Going for Par!

Going for Par!, a photo by colorcritical on Flickr.

Lucas as a 5 year old playing a family favorite. Disc Golf! We were in Seattle.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Lu-Navajo Loop Trail
Originally uploaded by colorcritical

I have never been to Bryce and have always wanted to go. This year we all went. One of the most memorable hikes was this one called the Navajo Loop starting at Sunset Trail and ending at Sunrise Trail. It was a great hike up through slot canyons and switchbacks. At every turn there was something different to see. It was cold, in the low 50's and high 40's. Lucas is 7 years old here and in 1st grade.

Lu and me - Road Trip to Quartzite, AZ

Lu and me
Originally uploaded by colorcritical

Like me, Lu loves the desert - especially the Mojave. I rarely actually get to be in an image because I am typically the photographer. I begged Miss T to take our photo here and she obliged.

I am bummed I forgot where we stopped. I am usually good about these things but this time I spaced it. It is between the Borrego Valley and Mecca, CA.

Lu and I, Miss T and A all took a trip to Quartzite to visit some rocks, gems, minerals, and visit my dad.

Lucas and Me
Originally uploaded by colorcritical

During a recent camping trip to the Anza-Borrego Desert, Lucas climbed some boulders to a summit and was so proud of himself. Rock scrambling is so good for kids, it helps with coordination and challenges themselves to see how far they can go.

Lucas didn't go as high as some of the older kids but he did go far and he did so with no help at all from me. I taught him to plan his route, go slow, and never panic. Once we reached a part he was comfortable with, we stopped and realized we made it to a large boulder overlooking the entire campsite. Lucas was excited to see how high he actually had climbed. At that point I asked if I could shoot a self portrait of him and I to remember the event. This is why we look so happy. It's times like this that being a father is one of the greatest gifts one can have.

Neighborhood Possum
Originally uploaded by colorcritical

I woke up the other morning to screaming crows alarming each other about something. That something was a possum. I found a juvenile possum in a tree trunk being protected by it's mother.

I woke up Lucas and told him what I saw. He wanted to see the possum so he got dressed and made his way to the alley to see the slow moving small marsupial.

It's a treat to see wildlife in the city. To date, we have seen a fox, coyotes, possum, skunks, hawks, and a raccoon.

Lucas and Isabella at Chuckie Cheeses

Lucas and Isabella
Originally uploaded by colorcritical

Lucas is very fond of his friend Isabella who is in his class at the Albert Einstein Academy. Isabella turned 6 at had a party at Chuckie Cheeses Pizza Time Theater. Everyone played games like air hockey, jungle jump, catch a toad, and bumble bee parade. Happy Birthday Isabella!

4th of July - Summer Fun

4th of July - Summer Fun
Originally uploaded by colorcritical

We spent the 4th of July at Makenna Whittiker's house. The kids all played in the water, ate dogs and burgers, the adults drank Corona's, and the fun was ongoing until fireworks at Bird Park.

It's a day to celebrate the independence of this fine country. Here is to you America and take that King George, you knew the colonies were too good to last.

Here is to I N D E P E N D E N C E!

jz's new tattoo
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Justine got a tattoo of 5 Cottonwood Leaves from one stem from a tattoo artists named Mojo at Incognito Tattoo of Pasadena CA. This was a long time comming. Actually at one point Justine was almost going to get a different tattoo but the artists she met and 'interviewed' were a little intimidated about the idea of doing something natural and to scale with emphasis on realsim.

Justine is realy happy and so am I. We both love the colors and the feel of the tattoo and it's scale. It's not a small tattoo. Erin her good friend got a similar tattoo in a different place.

On Top of the Discovery
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Lucas had a blast in Mexico. We toured the baja coast and central mountains on a two night trip to Baja. We started in San Diego and drove to San Quintin which is about 4 hours south of the border. The crew composed of myself, Lucas, Ben Wolf, Anna Wolf, and Mae Wolf. The kids were pretty tired until we reached the Old Mill Motel in San Quintin. Then the fun began with jumping all over the beds and funny faces.

