Happy Birthday to me

Howdy y'all. Just wanted to post a pic from our drive up SR20 in the North Cascades on my birthday monday. The drive is filled with breathtaking views of waterfalls and teal-green lakes filled from glaciers on beautiful mountains. I was truly awe-struck by the amazing sights. Until Savannah bit it on the steel bridge anyway....but that's another story. I'll post more pics later on.

Mat

Sun Bears and Toothaches

Well, it's pretty late/early tonight. I've been sampling some Sauvignon Blanc for our new wine list at McGrath's. It's never really been my favorite varietal, but it is extremely popular to drink with fish so the decision is an important one. In case you are interested, New Zealand is the hottest spot on Planet Earth to produce Sauvignon Blanc right now so our newest addition will definitely be a New Zealand Sauv Blanc. Probably Brancott.

I'm getting ready to hit the sack. When I wake up it is off to Downtown Seattle to get my friggin Wisdom Tooth pulled. All of a sudden this week it has torn through my cheek and is killing me! At times, the pain has been more than I can stand so as long as it isn't impacted, it's getting yanked in the morning. I had one pulled about ten years ago, with this one going that leaves two more to torture me at will. I hate going to the dentist, but I hate the agony of a toothache even more.

The Zoo emailed me earlier this week with a challenge to get the best photo of a Malayan Sun Bear possible for the cover of the Zoo Member magazine next month. I went for a few hours on Thursday and they never appeared. Today I was there over an hour before I caught a glimpse of one as they like to hide out more than they like to show themselves. Finally however two came out and I was able to snap a few shots off. I hope they are good enough to make the cover as I would be pretty excited about it. I attached a few of my favorites for you to judge. Let me know what you think, no one comments on the blogs anymore it seems like.

Wish me luck at the torture clinic (Dentist)!

Mat

Grizzly

Date Night

For the first time since September, Lea and I had a date! For her birthday I had bought us tickets to Teatro Zinzanni. I had heard good things about it, but nothing I had heard prepared me for the incredible show, dinner and all around great time we had! If you live in the Seattle area and haven't gone to this show...Buy your tickets right now! It is worth every penny and more! We had the best seats in the house. Right on the floor directly next to the stage, so all of the actors spent a lot of time with us. At one point, one of the actors pulled me onto the floor to attempt to throw a hat on my head. To my embarrassment, I had missed. So on his next attempt, instead of throwing the hat someone snuck up behind me and slammed one on my head. One of the main stars of the show kept hitting on Lea. At one point rubbing some vibrating device on her back, softly caressing her arms and kissing her hands (which caused his mouth to glow brightly). He is the guy that is on the giant mural Lea is standing in front of. The bald man in the photo with Lea was another of the main stars. Check out http://dreams.zinzanni.org/ to read about who he is. 4 Presidents chose him as their favorite comedian as did the Queen of England, Johnny Carson, Dave Letterman, Jay Leno and Lea and I. He was so freaking funny I could hardly contain myself. Anyway, it's late and I am exhausted so I'll wrap this up. If you get a chance to see the show...Do it!

War of the brothers

You know I got the better of this one :)

The winery

Photo's from Sunday

The photo's aren't uploading right now for some reason so check back soon for updates.

Full Circle

What a blast from the past and a great day in Oregon on Sunday! Both Savannah and Sophie had their own Birthday parties locally. Sophie at Chuck E Cheese with the Parris's and Savannah at the Children's Museum with her friends from school and some neighbor kids. Each were great, but over the weekend we headed to Oregon to celebrate with our families and friends. The weather reports were ominous as was the threat of a nuclear cloud as they had just imploded the Nuclear Plant a little north of Portland. That didn't scare us though. We stuck with the plan and met at Willamette Valley Vineyards for a picnic, some Rice Krispie Cakes and presents. What better place to celebrate your fifth or second birthday than at a winery right? It really was great. There was a bit of wind and it looked like it wanted to rain, but the sun came out and we had a great time. I was able to sneak into one of my favorite places on planet Earth, the WVV Wine Cellar to take some photo's. I had never been able to go down there myself before and it was super cool to get to do so this time. Later in the day I was able to sneak Robb and Sydney in to check it out too. I even got Robb to taste a couple different Pinot Noir's. He confessed to me that he oxygenates his Diet Pepsi in his mouth to get more flavor out of it like many seasoned wine tasters. He is a natural wine taster and it is now going to be my personal goal to make him a wino.

