Charles' Good Ole Fashioned Fun Time Family Blog

Mery Christmas and to All a Good Night

2011-12-24T18:25:00.001-05:00

Hi all. Merry Christmas from the Brelands.....Lillis, Charles, Wynne and Bear.
It's been a big year for us. We had a lot of fun times and great trips, and we got to expand our family when we got our puppy in July and then when our little angel was born in November. She has been an immense blessing thus far and has really made it very easy for us.
So here is this year's installment of our video Christmas Card.....which i believe is a tradition in it's 7th year or so.

Christmas Card 2011 from charles breland on Vimeo.

We're so excited for the coming year and all the family "firsts". We wish you all peace and love
Oh, and below a few pics from the year that was.....trips to Belize, Cumberland Island, Breckenridge, Scandanavia and around Atlanta. We couldn't be more blessed and we can't wait for 2012.

last maternity pics of wynne

2011-11-14T13:30:00.001-05:00

lil and i walked over to the park to take some pics of her and our little blessing. lillis goes walking around piedmont every day with our dog "bear" and had noticed an AMAZING gingko tree. it had shed many of its leaves, but none had lost their color yet. it's just an amazing site.....the grass is still a dark, vibrant green around the tree, and the leaves couldn't be any more brilliant a yellow. while there lillis (as usual) insisted that i be included in a photo or two, and OF COURSE, her little boy bear had to get his picture taken as well. bear was so well behaved while we took pictures of mommy, and lillis was pretty well behaved as well : ) we're so close to the finish line (or wait, i guess it's just the starting line) with only 5 days until her due date. we are SO anxious to meet our little girl

oh, and here are the rest of the pics, if anyone wants to see the whole album.

hiking in dahlonega

2011-10-08T17:06:00.003-04:00

lillis absolutely loves to get out of the city and into the mountains. she has a particular affinity for dahlonega. it's probably where she will go for her next wedding to a taller, more handsome guy. her father is a big fan of getting out of doors as well, and they both love fall leaves. so, whenever he comes to town, they like to try and get up to blue ridge or dahlonega. the fact that lillis was 8 months pregnant was not going to stop her. so we set off for a short hike.

it was a big day for bear as it was the first time he'd ever really been off the leash out in the open. he did a great job staying with us and would never get more than about 30 feet in front without looking back to make sure we were with him. then, he'd come bounding back for some head rubs (or a treat) before heading off to lead the way again.

he wasn't as inclined to pose for a picture, though, so i went ahead and scooped him up for this one.

here bear is doing some major league sniffing against a beautiful backdrop

here's lillis, looking ever so pregnant just 6 weeks shy of her due date.

and here bear and i stop for a minute so mommy can shoot a picture

this was the view from the overlook. no brilliant fall color (odd since we were a week into october) but still beautiful

afterwards we came back home for a lovely dinner. we chose not to go for formal dress. you can see that lillis can't get quite as close to the table as she used to : )

late summer and pregnant lillis

2011-10-02T09:39:00.004-04:00

lil wanted to get a few more pics of her little belly and of our boy, so here are a few from the last week or so. bear and i do jump training all the time. i'm thinking if they ever decide to remake "air bud" it will be good for him to already be able to dunk.

lillis absolutely loves the green market. across the street from our house, ever saturday from may to december there are local farmers and artisans (and fancy ice creams).

next weekend we'll be going to get some lemon verbana (don't even know what a verbana is) smelly things as she has decided that is the scent she wants when she's laboring.

lil took this pic of the view back towards our house from the other side of the little lake. i think they dyed it, or it got polluted, b/c it is NEVER this green.

and here i am with our little boy.

now these are from my parents' house down in satusma. we're down here for lil's satsuma baby shower (having had her atlanta baby shower last weekend.....after this we'll be all showered and clean). lillis and bear were just playing in the backyard and she had wanted some pics of her ever expanding belly, so i caught a few. if you're wondering, yes, she did borrow her shades from tom cruise.

the little guy loves to "pounce" things. here, a tennis ball gave him just a little too much attitude. so, he caught it slipping, and pounced it.

he's handsome, like his dad.

this face says "mommy, give me some treats. PLEEEEEASSSSE."

i can still just barely make out one of lillis' feet. lillis, i didn't make a comment about your feet, so that is something i should be praised for.

lil and bear playing with the ball.

bear pounced me and then stuck his tongue out at me, but i was not intimidated

and then he finally got pooped and needed a rest.

and here are my precious girls again.

this will be our last trip (ok, i may go to tuscaloosa for tennessee or lsu, but it's still "our" last trip) before lillis jr makes her grand entrance. time to bunker down and start assembling some baby crap!

chicago trip to visit sarah and zach (and amelia)

2011-09-18T08:51:00.012-04:00

we decided we were up for one more trip before the little one came. so, we packed our bags and flew out to chicago to visit sarah and zach. they have a really nice apartment right in wrigleyville, with convenient access to not one, but two little shops that sell expensive things for babies. one of them was in the bottom floor of their building, allowing us to ensure that our flights were not the most expensive part of our trip.

here's lillis thinking about some things she might buy.

here she and i are at lincoln park. in all my trips to chicago (including working there for 6 months) and all the times i'd been in lincoln park (the area), i'd never actually seen lincoln park zoon. we went there, though, to do a photo shoot with s and z's kid amelia and her buddy eleanor. i actually didn't go inside the zoo, but lillis did. she said their restrooms were very nice.

saturday day, we walked all over wrigleyville. past the stadium, down to the lake. we watched the sail boats and the water crashing against the retaining wall. the little pregnant girl was a trooper. we probably covered 4 or 5 miles but she still turned down the offer of a cab for the ride home. on saturday night we "just" went out to uncommon ground for dinner. they grow a lot of their own produce on the roof and do things organic. it was very good. just as fun for lillis, was our trip to dairy queen after.

on sunday we did a bit of baby shopping after we had eaten breakfast. then, we decided to go take the frank lloyd wright tour (something else that had been on my "list" for quite some time). the area in between downtown and Oak Park is probably not as nice as it was in frank's day. you know you're not in the best area when places are advertising that they have "human" hair.

it was a wet, rainey day on sunday (gone were saturday's blue skies), but we still had a good time. the houses are really just amazing, and we got to tour all through his studio/home which was pretty fascinating.

here's amelia out in front of frank's place.

and dancing!

one more of the flw houses

and here are a couple of the pics from our photo shoot.

we had a great time visiting with good friends......and had just enough time at the tail end to get some deep dish pizza at Giordano's near the airport. good times!

penn state game

2011-09-09T08:48:00.002-04:00

realized i never got around to posting anything from the penn state game, so here goes…..

so, jason and brian headed up to tuscaloosa where they met up with kent and patrick (owner of the bama cruiser). they headed up to dc (which i flew into) and picked up me, jeremy, and my buddy jeff there. we then headed northward and into big 10 country.

the floodwaters were high in PA as we came cruising in. here, their random statue of liberty in the middle of a river is almost swamped by the muddy, brown water.

a key feature of the rv is the ability to have a good time while you're travelling. for us, that involved a 4-some at Augusta National.

when we rolled into state college, beaver stadium welcomed us like a friend. like a friend who was going to be so nice as to let us have free reign of their house. : )

i think we managed to work bacon into every meal. this is me grilling some breakfast

WOW. i totally forgot about that 78/79 sugar bowl game. i really thought penn state had won that one.

prior to the game kent already had his game face on. this is a look that says, i'm gonna appear on the tv broadcast tonight.

here we are just prior to heading in. the tide is ready to roll

the penn state band lines up in significantly more elaborate formations than does their offense.

here we are with the game firmly in hand. jeff had been intrigued by the number of digits on the nittany lion's hands. apparently different lion schools have different numbers of "pads" on their paws. anyway, every time we heard the lion "roar" we gave the 5 clawed lion salute. abc appreciated it.

jeremy and me after the games's end

kent and our gracious captain of the ss bama. the baddest rv in the land. drive safely fans!

jeff measuring out the paws

LOVED this guy's setup. after the game he's projecting the late night game on the side of a utility shed at 10 feet by 20 feet.

a parting shot of the "cruiser"

it was a great weekend and we had a blast. plenty of grilling, and sharing a beer or two with good friends. the people of state college were hospitable (not least of all the football team) and it is a fabulous place to see a game. we were totally lucky that the rains cleared and we were able to have a reasonably sunny and warm weekend in PA. special shoutout to patrick for letting us roll and crash in the rv.

lil maternity picss

2011-08-21T09:25:00.000-04:00

took these right before we left for scandanavia, so this is lil at 6 months. our little one is finally starting to really do some growing and some kicking. she's actually pretty active, just like her mommy. here, lillis jr is whispering something in bear's ear that seems to be pretty interesting to him.

this is what lillis would look like if it were the 50's.

now back to full color.....

this is obviously not lillis, but just some dude that lillis saw in the park. she's always insistent that she be allowed to take one or two pics of me in exchange for all the pics i take of her. bear stuck his tongue out at the camera, b/c he thought that would make for a silly picture.

my beautiful princess

here lillis is looking down at her belly and thinking how excited we are to meet our little blessing.

neither one of us can wait, but we probably both think that we'll be lucky if we're "ready" three months from now. at some point i have to get the translation guide for what all the "cries" mean, and also i need to learn how to change a diaper, and never sleep, and worry. : )

lil's bday

2011-08-11T02:42:00.000-04:00

just thought i'd catch up on a pre-trip post or two while lil's in the shower. i decided to get a few pics of lil on her bday. we took her to a lovely dinner at tierra (one of our favs) with drew and blake that evening. but, before we left she got her gifts.....this included TWO donuts from the fancy donut shop on 10th street whose name i am forgetting right now. lillis got her own saddleback bag as well.

plus, a super big surprise was a package from sarah and zach. they sent us a little outfit for lillis jr. as you can see lillis was, first, excited,

then touched by the gift for the little one.

they also included a VERy fancy little baby sling that they had used with amelia.

throw in the good meal at tierra on the tail end, and she was a very very happy birthday girl!

breck with lil's family

2011-07-14T14:53:00.002-04:00

we shot out to breckenridge for a quick weekend trip with lil's family. 2.5 days was kind of short, but we got to do lots of fun stuff, and Lil finally got to see the little nephew (Graeme) who she had been dying to see (and Facebook stalking) for 6 months.

Jonathon had been a rafting guide with Noah's Ark out there, and took us out on his river. It was a blast, although the water was freezing. I learned that lesson pretty well about 2 seconds after this picture. : )

lots of pretty flowers outside our house. the house was just above the topmost lodge on the mountain there. there were beautiful views all around. bright sun, lots of flowers, but snowcapped mountains standing behind. just gorgeous.

here is lil with graeme (in his chariot) and nola. we were out for a morning walk

one of the aforementioned gorgeous views.

and another. this is the house that was next door to us (at sunset)

graeme and i are both very handsome, we both have awesome shades, and both of our favorite parts about biking Vail Pass was that we started at the top and so i think i pedalled about 12 times during the 13 mile bike ride.

here are lil and i right before we set out

and here's the whole group a few miles in.

this is kind of what Lil looks like all the time anyway : )

ok, some pictures of the subject of lil's adoration.

this was his first time having solid foods. he did not find it to be a pleasant experience

luckily, with nola's help, they found an easy method of cleaning him : )

here are lil and her dad

and here are my two girls after a short hike to a waterfall

this is lil's whole family just before we pulled out of breck

and one of me and the princess.

having only been to breck in the winter before, i was very impressed with summer there. just gorgeous, and the town is really neat and has so much going on. it wouldn't be a bad place to spend a month : ) there's a bunch more pics here if you care. thanks!

skiing in tuscaloosa

2011-07-09T15:26:00.000-04:00

we had planned to take one more trip to let lil do some water skiing before she got to pregnant, but alas, she didn't feel comfortable getting out, but at least michael and i got to rip it up. i stopped in foster auditorium (my old gym) which has been COMPLETELY redone. the place was a rathole when we played there, and now it's super fancy and womens vball and basketball are back to playing there.

lake tuscaloosa was warm and wonderful. here i'm trying to "help" michael, but he obviously isn't wanting to be "lifesaved" : )

bear loved his first time in the boat, and began to "like" being in the water a little better

michael's all grown up and ripping big airs now.

and i'm still giving it my best shot, too

michael did have some problems with his tub flipping when jason was dragging us behind the boat, though.

jason won parent of the year for letting michael stay up and play tiger woods golf with us til 1AM on saturday...he also gets big shoutouts for putting up with my little boy (who didn't get potty training until about 1 week later) who peed on his floor about 8 times : )

our little boy - late post

2011-07-03T14:35:00.010-04:00

so after months of discussions (initially we had intended to decide to get pregnant, then get a puppy, but somehow things accelerated pretty quickly) we decided upon a cute little boy that atlanta pet rescue had. they're a really great organization. they mostly have smaller dogs (and not as many puppies) but somehow ended up with a beautiful little 4 month old lab/doberman mix. we loved him and brought him home and named him Bear.

that was july 1st. on july 2nd Bear took his first weekend trip (to dave's lakhouse). we had a blast and Bear had a good first weekend...a few other dogs to play with, plenty of space to run and warm grass to lay in.

his "go to move" when he's sparring is to put his paw on top of hte other dog's head. it's how he says "i own you!"

he was precious and sweet right from the beginning and was so food motivated that it took all of 5 minutes to teach him to sit....potty training, however, took 2 weeks, and resulted in numerous pees on dave's floor : )

here Bear and Lillis explore something. Lillis Jr can't see it b/c she's squished up against a dock.

seeger thought his girl might like to use some floaties. turned out, she didn't.

here Lillis endangers our little girls life. just kidding. it was a wonderful backflip, and mother and baby both enjoyed it.

