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Favorite Family Photos: Luke turns four
Here’s another shot that Shinobu and I both love. It was Luke’s 4th birthday official portrait. We had this done by a photographer in our town of Yatsuo. It took a long time for him to get this developed, but it turned out real well. He caught Luke’s great smile.
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If something bad happened and you could only save a handful of your photo collection, which ones would choose? That’s the question guiding this series of blog posts I’m dubbing “Favorite Family Photos”. It’s a chance to look back at the past 10 years and revisit special moments in our family’s history. These are our best and most precious memories.
TFiJ41: Max’s 4th Birthday Photo Shoot
Max turned four on March 7th, 2011. To celebrate we went to our favorite restaurant in Yatuso, Erbaccia. It’s an Italian place run by a friend of ours. Great pizza and gorgonzola cheese pasta… Anyway, the following morning we did what we always do with the kids on or near their birthday each year: go to a photo studio for getting their portrait taken. We’re collecting these professionally done photos on our bedroom wall, and it was time to add to our Max collection! This year was even more fun than usual, not only because Max is older and cuter than ever, but also because the studio we always patronize had moved into a larger building. It was great! Tons of space and an even wider selection of costumes awaited our little candy girl. Max too her time picking out a few dresses to wear. They all looked good to Shinobu and I (except for the Buzz Lightyear one!), but Max was in major “ya-da” (no way!) mode. She refused everything we put in front of her until FINALLY she settled on a couple of very cute numbers. They have a big dressing room where they doll up the kids before taking their photos. It’s quite the production! The staff woman was a pro and transformed Max into heights of cuteness that left me dizzy! She had her hair done, make-up put on, and then was outfitted in this amazing dress. The photo taking was a blast, too. They had several different set-up. There were three staff ladies working together to take care of Max. One would shoot photos, the other would attend to her positioning, and the other took care of the backdrops and props. Great teamwork! It was quite the production. This short video captures this fun annual experience. If you go back to a similar one I made when Max turned two, you can see how much she has grown. The new photo (the one featured above) is now sitting pretty on our bedroom wall…
Happy birthday, Max!
We celebrated our daughter Max’s 4th birthday on Sunday night at our favorite Italian restaurant in Toyama, “Erbaccia.” Our friends Chiaki and Chikano came along. We had a nice time! Tomorrow we are going to the photo studio to for the annual birthday photo shoot. If I can make some time I’ll update this post with a short video of that experience. 
Here Max is pondering a wish. Better hurry up or your rambunctious big brother will blow out the candles before you!
Hey! What did you wish for, I wonder?
TFiJ28: Max’s 2nd birthday photo shoot
Wow, it sure has been a long time since my last post!!! Chalk the delay up to one busy life these days, what with starting a new job and all. I’ll be getting to that shortly, but first I want to catch up on my video clips. Here is a nice one- short and very very cute! It’s Max on her 2nd birthday (March 7th, 2009), getting her portrait taken at Studio Alice here in Toyama City, the same place we always go on our kids’ birthdays. It’s this little tradition we have going- take a professional photo on the very day of their birthday. We’re starting to build up a nice collection, and it’s great to see the kids growing up year by year. Anyway, Max was very cute this time. We dressed her up in a “Beauty and the Beast” costume, in the role of “Belle”. The photographers were great- they gave her the real treatment- gown, gloves, wig, earrings, and a nice set. Wow, was she even more beautiful than usual! I really thought that our little baby was not a baby anymore! We had a real fun day.
A Talandis film festival
Wow, its been over two months since my last blog post! Suffice it to say I’ve been busy! I hope to make up for it over the winter break, however. To get things started, I’d like to share three videos with you, episodes 21, 22, and 23 of our family video podcast. Consider this my Christmas present to you!
TFiJ21-Family trip to Universal Studios Japan
Here are some highlights from our family trip to Universal Studios Japan this past summer.
This trip came about because we had to get Max’s US passport (and renew Luke’s), and the only place we could do that was at the USA consulate in Osaka. They have a new rule stating that the person applying for the passport must appear in person, so that meant we all had to go. So if we have to go to Osaka, why not make a family vacation of it? Thus the idea to visit USJ was born… Long story short- we had a great time, but it was just too hot hot hot! Wow, was it hot! This made things difficult. Another problem was that I insisted we travel there by train. I thought it would be much easier than driving, but boy was I wrong! Max was noisy and figidy the entire way, and it was a total struggle on the cramped train. And it was hot hot hot! You can imagine. Oh well. Check out the video for all the good parts of our journey.
TFiJ22-Luke’s 7th birthday photo shoot
It has become a family tradition to take our kids to a pro photographer on the day of their birthdays. Here are some scenes from Luke’s 7th photo shoot, again held at Studio Alice in downtown Toyama City. This place does a great job to make it fun for kids and families, as you can see from the clip.
TFiJ23-The Grape Adventure
Here’s a really mellow clip about a fun family outing we made back in September to a local Toyama winery. Wine growing is not big around here (brewing sake is), but they do make pretty good wine at this place. It was a national holiday (Fall Equinox Day), and the weather was great. We had a chance to catch some rays in the beautiful countryside. The grapes were a pain to eat, but it was still fun. The kids had a nice time. I enjoyed the wine tasting! The wine was pretty good- the grape varietals were unfamiliar to me, but the red and white versions had a nice taste. I can see us going back here someday!
So there you have it! Nothing for two months, then a deluge! I miss you all as usual, and I hope you all have a great Christmas and holiday season. I’ll aim to get at least one more video out before New Years.
TFiJ02: Luke’s 6th Birthday
Hey everyone! Sunday, July 29th was a very special day around these parts: Luke’s 6th birthday! We had a really nice day, and I’d like to share some of the highlights with you for our 2nd podcast episode.
Be began our day leisurely, by hanging out and relaxing at home. In the afternoon we took Luke to our local Toys-R-Us for present shopping. He had a virtual blank check, as mama and papa were in a generous mood! After having fun looking around, he settled on buying a new Wii computer game called “Super Mario Party 8.”
After shopping, we headed over to a studio for his annual photo shoot. We have this tradition in our family- each year, on his birthday, Luke gets his picture taken professionally. We had a blast adding to our collection this year. With numerous costumes to choose from, Luke chose the traditional Japan look this year- a “hakama”, a type of kimono worn usually by men. Our little samurai ended up looking very cool!
Finally, to top the day off, we met some of our friends (former members of Shinobu’s swim team) at Il Chianti, a great Italian restaurant in Toyama City. A fun time was had by all.
I hope you enjoy this little video! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment. As always, if you’d like a higher quality QuickTime version of this video, just click here. (You may need to wait a bit for the file to download)
