The Brookston Family Blog
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Here’s the first batch of humorous Sarah photos.

Getting friendly with a chipmunk at Disneyland.

Ballroom Dancing for Halloween.

Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman.

Grrl Power, with Shmare and Zenobia at Eagle Lake by Lake Tahoe.

Maniacal Evil Genius cooking.

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Over the years, Sarah and I have taken a lot of self-portraits, holding the camera out in front of us and turning it on ourselves. Here are a few of them.

This was on one of our first dates.

I’m not sure when or where this one was taken.

Or this one, either.

This was taken on our way back from a weekend camping trip, and neither of us had showered for days. We stopped next to a farmer’s field of some kind of grass and shot this photo.

And this was taken this morning before Sarah left for work. Notice any differences between us now and the other pictures?

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Okay, I admit a certain bias on this one. I fell I love with Sarah’s smile the first time I laid eyes on her. Of course, the short herringbone skirt didn’t hurt. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge — a nod’s as good as wink to blind bat. Here’s some photos of Sarah alone. See if you don’t find her as beautiful as I do.

Camping and hiking with an old friend of hers in Death Valley.

On our honeymoon in Vancouver, staying at the hostel from hell.

Camping, showing off her bemused smirk.

As a bridesmaid at her friend Fifi’s wedding.

Showing why bridesmaids almost always get lucky at wedding receptions.

PART

Sarah and I met a dozen years ago, and have been married for ten of them. Here are some random shots of the two of us during the first five years or so.

At a New Year’s Eve dinner with friends.

Looking a little fried, not sure where. The Smiths, perhaps?

In DC for the impeachment hearings.

God, we look young in this picture.

Camping in Yosemite with our good friends we rarely see these days, Karen and Mike.

At Sarah’s graduation from law school.

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Everywhere Sarah went in England and Scotland, there seemed to be a sign with her name on it. Here are a few of them.

On Terraces.

At train stations.

At the hilariously named Gobble ‘N’ Go.

At a toy store.

A Hooch getting hooched.

My Love under the famous LOVE statue in Philadelphia, with the Museum of Art way in the background.

Today is my beloved’s birthday, now squarely in her mid-thirties. I’ll be torturing her all day today with photos, and here is where we’ll start, with some earlier photos from her youth. Join me in wishing Sarah a very happy birthday!

Sarah rides her new big wheel she got for Christmas.

I’m not sure when this was taken but it was a while ago, that’s for sure. I just love that thoughtful chin on fist pose Sarah’s adopted for this family portrait.
Top row; Sarah’s grandfather Pappy and little brother Dave. Bottom row; sister Margaret, grandmother Pinky, Sarah and her mom Rutheanne.

Oh, the 80’s. Sarah channeling Madonna at her brother Tucker’s graduation from Pepperdine. It’s funny to see Tuck again with hair, too.

As Alice in Wonderland for Halloween.

Another new do, the late 80s, perhaps early 90s?

Sarah’s swim team photo, from high school? Love the hair!

Since Porter insisted on a Superman theme for his party, the piñata was Superman’s torso. It felt somewhat strange that the object of the game was to beat the image of a person, albeit a superhuman one. Still, the kids were smacking a paper mâché person with a stick as hard as they could. If that’s not surreal, I donn’t know what is.

John and Zenobia’s daughter Samira taking a whack at Superman.

Alice, with Sarah’s help, tries to hit the Man of Steel.

Then Porter tried to hit him from behind.

Then as he spun around, he whacked across the face.

Superman’s superhuman strength proved too much for the kids and we had to pull the string to begin the mad scramble for the prizes inside.

Porter even managed to fill his bag.

Since there have already been literally hundreds of pictures of Porter on the blog, these are earlier photos of him taken before we had a digital camera and thus not seen very often since they were first taken. This first batch is from when he was a baby.

A chubby Porter with my happy apple.

Sarah and Porter celebrating his first birthday.

Trying to eat a fish whole.

Look at those chubby legs. He looks like he has drumsticks.

Baby crack … the balloon.

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Now this is funny. Sexy Suzanne!

With that come hither stare.

What are you looking at.

Self-portrait of Suzanne and me at a Christmas party.

Hubba hubba. Suzanne and Sarah.

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Once upon a time, we had a lot of parties, a lot. And this is a partial record of some of them.

Way back when in San Jose.

A dancing menage a trois with Sarah and Sarah.

Earning a buck the hard way with Karen.

New Year’s Eve. From left: Kristine, Karen, Suzanne and Nikki.

Tailgating at the ‘Stick.

I think this was taken after a sweaty Labor Day of playing volleyball.

Lots of Gatorade, but the only thing I need specifically point out is Sarah and Karen kneeling in the foreground. What the hell is going on there?

PART These were taken a various Halloween parties over the years.

Me (as a ballrrom dancer), Michelle (as Thing 2) and Keith (as Ron Goldman0

Sarah and Keith.

Old man Keith.

Sally and old man Keith.

Today is our friend Keith’s birthday. He moved to England about ten years ago and settled there with Alex, his wife who is originally from there. We’ve only seen them a few times since and while we keep meaning to get over there for a visit, life has intruded and we haven’t made it yet. C’est la vie. Happy birthday Keith.

Muddy at Woodstock ‘94.

My favorite photograph of me and Keith. This was taken after a friend’s wedding reception. Neither of us actually smoke.

Me, Keith and Michelle at an old Christmas party.

This was taken on the morning of my bachelor party and Sarah’s bachelorette party. We all went co-ed, as it were, to the now defunct KQED Beer and Food Festival in San Francisco. Right after this photo was taken the guys and dolls separated to make their mischief separately for the remainder of the day.

Top row, from left sloping down: Sheldon, me, John C., Karen, Mike S. and Suzanne. Acoss the middle, from left: John Smith, Mark Leonard, Michelle, Sheldon, Jenny, Nikki and Suzanne again. Bottom row, all by herself: Sarah.

Call me “The Widower.” For the second week out of the last three or four, Sarah will gone almost the entire week traveling on business. She left early this morning for Virginia. Then it’s on to Florida and a meeting Friday morning in Arizona before heading home. Sheesh, I’m going to go stir crazy.