Bear was only about 30 lbs when we got him, so still, pretty good lap size.

and this is the view from the back of dave's house. really really gorgeous there. we were very appreciative for the invite and glad it finally worked out for us to head up there.

oh, and here's some pics of Bear's little sis. in the top one she's sucking her thumb. that is SO Lillis Jr : )

and her are my beautiful wife, our little boy and the burgeoning belly. Lil is at 5 months here....just finally starting to show pretty well.

long weekend @ rosemary beach

2011-05-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

the folse's were nice enough to have us down for a long weekend at their beachhouse just outside rosemary beach. it was beautiful weather, not too hot, but just warm enough. we did some body surfing and lillis retained her bodysurfing championship crown. the house was really cute and just a 5 minute walk from either the beach, or all the shops and restaurants of rosemary. pretty cool.

lillis says i never post any pictures she takes. she took this one.

here we are on the beach.

this is the sun. and the sky. and some sand. and some clouds. and the ocean.

here lillis is seen contemplating lillis jr. the is lillis jr's first picture from the outside.

we had a great time at the beach. we threw the aerobie, tossed the football, played card games, watched a movie about rapunzel, ate good food. actually, everything except that stupid rapunzel movie was good.

Easter at Cumberland Island

2011-04-24T19:52:00.003-04:00

We got the invite from the Cayces and the Pyrons to accompany them out to Cumberland Island for Easter weekend. So we drove down to the Georgia coast, hopped a ferry and found ourselves on a quiet little paradise. The island has big, beautiful beaches, that transition to rolling dunes, and then, suddenly "live oak" forests. From inside the forests, the entire sky is a canopy of limbs......really neat trees. We brought a cooler (with steaks no less) a grill (had to be able to cook our bacon and eggs) and plenty to drink with us. Said cooler weighed approximately 1.2 tons....but it was worth it.

When you land, they have carts you can use to wheel your stuff to your campsite, so we did just that, making the 1/2 mile trek in just in time to settle in and head over to the beach. Here we are approaching our first view of the ocean

and here are some of the live oaks I was referencing.

Just amazing. Also, the ground was dense with sawgrass palms (except for the pathways and the campsites) which made for really private campsites. Oh, also worth mentioning we had showers (cold) and toilets, so roughing it wasn't quite as "rough" as it could have been.

Aaaaah, yes, the steaks (and spuds).

So, apparently I double as a jungle gym. Interesting, maybe it's actually "Jungle Jim" and Jungle Jim was a guy that kids used to grab a hold of and swing on. I'll google that later

Here we are on the beach at sunset that first night, bothering crabs.

Sunrise the next morning was gorgeous.....Lillis missed it.

I loved the way the light filtered through the live oaks. Really cool.

You might think this was Lillis sleeping in. Nope, this is Lillis after she woke up, ate eggs and bacon, then lay back down for a nap at 10AM. She is really really good at relaxing when we're out in nature. I'm glad.

We schlepped the kayak out to the campsite and I was able to catch a few waves. Not pictured is the body surfing. Lillis was a champion, and not just because she has giant feet for the wave to push against. She has text book body surfing form. I'm not even kidding. I was totally stinking it up until she worked with me some. Now I can body surf in public without shame. What a gal.

Oh, yeah, so there are wild horses all over this island. That's pretty cool when you're out on the beach and this guy comes up with some straw between his teeth like uncle Goober.

There were also a couple of young colts on the island. I thought that was pretty cool to see the little wobbly-legged horses roaming around following their mothers.

Other "critters" we saw....a GIANT horeshoe crab, a couple of racoons, an armadillo and a possum who was completely unaware that he should be afraid of us. Actually, come to think of it, the armadillo didn't run either, he just sat there, assuming if he didn't move I couldn't see him (like a T-rex). Apparently there are no higher level predators on this island, b/c most of the animals are pretty stupid.

Funny story. So, that next day (Saturday) happened to be my birthday. It was also Colleen's birthday. So, everyone knew it was Colleen's bday, but they weren't aware it was mine. When everyone had mentioned before the trip that it was Colleen's bday, I never really brought mine up, b/c 36 isn't exactly special or anything....so no one else knew. So, it occurs to me the night before, that Lillis might not remember my birthday. No watches, computers, calendars or phones.....out in nature. I just figured there was a chance. So, 7am, she wakes up, but still groggy. No happy bday. 9am, she's focused on eggs and bacon. No happy bday. Noon, we're wandering around the island. No happy bday. Afternoon at the beach. No happy bday. But, I thought for sure, she'd remember when we had Colleen's bday dinner. Nope. What about when we get out bday cupcakes. Nope. What about when we SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HER? Nope. So, some time towards the end of dinner, I mention it's my bday, too. Needless to say, Lil is totally embarrassed, but we all have a good laugh, and I now have a free pass to forget an anniversary or something later in our lives together. Win win!

Here's my beautiful wife walking up from the water on Sunday (not my birthday). : )

And a small team photo.

And the compulsory headstand

And another beautiful sunrise on our last day there.

We had a really really great time. It's a beautiful, peaceful place, and we can't wait to make it back there again!

oh, and here's a link to the rest of the pics. enjoy!

update from belize

2011-02-21T08:51:00.001-05:00

just a few pics from the trip. being brief b/c we're about to head out for a full day of diving here in ambergris caye. we'll be hitting hol chan and then shark ray alley.

here's the "inland blue hole." we stopped on the way in to our hotel in hopkins to swim here.

view from the pool as the moon rose on our first night at hopkins bay resort.

one too many moon shots. i was intrigued with playing with the camera while lillis got ready for dinner.

on the way out of hopkins we went spelunking in the ATM caves. amazing how deep and dark they are. we had to swim into the caves, dive under rocks, squeeze through narrow passages.....it was awesome!

here the water dives underground....or should i say, further underground

view at night from our 2nd hotel....el pescador on ambergris.

view from our pool during the day.

another gorgeous sunset.

river and jungle...just gorgeous and lush.

lil and i out for a ride in ambergris

webster and i went fishing yesterday afternoon. no bonefish, but we did find our way home just before darkness in our canoe, and then webster managed to catch a bat!

Good Day From Belize

2011-02-18T19:01:00.001-05:00

It's a beautiful morning in Belize. We landed safely, hopped in our car and made our way down to Hopkins Bay Resort. Pictured here is our villa. Very nice. On the way down we stopped and swam in an inland "blue hole" along the hummingbird highway. We saw a few emerald green hummingbirds, clear blue artesianal well fed waters and some beautiful lush jungle and orchard lands along a mountain range. Oh, and we got Lillis some amazing cinnamon rolls. She's doing some yoga in the sunshine in front of me even as I type.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Hopkins, Belize

atlanta snowstorm 2011 aka: global warming, my ass

2011-01-10T19:15:00.004-05:00

as you may or may not know we got a pretty good snowfall on sunday night which was followed by a really strong ice fall that locked up the city for most of the next 4 days.

here's our patio as the snow is starting to come down pretty good

by the next morning we had about 4 or 5 inches outside.

we took our lunch break in piedmont park the next day

with our snowboards in hand. it wasn't the super soft fabulous snow from last year, but i wasn't recovering from a probably cracked rib as a result of a hemlich manuvuer gone terrible awry, so i'll take it.

lillis didn't try snowboarding this year, but she did snap plenty of video of drew and i.

so, it was terribly interesting snow, such as i've never seen before. 4 or 5 inches of snow, with a thin layer of ice on top. never seen that in any northern winter or western ski trip. it was like a thin candy shell. another thing we learned is that it is EXTREMELY difficult to land a snowboard on grass.

anywho, here's the overly dramatic snowboard video of the day....enjoy!

Snowboarding in Piedmont Park from charles breland on Vimeo.

christmas and skiing/boarding in park city

2010-12-26T19:32:00.000-05:00

we headed out to park city for christmas. lil's sister melissa was great with child (verily) and way past being able to fly, so her whole family headed out to park city to be with her and jonathon for christmas. lil and i got to do 3 good days of skiing/boarding and then christmas with the family. somehow lillis and her sisters/mom ended up somehow spending about 65% of the time we were not skiing cooking. they cooked (or attempted to cook) any number of unique creations. speaking of unique, hangar one makes a pear flavored vodka. i bought a bottle out there and tried it. highly recommended.

anyway, we did our skiing in park city and at the canyons. it snowed about 4 feet in the 2 days before we got there. the first day was a little bit cold and there was some wet snow falling (which made it tough sledding - so to speak) but the next two days were fabulous.

lil and i stop for a quick picture at the canyons

"lil and her mom have a fun, quirky tradition," said charles. i'm concerned that it seems unlikely they'll grow out of it.

when the sun came out, it was completely gorgeous out there. here's the view from the top of the terrain park.

lillis thinks my helmet makes her head look large. i think so, too. it's very "great gazoo"-esque.

here i am with most of lil's family at park city. everyone skied all morning, and then everyone but me went and road the roller coaster in the afternoon. i opted for more boarding (i only get a few days each year).

here's the view from our cabin (quite) early on christmas morning. on the right is a GIANT tree that someone had outfitted with christmas lights.

i have no idea how to spell this dog's name. it's pronounced "nolla" like "holla." anyway, nala, was checking out the nativity scene while melissa worked on making some waffles in the kitchen.

that's me. and my wife. and some mountains.

same mountains, same wife, lil's dad, and her sister, and nola.

beautiful country out there.

here lil and her sister lacey perform a lillis family tradition of resting ones hands on someone elses abdomen. good times

it was a good trip. no broken bones, or travel hassles. plenty of good snow and good food...and santa was able to find lillis and sneak some icebreakers clothing into her stocking.

below is the video from our trip. we didn't get a whole lot b/c lil was only skiing with me for a 1/2 day most of the time and we really didn't do much hitting the terrain park or anything. next year, i insist on more "big air" opportunities.

anyway, the rest of the pics are here, and see below (if you're on facebook, you'd have to view this post in it's source or at charlesbreland.com) for the video.

2010_12_25 Skiing in Park City from charles breland on Vimeo.

Christmas Card 2010

2010-12-22T22:44:00.004-05:00

merry christmas, all. it’s been a really great year for us this year, and once again we’re just so thankful for all the opportunities, the friendships and the memories we’ve had this year. i’m posting a few pics here from the year, but down below is the video christmas card. enjoy!

from our backpacking trip on benton mckaye with matt and david.

from topkapi palace in front of the bosphorous

from our rooftop in front of the blue mosque

in front of a gorgeous sunset at the lighthouse on san juan island

2010 Christmas Card from charles breland on Vimeo.

for anyone who happens to be watching this on a mobile phone that can't access vimeo, click this link for the lower quality YouTube version.

we're so thankful for all we've gotten to do, and for a year of growing closer in our marriage and with friends, and we hope that this post finds you all well. God bless!

and so this is thanksmas

2010-11-28T15:42:00.000-05:00

it so happened that this year it worked out that neither jeremy nor i would be home for christmas. mine was b/c lillis wants to alternate years, so we're going with her family to park city for christmas. that's all fine and well, but my mom had gone 36 straight years with her children home at christmas. so, i decided we would create a new mega-holiday. we would celebrate thanksgiving on thursday, pray that God proved he hated cam newton as much as we did on friday, and then celebrate the first thanksmas on saturday. friday didn't work out quite like we'd planned, but at least saturday was nice. : )

a few pics from the game are below. thanks again to jason for pulling me seats for 3 of the big games this year....penn state, florida and auburn.

here mcelroy completes a pass. that lets you know that this picture is from the 1st half.

here we have a couple of touchdowns.....obviously also first half.

we left right after that. i'm not sure how the game turned out. i'm going to assume we won.

we put up all the christmas decorations.....