The next day we had a nice breakfast and headed south to El Rosario and then even further south to the San Fernando Velicata Mission where Anna needed to take pictures and notes for her grade school report. On the way we stopped to see Gallery G where the nice woman who owns the gallery is involved in local anthropology, archaeology, and geology as well as animal rescue. We then headed more south to Velicata. There we saw the mission ruins dated back a few hundred years and then to the south we explored rock art and wonderful formations.

Lucas loved being off road in Ben's Land Rover Discovery. The road from Velicata to our campsite was quite a haul. For one reason is we were off road scrambling through dirt road inclines and on a road fit only for the proper vehicle. We had that vehicle. The Rover was great.

That second night we camped near the road at a picnic site from the southern approach to Mike's Sky Ranch. We pitched our tent near some trees and a nice stream. The stars were amazing on this moonless night and the kids were making shadow puppets and singling silly songs and stories. The night was warm and slightly cool, not too cool, just cool. We all slept well and were ready for the next day.

Lucas and Hannah

Lucas and Hannah
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

This is Hannah. Hannah is in PreSchool with Lucas. She is a good friend and they both have fun. Today we went to the park with Hannah and her sister Harriet along with her mother Cynthia. They both only wanted to make funny faces and run around like wild children. The park is an amazing place in San Diego.

Pumpkin Hockey

Pumpkin Hockey
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Here is Lucas playing a new game he and Mamor invented a wonderful called Pumpkin Hockey. It is played with a stick and a small pumpkin. That is it. It also helps to have objects which mark a goal. It also helps if your in the mood to lay and have fun. The best part is watching the pumpkin get destroyed over time as you hit it with the stick. It actually rolls pretty well and it is suprisingly fun to play on a Saturday afternoon.

Christmas
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Merry Christmas everyone! Here is the 2007 Douglas Fir. This years tree was perfect, one of the healthiest trees we have had over the years. I shot this in the AM on Christmas Day. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

The Aguilera's

The best part of Disneyland...

Disneyland_018.jpg
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Air Hockey.

Lucas loved the Air Hockey game next to Space Mountain in Tommorowland and I will always remember this day in 06 where my 4 year old would rather play Air Hockey than get on Space Mountain. I really don't blame him. Air Hockey is one of the classics, but snubbing his nose at Space Mountain. But then again, he has never been on Space Mountain so he really doesn't know of it's amazing thrills. I tried to describe it to him but he was smitted over, well you know...

Disneyland was great and you can see more images here. Being there brings back so many memories and if you hit it right like we did, mid October / mid week, the experience is stress free. The weather was mild and the lines were short. We basically waited for a max of 20 minutes for any given ride. Autopia was closed, as well as the Monorail, and so was Big Thunder Mountain but that didn't stop us. I was also impressed with California Adventure, especially an attraction called Soaring Over California, a virtual flying experince unmatched anywhere. It's the closest feeling you will get to real flight.

Another piece of advice is to eat in Downtown Disney. You can get Hagen Daz Ice Cream and a smoothie from Jamba. It's a great diversion.

We will be back (we got the yearly pass) and if you are new to parenthood be prepared for your kids to go wild (in a good way)

Lucas at August's 5th Birthday Party

Lucas at August's 5th Birthday Party
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Here Lucas is 4, not 5, but his friend from school Auggie (short for August) just turned 5 and is getting ready to go to Kindergarten. Justine and I really love this image I shot this weekend. We had a great week due to pre-school being closed for the week to make way for the new students and the new school year.

We went to Legoland and to Auggie's Party where there was a Reptile Show. Lucas got to touch and feel real snakes, skinks, and millipeedes. He also got to bounce like a madman in the jumper. Each morning this week we started the day off right by playing a few games like Namitz, Baloon Lagoon, or Quiddler. The hightlight of the week though was our family day on Thursday at Legoland where we rode rollercoasters such as "Project X" and "The Dragon", and played "Hide and Seek" in the "Hideaways. There is so much to do at Legoland we got the yearly pass and hope to go again and again.

Self Portrait and Chabo!

