MAJOR purchase!!!

So Lindsay and I FINALLY bit the bullet. We've been driving a hunk O' junk Elantra for the last three years. Before that? A beat up '86 Chevy Spint. Before that? Some Datsun that I don't even know the name of. Before that? An ugly Chevy Cavalier. We've gone through our share of clunkers :)



Anyways, after three beautiful years with our Elantra (shown above), we're breaking up. Sure we'll miss the fact that it's gone a year without being able to get it smogged (and we've tried!), rolling the window down to open the door (inside door handles are broken), The ever flattening tires, the nice dent in the front, and so many other things, but I think we'll make it :) So... dun-dada-dahhh!!! Here's our first real car together...





Lindsay and I are quite the minimalists (not really in the strict world view sense - just in comparison to most Americans maybe :). When our friends ask "what car did you get?", no matter how sheepishly we say "BMW???" it still feels very weird. You have to remember, we made like 3 bucks an hour our first year of marriage when we were working non-profit. This feels a little strange but we're excited to have a nice car. The dealer was telling us about warranty and how you just take it in if there's a problem and it's covered?!?! Crazy.

We have to thank our parents (on the Mauldin side) for the SERIOUS help in buying the car. We called Ben (dad) like ten times saying "does this sound right?!?!" And we both want to thank so many of you who have been excited with us for the good fortune that has come our way. You guys are all so awesome :) I can't wait till the end of the year when I have my break to hang out with so many of you!!!

Bobby

___________

p.s. for the gearheads out there, this 3 series is a 6 speed manual. I worked as a valet guy a couple years ago and fell in love with the BMW's 3 series six speeds. I attempted a little drifting today but I'm going to try and keep that to a minimum :)

___________


p.p.s. I forgot that I had a fake tattoo on my arm today. My brother in law's skate shop has them and we put them on as jokes. So, as I'm trying to look all serious and professional like "of course I'm mature enough to buy a car," I have a huge fake tattoo flaking off of my arm. Way to go Bobby :P

Hana + James: Sneak peak...

So it's 3:00am and we got home from Hana and James' amazing wedding about an hour ago. It was a long (but EXTREMELY fun) 9am to 2am day! I'll be sleeping in tomorrow :)

Anyways, here are a few quick picks from the day. Hope you like them!

Bobby












My first "veil" shot! Woohoo!!


I LOVE dips :)

Frank Black is amazing!!!

We're at the frank black show right now. Frank black was/is the frontman for the Pixies, has a million (amazing) solo albums, and has been the focus of my musical interest for the last decade. I should mention that this is the sixth time I've seen him :)

We're shooting a wedding for a super fun couple tomorrow up in Corona - so check back soon for that!

Bobby

Sent from my iPhone

Jen and Tracy: the real post

So a couple weeks back we shot Jen and Tracy's wedding. We really enjoyed these two. It was a very special day as not only were Jen and Tracy getting married, but two families were blending into one, as well. They had a sand ceremony where their kids all filled up a vase with their own sand - signifying the family joining together. I LOVE stuff like that :)

Anyways, Events by Christopher planned this one - and it went awesome (this is my second wedding this year with them) and it was at the La Jolla Shores Hotel... beautiful place to get married.

Have fun watching the slide!

Bobby

Joleen and Eric...

This wedding was uniquely awesome. I went to school from kindergarten to 8th grade with Joleen. After that, went a good 8 years without knowing anything about her, to seeing her last year and becoming her wedding photographer!

It was a real honor to be present at this wedding. Being a wedding photographer, I've never tried to act like I have a secret sixth sense in knowing "oh they're going to make it..." or "they don't have a chance!" However, Joleen and Eric were one of those couples that if I had to bet... I think they're going to be very happy with each other for the long haul :)

Here are a few of my favorites.









Thanks for checking 'em out!

Bobby

I'm 26 today...

...Weird. Honestly, up until about a week ago, I completely believed that I had a good six months before my birthday. A friend had said "guess who's birthday is coming up???" and I totally thought she was talking about her birthday or maybe her husbands. Time creeps up on us, doesn't it?