After the girls got to open their great presents from our friends we headed to the Enchanted Forest. I should mention that my baby brother Pete whose blog you can read by clicking on his name where he leaves obnoxious comments about me here got my two year old daughter Sophie a gun that shoots BB like objects and Savannah a guitar that she loves to play right in my ear when I am on the computer. It's not that she can't carry a tune or anything...well, yeah actually that is what it is....oh well, Pete has three kids that I can get my revenge on him with.

So the Enchanted Forest for those of you that don't know is this Amusement Park just south of Salem, OR that has been there for like 500 years or so. It is exactly as I remember it from when I was a kid. I was filled with a sense of nostalgia from the moment I got out of my car and it didn't leave until long after we had left. The weather was absolutely perfect and when we got in we quickly realized that we practically had the place to ourselves! There were no lines for any of the rides, the kids (and the parents...and the Grandparents) were able to go down the slides and rides over and over again with no waiting, no whining...it was perfect! We hit the Western Town and it was like a ghost town..till we got there :) Lot's of running, screaming, laughing, playing...the kid's thought we had gone nuts. It honestly was so cool. We were all able to stick together for most of the day and one of the ladies at the park took the group shot for us. It came out pretty good too. Next, those brave enough entered the Haunted House. Lea led the way and she gave genuine screams more than once. As did all of us for that matter. The advantage to going first is that we could hide around corners and really scare the crap out of our group. It was awesome! Sydney braved it for the first time in years and even 5 year old Clayton made it through. He is very adventurous. After the Haunted House we hit the Roller Coasters...they are pretty fast for being at such a small Amusement Park. Savannah did both the big ones and both times she was in the front seat of the front car! She loved it! Anyway, I took so many pictures that uploading them filled my hard drive to maximum capacity so it'll be a while before I get them all done. In the meantime I'm going to put a few up here for y'all to check out. If you are reading this and you were there yesterday thank you very much for going! It was the most fun I can remember having in a long, long time and it wouldn't have been the same without each and every one of you. We'll have to make it an annual tradition for sure!

Lea's Birthday

Just a reminder that Lea's birthday is coming up on May 26. If you want to buy her a gift, she really likes camera equipment. A Macro Lens is what she really wants I think :)

This picture was taken of her at the Tulip festival this year in Mt. Vernon. As you can imagine, people are always asking me "Mat, what are you doing with that broad?" I always tell them it's for the money.

Savannah's 5!

Savannah had a great birthday party Saturday at the amazing Children's Museum in Everett. They have so many incredible activities for kid's. Some of her friends from school and neighbor kids were there to wish her a happy 5th. We had pizza, cake and all that good stuff and then the kids sprinted to the museum for fun! They have a rooftop play area with dinosaur bones to dig, musical instruments, a huge play structure and much more. We haven't seen that area before. Why haven't we seen it before you may be asking? It's weather dependant and living up here in the Puget Sound prevents that part of the Museum from being played with too much. Well, I didn't know I was going to be on the roof on one of the hottest days of the year so I didn't bother putting on sunscreen. Yeah, I'm a genius. My bald head is as red as the eyes of my Tree Frogs. You can see the picture of Savannah's big toy, she drives about as good as her Mom already.

Lea's Mom has been up all weekend too for the party and for Mother's Day. She brought her new little Shitzhu puppy Tika with her. He poops and pees a lot, but he's about as cute as a little furball can be. His picture is here too.

Savannah and Sophie both have another big party next Sunday at the Enchanted Forest in Oregon so all of our long lost relatives can see them down there soon!

Take Care and don't read my brothers blog...he's crazy

Sophie's almost 2!