.....and then on saturday morning, the very first thanksmas was born. here mom reads the story from luke about how the pilgrims found jesus laying in a manger

lillis couldn't have been any more excited if it had been christmas.

the tree looked lovely

i obviously trend towards less excitement than lil

my mom had wanted to get a few shots of the family in for her christmas card, so we squeezed these in just before jeremy and jessica had to take off for the airport.

mama, looks good in the houndstooth, holding the pigskin.

i gotta say, i wasn't quite ready for christmas yet, but thanksmas was good. i think if had started listening to some christmas music, or just watched elf, or national lampoons a week or two earlier, i'd have been full of thanksmas cheer. all in all, though, i'm pleased with the results.

Benton McKaye Wrapup

2010-11-01T07:03:00.003-04:00

Lil and I had a great time out on the trail with Matt and David. It was DEFINITELY a little tougher hike than I'm used to - 12 miles with a 40 lb pack on with some pretty steep ups and downs for the better part of a day (almost 6 hours of hiking) was TOUGH. It was fabulous being outside, though. The nights got a little cold (around 30), but we were tented up and geared up and slept well after our daily physical exertions. I will say the new Neo Air air matresses made a HUGE difference in that. Going from a 3/4 size 1 inch thick pad to a full lenght 2.5 inch sleeping pad was fabulous. Anyway, it's been a little bit of a more muted fall here (or so my wife tells me) but it was still plenty gorgeous on the BMT (we started the trail - Section 8 - just outside of Cherry Log).

The first night we hiked in about 2 miles before setting up camp. It was already a little dark and cold by the time we got set up that night, so we pretty much just boiled some water, ate our "mountain meal" and then headed to bed. The next morning we reconsidered our decision to camp just off the road when a cadre of hunters showed up at 6:30. Lillis stayed in the tent while I mingled with the laid back country folk.

I got a few pics while we waited for the sun to get up in the sky and for us to start the big day's hike.

David mapped out the key waypoints for the day as the sun rose over the ridgeline and matt continued to snuggle up next to his dog phelps in the tent.

lillis wasn't sure if it was quite time for her to come out of the tent yet. so, i brought her her little mug of starbucks "via" coffee so she could sip it while still inside our cozy little home on the trail.

speaking of the trail. here we all are traipsing down it. that's phelps (yellow lab) trailing matt. i liked phelps b/c she's a little old, a little chubby, and she has short legs. she was the only one on the trail who moved at anything close to the speed i was physically prepared to go.

about 5 or so miles in on saturday we stopped to fix some lunch. it was good and it was needed. i was pretty pooped at that point.

eventually we got to flat top mountain (saturday night camping spot and high point for the trek). it was beautiful atop there in the late afternoon, and i spotted a little mini-rainbow in the sky.

here we're gearing up to fix our pad thai that night. david does up the fancy cookin', well beyond the basic "mountain meal" packs.

i snapped this pic on a long exposure of the night sky above the fire. it's worth clicking on to see if full size (i think).

that's lil on the left (your left, not mine) and me on the right as we hike down on sunday to the takeout spot.

view of the gorgeous fall foliage from where the trail meets the road down. this part of the mountain was obviously NOT subdued.

here's the topographic side view of our hike. i can point to places where i thought i might be about to have my heart go into to super ventricular tachacardia. i don't really know how to spell super ventricula tachacardia, but suffice to say, it was beating pretty fast on some of those climbs. also, i love that this topograph was apparently made using a commodore 64 or the computer from war games. you don't see this kind of graphics much west of the oregon trail.

here is a link to the rest of the pics for anyone interested.

Two Miles into Benton Mckaye

2010-10-30T09:51:00.000-04:00

Hit the trail last night about seven and got 600 feet of elevation in two miles before setting up camp and having dinner and some beers. Twelve more miles to cover today to flat top mountain and then down to our takeout location. Beautiful but 30 degrees got a little cold last night. Eggs and bacon in a freeze dried pack, and off we go! Not totally roughing it as Lillis had her Via coffee from Starbucks this AM

northwest wrapup

2010-09-09T08:58:00.000-04:00

our trip to the great american northwest was fabulous. it really was a more beautiful place than i'd ever imagined, between the tidal pools, rock formations, snowcapped mountains, rainforest, lavender farms, waterways and inlets (and not to mention the wildlife) it is an idyllic place to visit. below are some of our shots from the trip and the full set of pics (including LOTS of orcas) can be seen here.

here is the view from anacortes, where we caught our first ferry of the trip to take us over to san juan

with san juan island being in the rain shadow (of the olympic mountains, i suppose) the climate is rather dry....perfect for lavender farming.

view of some sea lions in front of mt baker

this guy got a full breach, so that was pretty cool.

we ran across a couple of bald eagles while out on the boat. it made me want to sing like john ashcroft. ok, not really, but it was pretty cool.

we made it over to the lime kiln lighthouse at sunset after our day out on the boat. one of us almost didn't make, but when she (or he) saw the sunset, they were glad they did.

a pic of lillis on the ferry on the way over to orcas island from san juan, with mt baker in the background.

we hadn't been aware, but there was actually a pretty cool tidal area just outside of our hotel in cascade harbor. oh yeah, on san juan island we stayed at a place 10 minutes outside of friday harbor called Olympic Lights Bed and Breakfast. It was a turn of the century (the last century, not this one) Victorian farm house sitting on what was more or less a plateau looking out over the water and the mountains. it was fabulous and they served us an oustanding breakfast.....peaceful little place

so, anyway, i had never seen a purple starfish before, but the northwest has them in spades.

here's a view that same morning from around the side of the harbor. we had bright blue skies for the better part of our trip. this water would have been imminently skiable were it not 45 degrees.

hiking up to the top of mount constitution (something we did at a ridiculously fast pace) you pass by twin lakes. this is one of them. the other one didn't look like this, though, so they must be fraternal twins.

this waterfall was just around the bend from our hotel in cascade harbor.

lil and i pose for a portrait in front of one of many beautiful sunsets we saw.

as we headed out across the olympic peninsula (on our way to our lodging at lake quinault) the weather got a little more volatile.

but it was bright and sunny when lil insisted that we stop in forks to get her picture taken with bella's truck.

on our way to the lodge i convinced lillis for us to stop off at ruby beach (in the off chance we could see some sun setting). it turns out, we could. the beach was surreal in the waning sunlight.

we stopped on the bridge just a few moments after the sunset to get this shot. lillis was starting to get a little impatient as this would be the first of two nights where we literally made it to the only restaurant in town less than 5 minutes before they closed. for this night, it was the roosevelt room at the lake quinault lodge. it was FABULOUS food, and i'm glad we didn't miss it.

most of the olympic peninsula is rain forest. temperate rain forests are great for growing molds, spores and funghi....oh, and lots of moss, too.

from lake quinault we went out, toured some of the peninsula and then settled in to the quillieute resort in la push. i may not have spelled that right - quillieute, not push. on the way we stopped by rialto beach (where we would head the next morning to see a sunset with the "haystacks" in the mist and vast tidal pools.

we got up exceedingly early to catch the low tide. i think we were out the door by 6am so that we could hike up the 2 miles to the best spot for the tidal pools (hole in the wall beach). tides in some of these areas vary by more than 10 feet, so at low tide, a lot of land (and marine life) is exposed.

this is lake crescent where we stopped to take some pictures on our way out of the peninsula.

lillis was pretty hyper. scratch that lillis was VERY hyper after the woman at the hungry bear cafe refilled her coffee one too many times.

VERY hyper.

here a gentle cuddly bear walks in front of our car as we prepared to hike hurricane ridge. i got out of the car to get a good shot of the bear. lillis had a fit about bear safety.

this black tail deer wasn't afraid of any bears.....well, maybe bears, but certainly not people.

so, this is seattle. no big deal, EXCEPT it is seattle with sunshine. we felt pretty lucky to see that. of course, it was seattle with sunshine and ominous dark clouds behind it, but we were ok with that.

pike's place market. really neat. it's cool to visit places that have the kind of vibe that place does. no "chains". artisans making bread, coffee, cheese. just good stuff. i wish we had an equivalent in atlanta.

all in all, a really splendid trip.

Homeward Bound

2010-09-08T17:35:00.000-04:00

We got into Seattle yesterday afternoon after catching the bainbridge ferry (just in time I might add - I'm a helluva driver) and getting a great view of the whole city with a few warm sun rays breaking through the clouds to highlight the skyline. We checked into our schnazzy little room at the Westin, showered up and headed out to dinner and drinks in Pike's. Etta's for dinner was one of our best yet and then we went over to Campagnie cafe where we met up with an old middle school classmate of mine, Lisa, and her husband Ashley. The next morning, this morning, we spent entirely at the Pike's Place Market. Pictures below is Lillis eating a pastry at a fancy little French bakery and ordering her coffee at the original Starbucks. Lillis was excited bc the market was basically 10's of thousands of square feet of flowers, organic fruits and veggies, fish, coffee, and artisinal cheeses. We actually got to see cheese being made and ate some curd. I'm halfway to catching up with miss muffet. Then, on to the airport where I learned I had driven 980 3/4 miles over the past 6 days. Lillis drove the other 1/4 mile :). Now, onward and upward. Atlanta by 10:30, in bed by midnight.

Sunrise at hole in the wall

2010-09-07T18:51:00.000-04:00

Funny, a few years back that meant something totally different to me. Anyway, we did three hikes yesterday, all in rain forests and mostly in rain, but we saw some lush flora and some really nice falls (water, not Lillis). Then we headed on over to sunset at Rialto Beach and then dinner before bedding down at our beachside cabin in La Push. Gorgeous view there. We got up this morning at a little before 6 to check out the tide pools at sunrise. We got to Rialto by 6:20 and then set out 1.5 miles up the beach to Hole in the Wall beach. It had a massive arch and some amazing tide pools with anemones and starfish, crabs and mussels. We then took off (stopping for breakfast at the Hungy Bear Cafe - which had a fabulous offering of homemade sausage and ridiculously large pancakes) for Hurricane Ridge and another 3 mile hike (this one on a steep grade). On that hike in what I will generously describe as less than excellent conditions we saw a black bear (about 15 feet away from us) and got up close an personal with a black tail deer, several pheasants of some kind, and a couple of ground squirrels. We followed that up with lunch at a nice diner in Port Angeles (dungeness crab melt was excellent) and now on to catch the Bainbridge ferry to Seattle. I should mention that Lillis was scared to death of encountering a mountain lion and expressed her relief when we encountered an older couple on the trail as she was certain that the mountain lion might eat them instead.

Sunset on Ruby Beach

2010-09-06T10:38:00.000-04:00

Today we drove to the ferry, took the ferry to anacortes, drove to....crap, I can't remember where we drove to, and then we caught another ferry across the sound, to Kingston. From there we drove across to Port Townsend. Really cute town that Lillis enjoyed. Highlight of that stop? Lunch at The Fountain Cafe. Amazing food. I had the wild boar sloppy Joe. Lillis had some sort of fancy salmon burger that actually had the texture of a regular burger. We both had clam chowder and split an app of baked Brie and roared garlic over some perfectly toasty bread. It was Lil's first clam chowder. She told me she never thought it sounded good before. I know she likes chowder so I deduced that clams had never sounded good before. Afterwards Lillis looked through all the little waterfront shops while I mostly just worked on digesting all the food we'd just eaten. We continued on around the north end of the Olympic Peninsula, driving past beautiful blue glacial lakes and through a temperate rain forest, past Forks (which had an impressive array of places selling Twilight crap to tweens) and on to Ruby beach (pictured here) just in time for q beautiful sunset. It is a beautiful, rugged beach. Then, an hour later we were at Lake Quinault lodge where we shared a nice dungeness crab dip along with a really great halibut covered in some sort of spicy blueberry based sauce and served over a crunchy risotto. I then checked baseball scores in front of a roaring fire, while Lil continued her amazing progress on Atlas Shrugged. When she gets motivated, she can tear through a book like locusts in a field. It's amazing how fast she can read. Finally off to out really lovely room overlooking the lake in a lodge built in 1926. Tomorrow? Less driving and more hiking!

Oh, speaking of hiking. I'm relatively proud (since Lil is just in average shape for her and I am slovenly having not exercised in months) that we were able to hike 7.4 miles up and down Mt Constitution (on Orcas Island) in less than 3 hours, climbing to a total elevation gain of 2400 feet. It was NOT easy, but we were rewarded with a spectacular vista from which to eat the blueberries and strawberries Lillis had gotten us at the farmers market.

Morning starfish

2010-09-04T12:48:00.000-04:00

We hiked to Cascade falls yesterday and had good Mexican (albeit with poor service) at Bilbo in East Sound. This morning we walked down to the shoreline where there is an abundance of starfish, mussels and crabs. There was even a seal out in the water doing some fishing. We're heading out now to a farmers market to get some snacks for our hike up mt constitution.

