So Emme is going through this phase right now where she absolutely *hates* to eat dinner in her highchair. She screams, kicks, and arches her back. Putting her in her highchair is an exercise in both agility and calm nerves.

A few days ago, Emme was running errands with Grandma Judy when they strolled into the toy store. Emme went right for this little table and chair set, so of course Grandma just couldn’t leave the store without it.

Last night, after about 20 seconds of going through her new highchair routine, I said, “Maybe we should try her new table and chairs.” Just threw it out there, not knowing what would happen. All I knew is that she needed to eat and the highchair wasn’t working.

So we put her dinner, consisting of a chopped-up veggie burger and some avocado, on a plate and set it on the table. Emme proceded to walk over to the table, hop on a chair, and began eating.

So here’s a pic of Emme and her dinner guest, Jen, testing out the new dining set.

My buddies and I took the surf trip of a lifetime in July of 2004 to the Mentawai Islands, off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. I stumbled upon the images on one of my drives the other day and it brought back a lot of memories about that trip.

For those of us on the trip who were married (with and without children), it represented two weeks of reverting back to pre-teen adolescence, except instead of Capri Sun we drank Bintang beer. Other than that it wasn’t much different.

Part of the fun of any big adventure is getting there. And if anyone’s ever flown to Southeast Asia, there’s a lot of “getting there” to be had. Midnight flight from LAX to Taipei (11 hrs.), then Taipei to Singapore (4 hrs) with a 4-hour layover in Singapore (can you say “Asahi”?), followed by a 1-hour flight to Padang Airport in Indonesia. I think all of us watched “The Girl Next Door” with Elisha Cuthbert about 5 times.

Nice long line at LAX security. Ahead of us were 2 other groups of surfers heading on the same trip.

I think the craziest drivers in the world have to be in Indonesia (I’ve heard this from several people). Few traffic lights, no lane markers, no crosswalks, no bike lanes. Complete and utter chaos.

Some kid looking for surf stickers. We hooked him up.

So before you can board the boat, you have to make a copy of your passport for the travel company, which they do at the local surf shop. Some local skate rats had made a half pipe, one-half ramp and the other half the side of the building. This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that necessity is the mother of invention.

Our driver from the airport to the boat. I think he thought we had named him “Oh s@#t!”

Padang Harbor, where we boarded our boat.

After a 12-hour boat ride throught the night, we anchored at a spot called “Playgrounds”. At first light, we could see the surf wasn’t happening there, so we motored for another hour to a neighboring island and came upon this vicious right-hander. This spot is called “Bank Vaults”. That’s Dustin fishing in the foreground.

Trunks and rashguards drying on the boat rail.

Brett “B-Wett” Martin

Erik “The Merkin” Martin. Erik was kind enough to organize the whole trip. Thanks, Cheryl!

Okay, onto some surfing. This is Dustin at a spot called Thunder’s. Easily the biggest waves we got on the trip. Solid double-overhead on the sets with some spooky rougue waves breaking waaay outside around the tip of the island.

Finer on his first wave of the day at Thunder’s. Not a bad way to start.

Clean-up set at Thunder’s.

Boat view of Telescopes, which was my favorite wave. Just a picture-perfect left that peels around this reef pass.

After Jen got home from work, we took a little jaunt down to Moonlight so Emme could run around on the beach. The tide was super low and made for some really cool pictures.

Emme and Jen walking on the sand.

14 months and fearless… and about to get pummelled.

Emme was really dizzy after this.

Got halfway to the car and Emme peed in her swim diaper, then walked in it. Sweet.

Had a wonderful portrait shoot with the Chandler family recently. We spent some time at Balboa Park on the Prado, then headed over to Marine Street in La Jolla for some evening light work. Talk about a fun family! The Chandlers were really open to some off-beat images and even brought some cool ideas of their own.

One of the greatest things about our new home is the size of the backyard. To us, it’s huge, and it feels even bigger with the great view. There’s tons of grass for Emme to run around with the dog.

Luckily, I picked up all the landmines

Emme meets the neighbors’ dog

“You’re a niiiiiice doggie…”

Jen and me with my Taliban beard

Jen and Emme