A brief blog as I'm up past my bedtime as it is. Lots of photo's taken this week. Nicole and Andrew's engagement session was at the beautiful Seattle Arboretum. One of the photo's is posted here. They are getting married shortly and I am very excited to photograph their special day!

Today we drove up to Mt. Vernon where it was around 70 degrees and perfect! We hit the Tulip Festival which is amazing. Talk about eye candy. We then headed over to Uncle John's house where he and Vickie graciously invited us into their home to raid the wine cellar, eat pizza and wait for Hummingbirds to make an appearance. The Hummingbirds never showed, but the Turley Zinfandel was very yummy as was the Bogle Petite Sirah and the Pizza..Thanks again you two!

Sophie is turning two on Wednesday. Tomorrow is a short(er) day for me at work so we're hitting Chuck E Cheese in the evening with some good friends. Should be fun. A photo of the Birthday girl is above and of course a Tulip from today.

Late Night, Early Morning Thoughts

Hmm, deep title. The sad truth is that I don't have any deep thoughts right now. I just got done beating a guy in a heads up Hold em match on Full Tilt Poker who was quite possibly with the exception of my little baby brother Peter the most annoying player I've ever played. At least my brother is annoying in a humorous way. At least my brother actually understands how to play the game and when he is being annoying it is all strategy. Maybe this guy had a similar strategy, but he forgot to point out that he wasn't really a schmuck, just pretending to be one. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that it was very gratifying to win. My poker career has been a real rollercoaster of ups and downs. I haven't been playing too much this past year as I've moved into other time consuming avenues in my life and only have so much time available. Maybe I'll start playing more. I'm sad to report that I will not be repeating my appearance in the WSOP this year though my little brother will be playing in one of the more difficult games of the tournaments. I really think he has a shot too.

Easter was fun. Lea's sister drove her two girls up from Eugene, OR. Those of you that haven't been to Eugene are really missing out. It's kind of like visiting Paris, France in a way. Most of the woman have hairy armpits. The town plant is Marijuana and the song they play before every City Council meeting is Bob Marley's "Don't Worry."

Don't forget Sophie turns 2 on April 26 and Savannah turns 5 on May 12. Probably the most important date to remember though is June 12 when I turn one year younger than my beautiful wife Lea.

Have a great day everyone!

Mat

Gorilla's are done

Well I took the Zoo's request pretty seriously and went out there every opportunity I had over the last couple of weeks. It was tricky the first few times I went because one of the habitat's was undergoing a renovation that required the zoo to keep one group on display and the other locked up out of sight so it was a crap shoot as to which group I would get. Almost every time it was group 2 and almost every time the big Silverback Vip hid out of sight. One day I got in the Zoo before it opened which was super cool, I walked up to the Gorilla display and there he was. I got a few shots off and away he went. Lucky timing really. Then Monday I went back and they had the second habitat open. It was really a great shoot and I finished getting my shots. The photo's I posted here are the ones I submitted to the Zoo for their display. I have tons of shots of the Gorilla's they can use if they don't like these, but these are my favorites. Let me know what you think would ya?

Thanks,

Mat

What a gal!

So my beautiful bride has once again outdone herself for our anniversary leaving me as probably one of the last remaining "dumb" males. I actually believed her when we said that we would go easy on the gift giving for our anniversary. I truly am dumb to believe this as our anniversary is on April Fools Day. You'd think I would have learned in the past six years. I guess it's tricky to get past millions of years of evolution. Anyway, at least I did better than the Sewing Machine fiasco at Christmas and got her something she did want....a bird feeder. Yep, and they say romance is dead. Lea of course got me an expensive Tripod that I have had my eye on for some time now with no expectations of being able to purchase until it was completely obsolete. She cooked an amazing dinner, we drank a good bottle of wine and watched the beginning of Memoirs of a Geisha (which looks like it's going to be an amazing movie). I guess we've truly become old farts because we both sort of nodded off on the couch in anticipation of Daylight Savings Time. Hmm, maybe next year we'll actually get a babysitter and hit some Seattle hot spots.

