Nepal Peek

I just love all the beautiful children we came across during our stay in Nepal... inquisitive little faces peering out from doorways and windows everywhere we went.



Can I also just say how much I LOVE our new 50D!?! This picture was taken from a moving vehicle, which was operated by our sleep-deprived driver, at high speeds, in the WRONG LANE... I shudder just reminiscing. Despite everything, I was impressed with how well it came out... a little soft around the edges, but I still love it!

And, yes, I know I have been terrible at keeping up with our blog the last 2 months=(. We've had so much going on with work, Wayfarer, tutoring, coaching, directing, travel, visitors... and sleep had to fit in there too... so, our poor blog was left all alone. Sad. While our schedule remains just as rigorous, I've missed my blogging time too much, so I'm determined to find the time to get on here more regularly!

We're off...

to NEPAL for spring break!!! We'll be back in a week with plenty of pictures, stories and catch up posts from the last month!

Life of ike, part 1: Qatar and Kuwait

The last 3 months have been overflowing with awesomeness (shout-out to Barney Stinson). After a great trip home to Portland for Christmas it has been non-stop since returning to Dubai.



Qatar
My first adventure took me to Doha, Qatar for an education conference over a weekend at the end of January. Without getting into the boring details of the conference I'll skip to the awesome part where I meet the greatest American couple currently living in Kuwait... Mike and Erin Johnston. Mike chimes in via email to provide a recap of our time together... "This past weekend was super sweet! If they made a movie about it, my character would be played by Marky Mark and your character would be played by Denzel Washington!!! That's how we roll." Pretty wild, considering that all we did was slack-off and goof around together during the conference. There was little time to do anything outside of it. Mike and Erin teach middle school art at the Al Bayan Bi-lingual school in Kuwait, and Mike is quite the artist. We first struck up a conversation when I noticed his shoes, which were painted in the style of Piet Mondrian and Roy Lichtenstein... two of my personal favorites. Mike painted the shoes himself, and he directed me to his website, Squeaky Sneaks, where he has many more customized shoes on display. As Mike puts it, "Customize your life... it's too short for generic crap." Amen. I didn't have my camera with me in Qatar, but here is a lasting memory from the trip...


This is the bag they provided for us at the conference, which was decorated with all kinds of ugly swag on the front. No problem for MJ... he covered the front in white paint and proceeded to customize.


Kuwait (part 1)
The good times with Mike and Erin carried over to my trip to Kuwait for the JV basketball tournament. I was able to arrange housing with the Johnstons and they were gracious enough to take me in and provide a bed and my favorite Kashi cereal, Cinnamon Harvest. I quickly decided that the Johnstons needed to move to Dubai and work at ASD and be our best friends. Unfortunately, due to the demanding schedule of the basketball tournament I was not able to spend nearly enough time with them. However, we seized every opportunity and maximized our time with such awesome things like homemade date rum (actually quite good) and Step Brothers on dvd... which caused Mike and I to realize that we were simply long lost brothers. So, we went and did karate in the garage and made bunk beds.

As I mentioned above in the Qatar section, Mike designs and hand-paints his own shoes, and he takes shoe orders from friends. Naturally, Jenni and I just had to have ourselves a customized pair of the Johnston Squeaky Sneaks. So, I commissioned Mike to create two pairs of shoes while I was busy with coaching duties at the tournament. I got a chance to watch some of the magic happen, and the dude is like a modern day Michaelangelo. The final product was absolutely beautiful... check it...

For my pair, Mike used the Lichtenstein comic book, pop-art style















Jenni wanted a rain forest... that's exactly what she got... check out these cute little critters












I think we'll become collectors of Squeaky Sneaks. Mike and Erin will be visiting us at the end of April... what should the next theme be for my shoes?

Stay tuned for more... this is part 1 of a 4 part series of events I've been meaning to post about for the last 3 months. Up next, Part 2 will cover my coaching journey with the JV boys basketball team. Following part 2 will be my trip to Greece with the 6th grade class of ASD, and part 4 will document my run at the middle east softball championship with Dubizzle.

