Brady the horse whisper!?!?

A couple of week ago we had the opportunity to shoot a wedding in Susanville and also bring the family along! And as you can see, the location had some awesome horses! Brady connected immediately and looked as comfortable as ever while walking among the two horses and feeding them by hand! A truly touching moment, felt my Dad in spirit without a doubt! 

Leisurely walking and petting the horses!

 Check out THAT smile!!!!!!!! A sign?!?!

Morning Brunch!

We all hooked up for a great brunch at Tower Café this past Sunday!! Awesome place!!!

Hot!

Hot days ahead!!

2nd Annual Acrea-Novaes' Discovery Kingdom

For the second year, the kids have "made memories" at Discovery Kingdom in the summer! Thanks to these empty cans of Coke, we saved a ton of money, in addition to a really nice gal that gave me her extra ticket! What a great start right?!

So check this out, the park opens at 10:00, but the rides dont start running running until 10:30, ie the park is only usefull at 10:30!

This was the year that Drew grew! Girlfriend was able to ride several rides since she is now 50"!

This ride made me wanna throw up just watching it! Up and down and circles....I need a can!

 Thats EJ, Coast Guard friend of the family, plus his fellow Coastie!

The Hammerhead! Why did I let me kids do THIS?!?!

More Daddy's pace!

The "wooden" ride as Drew call it! This thing feels like its gonna blow at any moment! I did ride this one with Drew!

Several years ago when we came to Discovery Kingdom with old friends Kimmie and Eric and kids, Drew wanted to ride the Go-Karts, but she was too short! The world seemed to have collapsed in her eyes! So this year I made it up and we went for a drive! Talk about cool!

The highlight was of the day was Brady! This dude went on Medusa, Kong and would've gone on V2 had he been tall enough! I felt my heart sink when I saw my little man, what seemed like miles high, going on this Medusa ride, thinking he was going to fall out of the cart! Each time Brady got off a ride, his smile was bigger than the previous ride!

An active day in Dillon Beach?!?!

A rare day in Dillon Beach...great weather and getting out and about! The morning started with a walk on the beach and the rocks with the kids!

Cant walk on sand with flip flops on you know?!

My cutie pie Drew, girlfriend LOVES the beach!

After the beach we headed down Highway 1 a few miles to get some BBQ oysters along the Tomales Bay! As you'll see, the day was simply amazing!

And here we are digging away at the oysters, clam chowder and even some brie cheese with apples and roasted garlic!

The oysters and bread! ROCKING!

Melissa and Derek!

Only one thumb up Drew?!?!

The annual family shot, usually we have taken this shot in front of the house, this year, I decided to change it up!

This a pier at Nick's Cove, a very nice place just south of Tomales and north of Marshall! Wish I had an evening to shoot this pier, not 1pm!

Looked interesting, so I took it!

An incredible view of Dillon Beach, I have never seen such a clear day in the 9 years we have been coming to Dillon Beach!

Looking Northwest towards Bodega Bay!

The post active day...sit in the front room and chill! Great day!

Dillon Beach to Pt. Reyes Station

Once a year the family heads out to Dillon Beach for a few days, much to do with Nana & Papa and their cool hook up with Ed & Katherine! The kids have been going to Dillon Beach every single summer since they have been alive! Cool stuff and an enormous appreciation for the days we spend Thanks again of course!

 In addition to spending quality time with the kids, I get to pedal my bike around the world famous roads of Marin County! FYI, Bicycling Magazine just named these roads the best cycling roads in California! My first day I pedaled to Point Reyes Station, a fun 42 mile ride round trip, about 3,000 feet of climbing, mostly on Highway 1 along the Tomales Bay!Getting out of Dillon, the first 2 miles are a bitch, but after that its smooth sailing!

A few looking Northwest off Highway 1! I have done this ride about 5 times, however, this day was by far the best day! Clear, pretty, a bit breezy, but I will take it compared to overcast skies!

Due to the fact that the day was so awesome, I stopped and took pictures like a tourist! Felt kind of wierd doing it, but I was a must on this amazing day!

The final destination in the town of Point Reyes Station! For $2.25 you get a small cup of coffee and a refill! Its a perfect pick me up before heading back! This is the ONLY ride I do that I actually stop for a coffee! Hey, once a year is pretty dang good for me!