A great day in San Juan

2010-09-03T11:30:00.000-04:00

I found out the full name of this place is "San Juan de Furca." Moving on. We had a great day yesterday. The ferry ride was beautiful and San Juan is a fabulous island. Perflectly small but just large enough. We spent the better part of our afternoon out on the water. We got super close to a whole pod of orcas including my favorite "Toby." We also got to see cormorans and stellar sea lion as well as two bald eagles - one of which took off and flew right at us. We watched sunset at an old lighthouse and got some dinner before returning "home" to our b and b - a restored Victorian farmhouse from 1895 that sits on a bluff overlooking the sound. Today we traipse around the island and revisit the lavender farm (which has exquisite lavender ice cream) and do a little hiking before we hop the ferry over to orcas island to meet up with Lil's cousin (ranger Jason). He's the kind of ranger who protects democracy, not trees, so for once I won't have to be "the muscle." :)

On our way San Juan Island

2010-09-02T13:40:00.000-04:00

> We boarded the ferry in the lovely little town of Anacortes (which we got into around midnight western time last night). I got a couple of hours of sleep (after watching the surprisingly funny"Death at a Funeral") on the plane, but the princess didn't sleep much, even in first class. I think there was a pea under her seat cushion. We're now on our way over to San Juan island to hopefully spend the day looking out over the water and spotting bald eagles and killer whales. I told Lillis she can pet one. Since only two people much read this, I'll say "hi, Jill. Hi, Lillis. "
>
> We're SO glad to be out of the office and off on "adventure."
>

skiing in t-town (and my cousin's wedding)

2010-08-21T18:41:00.000-04:00

here are some pics from a couple of tuscaloosa trips we took in the last few weeks. we went over once just to ski and once to ski AND attend my cousin's wedding. it's worth mentioning that although he had never heard the term to "outpunt one's coverage" he most certainly has. it's rumored that i did as well.

here are a few of lillis ripping through the water on the slalom ski. not pictured is her traditional pose of putting her foot through the handle and then flexing her muscles (although she did do that, probably trying to impress her boyfriend - jason's eldest, michael).

here is lillis' aforementioned boyfriend, michael

each year i work on something new with the wakeboard. this year i'm working on actually pushing off the wake to get more height. it seems somewhat counterintuitive that i can get higher by shoving my board into the water, but there's some sort of physical principal at work that makes that the way to go. just a note, it doesn't work if you're just standing still, so there's that. next trip, i'm gonna work on going goofy footed so i can prepare for some 180's (and b/c i want to be able to do the same come snowboard season).

lil agreed to be photographed with me. i haven't gotten to wear my linen suit in a while. i enjoy wearing it, especially since i got the zipper repaired.

here's the chuch that my cousin michael and his wife lauren got married in.

my dad doesn't frequently like to pose for the camera, but lillis makes everyone smile

i've since returned one more time to check out the penn state game (and got in a few more runs on the board). super nice (and convenient) to have an open invitation to a fabulous lake house less than 3 hours away courtesy of jason and holly.

anyway, here are the rest of the pics...a bunch more of lillis skiing and a few of jason, michael and big william showing off his kneeboard moves.

parents weekend, georgia aquarium

2010-06-19T07:10:00.004-04:00

my parents drove up to atlanta to spend the weekend with us. they got in on friday night and we took them to the jazz evening at the aquarium (they have the georgia aquarium open on friday nights during the summer....MUCH better than going during the day and being crammed in like sardines - which of coursh the fish would love to eat).

mom wanted her and lillis to have their pictures taken in front of the nemo's

here lillis is checking out a jellyfish

this shark looks mean, but he's actually quite friendly. i think that's why he was smiling at lillis, and not because he plans to eat her when she goes diving in the aquarium (her last year's bday present that she still hasn't used yet).

best thing about friday night at the aquarium isn't the jazz....eh, it's ok, but not as good as at the High Museum; but the lack of crowds. if this were during the day, you'd see lillis, and 74 other people. at night, just lillis. i like lillis better than those other 74 people combined.

this shark tried to eat my finger, but i was too large.

here lillis gets to know some more of the fish that plan on nibbling on her soon.

my mom and i both thought this eel looked like one of the old grumpy dudes on the muppets.

and here my mom is experiencing life as a penguin.

the museum was great.....for the rest of the weekend, we went to the High Museum to see the Cars exhibit. beautful machines. two of clark gable's old cars. one duesenburg (i think) that belonged to some german baroness that is worth $8M. steve mcqueen's old jaguar convertible classic bugattis and aston martin's, even some actual racing cars from mercedes and porsche....oh yeah, and "the tucker." cool stuff, and definitely worth seeing.

later we headed out to roswell to look at homes OTP. it's AMAZING how much more home one can get up there. it's just kind of a bummer that there aren't the same kinds of parks and all up there as we have down here, but it is close to the river, and downtown roswell has quite a few little neat shops and restaurants (that aren't chains), so i think i could do roswell.

anyway, the next morning it was off to church (where my mom was able to successfully identify that the preacher wasn't actually there, but was indeed a video projection this week) and then they headed home while lillis and i headed out to the pool. good times.

oh, and here's a video of some seals fighting, or mating....honestly, i couldn't tell which. regardless, something was happening there.

Seals Fighting at the Georgia Aquarium from charles breland on Vimeo.

kayaking on the chattahoochee

2010-06-13T11:16:00.000-04:00

just wanted to share a couple of pics/video of how beautiful it is down on the hooch. lil and i set out for the day and spent about 4 hours on the river. it was a bright (and hot) sunny day, but the cool water has a nice way of balancing it out. a little crowded this time down (what is it about rivers and rafts that attracts so many fat, loud, tattooed people??) but still great and with plenty of peaceful stretches. we were trying out our new boat (bought to replace the one that got partially devoured by a rat in our storage unit) that lillis is sporting below.

it's a little sleeker and a little faster than the one i had and has more room for packing up stuff for that 3 day cruise down a river that we'd like to try sometime.

below are a pic and then a video of my boat. drew actually showed me last fall the technique of "locking it up" on a little rapid, where you can get your nose up into the rapid and the water will more or less hold you in place. kind of a cool trick.

memorial day in blue ridge

2010-05-30T23:27:00.001-04:00

we headed up to blue ridge to enjoy memorial day weekend with drew and blake and blake's friend christy. we drove in and went straight out for a little 3 mile hike around to the creek/waterfall where we had gotten engaged almost two years before. it was a beautiful hike. speaking of beautiful, here lillis is (i think) demonstrating a bear attack.

lillis made friends with a butterfly as we sat and rested at the top of the falls

lillis wanted me to get a pic of us up there

i took a video of lil sitting atop the falls.

that afternoon, drew and christy and i headed down to the river to do some fly fishing. the river looked good, but we didn't get much in the way of fish. drew caught one, and i lost one with too much slack in my line. it was, however, a good time......peaceful out on the river and warm enough for a wet wade.

the next day, lil and i were gonna go kayaking but it was raining. so, we decided to drive across to the outlets (after breakfast at a cute diner up in blue ridge). the sky was amazing along our drive......big angry clouds and deep green fields and trees.

at the outlets, we got lillis a coffee press at williams sonoma, and we decided to splurge a bit and buy some patio furniture at the pottery barn outlet....a nice sectional made from eucalyptus with big cushy red waterproof cusion. we spent a good bit of time sunday reading books outside under the magnolia trees in our new fancy outdoor couch.

chili's update - it still sucks!

2010-05-15T18:44:00.001-04:00

one hour (and no burgers) later we left ten bucks for our nachos and drinks and vacated chili's. slowest, least concerned service i've seen in recent memory. solid performance chili's jfk, u underwhelmed my already low expectations. : ) so, we're grabbing sandwiches from starbucks and hustling to the gate. delta, take me home!

back in the usa

2010-05-15T17:37:00.001-04:00

kennedy airport, more specifically. but more importantly, we're at a chili's "shrimp shooters, extreme fajitas or jalapeno poppers" anyone? lil loves chilis, me not so much, normally. but having had no bacon in two weeks i'm fired up for a burger. brunch is certainly what i've missed the most, and i'll look to rectfy that tomorrow - actually i've missed baseball, too. flight wasn't bad but we didn't get the solid sleep we were hoping for, with me only cobbling together two or three hours. no biggie, that was "bonus" sleep anyway. i am disconcerted that i could not get an upgrade for us. i was polite, funny, earnest. the flight attendant liked me, heck she even got me to write out for her places to see/things to do in st lucia and all i got was the offer of a free beer. sigh. anyway, chilis it is, then a two hour hop to atlanta, a sketchy twenty minute train ride and an argument about which one of us should walk to get the car afterwards and POOF we're home!

thoughts from the bosphorous - istanbul wrapup

2010-05-15T02:03:00.004-04:00

istanbul wrapup. after 13 days of turkey on our final day we took a trip up the bosphorous....one palace after another on this choppy but beautiful little strait of water that connects the black see to the sea of marmara/agean/mediterranean and ultimately the ocean. we traveled alongside huge barges up to the rumeli fortress used first as a launching pad for invasion and then as a spot from which to protect constantinople. later we hit the grand bazaar where lillis showed amazing stamina and resolve in numerous little shops before finding the backgammon set she liked......here are some pics from our three days in istanbul.

lillis (like my old friend chance) is a big fan of having a person you know in pics of places so you can see how big they were. that's lillis. she's tall. haghia sophia is really big and impressive, what with the domes supporting themselves and all.

the cistern was beautiful. chuck would have to tell me if it's better looking than the one in north africa, but it was pretty darned impressive. i want to say it was a something like 100K square feet in surface area, meaning it could hold a crap-ton of water. it was built by justinian around the same time as "the sophia" and was forgotten about until some locals were found to be pulling up water (and sometimes fish) from holes in their basements. wild place istanbul....just too much history.

these are from inside the blue mosque....women praying in the womens section at the back of the mosque.

we got to spend an evening seeing the dervishes. i can't imagine what it's like during their annual celebration with 100 or more people participating in a grand hall, but the show was really really impressive. the music and ceremony are eerie. the whole sufi mysticism thing is fascinating anyway, as it seems islam's answer to hippy spiritualism seen in the US.

it was so peaceful at night. we sat here (rather quietly) in a spot in between 2 of the 3 or 4 greatest sights in all istanbul and just watched the fountain and the blue mosque at night.

lillis enjoyed so many of the people she met on the trip, but her one constant companion (other than me) was bread. she fell in love with this loaf the moment she laid eyes (and hands) on it. this was at Bab-i Hayat - a FABULOUS restaurant just outside the spice bazaar....one of the best meals of our trip. plus our waiter had a crush on lillis.

men wash their feet (one of the ablutions) before heading into the mosque.

cool barber guy...not only did i get a haircut, a straight razor (or as my aussie friend called it - a suicide) shave and a shoulder massage, but he also used a lighter to singe my ears. i gotta say, getting a straight razor shave (well a decent one - which would be different from the guy who sliced of 3 layers of skin along with my beard in the sahara) is awesome. you feel powerful. not only is someone shaving me (like a freaking emporer or something) but also, i do not fear long sharp objects.....sorta like de niro in the untouchables. speaking of which we bought some spices and teas from the mini-turkish-robert deniro in the spice bazaar. he even let me taste iranian caviar. i kept wondering....had i broken the embargo? regardless, it was better than the russian stuff.

we ate dinner on our 3rd night at Mikla restaurant in the Marmara hotel in upscale Beyoglu. it was described to be "simply the best restaurant in all of istanbul." so, we gave it a try. it was fabulously expensive, but it was indeed fabulous. the views were phenomenal as well...especially my view, since my view had lillis in it. here is a pic of her, and the mirror above her which allowed me to see the city as well. at one part of the restaurant, the windows (12 feet high??) were slid back to create a 40 foot long windowless area with a large outdoor patio with a wonderful view and even better breeze. amazing place.

from the rooftop of one of our hotels we got a pic of ourselves in front of the blue mosque. we ate all of our breakfasts on rooftops with views such as this, except, you know, with daylight and all. if you look closely, you can see pink adornments in lillis' ears. those are earplugs. she had already put them in to go to bed, but i insisted she check out the view of the seagulls circling the blue mosque. she has a hard time getting them in so she was NOT taking them out. this made the walk up to (and the time on) the rooftop a view into what life for us will be like in 40 years when we can't hear anything the other one was saying. it will be frustrating. i can't wait.

here we are in front of the bosphorous on our last day.

here's a young girl and her grandmother on the train

on our last night in istanbul, we had a restaurant bring dinner to our hotel, and we sat up on the rooftop by ourselves eating and soaking up the views (and breezes) one last time before heading back. the blue mosque was in rare form as the last glimpses of light escaped behind it .

we then caught a cab towards our hotel (the marriot courtyard by the airport). it was very simple except our driver didn't recognize the address, couldn't understand the word courtyard, and every time we said something he would either repeat marriot or airport.....neither of which were places we wanted to go. lillis decided we should just look out for the hotel and hope it was tall. luckily it was and with some sophisticated pointing and grunting we were able to navigate to it. a wonderful night in a giant bed in a large room with a modern bathroom and a view over the city in a chic new hotel was a great way to finish off the trip. rested and ready we pack and prepare for the flight back to america. homeward bound!

i've forgotten how long we've been in turkey....we're in instanbul!

