortunate to see them, for about the 14th time I believe, in San Francisco at the DNA lounge. The guys sounded GREAT! The new member of the Sepultura Family, Eloy Casagrande, a 21 year old from Belo Horizonte, KILLED it! The kid is amazing!!! You will all know his name like you do any other amazing metal drummer! Eloy has a future ahead of him! Great to see Paulo, Andreas and Derrick. Years ago we'd share sports stories, this week we shared pictures of wives and kids and talked about happiness! What a brotherhood! Sepulnation!

The progression of a family photo on an Easter Sunday!

We all know how dreaful and challenging a family is to coordinate, set up and shoot the big shot! Here is the progression of the Acrea & Novaes' Family Easter shot! As much as it's a challenge, the beauty is that in the end, months or years later, everyone is thankful to have the "dreaded" family picture! Happy Easter everyone!

Drew gets a Photo Shoot by TWO photographers!

A great friend of mine, who also happens to hit the shutter button, Oanh Le, and myself took Drew out for a photo shoot this past Monday! It was a win-win opportunity for Oanh, Drew and myself! All of us had fun in the process! Brady was there too, but as most of you know, he's pretty sick of the camera thing, but he had fun while the three of us were busy! Plus we ended up with a pit stop at Gunther's for Ice Cream, so he LOVED that part!

Oanh also has a blog, so check out her work at the link below! The friendship has pushed us both with our photography, its awesome to have a bud to shoot with! I just wish my other photo nerd buddy, Valerie, could have been there too! You're next Val! Anyways, here's Oanh's link:

http://oklphotoessence.blogspot.com

Since Oanh was there, you'll be able to see Oanh's work with Drew! Should be fun to compare how we both saw the same subject! Very exciting! Enjoy!

My other baby...

Yes, I love my bike! There, I said it!

A typical Sunday afternoon with The Orick-Novaes'

For the most part, we make every effort to have a Sunday dinner together! We tend to stay in West Sacramento because the kids can play in the court safely with bikes, scooters, and friends. Hanging out in the front yesterday was amazing, the weather was off the hook! Dinner time we sit around the table and do "Good things" where we share some good things from the previous week. Listening to the kids share their good things is a blast! Have a great week everyone!
Note: Brady was not having it with the pics today!