Shannon and Tony at Torrey Pines State Reserve

if you are looking for a great place to go spend a day in san diego try this place on for size. Shannon and Tony invited us up to Torrey Pines State Reserve to hit the trails for a unique engagement photo session.

by the beard of zeus! the view from the trails atop the cliffs was awesome, not that these two would have known though. we could see right from the start that they are very much in love and the view in each others eyes is all the awesome they'll ever need.

moving on

Shannon and Tony found a sweet front row seat to the Pacific Ocean while walking along the trails.

cliff top seat...check. cool ocean breeze...check. the one you love...check. nothing better to do...check.

shannon and tony were on top of the world! or to be more specific, they were on top of the rock, but it was still a cool place to be.

by now you should know what shannon and tony look like. in case you were wondering what a torrey pine looks like, here ya go. :)
thank you so much for choosing this location shannon and tony. we absolutely love it up there and plan on taking the ohana back up there lots in the upcoming year. speaking of the upcoming year, your wedding seems so far away right now, but june will be here before you know it. we can't wait! see you soon.

Yesenia & Jose at California's First Church

what i am about to say may label me as a nerd, but mocking be darned, i love learning about history. i also love photography. when the two get to mingle in my viewfinder david is a happy camper. yesenia and jose chose to get married in california's first church, Mission Basilica San Diego De Alcala. if you have never been there, go. even if you don't get married there, it is a beautiful place to see and learn about. as you scroll through these images try to imagine you are in old california, circa 1769. get lost in time. never mind the rolls royce, just pretend it's a horse and carriage.
here is yesenia and jose's chapter in the book of california history.

can you hear the bells ringing through the san diego river valley? they call out to family and friends to come join together and witness this most blessed union.

jose has gathered his closest compadres...

the youngest of which shall bear a ring for jose's beautiful bride.

carved by hand and assembled with care, these doors, like yesenia and jose's love, will protect them from any storm that may come and will stand the test of time.

please take your seats friends. the brides maids are entering.

yesenia entered on a ray of sunlight.

and the two shall be as one.
(how funny would it have been if they yelled out "wonder twin powers activate!" as they lit the unity candle? just a thought.)

being in this church was so humbling. it was neat thinking of how many couples have been married here through time. this church has been witness to so much history. sorry, i geeked out for a minute there.

yesenia and jose could not have picked a better day to get married. it was a perfect san diego day...

for a perfect couple.

a quick toast and off they went to the reception.

with the guests distracted, we tip toed away to get a few more shots at the reception site, the Rancho Bernardo Courtyard.

yesenia looked too bonita to pass up a closeup.

a little dancing. a little night life.

muchas gracias yesenia and jose. sharing this day with you was an incredible experience for me. i can not thank you enough. congratulations to you both. may you share a lifetime of blessings together.

Happy Birthday Malie and Glenn

don't you just love it when your birthday falls on a saturday?
not that it matters when you're one, like malie, but it sure is nice when you get a little older. we're bummed we couldn't make it over to oahu to celebrate with malie. hope you had a great party at Treetops Restaurant in Manoa. we love Manoa! thanks for the picture cousin mark & J. baby malie is getting soo big. can't wait to see you all again. we miss you!

we took these pics the last time we saw malie. she was just a teeny wahine.

malie + mark + jadine = ohana

here's kim's brother glenn. aka charlie and the sock factory. :) you may have seen him pop up on the site every now and then. he usually has a pretty serious look on his face, like a guy that just memorized the table of elements. kim and i usually play good cop bad cop to distract him just long enough to catch a smile. here's one from today.

glenn's a big fan of bottlecaps. since he already depleated the girls stash of halloween bottlecaps, we got him a birthday roll.

here's a couple shots of glenn from "back in the day" (which was a wednesday by the way)

check out the sweet blue on blue vans.
take a good look at this shot and tell me glenn isn't jasmine star's long lost brother with funny lips.

i have to give glenn props. he's the stylish one of the bunch.

Puerto Nuevo Mexico - Bonus Footage

while we were in Puerto Nuevo Mexico for carla and todd's wedding at the Grand Baja Resort we had some free time so we decided to check out the local scenery. come along with us on our walkabout, south of the border. fyi- most of these shots are by kim (except the ones of rain in the restaurant. kim was laughing too hard. you'll see why later.)

we were so blessed to have jesus watching over us (and those tiny people on the bottom right)

window(less) shopping in the open air markets of mexico is always fun. the people, the colors, the luchador masks (nacho libre!!!) and...

toys toys toys. lots of colorful toys as far as the eye can see.

this one looked kinda questionable though. we found it on a roadside fence post.

here's one of the friendly locals

and here's noah taking a siesta. seriously, when are we bringing siestas north of the border? who's with me?

we couldn't pass this up. it's our ode to jessica claire. she's doing a lock project and has tons of interesting shots of random locks from all over the globe. did you notice this lock has a big SD on it. coincidence?

mas musica!

with noah awake from his siesta we were off to get some grub.

tempting, but no.

puerto nuevo is known for it's langostino lobster and we were about to sample the goods.

we walked through a whole village filled with high pressure streetside salesmen trying to get us into their establishment by offering all sorts of stuff. did i mention they "got beer?" there were also several locations where the margaritas flowed like wine. figuring the best deal awaited us at the end of the LONG line of would-be carnival barkers, we pressed on. eventually we were lured in to a place that offered an entire family meal deal. margaritas included. they even brought one of these bad boys out to the street to show us and scared the crud out of kim. at first, kim wanted to grab the tray and run down to the sea and set them all free, but then she just ordered one.

the place had a choice view of la mar and the pico de gallo was, and i am not EVEN kidding the least bit here, the best i have ever had anywhere on the face of the earth. i could have eaten it with a spoon like cereal. actually, i did eat it with a spoon like cereal. what can i say? i liked the way it was put together.

rain, on the other hand, made the very unfortunate mistake of thinking the greenish-brown accoutrement next to the pico de gallo was some sort of chili. she grabbed a caballero sized spoonful and gulped it down. it was only after the stinging heat of a thousand white hot suns was relayed from her tongue to her brain that she realized it was not chili, but some sort of sadistic hot sauce (and/or industrial cleaner) reserved for only the hairiest of hairy chested men. we, being the awesome parents that we are, belayed grabbing her a relieving cup of milk and instead opted to grab our cameras so we could share our delight in her errant ways with everyone not lucky enough to witness the event in-person. watch along with us as the hilarity ensues.
her first reaction...it's not so bad.

it's more tingly than it is hot.

dear God in heaven why have you forsaken me!? yes, those are tears. it was that hot. after we stopped crying (from laughing so hard) we got her all the milk she wanted. i don't think she'll be making that mistake again.

after the great salsa fiasco of 07 we got back to our sweet lobster, ocean view, and...

squishees.

patti liked her free squishee. it was gone in less than 60 seconds. (so sayeth the time stamp on my canon.)

after the meal it was time for a dip in the local pool.

swimsuits? we don't need no stinking swimsuits.

i'm not sure what was in the spa to make it all foamy, but the kids were lovin it.