2010-05-12T08:49:00.001-04:00

you'd think i'd be posting about istanbul, but i'll do that later. we're off the boat (sad : ( ) and out of the bus that carried us to the airport (3 hours) and the airplane that took us from antalya to istanbul (happy). we're in the lovely hotel alp. only seen a bit of istanbul thus far. streets have a weird vibe in sultanhamet (spelling???) where we're staying (and got in around midnight last night). definitely a pulse to life here. today we've seen hagia sophia and the cisterns (and lillis has gotten her pida). i'm not here to talk about that, though, but instead, to share pics from our 4 days on a boat. fabulous. if "severe mercy" had not convinced lillis, this trip certainly did. she wants us to live on a boat. a sailboat, no less. i'm looking into mooring one in lake clara meer at piedmont park, but unsure if that will work.

anyway, here's a pic from the butterfly valley - which did not actually feature any butterflies, but did (like all of our voyage) feature possibly the clearest, bluest water i've ever seen.

these are my toes....they're on my boat

you know who this is.

here is lil out on the bow....beyond it even. i am pleased to say that not once did she bring up a single line from "titanic" whilest we were on the boat. i could not be more proud of her if she had eaten a half pound cheeseburger with 4 slices of cheese, 4 slices of bacon, a fried egg and a side of sweet potato fries.

this is the view from one of many bays we docked in for swimming, eating, having tea, or sleeping. it's worth noting that the water was a little cold for a southern boy, but so as not to be made to look bad by lillis is quasi-eagerly jumped in. it was always a bit of a shock to the system when you first hit the water, but proved to be quite a refreshing way to spend a good bit of our days....when we weren't laying under a canvas sunshade or napping.

here cam (our resident singer/songwriter) sean (who defended our boats honor in a dance fight) and i have ascended one of numerous ruins we encountered on the way. a bit of this city was actually underwater. the town's layout was still very well formed with some buildings even having surviving roofs. were it in america it would be our most famous antiquity, i suppose, here it doesn't even warrant a sign and is available for climbing.

lillis ever the acrobat!

here is our captain. he is "the most interesting man in the world." i would link to the dos equis campaign, but apparently turkey does not like youtube. sigh. suffice to say, i could see this guy feeding baby eagles on the side of a cliff, running with a fox in arms, playing jai alai, or squiring a boat full of models in an inflatable raft across rough seas while smoking a cigar. he wore the same outfit everyday. when it rained. he put on a sweater. he is much more awesome than i. here he was grilling chicken wings. he is.....the most interesting man in the world.

here is a neighboring boat parked in a cove around the bend from the oddest disco/bar i've ever set foot in.

when we were told there was a place that sometimes opened up around the corner from us (you must understand we were in the middle of nowhere), i immediately thought of the performance in the movie "apocalypse now" crossed with the scene from the same movie where they have a bridge all lit up and the vietcong are shelling it. it actually was even better than i had imagined. a random dinghy showed up at around 9:30, picked us up and shuttled us into this little building with blacklights and an anatolian shepherd the size of a small horse. it was maybe the most random place i've ever spent an evening. here we all our dancing. looks relatively normal.

but this is what the place really looked like (with the flash off). it was noteworthy that i heard nwa AND bon jovi while here.

anyway.....that next afternoon we motored into port. hopped on a bus, hopped on another bus, said by to our friends, ate a mulberry, continue on our bus, hopped a cab, hopped a plane, and caught a shuttle and voila! we're in istanbul.

turkey day seven..mediterranean day two

2010-05-09T16:29:00.001-04:00

this is lillis on a boat. had a peaceful (although devoid of sun) day. we saw a sunken city (pretty sure it was not atlantis) a castle and a peacock today...and lillis practically doubled her entire collection of jewelry in kas. she also had her first decent cappucino for a week today in another small village and she had homemade ice cream and our captain made us chicken wings on the grill. should be more sun tomorrow. definitely continued relaxation with our new friends (all of whom -interestingly enough- hail from countries who through off british shackles....don't tread on me dawg). the sky is full of stars and the sea is smooth tonight. good times.

turkey day six - i'm on a boat

2010-05-08T12:53:00.001-04:00

we missed posting day five as we got in late from seeing ephesus - spectacular btw - so missed posting day five. anyway, we got into fethiye from pamukkale (via ephesus) about 8:30 last night. this morning we headed out towards our sailboat. we visited the butterfly valley and oludenez (blue lagoon) but mostly we just sailed the turquoise coast and enjoyed the sunshine. the sun has just now set and we're enjoyin the cool breeze on the front deck as our cook is preparing fresh fish - which (like most meals) lillis is excited about. a wonderful day, devoid of maps, schedules or guidebooks. three more such days to follow. and yes, i have perfect cell reception for this blog update from a quiet cove along the turkish mediterranean.

turkey day 4 - market in ergidir and driving to pammukale/hierapolis

2010-05-06T16:59:00.003-04:00

lillis absolutely adores ergidir and her feelings for the town were not hurt at all by the presence of their weekly thursday market that morning. amazing looking produce. we bought (and subsequently ate) a big bag of strawberries and sampled a few other items. a neighboring vendor insisted i get this woman's husband with her in a photo. a cute turkish couple : )

the market was actually a really neat experience. turkey is like many foreign countries in that there is no shortage of old "little" men who are slightly stooped, and who are wearing a sweater and a sportcoat at all times. sometimes they're shopping in the market, and sometimes they're herding goats, but it's always so picturesque. why don't we still wear suits all the time.....like kirk douglas and val kilmer in the better movie about wyatt earp?

anyway, leaving ergidir, we headed around the lake towards pammukale. the lake was absolutely gorgeous and here's a pic to prove it. it really was a serene place. lillis has already picked out our house......it's a fixer upper, but has great views and easy access to this baked thing that's shaped like a horeshoe made of red rope licorice, but is actually made from some sort of sweet flour mix and coverd (and infused??) with honey.

so we left ergidir and 6 hours later we were in pamukkale. simple? not so simple. compare two pictures....this is a picture of lush farmland, rich green set against a blue sky and a snow capped mountain.....

this is that same view, except a little zoomed out. showing lillis more or less freaking out about how lost we may or may not be while we drive for kilometers on end through what is more or less just farmland. at one point, the road was barely visible, being entirely covered in wildflowers....quite luckily, the road did eventually dump us out back on the highway, with us having learned a tiny bit about navigating in turkey.

we made it just in time to heirapolis (not pictured here) and pamukkale. hierapolis is over 2K years old. amazing to see the scale on which that city was build, although the ruins (other than the theater) were mostly...um, ruined. speaking of ruining...there was an antique pool thought to be the sacred center of old hierapolis that has been surrounded by a full on hotel style pool setting by the turks....there are literally ancient columns laying in the pool. bizarre. anyway, that's not the spoiling part. the spoiling was seeing russian's in thongs (men and women...big hairy obnoxious men and women) traipsing around the pool, and the beautiful falls of pamukkale and taking pictures that i can only assume were destined to appear in a catalogue for mail order brides.

the sun was pretty lackluster, but finally peeked out with a little bit so that i could get a few decent pics of the falls (the falls are actually made of travertine...calcium deposits building up over centuries....and the spring water that runs out over them is probably 85 degrees......definitely odd)

we were to drive to ephesus after, but seeing as night had fallen (and we were not sure where we'd stay if we got to ephesus) we succumbed to the charms of one of the scooter riding "hotel pimps" that cruise the streets of pamukkale looking for someone that can get to come see their hotel. i can only assume the hotels throw these dudes 5 bucks for getting people there, and that for those guys, that money is worth riding your scooter around half-harassing people with stories of how far the drive they're about to make is, or how other hotels have gone into disrepair since your guidebook was printed. we had two hotels fighting over us. i felt like the prettiest girl in the ball. the place we stayed was decent (and only 50 turkish lira after some haggling - approx $35) and we were able to get to bed at a decent hour with a big day of driving to and seeing ephesus (and the house at which the virgin mary theoretically lived in at the time of her death - which is basically catholic disneyworld) and then heading on to fethiye for our sailboat cruise. good times ahead. oh, and on the list of good things from lillis, she noted that i forgot to mention that she saw a 70 year old french woman who was very stylish and whose haircut lillis aspires to in her later years.

turkey day 3, goreme to egidir

2010-05-06T01:43:00.001-04:00

quick note her.....lil's tummy hurt a little today so we skipped the underground city over concerns about the quality of restrooms eight stories underground in a one thousand year old city and instead drove on through aksaray, konya and beyeshir in he hyundai we just acqired. destination; ergidir. a smallish town on an impossibly beautiful and peaceful lake. no internet so sending from my phone, so pics later. i am wandering around the village in the AM as lillis takes a morning nap due to some apparently particularly impressive snoring last night....poor lillis.

day 2 in turkey (and cappadocia)

2010-05-04T16:10:00.002-04:00

phew. 2 days in the books in turkey. we had a big day today.....lillis' synopsis over dinner. we had a turkish breakfast, we drank turkish coffee, we saw an awesome monestary with some old frescos, we hiked a long way, we sat in the shade and had tea, we got massages (and i fell asleep during my massage), we had a romantic stroll, and we ate dinner.

i think she summed it up pretty well. i'll only add that it was amazing to see the monasteries and cave homes that these people worked, worshiped in that long ago. particularly, seeing caves with remaining frescoes from 1,000 years ago was pretty impressive. the landscape was truly surreal, and we saw 4 hours of it over some pretty vigorous hiking up and down a canyon. one of us got a little tired and grumpy right at the very end of that (and so we hitchhiked with some passing locals so we didn't have to hike the last mile back to the hotel) but otherwise we had a great day.

i was able to leverage some of the birthday money from my parents and lillis' parents and supplement that with a little of the clothing budget in order to purchase the most expensive piece of luggage i will ever buy. i love it. i took it's picture in front of the ancient monastery in goreme. it's from saddleback....i highly recommend the bags and the company.

i'll spare you another fairy chimneys picture and instead throw one in from our hike after we finished up at the goreme open air museum.

at the hamam after, they scrubbed off about 2 lbs of dust and then we got massages before heading to dinner at a la turca. darned good eats.

cappadocia at last!

2010-05-03T15:55:00.001-04:00

it took a while, what with a couple of more delays and all, and then a 1+ hour drive from kayseri to goreme; but after 24 hours of transportation, we're here - and ready to stretch our legs. lil is standing in the archway that leads into our hotel. goreme (and cappadocia) is the land of the fairy chimenys......eroded formation created from the "tuff" that built up amazingly high from hundreds of years of volcanic eruptions. early christians hid out in this area as the tuff (which is anything but) proved to be so condusive to hollowing out homes in caves (and underground). our hotel is actually built into a cave as well.

here's a view of a couple of the "chimney" rooms.

and this is the view from the patio of our restaurant.

yes, it's common knowledge that these are rather suggestive natural features. irrespective of that, it's an amazing place. peaceful and beautiful.

anyway, we had a wonderful dinner and hung out in the hammock it the garden for a while. lillis got to hear the eery "call to prayer" for the first time today and was excited about that....i look forward to hearing it again in the morning around 5:30 AM. sigh. anyway, we're safe, sound and ready to walk around. later.

like ben folds - we've landed!

2010-05-03T06:41:00.001-04:00

merhaba from istanbul. just booked some connecting tickets to kayseri (having finally decided cappadocia to be our first destination and that mt nemrut would wait for a different trip). we survived the flight (although we did have to turn around in jfk for an initial repair). we're both feeling a little better than we did when we left and managed to get about 5 hours of sleep. lillis looks a little bit greasy, but other than that we're ok. lillis says i look greasy too. first order of business in goreme.....showers!

and we're off!