The first cup and my loyal friend, she's always helping me lead the way!

The second cup and its time to head back!

This shot was taken looking Southwest back to Point Reyes!

My stupid photographer moment! Awesome day on the bike in Marin County! See you next year!

Pool time with the cousins!

What a better time than swimming with the cousins!

Saturday morning beach and lunch

Today's plan had worked out perfectly! We hit a beach called Salt Pond, located on the south western part of the island. For lunch we had the "worlds best coconut shrimp!" I must say it was pretty good!

Tonight we're headed to shipwreck beach for our group picture and the Hyatt for our trip fancy dinner at Tidepools!!

Should be a GREAT night since we're all pulling an Oricks, taking a nap!

Morning walk with a little rain!

Yesterday morning Derek took the older kids for a walk on the resort and the rocky coast line! When they returned, they encountered a great deal of rain!

Planning and planning!!

The afternoon fun, looking at our books and planning our next adventures in Kauai! We've been an amazing team!

Poipu...here we are!!

After lunch we headed to the resort, Point of Poipu. Checked in very early and after we unpacked, we hit the pool! The kids all loved the pool!!

Then the girls, Melissa and Val, headed to Costco for the huge food run! Meanwhile, the boys handled the girls and Brady at the pool! We even took a walk on the beach, kinda rough and rocky!

Dinner and hopefully a good nights sleep!

The real pictures will all be up once we get back, for now, just glorified iPhone pics!!

....and we're all here in Kauai!

4:20 wake up! Airport was smooth, flight was really smooth, no melt downs! We watched videos, looked at clouds, read books, listened to music, read magazines and we even had free Mai Tais from Alaska Airlines!

Lunch at Poipu Tropical Burgers!!

The love of my life, 20 years and still counting!

I, Derek, CANNOT begin to tell you how much you have meant to me Melissa! The past 20 years have been amazing! Amazingly bad and amazingly GOOD! Its all part of the journey! But thru the hard times, we have come out stronger than before! Consequently, we're pretty strong!!

We have come along way, from two kids in elementary school not having a clue on life, but I knew I would marry you! And now we have such an incredible family, two AWESOME children: Brady and Drew, a home, college degrees(and then some), happiness, cats, jobs(that we went to college for...), friendship, travels, health, trust, honesty, a couple of cool bicycles, the best circle of friends anyone could ask for, love and soooo much more!

I'd marry you again in a heartbeat Melissa, with a smaller wedding on a beach and alcohol at the reception!

Happy Anniversary Melissa!

On our way to Kauai!

We are in Oakland, waiting to fly out at 7:20am! We had an hour to kill, so we started our vitamin D program at the pool!

We met up with The Orick's in Emeryville for dinner and some playtime too!

Early wake up call folks! Goodnight!

Gone Fishin'!

This was the kids first experience fishing.  Mommy heard about the "free fishing day" and thought what better time to have the kids try it out?  Our neighbor Byran let us borrow the rods and we went down to our local bait shop to pick up some hooks and worms.  Mommy did not realize that she was going to have to hook the worms when she signed up for this gig...but she did it anyway!  Brady enjoyed the experience as did Mommy...Drew started out great but then had a little mishap with her shoes and stepping in prickly plants.  Lets just say, we spent more time in the bait shop than at the fishing hole! I suspect Brady and Mommy will be seen fishing yet again!

One handed fancy fishing!

Yes, there were smiles before the crying fit!

Legos baby!

After a few attempts at introducing Brady and Drew to Legos, it finally caught on! YEPPY! We've really enjoyed building and creating the sets, in addition to the crazy things we all build! Most of Brady's creations are garbage related, Drew likes all sorts of creations and Derek sticks to houses and cars!

Yesterday we took a mini field trip to the Lego Store at Arden Fair Mall! Holy cow they had some cool things in there! You can buy kits, blocks by the bag and cup, gift cards, create little people, workshops etc! We saw the coolest Star Wars Death Star, only $400, still, it was amazing! Lego even has an "Architecture" line that you can build famous structures from around the world!

Here's Derek's cool Go-Kart creation from last night! Once a Formula 1 kid, ALWAYS a Formula 1 kid!