Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks.

Bob and Penny took the kids this weekend so that Steph and I could spend over 10 hours in a car together...and we talked the entire time.  Wow, what a concept, to actually sit and just talk with your wife, with no screaming kids in the back of the car, or having to "yell" back at them to quiet down.

We went to Lincoln, Nebraska to watch South Dakota State University play the Huskers.  Steph's brother Jason hooooooked us up with Champions Club passes, which is like tailgating for lazy people, then we went in for the game.  Without recapping the entire game, I was very pleased...we got a standing ovation from the Husker fans, and walked off the field with a 17 to 3 loss.  A loss, but a lesson.

The other cool thing was I got to see Sally, Brad, Carson and Cassidy at the game.  Carson grew like 2 feet since the summer.

Here are some photos of the day...can you believe the photographer took no camera with?  So these are BlackBerry pictures.  As far as the the photos from on the field, let's just say I still have a lot of contacts out in the media world.

I Breathed Today...Then A Bridge Collapsed

My pace of life since July 7th has been breakneck.  Today I actually inhaled and exhaled 2 times without the phone ringing.  Then I got an e-mail that a bridge out by the house collapsed.  If you are familiar with the Foster Creek Bridge it is kind of the bridge that connects North Shore to the rest of the world without having to use gravel.

It is also serves as a backdrop for a lot of my LakeHaus Productions photo shoots, I can think of at least 5 off the top of my head where the bridge has come in handy.  Click here to see the bridge, and 2 kids.

So I guess I will not be running north in the mornings and will continue on my southern routes, unless I want to do a little early morning swimming too!

WEEKEND FORECAST:

SDSU @ Nebraska - Saturday 6pm   GO JACKS.
(Steph and I will be the people wearing BLUE in the sea of red)

KEN BLOCK....Gymkhana III

I love rally car driver Ken Block, he used to be Mr. Subaru and of course that's why I loved him...but as you can see in his newest movie he is rolling a Ford...actually he is abusing this little car.

This is visual candy.

Williams & Ree

It wasn't hard, but I talked these guys into singing Happy Birthday to the fair.



Grandpa Bob's Birthday Weekend

Grandpa Bob had a birthday today, and we celebrated all weekend long.  The boys and I got up early on Saturday and headed into Bales for some good old fashioned sale barn breakfasts.  Then we went out to dad's horses to help him set up for an event on Saturday night.

Of course the boys wanted to ride the horses so we kept them busy in the round pen for an hour or so.  It is fun to see them both loving to ride.  Brecken is of course a cowboy when he is on his horse, but Maxim chooses to be a Medieval Knight fighting off dragons and other bad knights.  He also some how worked Star Wars Clones into the mix on Saturday, but that wouldn't surprise me.  A tauntaun is a lot like a horse.

Sunday we grilled steaks at mom and dad's house and dad and I fell asleep watching football.  Sometimes I can't believe how different he and I are, and then somedays I catch myself doing the exact same things he did...that I thought were completely dumb.  Like getting up at 6 AM and running...now I am grumpy if I don't get my running in.

Thanks dad for being a dad, father, friend and role model...to me, my sister and my kids.

Sky Cam

For part of my LakeHaus Productions duties I got up in a helicopter and took some overhead shots of the fair.  Super fun and the fact that the chopper's door was off made it even better.

10 minutes after shooting this photo I was on the Freedom Stage introducing an act!  I was going at a breakneck pace this weekend, but I think Steph's job of supervising our booth was harder work!

VERY TEMPTING...

This sign is in front of our house, and is soooo very tempting, but my speedometer only goes to 150.

(The county is changing out the old signs, and I guess it would be too financially efficient to take the old ones down while you put up the new ones???)

A little busy lately.

I'm sorry the blog has suffered lately...if you want to know what I have been up to, just google my name, and then hit the "latest news" filter.

It has been a rough couple of weeks on the family...very nice to have nothing really scheduled this weekend.  Built some legos, played the drums with the band, ran big miles on Saturday, now I'm going to start kicking out a bunch of LakeHaus Productions work.

Fair week is next week, if you are around stop by the LakeHaus Productions booth in the "South Dakota Made" building.  The one where you can get milk and ice cream...south of the FFA Animal Nursery.