Anyways, I'm not a big birthday guy (for my birthdays, at least) so all I did was take the day off. We went to the gym this morning, then had lunch at Chick-fil-a with some friends. Now we're back at the house contemplating going down to Ikea. We've never been and hear it's pretty fun :)

Birthdays are sort of my New Year's. I tend to think about three things. One, "am I where I hoped I would be at this age?" Two, I think about things I want to have completed or started by my next birthday. And three, I think about all the great things that happened to me and count my blessings. This last year was bigger than I could have ever imagined. Outside the year I got married, this was probably the biggest year of my life. So much has changed/happened and I'd be a fool to not be unbelievably grateful. So here are some things I hoped for from last year to happen before turning 26. Nothing huge, or crazy.

- Go to at least two new countries.
- Have photography be our main source of income.
- Lindsay be able to quit.
- Maybe get a dog (I wasn't sure about this one)
- Stay out of debt (this is my goal every year)

I am happy to say it all happened! Of the different places we went overseas for the last year, two of the countries were new. Thailand and Cambodia (loved them both :) Photography is now our soul source of income and Lindsay has quit her past job. We got Remmy (our German Shepherd) and we stayed out of debt! Woohoo!!!

On to my goals for next year...

- Take my parents overseas.
- Go to at least two new countries.
- Stay out of debt.
- Buy the neighbor's house (if they sell it).
- Be (at least) on my way to fluently speaking another language. I've been close(ish) to a few (french, chinese, spanish) but never stick to it as I'll move to another language when we are going to a new country. I need to commit to one! Hopefully this year it will happen :)
- Work (in some way) with sex/slavery trade throughout the world.

There's obviously other goals I have, but that is a good set, I think :) We'll see how much we did when I'm 27!


Thanks to everyone who emailed me and sent me birthday wishes on facebook. I might not be a big birthday event guy, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I felt good waking up to birthday wishes this morning :)

I'll leave you guys with some of my favorite experiences from 25 :)


Our first time in Vegas together (Lindsay's first time altogether)


Day after wedding session in Villefranche-sur-mer, France. A bunch of fun.


We rented a car in Europe for the first time and drove from France to Italy.


Nice, France.


Remmy got spayed so she had to wear a shirt and a lampshade so she couldn't lick her wounds :)


Our little nephew, Mo, the diamond thief.


Winning the limbo competition at Chick-fil-a.


My favorite wedding photograph of the year.


Hanging with great friends.


Remmy meets (meets - not eats) Mopsy.


The view from our room at the Wynn in Vegas.


Beautiful French Riviera.


Our favorite town in all of France. Peille. We just happened upon it.


Awesome wedding in the south of France.


Watching Horton Hears a Who on a plane :)


Master Carlson Gracie Jr. Shooting his portrait was a HUGE honor for me.


Erawan Falls in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. What a fun place!


I got to meet and cover the Governor for the wildfires in SoCal.


From our driveway during the wildfires.


Lightning storm off of an island in Thailand.


Sunrising over Angkor Wat. What a great experience!


Becoming friends with DJ was awesome!


Little Remmy :)


Becoming friends with the Orange Turtle Photography gang!


The ruins at Ta Prohm in Cambodia.


One of the best experiences of my life. This guy was completely wild and completely hung out with me :)


Held a tiger cub... ohhh man!


We got to pet several full blown tigers...


We found a river and forest in the countryside of Italy.


First day we got Remmy.


The Cinqu Terre in Italy.



Remember, life isn't awesome because of travel, new purchases, business success, or anything like that. Life is awesome because of relationships and experiences. We all have so much to be grateful for, I think.

Bobby

I hate cars...

I've been sitting all day trying to get my car smogged... it's been hours! I have ZERO desire to buy a new car, but I guess we'll have to if we can't smog this guy :(

Totally Rad Actions: for photographers...

