Christmas 2008

We spent Christmas with Yannie's family in New Jersey this year. Christmas eve is always a big event with lots of people coming and going. Diana put on a huge spread of food and we had some good laughs over mixing drinks. It was nice to visit with all the family and friends. Christmas day took place at Yannie's parent's house with Yannie Sr., Diana, Demi, Yannie and Liza. (and the dogs, of course!)





Diana with the dogs, Buddy & Ali


Ali's cute little legs.


On Christmas evening, we went to Yannie's cousin Taki's house and then to his cousin Stergios house. Here are some photos from the visits.

Yannie and Demi with their godson, Niki


Yannie has a very musical family, so there was plenty of instrument playing with the kids.
Gabriella watched while Yannie and Ana played the new organ at Taki and Angie's house. Even at her young age, Taso's daughter was already an expert at Guitar hero.


We then drove to Yannie's cousin Stergios & Christine's house to visit with more family. We got there just in time for their son Jack's birthday cake.


Liza taught Despina's daughters to braid hair, so they spent much of the evening practicing on Liza's long hair. Here are pictures of the girls, Eleni and Vassiliki.

Passion & Profession

In Early October, Liza attended (and helped to setup) a weekend retreat in Williams Bay, Wisconsin for photographers. Here are some of her shots from a shooting portion
of the weekend.

Passion & Profession is a fun and informative weekend that brings together three successful photographer professionals with a group of photographers and students. It's a great opportunity for learning, gaining inspiration, and getting feedback on work.



With Liza out of town, Yannie's friend Mike from New Jersey made his annual trip to Chicago. They didn't take any photos, but hit the party scene and biked around the city.

Labor Day Weekend - Tiling & Soccer

Over Labor Day weekend, Yannie Sr. came to visit. He helped us put up our tile backsplash and kick guard in the kitchen/dining area. We chose a yellow onyx to go with the granite countertops.


After all the hard work, we went to Katerina's restaurant to have some Greek food and hear the live Greek band that plays the first Friday of each month.

The rest of the weekend was the Greek Soccer tournament put on by GreekSoccer.com
Yannie played for two teams, so he was busy for most of the weekend. Liza did some photography for the tournament. Yannie Sr. relaxed in the sun, watched some soccer, and was Liza's photo assistant.


Here's a couple shots from the games.

Fishtank - Finished!

The fishtank stand is finally done! After weeks of work, Yannie finished the stand.

We'll be posting the images of the tank with fish in it soon.

Fishtank - Staining

Following our trip out east, Yannie was back to work on the fishtank stand. We moved it inside for the staining portion and slept in the living room to avoid the stain fumes.

Here are some photos of his progress.

Glouchester, Massachusetts & Joel's Wedding

On Friday, we drove down to Glouchester, Massechusetts for Liza's cousin Joel's wedding. We didn't take many photos at the wedding, but here's Ariel and Beth at the reception.


Galen on the beach.


We stayed in a little motel right on the beach. It was a funky little place, but great location.





At midday, a rainstorm hit. Everyone left the beach except for this group of people with their brightly colored umbrellas. It was a beautiful scene with the stormy sky over the ocean and a small grouping of umbrellas alone on the beach.


That evening, we went into town to walk around the small shops of the quaint fishing village and had dinner at the local Mexican restaurant.

Maine - Tumbledown Mountain

We spent Wednesday hiking Tumbledown mountain. After a little driving around trying to remember where the entrance to the trail we wanted was, we started our hike up the mountain.

Here's Liza and Shine contemplating the more difficult part of the climb ahead. We chose to take the closed trail up the left side of the mountain for a little adventure. We had the trail all to ourselves! (you'll soon see why)






About 3/4 of the way up the mountain, we hit an old rock fall where a big boulder, at some point, had rolled into the trail. We could see where the trail once led and a metal ladder had been drilled into the rock. The ladder was crushed and no longer usable as rocks blocked the path. There are only two ways beyond this point. One can either squeeze through a small, damp opening about ten feet above trail level (if you can climb up without slipping), or rock climb up around the big boulder. Shine was well prepared with a rope and caribeeners, so we, one by one, scaled the side of Tumbledown (or a small portion of it, anyway). It was Yannie's first rock climbing experience.

Here, Yannie waits for Beth to climb up with the lead rope so that she can tie in and belay from the top.




Yannie's first climbing experience.


Shine's turn.


We finally made it to the top for lunch and a chance to relax in the sun.