Luke's baptism

Katie's dad (who performed the baptism) with Katie, Luke and Eric.Cute when he's not crying.... Me, not the baby!Luke pretty much slept through the whole thing.

Surprise visit to Orlando

We took a quick trip to Orlando to surprise Eric for a birthday visit. We stayed over and had fun playing with Luke!


Happy boy!

Happiness is dad's shoulder.

Our baby missed us while we were gone!

Going back to Cali

Beth and I visited my brother Don and Vivian before heading up to Sonoma to stock the wine cellar (and so I could cover the Schwab Cup Championship)

My big brother listens intently to a witty anecdote or two after dinner.

My niece Brenna

And then off to wine country!

The cable car ride to Sterling vinyards

Beth and Lori Adams enjoy a tasting while I trudge around the golf course.

Yes, I did manage to get a little time to visit a few tasting rooms!

She knows the routine!

Silver Oak... Good stuff!

Just give it a few years...

Looks just like the label!

Bring on the wine and cheese.

Tasting menu.

I should do catalog work.

How cool would this be in the back yard?

To top it off, Beth got to deliver a birthday cake to Dave Marr of the Golf Channel during the broadcast on Saturday!

Houston and the Celluras!

We visited our friends Jeff and Susan in The Woodlands TX while I covered the Administaff Champions Tour event. We haven't seen them in a while and we finally got to meet their beautiful daughter Emily!

Chef Jeff creates a masterpiece in the kitchen.

Assistant chef Emily!
Susan and Emily.

Sippy cups rule!

Jeff explains the finer points of his single malt scotch collection
We needed sippy cups of our own!

Bonaire vacation!

Ahhh, vacation! The beautiful island of Bonaire was our destination yet again. This was our third visit and we just can't get enough of this tiny speck of land in the Carribbean. If you're not familiar, Bonaire lies just north of Venezuela next to Curacao and Aruba. If you don't scuba dive or windsurf, you've probably never heard of it. Not much else to do there...

The diving is phenominal! No boats necessary as the reef is just off the beach, and the calm waters of the leeward side make it a breeze to enter the water. All you need is a truck, some extra tanks, a little snack and you have a great day of diving ahead of you. All the dive sites (and there are many!) are marked along the road with a yellow rock with the name of the site. If there are too many people at one, just drive on to the next. You can make your own schedule. Our condo was right above the dive shop, and one of the best reefs on the island was feet from our door. We encountered a host of sea creatures including turtles, eels, seahorse, tarpon, shrimp, octopus, flounder and a million tropical reef fish. All of these photos including the underwater shots were taken with our new Fuji F30 point & shoot and it's way cool u-w housing.

Click on the pics for a bigger preview.

Arrival, sunsets and the pier outside our condo. Pool's open!

The coolest little critter we saw all week!

A view down the beach from the condo and Beth making friends with the locals.

Mirror portrait and some cool sea life. (Beth does a great turtle impression!)

More fun on the reef. Flounder, tarpon, shrimp and a hungry
tropical who wanted to eat my fin!

Scorpion fish (Great disguise!), green moray eel, spotted moray

A few scenes above water. The Willemstoren lighthouse and old keepers quarters, a white slave hut near the salt works, pylon on the beach, Main St. in Kralendijk and another view of the shore near our condo.

Cool breeze in the palms, boats on the water, us underneath. When can we go back?!

Luke has arrived!

The latest addition to our extended family arrived last week... My godson, Luke Ryan Wiltse was born on Aug 24th.
His dad Eric, has been one of my best friends since we were both teenagers who relocated to Florida from "up north". I can't believe he's a dad now!
Beth and I are very close to he and his lovely wife Katie and we are so happy for them! Luke is a beautiful baby and we are looking forward to watching him grow. I guess he'll be splitting blog time with our "kids" Shelby, Tigger, Bailey and Indigo!