So I finally caved in and bought the Totally Rad Actions. Jessica Claire has been using them like crazy and I decided to try 'em out. I really like them! Definitely worth the cash :)

Here are some before and afters. These images are straight out of the camera - that means ZERO post-processing (that's like the photographer's equivalent to having your parents walk in on you changing :) and the only thing done to the finished images are the Totally Rad actions - no Lightroom, or anything...













Pretty cool, huh? So, photographers out there, go ahead and jump on. I sure feel good about the purchase :)

Bobby

Tracy and Jen: quick picks...

So we shot Tracy and Jen's wedding at the La Jolla Shores Hotel last night. Everything went off without a hitch which is something I'm getting used to when I work with Events By Christopher :) I haven't gone through all of them yet, but here are a few of my first picks.

Tracy and Jen, we couldn't be happier for your two families becoming one big family. Have an awesome time in Mexico!!!

Bobby

Why do I hurt my feet before weddings?

So last wedding I shot I got a big cut on the bottom of my foot a
couple days before. Got a wedding tomorrow and of course I had to step
on a bee. My foot feels like it's going to pop when I stand on it!
It's got no more room to swell but it keeps figuring out how to :)

Bobby

Sent from my iPhone.

Adam and Cheyann: The real post

So Adam and Cheyann are such an awesome pair. Adam's a Texan, Cheyann's a Californian, they met in Montana, and now live in Salt Lake City, Utah. They met as missionaries and are just so sweet. We did everything over the internet so we first met the day before the wedding. Some people always ask "how does it work if you've never met in person?" Honestly, I've just got these hunches through my emails with potential clients. I knew these guys would be awesome... and they are!

One thing I am so grateful for are my easygoing couples. Adam and Cheyann were no different. I swear, a go with the flow mentality mixed with a beautiful bride is a recipe for an awesome wedding - rain or shine! Cheyann's hair dresser was quite late and you would have never known it. Nothing was going to stop Cheyann from having her dream day. We LOVE brides like that (that's how Lindsay was on our wedding day :).

Anyways, here's the wedding. It was at the LDS temple in La Jolla (such an awesome building!). I only mention that they are Mormon as I know some people are going to think, "hey, where's photos from the actual wedding?!?!" Well, the actual ceremonies for Mormon weddings aren't public events. It's either that or the Mormon couples that I've shot are playing a trick on me :)

Hope you like the photos!

The Chick-fil-a limbo champion is here!!!

That's right. I made everyone proud by taking home the gold for the Chick-fil-a limbo contest. I even went against the guy who took it at the last Chick-fil-a grand opening in Moreno Valley (he's been to 18 grand openings!" Anyways, it went back and forth between myself and the runner up. Man both of our lower backs were hurting! And all for what??? A chick-fil-a backpack (which my mom immediately snatched up :)

Anyways, we had a blast staying the night in the parking lot and will now enjoy free Chick-fil-a for a year! We went for lunch today :)

Stay tuned as I should have a new wedding up tonight (fingers crossed)...











Looks weird, doesn't it? You just better bring your A game if you want to beat the champ!


My prize. Worth a sore back? Not sure yet :)

We're sleeping at Chick-fil-a!!!

So chick-fil-a does this thing where the first 100 customers get free
chick-fil-a meals for a year! We're spending the night in the parking
lot... It's actually a lot of fun. They feed you all day, have games,
and you just hang out with your friends. We did it a few years ago and
have been waiting for a chance to do it again.

Anyways, come back tomorrow as I should have a wedding from last
Friday to show you guys :)

Here's Lindsay and our friend Deb today in the chick-fil-a parking
lot...

Bobby

Google picture quiz...

I saw this on Kelli Nicole's blog and had to copy :)

This is how you play:
Use Google image search to answer each question. Then choose your favorite image. It's a good time waster.


Age: 25


A place I'd like to travel to: Iceland


or Cappadocia (Turkey)...


My favorite place: The Yellow Mountains (China)


Lindsay's favorite place: Anne Franke's House (Amsterdam)


My favorite object: Piano, maybe?


My favorite food: Honey shrimp at Pei Wei's maybe?

this:

My favorite animal: Gotta love the Elephants.