I did get some great news. The media relations director for the Woodland Park Zoo contacted me and wants me to take portraits of all of their gorillas for the debut of their new Gorilla Habitat opening next month. I am very excited about it as the photos will be displayed at the Habitat with information about each Gorilla and will be seen by thousands of people. I was shocked to learn that after all of my visits there I still haven't seen them all. I thought there were only the six I've come to know (1 Silverback and 5 females). Turns out there is an entire other group that hasn't been available to be viewed by the public for a month or so. I can't wait to see them. Tomorrow, their display will be re-opened. I'm going out today to get as many shots as I can before we meet some good friends at the Red Hook Brewery for lunch and beer.

Take care y'all. See you in the Funny Pages!

Mat

More Zoo Pics

Howdy Y'all, just a quick post...I went back to the Zoo earlier in the week and finally got some good pictures of the Elephants. They have been eluding my lenses up until this time. You can see all the pics from this session at...

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/WoodlandParkZoo

Let me know what you think!

Mat

Apparently, Poopy Diapers aren't so great.

Well, apparently Sophie got tired of waiting for her procrastinating parents to potty train her. She took it upon herself today to let us know that she didn't enjoy sitting in her own fecal matter anymore when there is a perfectly good toilet down the hall. She just all of a sudden started taking off her diaper, putting the potty seat on the toilet and going when we weren't looking. We wouldn't have known if it hadn't been for the Almond Roca sized floaters she left in there. Toilet paper and all. Unreal, she just knew. 3 BM's and a squirt of urine and I'm convinced we have ourselves a smart kid here. For those of you that don't know, she is only 14 years old and I couldn't be more proud. Here's a picture of her when she was just 1. Ha Ha, just kidding. This is her on the pot just today. While this is probably way more information than someone just browsing blogs would like to read about, I'm sure some family members will think it's pretty cool.

Last Day of Vacation

Well, I have to get back to work tomorrow. I'm not too sore anymore, but the Doctor was full of beans when he said I would have no problem getting back to normal after 2 days. 5-7 days is what I would recommend if you are getting neutered in the future.

Today Savannah had her first Dentist appointment at 10. Lea had an appointment as well. At the same time, Lea had made an appointment at the Grade School next door for a tour and some information about a program we are considering enrolling in. It's hard to believe that Savannah is going to be in Kindergarten this year. I wasn't too thrilled with the school to be honest, but with this program we are thinking about, Lea would be a part of the class one day every 2 weeks and in later grades, one day per week. Even though we aren't too happy about the school, I think we're stuck there as it's quite a process to switch to another school unless you move.

So anyway, Sophie and I walked to the school for our appointment and then we hung out all day. Lea forgot to mention that she had a "few" plans after the appointment, so Sophie and I got to hang out for about 6 hours. She was really good too, hardly any poopy diapers. It was good Father/Daughter bonding time and I got to watch the Wiggles again. It's been a while (almost 2 days).

A goal I had for this week while hanging on my rump was to clean up my hard drive. I burned most of my archived images to CD's and deleted a ton of stuff. I realized as I was copying Sophie's baby pictures that in the last two years my Photoshop skills have improved by about 10 million percent. I found this picture in some and realized today that I had a real diamond in the rough. I think it came out pretty good. What do you think?

I hope that you are all doing well. Remember, don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

My Vacation is Winding Down

Well, my recovery is still in progress. There are shades of Black and Blue that I won't be talking about in too much detail, use your imagination then multiply it times 10. The photo of the Zebra below was published on the top front page of section B in Wednesdays Seattle PI. That is a huge newspaper and they even spelled my name right! I was pretty excited to see it.

I'm hanging out with Sophie right now as Lea and Savannah are at the store buying toys and clothes for children in Africa. It's a pretty great program, they put fun items in a wrapped up box and kids get to open them up. Savannah is really excited about it. Now if I can talk Lea into letting me fly to Africa for a photo safari :)

Take care y'all. For those of you that don't know me, if you happen to click on my brothers name in any of the comments on this blog and you read his blog...I cannot be held responsible. He is this tattooed poet dude that lives in the armpit of Oregon and I think that all the years I beat him to a pulp as a child have finally caught up to him.