Southwick's Zoo with Maggie O'Brien

Yesterday in the face of dreary forecast we stuck to our plan to meet our friends the O'Briens at Southwick's Zoo.  Tim and Laura worked with Daddy in various political endeavors over the years, and their daughter Maggie is about Sylvie's age.  We were glad we stuck to the plan - despite predictions of steady rain, we didn't feel a drop.  And of course the forecast kept the crowds away entirely.  Syl and Maggie had all the animals and rides to themselves.  As usual, the animals were of merely passing interest.

Also as usual, Sylvie developed a quick crush on the man in the picture.  Tim's willingness to rough-house with her was all it took for love to bloom.

A few photos of the girls at their fun below.  More here.

Maybe my favorite shot of Melissa, ever

Buddy and his biggest fan

Seattle photos - 500 even

Done with the culling, and I have exactly 500 photos in the Seattle Trip Gallery.  What a great time we had.  I got a lot of fun photos.  I put a subset together into a slideshow, set to - what else - a little Nirvana. If you're not into 'the grunge thing' I recommend turning off the speakers...

Thanks for a great time, Ben, Lia, Aya and Stevie!

Pacific Northwest

Well, I finally finished the photos from our Seattle trip.  I'm making a slideshow of the best and uploading the rest to a gallery right now.

Ordinarily I confine myself to photos of people - usually the kids.  But the Pacific Northwest, and particularly Fox Island, afforded so many breathtaking vistas that it was hard not to be continually reaching for the camera.  I'm not so good at landscapes, but here are my favorites from the trip, a good many of which feature Mt. Ranier as seen from the porch of the Fox Island house:

Sunset

Lia took this one - at sunrise

Sunrise, a little later

The view from Ben and Lia's new window!

Seattle photos - first taste

Excuse my Fran-say, but Melissa really got on my a** this evening about being such a laggard in getting up my Seattle photos.  Might have something to do with the fact that I started out with 1038 of them - it's daunting!  I am through about half, and intend to make a slide show of them.  Here's a small (very) taste, to placate my wife.  You may notice a theme to the selection.

Many more to come!  Hoping to get through them this weekend...

First day of dance!

Ever since seeing Madeline in her recital over a year ago, Sylvie has been obsessed with being "up on the stage" herself.  Well, today she took her first step, attending the first session of her new ballet and tap class!  Melissa reports that she resisted some of the teacher's instructions, but it went mostly well - and Syl seemed to enjoy it.  Apparently taking photos during class is tough, but M got a couple of snaps of the excited girl heading out the door (note the coat - 20 degree drop over night!).

Matching shoes!

A milestone. Melissa tells me it was a significant coup when she scored these matching sets from Target's much sought-after Missoni Collection. Sylvie is very pleased.

UPDATE: Fascinating.  I was skeptical of the whole "coup" thing.  But this "story" is in the New York Times!!

Ball Fight!

Boy, do I ever have a lot of photos to catch up on.  We got back from Seattle late on Tuesday, and I flew to DC early Wednesday - just got home (finally) this afternoon.

First thing is first: I added all of Aunt Willow's fantastic photos - plus a few inferior ones I took of her with her niece - to the now-complete August 2011 gallery.  Check them all out.  Here are a few more exemplars.

Oh, and here's a couple cute ones I snapped of the two of them:

 Willow served as a bit of a combat photo journalist on the day before the hurricane, when she covered the epic ball pit battle that we had when Madeline came over for a play date...

How it started

Quick escalation

I was outnumbered

Human shield?  Check.

Biting was allowed.

Finally, she got this beaut of Princess Madeline.  No telling if there was a pea under the mattress.

On our way home

After a lot of fun in WA!

Budding photog

Syl took this.