My favorite color: don't really have one. Since I had to choose I chose black.


The town where I was born: Valley Center in a trailer (caravan) on Yellow Brick Rd. No hospital for this kid :)


The town where I live now: Escondido


A past pet: Euromastyx (rad lizard from Egypt). I used to collect reptiles.


A past love: Skateboarding in Barcelona, Spain.


Friend's nickname: Bearska (it's actually a picture of him as it was one of the only things that came up for "bearska.")


My screen name: bnlearle (only pictures I took came up) - that's Lindsay's head in Normandy, France :)


My first name: Bobby


My middle name: Wayne (John Wayne)


My last name: Earle - I have a brother named David Earle... this is a different David Earle :)


One of my bad habits: Procrastinating


My first job: Dippin Dots


My grandmother's name: Sunshine


My college degree: None :)


What I'm doing right now: On the computer!


__________

Hope everyone's Saturday is going swimmingly (I love that word - I think I first heard it on the Simpsons :). Hey, is anyone going to the free Gnarls Barkley concert tonight at Del Mar? Lindsay and I are thinking about going (we'll probably flake out and not go though :). Anyways, just google "Gnarls Barkley free" and I'm sure you'll get the info. Thanks for stopping by!

Bobby

Check out the "Free to Succeed" tour with David Jay!

My buddy (and mentor, you could say), David Jay, is going on an awesome tour. All you photographers out there should DEFINITELY hit this up. There's no way I would be where I am if it weren't for DJ, and I know so many other photographers who feel the same way. DJ has a perspective and approach like no other. You'll learn a ton and come away extremely inspired. That's what DJ does best :)

Oh yeah, and if you're lucky the psychotically talented Jasmine Star will be with DJ for parts of the tour. Follow this link to sign up :)

_____

DJ just released Showit Sites, as well. This software is AMAZING and I'll be switching my site over to it ASAP! Download a free 30 day trial if you want a killer (completely customizable) site in like 10 minutes.

















__________

On an unrelated note, Lindsay and I got a big shed to organize all of our (mainly my) junk that I just can't seem to part with. I'm a TERRIBLE packrat - anyone suffer from the same problem?


As you can see, Remmy can't wait 'till we're done and she can play...


A bunch of people think Lindsay quit her old work and just watches soaps and eats bon bons all day. If only that were true. Poor girl has to put up with junk like this!


Dodo (our nephew, Israel) gets to eat a cookie in all of this. Oh the life...

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bobby

Mitch and Kelly's wedding (the real post)...

Shot Mitch and Kelly's wedding on Saturday. We met a few months ago up in San Francisco (where they live) to shoot their engagement session. We LOVE these two. Kelly's as sweet as can be as well as beautiful (and Lindsay can't stop saying "my butt didn't look that good when I was 18!") and Mitch is one of those guys that you just enjoy being around. He seems like the type of guy who wears his affection for his loved ones right on his sleeve. I love that. Anyways, we're so excited as we're shooting their friend's wedding (Todd and Karey) in Thailand this November! Can't wait to hang out with everyone again :)

Anyways, the wedding was at the Surf and Sand Resort and went beautifully. Here are some of my favorites :)

Bobby


Mitch and his family went bowling before the wedding. How awesome is that!


Met the girls back at the beach...


I loved the shoes so much I couldn't narrow them down to one image :)


Stunning dress.


The ever sweet and beautiful Natalie (bridesmaid). Thanks for the referral, Natalie!!!


Look familiar (fellow wedding photographers)??? Jessica Claire shot Kallissa's wedding last fall. I told her I had seen her wedding photos a bunch of times :)




I love this one. Natalie was helping Kelly get her necklace just right.


This was my first official "first sight" (where the bride and groom see each other before the wedding but have it be really special and intimate). I loved it.




Lindsay got one of me at work :)




The ring bearer and flowergirl - their dogs Sadie and Ben.




This photo is so "Mitch." A guy who won't hide his excitement. Love it.
















This is my first back focused image that I've taken that I really like.


