a day at Mission Beach with the Nicholson Ohana

aloha friends. meet the nicholson's. another laid back, super cool, southern california family. our good friend nely, along with debbie, gordie, corey, tyler, and "alex"andria met us at one of our favorite local spots, Belmont Park, for a fun little family photo session (no thanks to my errant rendezvous site description).
ferris wheel / carousel...who hasn't made that mistake? :)
anyone? bueller? bueller?
anyway, this first shot sets the table for what was a day full of fun moments and happy memories. sorry, no "yo quiero" jokes.

alex was so cute. she was like a precious little mermaiden.

andy irons popped in to see what was going on.

corey and tyler brought their boards and were busting at their shirt collars to skate around the park. we tried to squeeze in a few quick sessions at the risk of getting booted out. more on that later. luckily, the local shop keepers were cool and let em skate. maybe it helped that we were out in front of a surf shop. half the staff actually came out and watched them. props to you good citizens.

when we felt "the law" may be getting close to busting up our fun, we headed out towards the boardwalk to catch the sun's last rays of the day. ahhh...cozy warm light to match the warmth of this family.

alex and gordie sharing a fun father daughter moment.

after changing into something with a little more street cred, the boys hit the beach. corey busted out a couple sweet backflips for us. nailed it. he's a self-taught daredevil.

can you tell who provides the comic relief in the family?

here's a closer look. tyler had me laughing behind the camera all day.

while corey, gordie, and tyler were out on the sand playing catch, alex kept herself busy with tyler's shoe.

after the shoe game ended alex was bummed that she wasn't able to play catch with the big boys.

tyler, being the good big bro that he is, came over and got alex into the lineup.

with alex deep in her own territory, gordie belted a booming kick. nice form. notice tyler's shoe also made an excellent tee.

alex grabbed it and ran it, like L.T., all the way back for the touchdown...

and in to dad's waiting arms.

we all took our life into our own hands by walking out into the center divide of the "boardwalk highway." bikes and skaters were zipping by at breakneck speeds. pure treachery i tell ya.

signs signs everywhere are signs. blocking up the scenery, breaking my mind. do this, don't do that. can't you read the sign?

and now for that short session i mentioned earlier. here's tyler's fearless impression of a speed bump. when you don't have obstacles, brothers make for great substitutes. :) don't worry. corey cleared tyler every time.

after escaping unscathed, tyler showed us a few tricks of his own.

a day at belmont is always fun, but a day at belmont with the nicholson's is awesome. a sincere thank you to you all for being so easy going and for providing the laughs. from our ohana to yours...
mele kalikimaka.

bye bye bunny.

i'll leave you with this. this is the reason we loving shooting in public and not in a studio. this guy rode by 3 times trying to get in the shot. you just can't get that kind of randomness when you're boxed in. whether you're in front of a camera or behind one, we encourage everyone to go out in public and have fun. your images will thank you for it. stay safe out there.
thanks to nate the photoshop jedi for showing us the way.