2010-05-02T16:20:00.001-04:00

lillis sits gleefully reading some novel that either is already or will soon be a chick flick as we prepare to depart jfk....next stop - istanbul!

trip to dc

2010-04-24T23:42:00.003-04:00

had a long birthday week. two and a half days in nyc, flight home, 2 hours at the house, back to the airport to meet up with my parents (coming back from a month in europe) and then onto our plane and out to dc. lillis had never been to dc, and i hadn't been back in 3 years after previously having been there pretty regularly. we'd not seen my brother and sister in law's house either, and lil's sister and brother and law were in their last weeks in dc before the secret service shipped him out. soooo, we made a big weekend of it.

friday was my birthday. we spent the day walking around the mall (literally). we didn't go into any of the museums except for the national archives (where we saw the friggin magna carta, the declaration of independence, the constitution and the bill of rights - seriously, that's an impressive lineup), but walked all over.....from the washington monument, past the white house, to the lincoln, down the war memorials, back out to fdr, and then around the tidal pool to the jefferson...literally about 8 miles according to the gmaps pedometer. anyway, that took us past the white house (where jeff's president lives)..... and which lillis would get a much better look at the next day.

lillis and i both loved all of the quotes on the various monuments. it makes me think that words used to mean something and that leaders used to lead more frequently and more dynamically. or as the hatter would say, the seemed to have been very much more much before.

lil and her sister look out over the reflecting pool (forever spoiled for me by forrest gump) at the lincoln memorial.

i love watching baby ducks follow their momma ducks around.

lincoln, our most conflicted hero. seriously, if you take the time to read these people's words, you can't help but be struck by what it was they were doing.

i told lillis if she looked back at me sitting on the steps as she walked away, i'd know she likes me.....only 2% of all people would get that, and about 5 or 6 people read this, so chances are that will miss the mark.

lillis was very touched by the vietnam memorial.....overwhelmed by the number of names. she really couldn't be much sweeter.

i appreciated the childlike sentiment expressed here......but i'm not sure that these people did a great deal to secure my freedom by dying in vietnam. that's what makes the volume of names so much more disheartening here. in ww2, it's clear they were fighting for something great, that their deaths did ensure our freedom. i would hate to die wondering if it was worth it. that's why i'm unsettled every time i see the vietnam memorial.

the korean war memorial. very peaceful and impressive.

lillis is still pretty, and flowers still make a good lillis backdrop.

the fdr memorial is another interesting one. i grew up loving the whole concept of fdr....all the roosevelt's actually. even eleanor. that said, he was potentially twice the socialist of any president before or since. i think he was brilliant. he did great things that persist today. i'm pretty sure most of my friends would be forwarding all kinds of emails and making myriad facebook posts excoriating him were he alive today. i wonder if we'd feel differently if we were all lined up for soup?

jefferson (along with alexander hamilton) has always been one of my absolute favorite statesmen. consequently seeing alexander hamilton's grave, and jefferson's memorial within about 24 hours of each other is something of an achievement. i would later be dissapointed when the jefferson bible was not out on display at the american history museum.

the next day we parked and headed over to the capitol. i had surprised lillis by having it be her fake birthday and told her she had a surprise. b/c the line to the white house wraps around the treasury, lil had NO idea where we were. AFTER we clear security and are about to walk into the building, she realizes she's inside the white house and has a mild freakout of excitement. i was concerned a sniper might take her down, but i guess she wasn't evaluated as a threat. anyway, she loved it and it was very neat. thanks a bunch to Saxby Chambliss, via Julie Smith for getting us in on two weeks notice. lillis even got to go behind the ropes to look at the piano.

then we headed over to the capitol to take the tour there. next time i want the godfather tour where i get to go up in the dome. we had a great time though, seeing the dome, the chambers of the 1st supreme court, the library of congress, and lots of other fun stuff.

that night we did dinner with jeff and elizabeth (and the girls) out in mcclean, and had a good time eating and talking. OH, worth mentioning that we ate at vermillion in old town alexandria the night before. it was genuinely great. LOVED my meal and had potentially the best dessert of my life.

on sunday we met up with jeff and fam at the natural history museum for a bit, then headed over to the american history museum with melissa and jonathon. lillis was quite excited to see julia child's kitchen (she is an aspirational cook and a huge fan of julie and julia).

we had a really great time; and in other important news, we were able to vet our proposed couch choice (pearce sectional in everyday suede) at jeremy's house. it worked great for sitting up watching tv and was wide enough for spooning, so two thumbs up for pottery barn.

the rest of our pictures are here. enjoy!

a coupla weeks in nyc

2010-04-14T22:01:00.002-04:00

i took a coupla trips to nyc the last few weeks for work. i'm finishing up my project at amex before i transition to nasco. i had a great room at the hilton millenium with incredible views. it also overlooked the ground zero site and the still nascent freedom tower.

i visited st paul's cemetery and the cemetery at trinity church (home to alexander hamilton) and took a few pics

i'd run into dave and joey on the train in atlanta and we met up for dinner at a fabulous place called son cubano in the meatpacking district. from there we headed on to hogs and heifers so that women of questionable virtue could yell things at us through their megaphones. the decor was questionable, but the music was rockin.

before heading home we made one last stop out for bingo (at another place where people yelled at us - apparently we were in the restaurants/bars yell at patrons as a schtick district)

here are the rest of the pics from the trips.

the real highlight, however, was probably peter lugar's steakhouse in brooklyn. holy cow, phenomenal steak! it was like a steak wrapped in popcorn. solid stuff. also, i raided century 21 for bunches of clothes for the new job.

skiing in jackson hole

2010-03-07T14:46:00.005-05:00

lil and i were planning our ski trip and she decided we should go somewhere a little different. we usually end up in the park city area, but she was feeling adventurous. i asked her where she wanted to go....she said crested butte or jackson hole. we checked and delta had direct flights into jackson so we booked it and headed out west. sunset on the mountains was gorgeous as we flew in.

flying into jackson, you actually land in the middle of grand teton national park. pretty impressive and only a short 15 minute shuttle ride from the town of jackson (and the very nice homewood suites with the super-friendly staff and the free shuttles to/from the airport and the slopes). it was a really cute little town. it had great restaurants, a cool feel, and much more reasonable prices for food and "stuff" than most any other place i've been.

lillis liked their town square with the shops

and she particularly loved the antler arch (elk antlers).

the mountain was seriously steep.

we met people who had actually relocated there from other ski areas just to have access to more advanced terrain. it was certainly a little steeper than any place i'd been before, but it did have some beginner perq's if anyone was going with a "mixed skill" group. #1 it seemed that the easy slopes were grouped all together at the bottom of the hill, #2 there's a smaller mountain in the town that has 30 something dollar lift tickets, night skiing and tubing, and #3 it is a short drive to grand teton or yellowstone parks. also, skiers or any ski level can enjoy making jokes using the words "teton" and "jackson hole".

team photo up on the hill

lillis wore my helmet to protect her little head. i'm not being precious, it really is rather small. anyway, the helmet looked huge on her and she was trying to cover it up for her picture. i thought she looked rather like the "great gazoo" but she had never heard of him. i forget she grew up on a farm.

here lil shows off some of her moves coming down a double blue

then we took a final shot at the end of our skiing to show that we'd both survived.

btw, another strong feature of jackson hole....music at the bottom of the resort every day at the end of the day and kids and dogs running around all over the place. really a nice setup they've got there.

we went out to dinner all three nights. night 1 - Gun Barrel Steak and Game House - AWESOME bison and elk. night 2 - mountain high pizza pie - solid and inexpensive. night 3 - Nikai sushi - FANTASTIC sushi place. well worth the (admittedly expensive) meal. when we got back lillis had a special moment with the moose we bought her. she was infatuated with moose on the trip (even though we never saw one). after a glass of wine at dinner (it doesn't take much) she had a spirited conversation with the moose, trying to decide his name. she just kept repeating...."Maaarty.....JACK.....Maaaary......JACK.....Marty Moose sounds cool, but Jack is good because he's from Jackson Hole." in an upset, Marty won out.

the next morning we had one last brunch and lillis enjoyed the sunshine and the coffee before we headed home.

while the snow was mediocre, the resort was great, the town had a cool vibe, and the break from everything else was enjoyed. i highly recommend the place. here are the rest of the photos from the trip. enjoy!

oh, and finally, below is the video. nothing too crazy this year, as we only had three days on the hill and lil hadn't skied in a 2 years and i was boarding a little gingerly to protect the ribs. so, no super high speeds, and no big aerials - particularly as most of my big aerials tend to end with big wipeouts.

Skiing and Boarding in Jackson Hole '10 from charles breland on Vimeo.

Atlanta Snowstorm 2010

2010-02-13T11:04:00.001-05:00

lil and I walked over to the Piedmont Park Friday night and again on Saturday morning to enjoy the snow. i think we got about 4 inches which was more than sufficient to coat the trees and hills of the park in a pretty nice fluffy powder. i thoguht the snowy scene added some nice drama to the statue there at the head of the park.

lil got REALLY excited as we walked over to the park. i think she would have buried herself in the stuff if she hadn't been so chilly.

we used an available garbage can to get a pic of the two of us.

then we headed down to the pond area. the ducks seemed a little displeased with the conditions there.

another pic of the pier

the next day we headed back over with the snowboard to do some sledding (and we even took a coupe of runs down the hill on the board). lil got a great shot of me with the midtown skyline behind me as i came down the hill.

and the skyline without me.

the park was really beautiful and we had a great time

unfortunately, what i thought was just a bone bruise on my rib from last week may in fact be a pulled muscle. just as we were finishing up here my side started hurting so bad that i was having trouble breathing. on the bright side, it was a good excuse to have lillis carry the snowboard back (and the groceries)! so, right now, i'm hurting on the couch and hoping everything's healed up in advance of the trip to jackson hole.

here are the rest of the pictures from the snowstorm (or snowpocalypse or snowmaggedon, or whatever you prefer) and below is a quick video from the park. good times!

Atlanta Snowstorm 2010 from charles breland on Vimeo.

new years 2010

2010-01-01T13:04:00.000-05:00

i could check my blog to jog my memory, but i believe this is the 3rd year in a row that i've rung in the new year the same way.....teaming up with drew and other dudes to beat lillis in guesstures. i will grant that lillis dominates in taboo, but at guesstures, she can just never seem to get her team across the finishline in first place. this year drew started us off with a gooseegg, but rallied and redemeed our team before mike sealed the championship on the last card. good times.

oh, so other than that. we drove up to blue ridge (and had bbq at the pink pig in cherry log. pretty good bbq and very good price). When we got in, Drew and i decided to disregard the frigid temperatures and the turgid nature of the river and wade into the near darkness and try and fly fish. i consider it a victory b/c we didn't tip our waders or get the car stuck in the mud (although we came very close to doing both).

so, when we gave up (without having even inconvenienced a fish) we headed back to the cabin. mike brought up the deep frier and so we ate a fine dinner of fried turkey (pictured below) and a rockin salad (blake) and some sort of fancy potato recipe that lillis dug out of one of my mom's many recipe related magazines. when i was a kid, i'm pretty sure we ate corn, mashed potatoes and fried porkchops most nights. i wish she had had all those fancy cooking magazines back then. i could have joined the ranks of the millions of overweight kids in america. anyway, the meal was delish.

and was accompanied by the 12 gallon bottle of wine that blake had found.

you may recognize this to be lillis, who is featured prominently in many of our posts.

happy new years picture of drew and blake, mike and amanda and lillis and your author.

Down Home Christmas

2009-12-26T14:40:00.002-05:00

lest lillis go more than a few days without being spoiled, we headed down to satsuma for christmas. she loves going to visit the parents, not just b/c we have easy access to the dollar general store right next to the house, but b/c she gets absolutely spoiled. she gets to eat great meals all day long, everyone is nice to her and she gets lots of presents. she loves it! it's also a lot more peaceful than life in atlanta and she gets to just chill out. no place to go and nothing to do. and i like it when she smiles, so we're all good.

mom was insistent that lillis needed a stocking. i am bummed i didn't think to have them misspell her name on it

we went over to my grandparent's trailer in mississippi (anyone reading this who has ever heard me describe my previous desire to be on the bachelor so that i could take the film crews here will remember it) so that the girls could shoot guns. jeremy and jessica and lillis and i all squeezed off a few rounds, mortally wouning a cardboard box, and iron spindle and an old refrigerator drawer. lillis liked this picture of her, b/c she says her face looks mean. she was firing my mom's snub nose here, but was a crack shot with the .22 ruger and the .22 long rifle. the .357 on the other hand scared the bejeezus out of her, leading to her refusal to fire the 30 aught 6 and the 12 gauge. NOTE: if you're reading this on facebook, you have to actually click onto my blog (or at www.charlesbreland.com) in order to be able to view the videos.

my father took a family photo for us in front of the trailer (if you want to see the full set of photos, including proof that they really did saw off the back and build on a master bedroom and a den click here).

on the way out, one of my dad's cousins had made him promise that we would stop by and pick up some green onions and some turnip greens. the ladies found this surprisingly enjoyable. lillis absoutely loves uprooting things.....i honsetly don't have any idea why

i snapped one shot of some hay bails before we headed out. oh, and there's a road there that has a name you may recognize!

Christmas Card '09 featuring Lillis

2009-12-24T17:13:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas one and all! We're so glad for all of you who have been a part of our lives this year. Our friends have been wonderfully supportive this year, and in particular I'd like to give shoutouts to Brian, Bryan, Rod and Matt for all their job search help.

It's been a wonderful first year of marriage, but not one without difficulty. We're still learning and growing and hope to continue to do so until one of us buries the other. It really has been more amazing than we had ever hoped......moreso for me than for Lillis. She was worth the wait!

Work kept us from making as many trips as we'd like this year, but we did get to take one big trip to California, spending 9 days in San Fran, Yosemite and Tahoe.