I think this is my favorite photo I've taken this year. It's so intimate - I just love it.


Kelly wanted to take some photos here and I NEVER would have guessed they would have turned out like they did. I'm telling you, sometimes my clients are better photographers than I am!


So here's my dumb move of the week. I told Lindsay, "wow! those cakes look so much like wood!!!" Lindsay says, "they are wood," and goes to touch them. I panic and try to stop her. Seriously, my heart dropped...

... They weren't cakes. They were wood. I'm an idiot :)


This is what happens to Mitch when he hears Madonna's and Justin Timberlake's "four minutes to save the world" song. He's got some serious moves!


I LOVE taking photos while everyone's having a good time. One of my favorite parts of the day.




Greg, Lisa, Karey, and Todd. We're shooting Karey and Todd's wedding in Thailand this November. Mitch, Kelly, Lisa, and Greg are all going to be there. Can't wait you guys!!!

Here's the whole kitten kabootle!

Mitch + Kelly...

Today was so much stinkin' fun! We shot Mitch and Kelly's engagements up in San Francisco (where they live) a few months back and have been chomping at the bit to shoot the wedding!

I'd post more if I wasn't so tired. We left the house yesterday for CheyAnn and Adam's wedding at 7:30am and got home at midnight. We left this morning at 9:00am and got home at 2:00am! It was so much fun but I'm just so glad I don't have to wear any shoes at all tomorrow!!! Not to mention we walked away from this weekend with 100 gigabytes of images! In two days... that's a lot for me :) Anyways, I'll post more (from both weddings) soon. I'm sure I'll be much better when I wake up at four in the afternoon tomorrow :)

Bobby

Adam + CheyAnn...

What an awesome wedding! I'd write more about it but I'm dog tired. We just got in (about midnight) and here are a few favorites :)















I've got to go to bed IMMEDIATELY! We've got a wedding tomorrow up in Orange County... Can't wait!!!

Bobby

Remmy, MMA, and maybe a car???

I was going through my stacks of external hard drives and found photos of Remmy when she was tiny. It's crazy because these two photos are maybe five months apart... dogs grow so fast!

----

Are there any other MMA fans excited about the Affliction card?!?!? Tim Sylvia vs. Fedor, Barnett vs. Rizzo, Arlovski vs. Rothwell... Not to mention Babalu, Aleksander Emilianenko, Matt Lindland, and others that are fighting on the card. Then there's the FREE UFC card the same night!!! Anderson Silva is moving up to light heavyweight - so it should be awesome! I've got a couple weddings this weekend so I'll be DVRing both events and watch them Sunday afternoon/evening. Anyone's more than welcome to join!

-----

Oh yeah, we've got one heck of a beatdown looking car! We're thinking about getting a new one. I lean towards seeing how far we can take this one and Lindsay (slightly) leans toward a new one. Never cared much about cars so the issue is something i've been avoiding for some time :) Whatcha guys think???

Bobby

Blogging from my iPhone!

How cool is this?!?! I can blog from my iPhone! Maybe I was able to do
this with my old iPhone... but I'm so excited I can blog from this now
(plus the picture was taken and sent from the phone!).

This picture was REALLY hard to take in the mirror. Clearly I need some practice on my "myspace pic" skills ;)

Bobby

Sent from my iPhone

The new iPhone and random thoughts...

So Lindsay and I got the new iPhone today. I had the old one so upgrading to the new one was only $200. To be honest, I didn't care to upgrade but Lindsay has been stealing my phone to watch the Office while she works out - so we figured we'd get her one so she'd stop stealing mine. The only real problem is that she's lost about 5 phones THIS YEAR alone!!! We've downgraded her to the $15 "Go" phones that you buy at wal-mart so it's not that expensive to buy a new one - but now she's on a mission to prove to me that she has the power to NOT lose a cell phone :) We'll see how that pans out.

As far as the iPhone 3G goes... Don't bother upgrading if you've got the old one. The new back looks and feels cheaper and it loads a page in about 5 seconds that the last iphone took maybe 8. No real or serious difference yet as far as I can see. The real benefit is getting one cheap if you're eligible.






