A Visitor

My niece Ella has been driven up to see us by her Grandma (aka...my Mom) to play with her cousins Savannah and Sophie. She keeps calling me Silly Uncle Mat. I guess she's a pretty good judge of character. Here are some fun shots from the evening.

Check it out

A bride from last year who can be seen featured on my web page sent me a link to this web page where a photo I shot of her is prominently displayed. Check it out...

http://www.totalhair.net/

Sophie's Stage Debut

Last week I was asked to photograph Jeff Corwin at a private event to raise funds for the Zoo. The Zoo was nice enough to allow me to bring my family along. Savannah had asked a couple of questions that Jeff answered, but as the show went on, Sophie started to get a bit antsy. For a little while she was running back and forth sitting next to Lea near the back, then sitting next to Savannah near the stage. After a little bit of that, she decided that she didn't want to sit with the other kids any longer so she went ahead and climbed up on the stage and sat next to Jeff as he continued with the show. Lucky for her, he had already put away all of the animals. In the photo shown, Savannah was whispering to her to get down and Sophie was making some funny faces at her. Lea was quite mortified, I was on the other side of the stage and couldn't get to her so I did what any proud Dad would do in the same situation...I shot some pics :)

Quite a climb

Yesterday Cory Parris (www.coryparris.com) and I went to the Columbia Tower in Downtown Seattle to photograph a spectacular event. Nearly 1,500 Firefighters from as far away as New Zealand and as close as Everett were there to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was an awesome event. Wearing 50 pounds of Fire Combat Gear including an oxygen tank, mask, huge pants and a coat they raced up to the 73rd floor of this mammoth building as fast as they could. On the 40th floor was an Oxygen Tank changing station. The first round of firefighters opted to skip the tank change and charged ahead to get the best possible time. Many climbed two stairs at a time and most that skipped the station were completely out of oxygen by the time they reached the finish. The alarm on their tanks were screaming. They swiped their arms over the card reader to indicate they had finished and collapsed into the arms of the waiting EMT's. The only word that comes to mind is INTENSE! Some were vomiting, some were delirious, others looked like they could have turned around and ran back down the stairs. All in all it made me feel as though I am in sad shape. I have two short flights of stairs in my house and it isn't uncommon for me to be winded going from my computer to the refrigerator. Some say that exercise would help with that, but I think it's a myth. The pics of Seattle and Qwest Field and Safeco field were shot from the 73rd floor of the building. What a view!

My Wife the Eskimo

Yesterday we woke up to about 8 inches of snow on the ground. Driving home from downtown Seattle the night before it was snowing pretty steady but I had no idea how much was going to fall all said and done. The first day of March turned into the biggest snow day in our area this year! The roads were super slick so of course there was no school. I was at work, Lea was at home with the girls so what else was there to do but build an igloo?

At around noon or so she sent me a photo on my phone of a wall of snow she had built. I called her to ask what she was doing and she told me she was building an igloo. Uh, OK I thought. Fun way to pass a little time I suppose. I was busy at the restaurant and didn't check in much with her. 6 hours later I got another picture on my phone with the completed project! With just a 30 minute break in the day my wife spent 6 hours packing snow into a tupperware bowl and built a friggin igloo! Apparently she ran out of snow in the front yard and started going into the backyard with a wheelbarrow to load up that snow. Once during the day I spoke with her on the phone. Before she said hello I heard..."Hey! Don't play in our snow!" Then she explained that the neighbor children were making snowballs using snow that had fallen on our grass. At that point I became genuinely frightened. It was clear she was on a serious mission and no way a 6 year old punk kid was going to stop her from completing it :)

All said and done, this thing is cool! I am seriously impressed as it's pretty dang big and really well built. Check it out!