by Mike

In Indonesia, children are given names based on their birth order: First is Butuh, then Made, Nyoman and Ketut. Males are I, females are Mi, so a fourth male child is named, for example, I Ketut Ari. There is no family name. (more photos)

We had a portrait day, so we’re going to each post some of our favorite pictures of the other person.

I think it’s easy to find pictures of Azure because she’s often doing something like this:

But it’s not always like that. Here are some of my favorites from the little sunset photoshoot today.

I know it seems like we didn’t do a lot today, but we did. We drove all the way from our gite in Ota up to the north coast. We stopped in Calvi for lunch and found a place in Ile Rousse that we really like. We walked through the city and climbed up to the old tower. But in between, we took hundreds of photos of each other. Mike had more opportunities because I fell asleep on his lap on the boardwalk (Susan and Arnie, I almost have enough material for the calendar next year)(everyone else, Mike’s parents made a calendar of family members sleeping–Arnie and I made up the majority of the calendar).

Mike is hard to capture on film. When I try to take pictures of him, he gets really tense and either looks extremely militant or makes a really fake smile (see below)

or will have his eyes closed or something else equally unflattering…

I have taken some good ones of him throughout the trip though. I have learned that he sometimes looks normal if he is doing something else, or I can catch him off guard, or if he does his fake smile and I tease him (tub shot).

The side view has typically been the best for him, since he doesn’t have to look at the camera, but today I figured out a new trick. Get him talking about the things he likes best — scooters, riding scooters, Katie (the beagle next door to us in Seattle).

And of course, his all time favorite topic of the trip. You can’t tame it, but you can capture him saying it.

the H-A-W-K!