This actually hurt my jaw :)


Some random thoughts...

1. The first time I heard the name "Shiloh Pitt" I thought "that's going to suck when they figure out that switching the first consonants of each name makes a bad name." I'll give you a clue. Pile O' ...

2. If you live in California, simply doubling your tax after your meal IS NOT a 20% tip... no matter what my mom tells you :)

3. I'm close to giving up hope that the PASSING lane will ever be that here in the states. I'm not there yet, but I'm close!

4. I found roundtrip tickets for $200 (after taxes and everything!) to Costa Rica a couple nights ago. It was late, I thought "I'll buy them in the morning," and they were gone in the morning. The iron was oh so hot and I didn't strike :(

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Bobby

Is there anything better than...

...really good BBQ ribs? Alright, I'm sure there is a lot that's better, but I sure do love good ribs. Ribs are one of those things that I eat and think "I could never be a vegetarian."

Anyways, Andy and Emily (one of our best friends - we shot their actual engagement a while back) drove out from Phoenix for the 4th of July weekend. We just hung out all weekend. Andy loves brazilian jiu-jitsu (as you can see here on my face) so him, James, and myself just rolled around on the mats all weekend. So much fun. Here's some photos from the weekend...

Bobby




Andy and myself getting some ribs (with James' head poking out behind us).


Andy


Andy and Emily


Doing this to a photographer as annoying as myself is the same as begging me to take your picture ;)


Lindsay and Emmalemmadingdong


the three amigas


The Crew: James, Deb, Lindsay, me, Andy, and Emmalemma.

Congratulations to Forrest Griffin!

Forrest Griffin captured the LHW (light heavyweight) title last night at UFC 86. Our house was packed with friends watching the fight... and what an AWESOME fight it was! I've considered Forrest to be the most underrated fighter for the last couple years and am so excited for him. He beat the #1 LHW (at the time) in Shogun and then did the same in his fight last night in Rampage.

Forrest is the nice guy of all nice guys and seems to always be the underdog. He was supposed to get demolished by Shogun last fall and then overpowered last night by Rampage. It's nice to see underdogs come up (I hear us San Diegans are prone to root for underdogs), but it's even better when the underdog seems to be the nicest guy out there. Congrats Forrest! It was such a close fight but you pulled it out :)

Bobby

The Orange Turtle crew...

So we hung out with Cindy and Daniel of Orange Turtle Photography on Tuesday night. We ate at Olive Garden and then crashed over at "the Earle compound", as everyone calls it.

I met Daniel earlier this year when we went to the TriCoast workshop (photographers can check out the workshop here. Best thing I've EVER done! Mike and Jordan are AMAZING teachers and you're even luckier if you get Suzy and/or Cody there, as well). Man, we LOVE hanging out with these photographers. They're so much fun and a serious source of inspiration to us! Can't wait to do it again, guys!!!

One wedding ~ two continents...

So I'm finally done with our favorite wedding to date! The (now) Reta's, Melissa and Anthony, along with the best wedding guests (10 of us altogether), made Lindsay and I, complete strangers at the start, full fledged guests of the wedding. We've never felt so special and included - and that's saying A LOT because many of our past couples have made us feel special and included before. But this topped it. Our names were on the menu, we sat at the same table as the bride and groom, shared stories, and all around just became awesome friends!

Now, I cannot say enough about the wedding vendors for this wedding. Natalie from Wedding Angels headed up EVERYTHING. I've worked with some awesome wedding planners but never have I seen anything like Natalie. If you are planning a destination wedding in France, definitely get in touch with her. Melissa (the bride) literally didn't lift a finger. Also, the Boogiemen were an awesome live band! They were willing to take requests and were incredibly talented. There was so much added to the day because of their music. And Chef Emmanuel Sofonea treated us all to some of the most decadent food we've ever tasted.

