Family Photo Day

On Tuesday (Veteran's Day), Kate's school was closed, so we met our beautiful friend, Michael C. Bodie ("Uncle Mike") in Santa Monica. Uncle Mike agreed to take our family Christmas card photo again this year because he is the ultimate mensch. The weather was supposed to be brisk, overcast, and lovely, but it turned out to be...drum roll...HOT, CLEAR, AND SUNNY! Shocking. Kate looked for any sign of Uncle Mike with baited breath. Then suddenly he appeared, and Kate took off screaming. ' We walked down to the beach to take some shots, or as many as Kate would tolerate.

The Arlington West memorial was on display. It was designed to honor the fallen and wounded in the war in Iraq, to encourage dialogue, and acknowledge the human cost of war. Each red cross represents ten fallen military personnel each. To date, over 4,100 Americans have been killed, and anywhere from 90,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians.

MCB took this photo. Chris modeling for Mike.

Chris "big ham" Weyant serving as our stand-ins.

"Ham-fisted?"

While Appa was hard at work, Kate and Mom drew in the sand.

And Kate headed to the water to dip her toes.

Fistfuls of wet sand = glee.

After being so cooperative for many takes under the blasting sun (in which Chris or I blinked or looked weird), the fun factor for Kate began to wane, and we had to resort to knock-knock jokes and tickling.

That stopped working pretty fast.

Then Kate mounted a protest while amusing herself at the same time...

This one is especially nice. "Oh, what have I done to deserve such agony??" Kate looooves to get the drama on.

This is why God invented Photoshop. And despite the various technical and internal challenges, wonderful Mike managed to get several good shots and we wrapped. Hooray! That's lunch!

Appa clearing out the wet sand stuck between Kate's toes.

Before lunch, Kate had to make a wish in the fountain for... you guessed it... popcorn.

Kate thought it was fun to stick her tongue out at Uncle Mike.

Then Uncle Mike thought it was fun to try to yank it out.

After lunch, we took a walk and got some gelato. Kate pretended (I hope) to lick the giant plastic cone.

Kate trying to get Mike's attention.

She succeeded.