i know, i know… i have been brutal at keeping up with the blog lately but it was for good reason.  yes good people, we took a family holiday in the middle of our busy wedding season.  now that we have wonderful jackie on board (studio manager extraordinaire), we can finally take the time to re-energize and re-connect as a family.  our boys are growing by the minute and any chance to hang out is much needed.

so, we decided to travel around to a different place each day for a week, like a road trip!

marineland in niagara falls was a must and was day one.  jomei is a real animal lover and seriously flipped his lid when he saw these whales.  here’s the whole day in a photo story…

before you go any further, i should mention that before we left, we picked up our new lens (nikon f/2.8 14-24mm lens).  so every photo you see was taken with this lens on our nikon d3 camera body.  the lens is a bit wide for some of the photos but every time we get a new one, we like to use it a lot, that way at a wedding or event we are shooting, we are really familliar with it and use it appropriately.  i also have to say, i was taken back by the quality & clarity of this lens.  wow. crystal clear.

anyway, back to the marineland story…

here jomei and tayus are goofing off as always.  we actually rarely get the two boys in one photo, they are all over the place but to see their little faces side by side, i love it.  they totally look nothing alike eh?

as we embarked on our journey, jomei insisted he was to be our tour guide and very intently led us through the park.  i could tell he felt good having a little power and enjoyed bossing us around a bit stating “go there” and “faster, faster people, we don’t have all day”.  the great thing was, we did have all day.  ahhhhhh no stress.

ah!  isn’t this next one amazing?  come on, i love it and not just ’cause we took it or it’s our kids… it is just amazing!!!  we sat and wached these beautiful balugas swim for 45 minutes.  they were effortless and peaceful.  i fell in love.

the orca (killer whales) were breathtaking.  huge yet, again, effortless in the water.  for a moment, we were all alone in the under water viewing area and the whale was actually looking at jomei.  like, he stopped swimming, faced him and was trying to figure jomei out.  he even tilted his head a bit to the side like a dog would as if in curiosity.  man, what an experience.  i felt humbled and honored that we got to be so close to that amazing creature but was torn beacuse i felt like he just shouldn’t be there.  i mean, we learned about them and were educated about the harmful state the environment is in but still, it just didn’t fell right to have him there, just for us.

none the less, jomei will remember forever the day a whale looked at him.

and played peek-a-boo with him.

and he got to give him a big hug just before a big school group flooded into the viewing area.  the whale was off, i guess it was too loud and too busy to be interested in any one person.  apparently the sound of tapping on the glass & voices is so loud in the tank – but i’ll stick to the positives ok?

I actually never anticipated that the images would turn out like this!  the light coming from inside the tank gave jomei just enough reflected light on his face to show up (it was pitch dark in the viewing tunnel)!

back outside we had a wonderful picnic lunch & just hung out for an hour or so.  we played tag, told stories and acted silly all together.  i tell you, you will do some pretty embarrassing things to make your kids laugh.  wierd eh?  how priorities change and you don’t care?  man i would do anything for those kids.

anyway, here is tayus just enjoying a drink:

marineland, the name would assume all things aquatic but oh no… the day wouldn’t be complete without a petting area with deer!  they were crazy tame & the kids just loved it.

a bit hesitant at first, jomei thought this end was a little safer for hugs!

it’s like these guys have been best buds forever!  ha!

tayus was pretty grossed out by the sticky deer boogers

ok this next one i looooove.  it’s like he has the coolest swagger ever.  when he grows up and looks back on this photo, i bet he’ll say “man, i was pretty cool”.

we decided to take break from the sun and hang out under the trees.  check out the ear to ear grins on these guys…

one of the ladies was feeding the bears marshmallows (i can guarantee that is not good for the bears) but alex was able to grab some close shots…

back to marine animals once again, alex found this precarious walrus who was really entertaining!  he was wimming all over the place and totally checking us out.  my little wildlife photographer hubby was able to snap these very cool pics of mr. pacific walrus it his best.

look, his whiskers were smudged right up against the glass trying to get at us!

one day when we retire, i am not joking, i think alex will get into nature/wildlife photography.  he just loves it.  so patient waiting for just the right shot.  i love that guy.

as the day came to a close, we checked into our hotel over looking niagara falls, the boys jumped into a jacuzzi bubble bath and then we all fell asleep to sponge bob on the tv.  ahhhh, a full day of sunshine and family fun can really make one tired!!!