Born To Ride Sheep

Brecken entered the Mutton Bustin' at the Bull Bash in Mitchell tonight...he rode great for his first time out.  He scored a 74 and placed 4th.

Grandpa was smiling from ear to ear and Brecken walked back to our seats in front of thousands of people and he made sure every single one of them saw his trophy.

Monkey Man

Watch This....click here... crazy story about a guy from India that learned parkour/buildering/freerunning whatever you call it to escape poverty.

Dude Trip.

Maxim and I went on our first ever "dude trip"...just us two and nobody else.  We were going to head out to the Black Hills to climb and bounce around for a few days, but I was dumb and scheduled the trip on the same weekend as the opener for Sturgis...so while all the Harleys were headed west, we headed east to the Palisades...here is the trip in photos.

Our hike at 0-6-hundred...Maxim's idea, because he couldn't sleep...

Our shadows at 0-6-something

Maxim holding King Rock in the palm of his hand.

Me squishing Maxim's melon.

Because 1 Maxim just isn't enough, and 6 would be too many.

My favorite photo...Maxim packing in our climbing rope for the day, that was the first time he carried any gear on our climbing trips.

Getting started on a great route on Queen Rock.

(yes, he should have had his helmet on, but his dad forgot it in the garage...God protects better than a plastic brain bucket!)

Topping it out, one of 4 times in about 10 minutes!

HE LOVES TO SWING DURING THE RAPPEL.

THANKS FOR MAKING THIS TRIP POSSIBLE MOM!

Love, Maxim and Dad...

Happy Anniversary LHP...

LakeHaus Productions is now a year old...give or take a little bit.  Technically we had the tax id number earlier in 2009 than August, but last August is when it really took off and now it is going like a 4 year old hopped up on Red Bull.  (Wait I have one of those already, now we have 2?)

Steph and I talked about having a "One Year Anniversary Open "Haus" some weekend at our home, but we are so busy with LHP work that we don't have a free weekend until late September.

We have been blessed to say the least, we started this thing to maybe pick up a little extra cash now and then, and it has turned into a full-fledged photography, video, graphic design and Internet business, with side projects and a couple extremely large assignments that will last over 2 years.

So just in case we don't have that OpenHaus for LakeHaus...thank you to all who have made this thing possible...be it through baby sitting, helping clean up or giving us business ideas, you are all very much appreciated.

Also, we would like to welcome our first part time employee.  She went from model to "photography assistant/kid wrangler/model", and her name is Morgan K.  Morgan has been our go to baby sitter for a while and a week ago she helped us on a family photo shoot and she rocked it.  She holds the flash, the diffuser, fixes hair and clothes and makes kids smile...she will also be logging a lot of time at the State Fair at our booth in the South Dakota Marketplace (where you buy milk and shakes).

Cassidy Bay

My brother-in-law Brad and my neice Cassidy recently visited the Dominican Republic, which is the country where Brad was born.  He snapped this picture of Cassidy walking down the beach on afternoon and posted it to his blog.

Our entire family loves this shot, so I thought I would take the original and give it a little LakeHaus Productions editing flair.

On a final note: Cassidy is "the bees' knees"...she is growing up way to fast, and it makes her uncle feel a bit old.  She is so beautiful and has a beautiful soul to match....the total package, right?

Water Feature.

So we were supposed to go camping this weekend with our best friends from Sioux Falls, but our camp sites were flooded out.  They decided to go to Omaha and hit the zoo and Ginger Cove, the lake our friend's parents live on, we decided to stay home since we needed to be at church on Sunday morning since Steph was singing and I was playing drums.

So on Saturday we went to work on our "water feature" that looks sooo nice on one of our back patios.  When we told some friends we put a little pond thing in, he said, "you guys live on a lake, why do you need a pond feature?"  I hadn't thought of it that way, but it looks nice and it is land that I don't have to weed eat or mow, so it is good!

Downtown MLPS

Most of my photography is based in an outdoor rural setting so it was nice to get to go downtown MLPS and get some shots.  Here is one.

Jack

Steph and I had a great weekend without the kids, thanks to both sets of grandparents.  We went to MLPS and then on to Wisconsin for a Jack Johnson concert.  We loved Jack's music before we went to the concert, and after we love him even more. 

White Rabbit???

May I Have Your Attention, Please.