I apologize for my lack of photos of Kuwait and Qatar. I didn't bring my camera with me on either trip.

-Isaac

Be Mine, Valentine

We had a really nice Valentine's this year. We slept in, had breakfast in bed, and walked through the greens with Bella. In the afternoon we took maternity photos of our friends, Donny and Natasha. They are expecting their first child- a girl!- in about a month! They are such a warm and happy couple, and we really enjoyed spending the afternoon with them. Donny used to have Isaac's position at ASD, and is now teaching middle and high school art. His incredible artwork can be found in and around their beautiful villa, and it was so fun to see it all! Donny's "found art" pieces include several large fish, made from metal scraps, and items he's come across. They are AMAZING!!! I was thrilled when Natasha suggested that Donny make us a fish in exchange for the photos. I am so excited I can barely stand it!!! I've already given a lot of thought to where we will hang our beautiful angel fish... =). After the photo session, we dined al fresco. Donny made his homemade chili (loaded with veggies and super delicious), and prepared a green salad. We brought my twice baked potatoes, and I can say with certainty that we all thoroughly enjoyed our scrumptious feast. It was such a relaxing and fun evening of conversation! A perfect Valentine's day!



To see photos from Donny and Natasha's session, click here to visit Wayfarer Studio!

New Header

I decided to try my hand at designing a little header for the blog. Whatcha think? Nothing too extraordinary this go 'round, but every time I look at this picture I'm reminded of the AMAZING man I'm married to and I turn into a lovey-dovey pile of mush...sigh... =)

And we're back in business!

We found a new 50mm lens today! Woo Hoo! It was beginning to look like a hopeless case (and my stress levels were rising) after contacting multiple camera shops. Finally we discovered a teeny tiny shop in MOE that had one. So, I now have my *new* precious lens, back on my camera, safe and sound! I have also scoured B&H online for a good camera bag, as the ultra cool (not really), but super functional hip bags do not appear to exist in Dubai. I found one with great reviews that carries a large SLR, plus 3 or 4 lenses for a pretty good deal. We'll be placing an order for one or two soon. Hopefully my mom can bring it/them over to us in her suitcase when she visits this spring, pleeease (says Jenni, batting her eyelashes adorably). =)
Of course I HAD to test out my new lens as soon as I got home and the only models I could find were the furballs responsible for the death of my first lens. Even though they are stinkers, they are pretty darn cute!


Goodbye, dear friend...













A precious moment... bath time is pretty much the only instance when these two aren't either scuffling or ignoring one another



Oh, sweet, confused Safa... what goes on in that little pea-brain of yours?

Lesson of the day...

Never, and I mean NEVER leave your precious camera and lovely little brand new 50mm f1.4 portrait lens sitting in the middle of the dining room table! A frisky cat may come along and knock it onto the stone floor. ARGH!!!!!

Oh, my poor lens, I am so sorry you have passed on... I promise I will NEVER EVER EVER be so STUPID as to leave one of your fellow friends out like that AGAIN!

Lesson learned!!!

In more positive news, it's the weekend! Hooray! We slept in until 9:00, which was heavenly. Now, my sweet hubby is whipping us up some scrumptious french toast. YUM! AND, we have been invited to a Chinese New Year party this afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it!
Perhaps after the party we'll swing by Sharaff and see if we can find a new portrait lens, as well as a new UN-DOG-CHEWED camera bag. *Sigh* Another quick lesson... NEVER leave Mentos (those glorious little fresh-makers) in your camera bag. A sneaky little dog may come by and chew a hole through the bag to get them.

Reflecting on this post, I suppose another lesson learned is that your life is much easier if you don't have pets... hmmm...

He's in there!

Yup, that's where Baby Russell is residing for now. We can't wait to meet him in a few short weeks! Click here to see more of Teryl, James, and their cute little baby bump!

More Wayfarer

Guess who just shot their first senior portraits???

And, yes, we have reduced ourselves to using this blog as shameless promotion for our new blog... but only for a little while=). We'll have some more "regular" daily life posts up soon.

Wayfarer Debut

Want to see more of these?











Then click here to visit our new photography and design blog... Wayfarer Studio! More details to come...