My Hero......

......... my grandpa.

I've come to realize that while you can have many people that you look up to in your life, there is only a select few that you can admire enough to call a hero. My parents are two of those people, but my grandparents were the rest. Unfortunately, I have only one living grandparent left, and I thank God that I am now old (and I suppose wise) enough to value each and every moment I have with him. My grandpa Joe is 91 years old, and still as strong as an ox. He was tough as nails when my father was growing up, and though I'm sure he still could be today if he wanted, he is one of the biggest softies in the world when it comes to me. (Yes, I'll admit, I was ALWAYS grandpa Joe's girl.)

Every year my dad, grandpa, twin sister and I all have contests to see whose garden grows the best tomatoes, and every year our tall tales get bigger... i.e.: "Grandpa, the Army ROTC just got called in! My tomatoes are getting so big they thought it was a terrorist threat!" Yea, it's bad.

I love him more than I can say, and have been on a drive lately to get photos that I can keep for generations. So, at our New Years dinner, I got him to appease me for a bit (and we have another coming up soon I've assured him). He loved it, and even gave me some 'mafia' poses. I had to share them.

I'm baaaaaaccckkk!

Whew! It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me - hence no word from me on the blog - and I've LOVED it! First, Christmas and New Years have both come and gone. I always have mixed feelings at the end of all of the celebrations. Sad that everything is over, but excited and ready for a new year to start!

This year, my family... and I have a large one... all bundled up for a trip to the airport just after New Years, to head to sunny Miami. That's right, everyone, except for my eldest brother, was able to come. That means my mom and dad lead a group containing, my sisters, Margaux and Nathalie, two of my brothers, Zachary and Jason, my nephew and niece, Hayden and Aixa, and Nathalie's and my boyfriends, Jon and Joe, were all piled up in vehicles and airplanes on our way to paradise like weather. With such a large group, traveling was more like herding a group of cattle, but it was well worth it. The beaches were gorgeous, we got to visit the Keys, we did some deep sea fishing, and we bartered with came away from long swings through jellyfish seemingly unscathed (yes, we knew the jelly fish were there, but I also come from a family of competitive swimmers that simply can't pass up dares to swim a quarter of a mile each way to simply touch a bouy marking the no wake zones).

The only negative to the trip.... my camera's and lenses decided to take a suicide dive out of camera backpack in the middle of Miami International, right onto concrete. Thank goodness I had shot all appointments before leaving. Only bad thing.... I have the three recepients of the Shutters 'Giving is Awesome' Holiday photo giveaway to schedule.

Oh... and yes, I said THREE RECEPIENTS! I couldn't decide on just one winner, as so many great stories came in. So, three deserving families will now be recieving a great gift, thanks to their friends, familiy members, etc, that nominated them.

In between all of this (and before my cameras' fateful 'temporary deaths'), I did get a bit of time to squeez in some photos. So, keep watching, I'll be posting them soon!