Grandma Clarice and Grandpa Roger are here for a couple weeks and our family couldn't be more happy...especially Kolby, she has Grandpa Roger wrapped around her sticky little fingers.

Here are some pictures from the first day of their arrival yesterday...note, Grandpa's constant attention to Koco...

Of course our house has been pretty busy with the 4th of July on the lake...we had a great time with a lot of friends over the 4 days of fun.  Here are some of the photos I took when I had some time to myself.

Storm Chasing, Fine Art and Energy Drinks

Most of you know about our side business http://www.lakehausproductions.com/ ... well, we also have some fine art prints that Steph and I sell under that same business name, we call them the "HIS signature" series.  They are landscape photos that I have taken over the years and we add a piece of scripture to them that ties in nicely with the print.

This weekend we were at the Brookings Arts Festival selling our prints.  My dad came up with the idea of using the covered wagon and cookfly (sort of like an open sided tent shade) to use as our "booth"  it worked out great and Steph decorated it sooooo classy.  We sold a lot of prints and I am always humbled to know that people will buy pictures I have taken and pay hard earned money for them to hang in their home...it is flattering to say the least.

We had a great first ever show, the Brookings Arts Festival Staff gave us several comments, and we were also invited by a head hunter to go to another art show in Minneapolis to sell our work, and they waived the booth fee for us...I think they are hard up for artists?!?!?!?

There was a slight change in weekend plans as on Friday the TV show Inside Edition called a fellow free-lance photojournalist friend of mine and offered a gig on Sunday that paid so well, we couldn't pass it up.

We left Huron around 11pm headed West...slammed a lot of Monster, Red Bull, RockStar and sunflower seeds and arrived in Rapid around 2AM, got up at 7AM and were ready for work.

We were shooting video for a story that Inside Edition is doing on Silverline Tours a storm chasing tour operation that is based out of Denver.  So we ended up all around the western edge South Dakota, got close to Nebraska and spent most of the day in Wyoming.  We didn't see any tornadoes, but the super cells we saw were really cool...(don't be surprised if I have some prairie weather pictures to sell soon)

So we worked from about 9 to 7pm MT and were somewhere in Wyoming and we drove all night to get back to Huron around 3AM or 4AM.  I slept at Bob and Pennys house and was at my desk a little after 8am.

I am on a high from our booth at the arts festival and my work for Inside Edition...now the follow up, my mother and father-in-law arrived at the house at 11AM this morning...it never slows down at our house!

Brilliant.

Giving Up...

I have started many things...only to give them up later.  I was gonna be a boxer after watching Rocky III, but getting hit all the time sucks.  I rode bulls until I was about 23, my shoulder kept popping out of it's socket which isn't normal, so I quit that...(but still have the desire to climb back on one!)  I stared reading a bunch of books that didn't hold my ADD attention span.  I have a mountain bike rebuild project that has been sitting in my garage for 2 years now.  I haven't filled the nail holes on our trim in the kitchen.

It happens, we get into different routines in our life...things change, and our changing dreams and life patterns force us to basically give up on somethings.

What brings on this post about quitting, you ask?

I ran into a friend of mine's little brother...he's like 27 or something.  I haven't seen him in quite a while, and I almost didn't recognize him.  He was wearing farmer-style overalls and had put on like 80 pounds.  I told him I liked his overalls...he said yeah, "I gave up trying to find jeans that fit...the overalls don't fall down and they make them for fat guys who eat a lot of cake."

Now I have "wintered-well" a few times and 10 or 15 pounds goes on pretty easy, but at some point don't you say...I have to do something about my clothes not fitting?

So if you ever see me wearing overalls, take me out for a run...a long run.  I have always said, "I work out like a maniac so I can eat like an idiot!"

Brecken the T-Baller

Here is a couple shots of Brecken playing for his t-ball team the Twins.

Note the batting glove dangling out of the back pocket...he saw a big leaguer do that.

He's 8.

So today at 6:17 p.m. Maxim will have officially been in the world for 8 years.

I decided to post these pictures of Maxim from Sanford's Cradle Roll archive...I remember thinking, "What am I going to do with a kid...am I ready to be a dad...what if I drop him?"  Well, Maxim has survived 8 years with Stephanie and I and I think he is doing quite well.

When they hand you that little human wrapped up in hospital-issued blankets you never know what is in the package.

