Happy Labor Day...Umm, I mean Thanksgiving!

Cuddly Big Brother / Bewildered Little Sister

Commercial Honda mower...Liam wouldn't have it any other way.

The Sistine Chapel? Almost.

What better than on a 4 day weekend after eating turkey (and for Liam CRANBERRIES!) than to shed off that extra food by watching your children show you what kind of work they are capable of doing for you. Liam rolled out his favorite mower and mulched the leaves in the yard for us and then turned to showing us how using a tiny paintbrush is the most effective way to paint our chair rail feature. Finally, it was the end of the weekend and Brooke was left wondering what happened as Liam showed her that big boys still carry blankets and can be a manly man!

Have you seen a Puma lately...and I don't mean the shoes!

Over the weekend I did some back country camping in Big Bend National Park, hiking over 20 miles through the most unique and isolated terrain in Texas. Beginning in the Chisos Mountain Range I camped under the numerous visible stars awaiting the visitation of one of the many black bears spotted in the recent weeks. However, my nerves got a jumpstart when after watching the sunset, and completing my climb to the top of Emory Peak (pics below), I saw 20 ft off the trail a set of yellow eyes in the desert brush reflecting off of my headlamp during my night descent back to camp. Turns out it was a "adolescent" mountain lion just watching me and then slipped away silently. I made my way quickly back to camp, constantly looking over my shoulder and wondering if its mother was nearby. I guess that is part of the draw of a night hike, it causes one to rely on your hearing senses, making me wonder if a rustle in a bush is a nervous javelina or just the wind causing my adrenaline to quicken.

Big Bend recently earned the distinction of the park with the least light pollution in the lower 48 states, making it a joy to sit and soak up the clearly visible Milky Way, planets, and shooting stars that seemed to slice the sky every few minutes.

After traversing the famous South Rim (pic below) I turned my attention to my limited water supply and filtered water from one of the few stagnant pools of water in Boot Canyon (pic below) killing the parasites with a piece of equipment called a Steripen. Despite the algae, it filtered crystal clear, even though I flavored it with Gatorade...for my peace of mind! I woke up at 3 a.m. the next morning to cut my way down the switchbacks by moonlight (pic below) to the car and drove the 8 hour journey back to my family and understanding wife. Thank you Jill!

The cookbooks are coming...

Tired of that high pitched whine?

There are a few products that are released each year that I feel are worthy of mentioning due to their innovation. By innovation, I am not referring to the all new more absorbent spongier cotton roll or the composite that is truly "less sticky," but rather a product that actually changes the game and leads the industry in that direction...for the better!

Light enough for a baby

One such product is Kavo's new ComfortDrive handpiece. It is 40% lighter and 15% shorter than market leading electric options. Using all ceramic bearings and a motor built in the handpiece, this means you can still "feather" like an air-driven (operating between 30,000 and 200,000 rpms) and get the torque that an electric offers. But most importantly, it runs at a very low decibel level, even lower than the already quiet 6500B Brooke is happily holding above (yes, most babies receive a rattle...mine a Kavo handpiece!) If you would like see the difference and hear what all the fuss is about (pun intended), just let me know.

http://www.kavocomfortdrive.com/

Brooke 1 month old

I am quickly discovering that taking pictures of a baby has its specific set of challenges...every picture is a candid shot! A photographer needs not worry about stiff or "frozen" subjects when taking portraits of babies, but rather capturing that half second that they are not cross-eyed, crying, rooting, smiling for the wrong reasons, vomiting, or simply looking like they had a sudden fit of rigor mortis!

Nikon D90 P 1/4 f4.8 ISO 500 48mm

You asked, so here they are...Liam hanging with his new little sister (and us)!

A few good quotes

There is something about how words can be put together that can soothe and calm someones fears or lead an army to battle that fascinates me. I guess that is why I appreciate thought provoking quotes. Here are a few by one of my favorites, the self taught Abraham Lincoln (I assume that is why there has been more than 15,000 books written about him):

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle"

Oh, and he was the first president to wear a beard...at the urging of a letter written by an 11-year old girl.