Your Lovely Adventurous Beautiful Wonderful Brilliant Patient Kind Mother

Declan – someday when you are looking back through the ages, I imagine you Googling the above terms and hope that you will find this blog post.  When I fell in love with your Mother, it was quite simply because she was everything.  I mean it.  Walk the spectrum of life and she graciously radiated all that was good.  She even has this bitchy side that I find incredibly sexy.  It’s a “don’t F*#$ with me, I bite and I love you” sort of thing.  Kind of what I would picture if Jennifer Aniston had done the Resident Evil Movies.  She is her own person and is 100% amazing.  I of course was too stupid to realize that she was totally in love with me when we first met.  That, for the first time in my life, she was giving me love’s purist form: unconditional love.  From what I’ve gathered in my 30 years thus far, about the only other person that has done this en masse is Jesus.  I know right?  Your Mother is Jennifer Aniston + Mia Jovovich + Jesus.  Whoa.  I suppose I can’t go around yelling with joy that I married Jeniaus Christ (...), but I can tell you this: she is an angel.  Having grown up under her gentle care, I’m sure you’ll agree.  Thankfully, being an angel doesn’t mean she’s not willing to have a go at all the worldly pleasures and adventures.  After all…we made you *wink nudge*.  Ok, pick yourself back up into your seat.

As you know, I love to take photos.  More importantly, it is none other than your Mother (who I often refer to as My Lovely Bride) that is easily my most favorite thing to photograph.  And this dear boy, is the reason for my post.  I have so many wonderful photos of her, I wanted to share a few of them with you.

When we first met, I was living in a total bachelor pad in the Foothills of Albuquerque.  Tara was this amazing hot little blonde counselor that just ran away with my heart (remember I was incredibly dense…it took me a while to realize I was indeed missing my heart).  In this house,  I had a dance floor and a working disco ball (hooked it up to a light switch) in the living room.  We would dance in there and we gave lessons to our friends.  Once upon a time at Camp Enchantment - a certain camper knew that Tara liked me because

she took the hat you see in this picture, and wore it.

 

Here is her 25th Birthday. She loved this place called Q-Bar in Downtown Albuquerque.  Her favorite local band - Vanilla Pop often plays there and she loves to dance.  She has got MOVES son.

 26th B-Day - we went to Q-Bar again and danced the night away.  All our friends were there and it was a BLAST!

For her 27th B-Day I had a big surprise planned.    We rented a big Hummer Limo and piled in with 20 of our closest friends for an evening of fun, laughter, partying and dancing.  All your Aunties and Uncles were there - Even your Grandma joined us on this little escapade!

For her 28th Birthday, I'm sorry to say that your Dad totally dropped the ball.  Son - Birthdays are THAT important.  They are the day someone first came into this world.  Never forget this and always make them as big and wonderful as you possibly can.

Your mother is an incredible adventurer and loves doing new things.  We have traveled the world over and have no plans to stop.  Here are a few pictures from rock climbing in Thailand.  You gotta admit, you come from good genes.

 When we were in Australia, we bought a Camper Van and lived in it for 3 months.  During that time, with what I can only describe as pure nerves of steel and grit, your Mother showered in cold water showers on the beach (they were free) AND kept her legs shaved.  Assuming you have not developed an affinity for Russian Girls (ask me about this if you haven't already) you'll know that is no small feat.

 

Here we are playing around at the 12 apostles in Southern Australia.

Tara is transforming the inside of our van.  We redid the entire interior.  Here she is putting in new carpet.  She also re-did the upholstery and made blinds to match!

This is what our van looked like when it was done.  We sold it and headed off to New Zealand where we lived in a luxury Camper Van with a shower and HOT WATER!  After those three months in Oz, I promised her she would never again have to shower in cold water.









 Here we are in New Zealand.  We are at the most southern point in the world!  You'll notice the difference in our attire.  There has always been a dance of 'temperatures' between us.  It's all my fault of course,  for some reason I'm always hot.

A man, in the middle of Brussels, that has been to Albuquerque.  What are the chances?!  He knows about our Green Chile (and even how to spell it)!  Your Mother is a charmer and they had a lovely little conversation while she waited for her chocolate waffle.

Boating in Prague, which was easily one of our most favorite cities in Europe.  We enjoyed our time together and spent the day on a "peddle boat" in the river

Auschwitz.  Your Mother is a very spiritual person. We came here because it was someplace she wanted to visit ever since she was a little girl.  Her compassion knows no limits.

 Both of these pictures were taken in The Philippines. There we enjoyed the warm ocean, lived on an island and ate the most delicious sea foods.

Japan and the Cherry Blossoms.  We visited Japan in March when the whole country was in bloom.

 

Paris - France.  She is so beautiful.  The wind caught her hair just as we were crossing an old cobble stone street.  I capture the moment and she was totally unaware.

Singapore - We had such a blast in Singapore.  We visited the beautiful botanical gardens, the Zoo, and in what was pure joy for your Mom, she was able to feed the sea manatees!  I of course loved that too, watching her squeal as she plopped fish into its mouth was a brilliantly good time.

 moo

 Still in Singapore - we went on a bike tour together.

Vietnam - We were far off the beaten path on an 1100KM motorcycle trip. Your Mum got Cholera and she rode on the back of a motorcycle for 8 hours a day...in the middle of nowhere and still had the energy to teach the local kids how to play Basketball. 

 Havin' fun on a snowboarding trip.  Your Mom learned how to turn in 1/2 a day!  I was so impressed.  She also introduced me to the joys of relaxing and kicking back to a nice long cup of hot chocolate.

These pictures are from Valentine's Day 2010.  We went snowshoeing up in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The picture of us below was on our romantic dinner that evening.  By day she is an avid adventurer...by night she is a mysterious and elusive beauty.  It is one of the things I cherish most.  Not only does she get her hands dirty, she is also stunning and beautiful

 

Here we are with Lucy and Ramble.  This was their first Christmas with us as big dogs and we spent it in Old Town.  I told everyone we met that they were "Santa's Dogs" and that we were watching them for the evening while he worked.  As you know, he hasn't got time to take care of doggies on Christmas Eve!

 This picture is from visiting your Auntie Kaiti in 2010.  Aside from your beautiful Mother, the thing I remember most was landing in Arizona at 10:00p.m. and it STILL BEING 105 DEGREES. OMFGGG.

Declan - we love you so much.  Your Mother is simply the most amazing person I have ever met.  I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to have her as my best friend, wife and lover.  I am already so proud of you.  Tara - from the bottom of my heart I am so so sorry about the PB&J and my many retarded moments.  Thank you for loving me and being such a wonderful wife.  I love you to the stars.

Your Mother sitting under Maple Trees in Madison Wisconsin after gathering Maple leaves.  

One of my all time favorites