Maxim is insightful, caring, free thinking, comical, and creative.  Some days when his little mind is wandering, and he is lost in his own little world, I can't help but want to get inside his thoughts to see what makes him tick.  He has made Stephanie and I much different people, for the better.  Thank you, Maxim...and Happy Birthday.

Lake Byron Falls

Our rain gauge actually overflowed this weekend.  It holds 6 inches.  I don't know if Maxim was playing a trick on us or not, but this picture shows that we did get a little rain.  The lake came up almost 2 feet.

If you have activeX installed and click on the photo it will make it full screen...I think.

Different Day Than You Planned

Ever wake up with this really productive day planned and you end up in a conference call for 2 hours, eating chips and dip at your mom's house for lunch, running out of time for a workout, and to cap the night off...removing a virus from your computer, while your wife, and 2 of 3 kids suffer from a virus?

Most days don't go as planned, but if you do plan a day...it will most likely just go.  -ME

Kolby is crying.

Since Kolby woke me up so early this morning her nap time happened at about 7:30am, so I was going to blog a little, and now she is crying again, and it is only 9:00am.

I now know why Steph can't mow the yard, feed the kids, hang up my laundry, clean the house, get the kids ready for all of their sports, and so on, and so on...I have just Kolby and I can't even do the one Saturday job Steph gave me to do, and that was water a few flowers...I hope it rains...not really.

"Woof, Woof." said Maxim.

So Maxim is pretty much self-sufficient in the personal care department, of course with some prompting by Steph...he will brush his teeth, shower and pick out clothes all by himself.

Tonight after a good day of "outsideness", Maxim needed a shower and when Steph went into the bathroom to get something she smelled a familiar smell of shampoo, but it wasn't the one you want your son using.  She asked him if he was using Kia's (our dog) shampoo and he said, "Yes, after I got it scrubbed up on me I realized it was Kia's!"

So he just rolled with it, I guess there is no sense in wasting good dog shampoo...Steph laughed at him and when she walked out of the bathroom, Maxim said, "woof, woof!"

The Lone Rangers

The boys got out on the horses last night and played a little Lone Ranger, fully equipped with cap guns and WILD imaginations.

The highlight of the night was when Grandpa showed the boys how the old western movie stunt guys used to bail off horses when they got shot....or did Grandpa really get bucked off his new horse?  Call him Casey Tibbs and see what kind of reaction he gives you.

Summer Break...now Brecken has some friends.

Maxim's last day of 1st grade was on Friday, and summer break has officially begun.

That is good news for Brecken, as he was starting to get a little bit sad for "friends".  I guess the other day Steph and Brecken were outside, on the trampoline and Brecken was playing his "butar" AKA guitar.  His song went something like this....

"Ohhhh, I don't got no friends,
But I got my grandpa....
I don't got no friends,
But I got my grandpa...."

My first thought was to correct his use of "got no" to "I don't have any friends," but then I realized that it was more of a country song, so the use of improper English is accommodated in this instance for song writing purposes.

Well, his friend/brother will be around for about 90 days now, all the time.  By the end of the week he will be begging for Maxim to go back to school.

We are sure this song will live on in infamy as Grandpa thinks it is pretty much the best song ever written.

Great Shirt

Cinco De Rogero.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Roger!

Marc.

Click Here For Marc's Caring Bridge Site.

The Cowboy Is 4.

I'm a little late on this post, but I have been driving a car for the last 4 days...the 13th was Brecken's birthday.  The little wild man is 4 years old now.

Many of you know he loves skateboarding, wakeboarding, playing hockey and being a cowboy...quite the combination of loves we know, and it makes for some interesting playtime.

I am not sure but I think every dad has been a "bull"  for their children to ride.  My dad did it for me and I do it for my boys as well, and lately Kolby wants in on the rodeos too.  Brecken and Grandpa share quite a bit of time on horseback, and with all the growing B-Wreck has been doing lately he didn't fit into many of his clothes, so for his birthday he got clothes, and he was pumped about it.  New cowboy jeans, a bullriding vest and brand new boots just like the High School kids are wearing.  He is pretty proud of his new duds and can't wait to go ride Juneau with his new boots on.

Here is the little picture I did to make him look like he was a real bullrider on the PBR tour.

Take Another Bow Maxim...