Lastly, for your destination wedding photography needs, there was Bobby and Lindsay Earle! Oh my goodness - what talent!!! Alright... totally kidding :)

Now, here is the finished product for a Texas couple's wedding in the South of France and reception at the Wynn in Vegas. Lindsay and I are so excited about doing more and more destination wedding photography now that she is with me full time. Enjoy the show!!!

The Tribby Fam and the best armbar EVER!

So for those of you who don't know, I got introduced to brazilian jiu-jitsu about three years ago and it has since taken over my life! Mixed martial arts has also taken hold of me, consequently. Well, this Saturday night one of my favorite mixed martial artists, Marcus Aurelio, is fighting and I can't wait! Marcus Aurelio fought in PRIDE before it went under and has awesome jiu-jitsu. Here's a clip of thee best armbar I've ever seen in MMA. Check it out!



Even if you don't enjoy BJJ and prefer boxing you have to see that that was awesome!

Anyways, Lindsay and I spent Sunday afternoon with our beloved Tribby's. Ryan's been one of my best friends since High School. He's one of those friends that I could go ten years without seeing and then it's as if no time had past. You know, where you don't have to spend an hour doing mandatory catch up but where you just go right back into hanging out as you always did? Does that make sense? Anyways, two of Ryan and Alicia's kids got baptized today as did another close pally boy of mine, Andrew (Ryan's brother). Afterwards we went and got shakes at In-n-Out. It was an awesome day hanging out with everyone. Love those Tribby's...


Family praying beforehand.










Can you believe Alicia is about to pop a baby out! One of the most beautiful pregnant girls Lindsay and I have ever seen...

Shooting suspects, soccer game, and the amazing "Mopsy"

So, last night (friday) around 1:00am, we heard a helicopter flying overhead. We don't live in Compton or anything, but we get helicopters looking for bad guys probably every month or two - so we're used to helicopters and megaphones yelling down. Well, last night was a bit different. The helicopter was megaphoning down to us "there are four shooters in the area. Lock your doors." So we do. Then maybe thirty minutes later they say "we are still looking for four shooting suspects. The shooting suspects are between Oak Hill and Bear Valley." Well, there are three houses to the right of us and four houses to the left of us that fit in between those two streets. We all have long back yards (about an acre) with a ditch at the bottom. Long story short, we're pretty sure the shooters were at the bottom of our yard. How's that for a dodgy night's sleep :) We were way safe though as we turned our flood lights on. With the helicopter flying directly overhead for a couple hours, the last place they were going was into the light of the upper part of our back yard. We were happy to have those flood lights! We found out today that the shooters killed a 15 year old boy. Almost certainly gang related. I'm so sick of gangs. What a pointless loss of life...

This morning we went to Izzy's (our nephew) soccer game. He's three so you can imagine how entertaining these things are. Izzy is the youngest on the team and it's hysterical how much it shows. He runs just staring at his rivals with the biggest grin on his face. He never looks at the ball - just at everyone on the field with this look of amazement like "can you guys believe we're all out here running?!?!"



Eventually they had him play goalie. Bad move for the team... awesome move for us. Izzy had NO clue what he was doing in there. It's so freaking adorable. Here's a picture of him playing goalie from behind the goal. He's just staring out in to space :)



Then a couple of our best friends came down. Phil and Leslie brought down their 6 week old chihuahua puppy. I can't even describe how cute she is. Mopsy is her name. Mopsy!







Tell me that last one isn't the cutest thing ever!

Bobby

What a day!

Two AWESOME things happened today. One, Lindsay is officially FREE!!!!!!!! Today was her last day. It's insane that she won't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to work on Monday. Just crazy.

Second, I got the new iMac! The 3.06ghz 24inch model for my fellow nerds :) I love it! I bought it from John Leonffu as he got it as a gift and didn't need it. John is an INSANELY talented commercial photographer. He showed me his....

WARNING! What you are about to read will only be interesting to photographers!!!

...Nikon D3 AND has a 1D Mark III and a 1DS Mark III! Come the heck on! I was drooling. His lens collection is equally enviable. The moment he posts up his commercial work I'm going to link to it for you guys. I was really impressed. Anyways, here's the new iMac!