Self Portrait and Chabo!
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Lucas and I had a wonderful Sunday. He woke up happy and wanted to make BlueBerry Muffins. I could not refuse. We went to Albertsons to get a few missing ingredients like eggs and milk. Lucas got a cooking kit from our friend Kim and he was so happy to put it to use. We added the flour and baking soda, salt and sugar to the blueberry and egg milk mixture. The oven was pre-heated to 400 and we were ready to bake. Once we ate our muffins over a few Little Bear episodes, Lucas wanted to take pictures with the G2. I gave him a quick lesson in Photography and he was energized to take pictures of everything he owns and loves. My advice to him was, "Take pictures of things you like in your life." He took some grand images and I couldn't be more proud. He shot everything from me to his treehouse and as of now is running around the house looking for things to shoot.

Lucas 1 day before turning 4.

Lucas 1 day before 4.
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

We can't believe it but Lucas has turned 4 years old Augest 1st. It seems like yesterday when he was just three years old. And now he is 4! Ok. That was barely funny. You can see he is growing up fast. His party is comming up on the 12th. We decided to wait because of my travel schedule and Justine's work schedule. The party will be great fun since lots of his friends from pre-school are invited as well as relatives from both sides of the family. Justine made Lucas a great home made cake (chocolate and vanilla w/chocolate frosting, decorated with purple kitties and yellow dinosaurs..his request) and cup cakes for all his school mates and we ordered all sorts of cool toys from the Magic Cabin Company. He opened his gifts with extreme excitement and started playing right way with his Junior Sudoku and Alphabet Stamps. He also got a great game called Bug Blast from Innovative Kids as well as Alphabet ABC Dice and Namits : The Game of Think from namits.com. To top it off he also got a really great activity book called The Only Activity Book You'll Ever Need by Klutz and "There's a Moose in the House" a really funny and thoughtful card game by Gamewright. He got that from Mamor. So as always check out some of the latest photos at our flickr site of everything from my travels and work, to images of Justine at her new amazing job, and images of Lucas being well Lucas. Until next post...see ya!

The Train Travelers

The Travelers
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Here I am with the greatest little boy ever (ok we're biased). We had a fun trip over the July 4th holiday from Erin and Dave's Party in Pasadena to San Diego via the metro, train, and taxi. Justine works now on the weekends at the Wild Animal Park as I am sure you have read and what a great way to teach Lucas about public transportation than by planning a trip ourselves. The funniest part about the train ride was Lucas sang for about two hours, are you ready for this...." I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THE RAILROAD...ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY....I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THE RAILROAD JUST TO PASS THE TIME AWAY....CAN'T YOU HEAR THE WHISTLE BLOWING...RISE UP SO EARLY IN THE MORNING...CAN'T YOU HEAR THE WHISTLE BLOWING...DINAH BLOW YOUR HORN" -and if you didn't know this, John Denver sang this song! It was part hillarious part absolutely annoying because he was relentless. People around us smiled for a little bit but then I wonder what they were thinking..."Is this kid really gonna sing for two hours" Well, they got thier wish!

Justine with less hair

Justine with less hair
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Well everyone, Justine cut her hair. Here is a shot I took in the new Subaru. I love it, and so does she. What do you think? Raquel, the wife of my business partner Fabrizio cut it. I am happy she cut her hair and think change is good. It especially goes with her new job as an Elephant Keeper for the Zoological Society of San Diego at the Wild Animal Park. I know lots of you have already seen it but for those of you in far far places then this is your glimpse at the new jz.

Lucas in the Grass

Lucas in the Grass
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Lucas is 3 years and 8 months old in this image. I have not updated the website in a while because I have been real busy with you Seminar Tour since January. I also have not been shooting with my G2 becasue i have been waiting for a new camera, the Nikon D200. Check out the flickr and .mac site for new images of Lucas. He is growing up so fast. He is becomming a real little boy, asking "why", jumping off everything, arguing with mom, and all of the usual 3 year old antics. Now that I have the new Nikon D200 you will see more and more images.

Celebration 2006

Celebration 2006
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

We celebrated the New Year at Rich and Marisol's house. The party started early and lasted into morning. Jen, Stan, Emma, Me, Justine, Lucas, Jim, Katie, Holly, Ryan, Rich, Marisol, Eva, and Delia. It was a small party but that didn't stop us from making it memorable and long lasting. The kids were wild, dressing up in costumes, and running around wild. We drank and ate, ate and drank, and then drank some more. It's a good thing they live right down the street. The party lasted until 4:30 am, a respectable time for a New Years party. Here is to 2006.