Maxim's Spring Speech Festival was on Friday and if you remember from last year, he was kind of the hit of the show as he did his speech and then took a bow.

(Click Here To Watch 2009's Performance)

In the back of my head I wondered if he would do that again this year....

RIP Noah the Fish

My dad took off for a meeting in Pierre yesterday and I asked him if he was staying at the Ramkota, he wasn't sure...so I said, "you know the one with the monster fish from the Amazon".  That jogged his memory and he said that was the spot.

He got into Pierre late last night and then texted me this AM that Noah the monster Pacu fish was dead.

I was stunned.  With all my travels to Pierre over the years that fish had become a friend of mine, ok an acquaintance...OK, OK I looked at him at least once every trip, but he was the mascot of the Ram.

Here is the story from KSFY...
A 41-year-old fish that entertained visitors to a Pierre hotel for nearly a quarter century has died.

Ramkota General Manager Rick Murray says Noah died Wednesday. The Pacu fish was born in 1969 in South America and was brought to the hotel in 1987, a few months after it opened.

During his time, Noah outgrew four fish tanks.
Murray says the hotel might have Noah stuffed and mounted.

I think mounting Noah is a great idea, but you have to make sure he can sing "Wild Thing" or something like that.

Hotels don't do things like that anymore, now they brag about their cool 153' water slides,some are known for gigantic waffles at their continental breakfast and some are know for their awesome shower heads.  I prefer super old fish that seem too big for their tank.

My friend Pam told me of the funny thing that happened when the hotel announced that Noah was dead on their outdoor sign...it read...We will miss you...then below that their Lenten special notice of "Fish Fry on Friday!"  Epic.

Brecken The Skype Monster

Skype is a wonderful tool for keeping up with relatives, conference calls with co-workers, or just getting to see your kids via a visual phone call when you are traveling.

Steph and I have actually Skyped with our kids while driving in a car...crazy to think you can video call your children in a moving object.

Well, it was bound to happen...Brecken (3 years old) figured out what buttons to click on to dial up daddy on Skype, and while a neighbor was visiting with Steph, Brecken decided to call me at work on Skype about 10 times.

So I was entertained for about the first 3 minutes, then I felt like I was babysitting him from a distance. Pretty funny actually...here is the photo of Brecken telling me about his baseball jersey, and how he wants all the baseball jerseys in the world, and football shoes with nails on them.

Kolby In Grandpa's Sleigh and James River Water Level

Christmas is a loooong time away...but...

all I want for Christmas is.....

Last Run...

My crew reffed our final games this weekend at the President's Cup in Rapid.  We did 8 games in about 36 hours of life.  Honestly, I have spent more time with these guys over the last 3 weekends than my wife, so I promise I will make it up to her.

I had a very good year, and only about a handful of calls that I would love to have back...don't kid yourself, every ref knows when they blew a call...although none of the calls were big-time game deciding mistakes. 

Yes, Brookings fans, there was 2 tenths of a second left on the clock when Huron scored the goal to send the semi-final JV state tourney game into overtime...blame it on DakTronics for inventing such a good scoreboard!

So I'll hang up the skates for another year, and I can say for all of my family, that we were ready for hockey season to be over this year.

H2O Overload.

I know the title of this blog is Living On Liquid, but this Spring is ridiclous. 

Our neighbors with low-lying houses are sandbagging, the ditches are full, it keeps raining and snowing, I saw a cow standing in mud up to it's belly the other day.

Knee-high rubber boots are high fashion, like we live in southeast Alaska.

If this keeps up I re-naming our kids Ham, Shem and Japeth.

A good day behind the camera...

4 Day Recovery

We went out snowmobiling with our friends last weekend; and today...Friday...is the first day I have felt "not super sore". My buddy is a great rider, and I learned a lot by just following him around in the deep powder.

I can't begin to tell you how much of a workout back country riding is...and we put on a lot of trail miles too. I didn't feel the need to lift a weight this week. I did run 2 times but that was to make sure that I still had some cardio ability for the weekend as I am reffing the State JV hockey tourney this weekend, the State Varsity hockey tourney next weekend and the President's Cup regional tourney the following weekend.

I guess when you need a 4 day recovery from riding a machine that goes through snow you are either getting old or you rode really hard and worked your body to it's limits. OR BOTH.