Both of us had a sibling get married and I launched my photography website and got to do a decent bit of picture taking this year. I'm back to coaching (15 year olds this season) and Lillis is counseling people in financial distress through our church's Moneywise program.

We're currently considering buying a house and just trying to make sure we treasure every day together.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. Oh, and if you want to watch it full size, there's a link below to watch it on the Vimeo site......word!

Christmas Card '09 from charles breland on Vimeo.

chicago trip winter '09

2009-12-13T18:07:00.002-05:00

lil and i headed out west, er midwest for her christmas party in chicago. it's an interesting affair. my personal highlight from the party, someone saying "i thought he should be a good guy. i met him at a meeting of chicago supporters of the republican party." that had followups that i am unwilling to print online, but needless to say, it got pretty surreal. anyway, we had a good time at the party and then set out to enjoy the weekend. now is a good time to mention that i got to eat at potbelly's. i love potbelly's. i did not, however, get to eat at either Giordano's or Geno's East.

anyway, back to the posting. so we stopped by the building formerly known as the sears tower. i knew sears wasn't selling as many kenmores as they once did, and that they old sears catalogue building is a delapidated gov't building on ponce, but i hadn't realized they had pawned the tallest building in america.

when we went by the building, it was on our way to lou mitchell's. FABULOUS breakfast place. light fluffy pancakes and omelets and fresh squeezed oj that reminded me of spain. good stuff. it's out just a bit south of the river if anyone cares.

i refuse to call a national landmark the "willis tower", as the only willis i've ever known was related to arnold and mr drummond. so, i decided to make it the lillis tower.....see below.

here's what salvador dali would think chicago looks like.

so, lillis insisted on getting a pic of me on the way into the nutcracker. joffrey ballet by the way. very impressive.

here lillis looks at one of the window displays in the marshall fields building - yes, i know they've changed the name, but i refuse to acknowledge it. they had a great big tree and some giant dangly ornaments inside.

this was either a sundial or a prop from an x-men movie. not sure. regardless, this pic is from the planetarium, looking back at the city. i really love living in the city and visiting other cities. i love walking outside and being presented with parks and restaurants and stores and such. it feels vibrant. i remember from my early years at andersen consulting, the first time i got to experience living in "real" city areas. san francisco or dc or any number of other places where you could walk to so many neat things. it felt like something that i had never knew that i really wanted. that feeling has become a nostalgia of sorts over the last couple of months as lillis and i have begun to consider taking advantage of interest rates to go ahead and buy a house that we could raise kids in. for the last 9 years i have had 20 restaurants within 1/2 mile of my house. my backyard is one of the largest city parks in the US. i can hop on a train and go anywhere. we have green markets and concerts and festivals just outside our door. i really do love our life, and it will be very difficult (whenever it is) to leave that behind.

after walking down to the end, we went into the shedd acquarium. really great acquarium with a ton of really neat stuff. here lillis kisses an eel.

no worse than what she has to kiss on any other normal day :)

we did have a really great time this trip. one of the highlights for sure was eating at mercat a la planxa. tremendous tapas place at the south end of the north loop. we ate there before heading to the jazz showcase (which was a very good, relaxed jazz club). couldn't recommend it enough! it really made me feel like i was back in barcelona

the next day we got delayed a little bit coming home, but still got back in time to get some pizza with my volleyball team that i'll be coaching this winter/spring. it was a long weekend, but a very very fun one. we hadn't gotten to take any trips in quite a while, so it was really great to "get out." one thing i will say, though, is that while chicago is a great city, i don't see any way that it compares to nyc at christmas time. lil and i haven't been up to new york together in a couple of years. we need to make that happen next year.

here are the rest of the pics from the trip.

pic of lillis

2009-12-06T16:48:00.001-05:00

this posting is only to put forth this picture of lillis. i took it on the way home from a brunch at chuck's place for cafe 1040. i love the building, i love lillis, i love to take pictures. lillis had just had a big brunch (which SHE loves) so she was willing to be my model. : )

tebow's tears

2009-12-05T23:21:00.002-05:00

so, i was lucky enough to know jason; and he was lucky enough to marry holly; so i ended up being lucky enough to get tickets to the sec championship game. great time. coming into the game, i thought that we would beat florida 7 out of 10 times if we played them. hoped the game would be a 7.

so, they drove in from tuscalloosa, we grilled out some burgers and then we headed down to the game. we had great seats right on the 45 yard line. actually, we were sitting right next to the OC's wife. really awesome.

we were comfortable enough by the 3rd quarter that we went ahead and took our victory pic.

and afterwards the team celebrated on the field.

it was good to see alabam win it's first SEC title since 99 (i was there in the dome that night as well and then celebrated til all hours out at buckhead saloon with a bunch of great friends). the team played well all season and it was good to see the guys playing with pride again. i wish i knew some of the pundits who had made such a big deal about saban's hiring - how bama didn't know what it was doing getting rid of shula, how no one wanted the job, how bama fans were delusional about still being nationally relevant. anyway, if i knew some pundits, i'd ask them how they like them apples.

i was very lucky this season to get to watch the va tech, arkansas, tennessee, and florida. i'll be skipping the bcs game, but think i'll probably head over to alabama to get set for the victory celebration!

also, i hope tim tebow recovers soon from the trauma. although, i do feel good, knowing that his tears have been bottled and flown to various 3rd world countries to heal leprosoy, polio and many other terrible ailments.

btw, i just really loved my SEC Championship game video from last year, mostly b/c i am so impressed there was a place called the Houndstooth Saloon right next to Wrigley Field, so i decided to re-post it here.

SEC Championship Game '08 (From Chicago) from charles breland on Vimeo.

the below video is from this years game. it's long enough that i doubt much of anyone would watch it all the way through, but it's worth watching the first few seconds, if only to see the triple t (Tim Tebow's Tears) in real time

thanksgiving in lubbock

2009-11-29T19:51:00.001-05:00

so, lillis and i had considered heading to south america for thanksgiving, but by the time we got all our job stuff squared away flights were prohibitively expensive. sooooo, we ended up going to lubbock. it's like chile, except flatter.

here is my beautiful wife lillis, early on thanksgiving morning waiting on the train to the airport.

we got in a little after thanksgiving dinner but in just enough time to catch the sunset (lillis loves lubbock sunsets). here's a pic from her back yard out over the harvested cotton fields.

and from the front yard......across more harvested cotton fields

and a representative harvested cotton field : )

and lillis gazing out over harvested cotton fields at sunset.

and one more of my lillis.....

here are lillis and me with her family at their house.

and lillis with her grandmother at her grandmother's 90th birthday party.

then it was back to atlanta. we were on a tiny plane, so i made lillis let me take her picture so she looked like a giant.

one down, one hundred to go...ok, maybe 60

2009-11-22T13:34:00.003-05:00

our one year anniversary was a great time. i surprised lillis with presents the night before, AND the day of. her first presents were a purse she wanted and some ornaments. i have never been good at wrapping, so i took advantage of it being our "paper' anniversary and just wrote a bunch of notes on paper and crumpled them up to cover up her purse. she was very happy!

that evening, she took me out for a surprise anniversary date. we went to highland tap for the prime rib.....hadn't been in quite a while - good stuff. then we went out to see 2012. it was predictably melodramatic and unreal, but i really love "end of the world" caliber cgi. we had a good date!

we also went over to piedmont park to do some self-portraits for our anniversary. we so rarely actually get our picture taken together, so we carried the tripod across the street to the park and went to town!

these are my favorite shots (and done as a movie, to boot). i always see other photographers do this sort of thing, but had never done it myself. we had fun!

Lil and Me, Bench Piedmont Park from charles breland on Vimeo.

it has been an amazing year. we've been a little busier than we intended and our work situations certainly added more stress than we would have liked. but we've made my condo our home and we've begun to build a life together. we got to have only a few adventures, but look forward to many more together. oh, and lillis gift to me was eyetv so i could watch tv on my macbook AND a filson field bag for my camera gear.......and the sweetest most supportive, enthusiastic and encouraging wife anyone could ever have....and as cousin eddie said "that's the gift that keeps on givin' the WHOLE year."

oh, here's the link to the rest of our anniversary photos.

more pics from asheville

2009-11-01T16:11:00.001-05:00

got a chance to process a few more of the pics from asheville. here are a handful from the wedding. the church was the basilica of st lawrence. it's an architecturally significant building by Rafael Guastavino that has no wood or steel substructure....only solid rock. it was a real neat building and was quite striking.

i did mo and jason's engagement shoot, but wanted to be sure i was able to enjoy the wedding, so i was just a spectator for the ceremony. i did have my camera with me, though, and used it to grab a handful of shots after the ceremony and at the reception.

the front doors....

mo and jason grab a kiss (it's ok, it was after the ceremony).....

some of the roses were still popping even though it was halloween....

lil and me at the reception....

the rest of the pics from the wedding are all here in my picasa album.

here are some pictures from the next day.....this building had a really neat copper roof on it.

L is for lillis

then off to the biltmore after a great breakfast there at "green sage"

this was an amazingly beautiful vine running along the wall across from the biltmore.

you're not supposed to take pictures inside the building, but i might have. given that we paid $190 for 2 tix, i feel justified. this was george vanderbilt's billiards room. i believe this is one of the rooms that had leather on the wall. some of the other ones had french silk velvet walls and matching comforters. SO-phisticated

here's a view of the biltmore from the gardens. it's a pretty big house. i'm still not sure about the closet space, though.

in an outhouse or a greenhouse, lillis is always beautiful

loved these bushy trees....

this was a little farm building on the property that we passed by on the way out.

i took a couple more pics from the road on the way out of the grounds. i loved the contrast of the still brilliant green grass, with the brown corn, trees changed to red and the deep blue sky.....

here're the rest of the biltmore pictures. it really is a beautiful place. i think we'll go back 7 or 8 times to get the most out of our 1 year passes. we'll definitely hit that mcdonalds as well...maybe listen to the piano again!

the beautiful biltmore estate

2009-11-01T15:57:00.001-05:00

we had a great time yesterday at jason and mo's wedding. lillis was dancing in fine form and i was extremely sophisticated as in a fit of inspiration i decided my drink of choice would be the manhattan. also, i was sporting a pocket square so i was more or less as fly as usher. bill made a pocket square of a napkin and that was fly, too. hopefully this was the last wedding at which i'll be asked to perform billie jean.

our hotel was right next to the biltmore so we came over to see it. beautiful place....i thought of buying it, but it didn't seem to have enough closet space. now leaving asheville and homeward bound.

ok...one last update on asheville. they apparently have the most expensively built mcdonalds in the u.s. only the best for my girl, so of course i took her there. i gotta say....fancy. exposed oak beams, a fountain, fireplace, a self-playing piano, and almost clean restrooms. the biltmore charged us $110 and gave us not even a snack. mcdonalds gave us some mediocre food for under $12. advantage golden arches. : )

Bama vs UT

2009-10-25T23:34:00.006-04:00

i headed over to t-town for the bama/ut game last weekend. it was a big game. we were heavy favorites, but my all-time record was 1 - 7 - 1 against tennessee (far and away my worst against any opponent). also, it was michael's (jason's eldest's) first big SEC game. the game was much tighter at the end than it should've been, but this late in the season, i spose there is no such thing as a bad victory. survive and advance 12-10.

here's a team photo with me, michael, jason and kent.

here's a video of "sweet home" over the loudspeakers

Sweet Home Alabama, Bama vs UT from charles breland on Vimeo.

and here is one of a chubby white-dude superhero jam at one of the on-quad tailgates after the game. this video doesn't even do it justice.....it was weirder than this. superheroes on the quad? having a dance party? for the record it wasn't halloween yet.

Chubby White Superhero Dance Party from charles breland on Vimeo.

anyway, we had a good time that evening (although i believe we were all in bed by 11 - sad) and then the next day, jason and i played ball with is kids, grabbed lunch at newks and then went to volleyball practice. we scrimmaged against the men's team for 2 1/2 hours straight. i've TOUCHED a volleyball twice since may, so needless to say, i'm still feeling like someone beat the crap out of my body. even my fingers are sore.....not from getting hit, but literally, my finger MUSCLES are sore.......how does that even happen? anyway, i made it home safely to lillis (who had stayed home due to work again) and then had one day to rest up before i (FINALLY) started my new gig with AMEX. glad to be getting going on that, for sure. ROLL TIDE!

Hiking in Dahlonega

2009-10-18T22:57:00.000-04:00

sooo, lil's dad had come in town and we were supposed to go to asheville for the weekend, but lil was exhausted from a very tough week (month? year?) at work and needed to work that weekend, plus the weather wasn't stellar. so, we decided to just stay home and lay low and let her rest and recover. however, to fill her desire to do a little hiking and see some pretty "fallness," we did ride up to dahlonega on sunday. lillis knows what falls were were at here, but i have no idea. i do know, however, that we came up and hiked to this very fall just a coupla weeks before we started dating 2 1/2 years ago. the biggest differences were that this time we brought her dad, and that lillis didn't wear the little grey shorts that hug her butt. : )

a shot of lil and her dad

lil and me

all three of us

and one of the falls all by itself.

i was very glad we were able to get lillis out of the city for at least a little bit to see the leaves and the waterfall (although, the pictures represent the barely half-hearted attempt by the leaves to change colors for us).

More from Kayaking on the Toccoa

2009-10-16T22:46:00.002-04:00

having finally decided on a job (i ended up taking the american express offer instead of the job at nasco. it was a VERY difficult decision with one representing more long term certainty and the other more short term opportunity and freedom. i took the opp and freedom over the certainty.....hope i still think that's a good choice 3 years from now) drew and i headed up to blue ridge for a day. we headed up thursday night to his cabin and then went out kayaking on the toccoa river the next morning, then played some golf at Whitepath golf course in Ellijay. the river was great that morning, and the golf course is a pretty interesting layout. we had a great time kayaking and on the golf course, with drew shooting 1 over on the front side.

it was a beautiful morning on the water with fog still clinging to the mountain.

drew is part monkey. he brought the most bruised up bananas i've ever seen out on the river with us. it was like someone shoved pudding inside of a banana peel.

here we are at the end of the run just up river from the bridge there. not a bad morning commute.

and here's a little video of drew ripping the water up

Kayaking in Blue Ridge from charles breland on Vimeo.

having finally settled on my next job...

2009-10-16T09:19:00.002-04:00

i enjoy the fall foliage. on a side note, i'm not sure i know how to spell foliage. i chose the position with amex and look forward to starting next week. for today, i'll either kayak or fly fish (depending on how fast the water is running) then golf, then head back to atlanta where lil's dad will be waiting having flown in for a weekend trip to the biltmore and to see the fall colors around asheville.

Bama v Arkansas and Lake Tuscaloosa

2009-09-27T14:57:00.001-04:00

lil and i headed over to tuscaloosa for the weekend to catch the bama v arkansas game and to let lillis have one more weekend of waterskiing. we hopped in the car and headed over saturday morning (after lillis got done teaching her yoga class). we got in in time to spend a couple of hours over at rocky's (newly remodeled and very fancy) house before hoppin' in the golf cart to head over to the game. game was probably one of the less exciting blowouts i've witnessed with the tide as we never really did get the offense rolling, but we had a great time anyway. lillis didn't even get sleepy until the 4th quarter!

here are holly and jason and i right around kickoff.

and here jason and i celebrate an early score....

before lillis and i got our picture taken.

jason and i met frank out later that night and had a good evening at innisfree. the next morning, i headed up to mcdonalds to retrieve some breakfast for lil and then we headed out on the lake. here's a pic of holly's dad's lakehouse from the boat.

michael was giving lillis some kind of directions here.

and lillis took my picture while i tried to stall before getting back in the water, exhausted from my first run.

below is a rather longish video that only lillis will probably watch, but if you don't watch it (but did read this) just know that my wakeboarding skills are slowly improving. oh, and bama has improved to 4 and 0 with kentucky coming up this weekend. roll tide! my next game will be bama v ut in a few weeks.

Skiing Lake Tuscaloosa Sep '09 from charles breland on Vimeo.

pigs are dirty animals

2009-09-26T17:59:00.000-04:00

not loving the cheapshots from the razorbacks

soap box derby

2009-08-29T17:51:00.000-04:00

just wanted to post a few pics from the soap box derby race that they had across from my house. pretty fun setup, but it was a little too crowded for one of the hotter days we had this summer. i was amazed at the turnout there at piedmont park, and hadn't really had any idea the focus was on creativity, not speed. i got to see some pretty amusing entrants as pictured below. favorite was definitely the "fur bus" which more or less exploded going over the jump!

mel's wedding in texas

2009-08-22T08:05:00.000-04:00

so, lil and i flew out to san antonio for lil's sister's wedding. she and jonathan chose "the hideout at the horseshoe" outside of canyon lake for the proceedings. it was a really beautiful spot on the river there. it was a might hot, but thanks to bottled water and gatorade we all survived and had a wonderful time. also, the most imporant factor in ensuring survival was the presence of wash rags packed in ice in a cooler. were it not for that, i'm not certain we survive the rehearsal dinner. the dinner was a ton of fun though. it gave lillis a chance to show off some of her killer dancing moves. it was western themed, so i wore my snap button shirt and my boots (courtesy of the fine artisans of esteli, nicaragua). but it made me think of one thing. cowboy boots are undoubtedly the most uncomfortable thing one could ever wear in extreme heat. so, i found it surprising that that was the method of foot protection chosen by cowboys. that said, i haven't come up with a better solution for them, but it seems that since i'm quite certain they didn't even have socks that wicked moisture, then foot odor must have been a problem every bit as scary as dysentery in the old west. hmmmm, maybe a leg shield that brackets on just below the knee but leaves room for airflow? i'll run some clay models and see.

anyway, not many pics from the first 24 hours there, so i'll recap. we flew in and went straight out onto the lake. lil did some skiing and tubing and i took a shot at the wakeboard. we then headed out on the lawsuit inducing jetski that canyon lake had. it got up to 58 mph with the two of us on it. that didn't seem like a good idea, either for us, or for the people who rent the lake equipment. the rehearsal dinner was that night. the next day after lillis spent the morning helping out with decorations and such, we went out with most of the assemblage for a float down the river. then a cookout and then the wedding. below are pics from nearer wedding time.

lil's mom and aunt pam toiled tirelessly with thread and needle addressing sartorial concerns.

while melissa and her dog got their toes ready for the wedding (as captured by lillis).

lil also got a shot of the dress.

then it was outside for pre-wedding photos. luckily lillis NEVER sweats so she had no fear of the 100 degree heat : )

the river bed (and lake bed for that matter) are limestone. so the water ends up being a pleasantly odd shade of milky green.

i was sitting in the back of the wedding all by my lonesome as my beautiful bride had assumed her spot towards the front. so, noticing that i hadn't seen the photographer shoot any "overhead" shots of the wedding crowd, i decided to sneak up the hill.....and yes, that is the dog there and yes, he is wearing a garland of flowers.

the sunset just a few moments after the wedding was completed and it was a quite beautiful one. if i had a picture of lillis and i in front of it, i would post that, but i don't so, here's the sunset, and you know what lillis and i look like, so imagine that.

after heading up to make sure that the golf cart came to pick up lillis' grandmother, i ended up alone down at the wedding site (everyone else had moved up to the reception). so i decided to take a few more shots as night crept in.

then caught up with my wife at the reception. she loves to sing. and to dance. and to bob her head around to music. she's doing all of those things here along with her cousins.

last pic is a view from the balcony of our cabin the next morning.

from there, we headed on to austin to shoot engagement pics for scott and anna, and to catch up with my good friends lauren and berkley and to meet their latest addition.

here're some more of the photos from the weekend.....hope you enjoy, and if not, well it didn't cost you anything.

amelia james @ 6 months

2009-08-16T21:29:00.004-04:00

sarah and zach brought amelia over to do her 6 month pics. it was pretty crummy weather, but we managed to get about 30 minutes of good light in between sprinkles and were able to get some shots that we liked. there are a bunch more in my album at www.charlesandcamera.com/albums

folse and stephanie's wedding

2009-08-15T20:51:00.001-04:00

just a coupla shots from the wedding. we had a great time getting to see a bunch of the old choicepoint crowd. plus, it was totally fun during the wedding to see which one of the two guys up front was going to get married (folse had a twin, and from where i was sitting it was unclear who was who.....i'm still not sure that it was actually brian who got married). anyway, they asked me to take a few pics for them of their exit from the reception, so a couple of those, plus a pic of my lovely wife and i are attached. enjoy!

skiing in tuscaloosa

2009-08-08T17:33:00.005-04:00

skiing is lil's favorite thing in the world. soooo, i packed up the car (with everything except her skis - which we forgot) and we headed over to tuscaloosa to get her out on the water for the weekend. we went out skiing both saturday and sunday AM....AND went out for a late night boat ride on saturday night. so, we had plenty of time on the lake over the weekend. we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the weekend on sunday, but it was well worth it. below, is will, pooped after a day of exhorting us as we skied, and a (rather long) video of the weekend.

mandy+webster wedding in puerto rico

2009-08-02T20:17:00.000-04:00

mandy and webster were great enough to fly me down to puerto rico for their wedding. lillis came along as well, b/c, well, there was a wedding, and a beach, and pictures, and mandy......so, yeah, i don't think i could have kept her home under any circumstances. it was a beautiful venue, a great couple and two wonderful families coming together. here are the first pics from the event. i'll be publishing a full set of probably 150 or so pics at charles+camera in the next two weeks.

mandy's mom susan hugs her sister just moments before the ceremony began.

mandy's ring is a gorgeous family heirloom (i believe webster's grandmother's ring).

we did most of our non-family shots before the ceremony which made for a quick transition into the post-ceremony brunch reception.

they weren't really leaving here. it just looks that way : )

mandy's dad walks her down the aisle. i'm not going to say he cried, exactly, but it sure seemed to have been a little dusty in his vicinity.

the ceremony itself was gorgeous. webster's brother was the officiate.

here they are as they started up the aisle together.

the attendees showered them with rose petals as they came up the aisle.

one of the passages that was read at their wedding.

i hope you enjoyed the pics. thanks.

wedding complete.....everyone said yes

2009-08-02T13:10:00.000-04:00

a beautiful wedding in vieques is in the books.... lil and i had a wonderful time with mandy and webster and their families and friends. great times with great people. we spent time on the beach, kayaked and swam with bio-luminescent thingies and took about 700 pictures. 701 if you count this picture, which is a picture of a picture (pic of the back of my camera taken with my cell phone). i hope later to take a pic with my camera of a computer with my blog post of the pic of my camera from my phone : ) at present lil and i are escaping the heat of old san juan inside a little cafe, aided in part by a pina colada. soon, homeward bound!

we're on our way

2009-07-30T19:12:00.000-04:00

there's lillis....sitting in a first class seat for the 2nd time in her life (first was our honeymoon). she is now terribly spoiled and accustomed to the finer things in life : ) we both are in dreadful need of a day or two of rest. i shoot a wedding on the little island of vieques on saturday morning. i'l spend the flight refining the shot list and site map so i can spend tomorrow on he beach with the princess. i hear some wiffle ball is on tap and we'll be kayaking bioluminescent water tomorrow night......can't wait!

left coast trip part 3.....tahoe

2009-05-30T21:48:00.001-04:00

we finshed up our junket by heading up to tahoe (the reason we were out there to begin with). jeremy and jessica were getting married on lake tahoe at the edgewood. the drive in was amazing through the little towns and mountain passes. think i already mentioned it, but holy crap, the most beautiful ride i've ever been on.

so, we got in rather late and just hung out in the casino the first night.....the next day we went out to see the lake. here are jeremy and jess at a vista overlooking lake tahoe. what a good looking couple and all dressed in black in honor of mr. johnny cash.

so, apparently the island below was used by some really rich person with a castle as just the place where she would have her afternoon tea. worth mentioning, btw, that if you had asked me how big lake tahoe was, i might've guessed 5 to 10 square miles. as it turns out, were you to drain it, it would cover the entire state of california in 13 inches of water.......not to be confused withe the early 90's rap album of similar name.

jessica wanted to get her picture taken with her new sister. actually, her only sister; unless you count casey. : )

it's worth noting that apparently what happens in cabo stays in cabo. we went out to the cabo wabo cantina that evening. there an amazing thing happened. a popped collar revolution erupted. it was amazing and beautiful.

here jeremy and i exhibit some of the finest popped collar this side of jersey.

so, it was kind of a rough morning the next day. and then, while lillis went to get her toes done, we headed out to the beach. nevermind that it was only 75 degrees out. the 50 degree water temperature made the 75 degree air feel downright balmy. but, jeremy wanted to do it, and it WAS his wedding day. so we all jumped in. or at least those of us man enough did. holy cow, that is a miserable swim, but it does help one shed any remnants of the night before. btw, one more item of note....you'll notice above that i have TWO popped collars. that's next level stuff.

i took a picture from atop this rock as i tried to man up for the final push back to the shore.

later that evening (and with a freshly exfoliated abdomen thanks to a rock related incident) we had jeremy's wedding. it was a lovely affair and jessica made a beautiful bride. the sun set not too long after the reception had begun. it was nice (for what it's worth) to go to a reception and know that i WOULDN'T be forced to dance to billie jean.....i've seriously been typecast worse than gary coleman. anyway, as you can see, lillis looked gorgeous in a dress to match the sunset and the scarf i got for her in africa.

it was a great trip with a great ending. and we all lived happily ever after..... i mean, not that it's been a long time or nuthin, but so far so good!