Those Millennials! Thomas and Rachel

Thomas and Rachel- two awesome millennials. Thomas is our 25 year old son. He is pictured here with his lovely longtime girlfriend, Rachel. I promised myself I’d write a blog for each of my kids eventually, so this one focuses on Thomas. Of our three kids, Thomas is the most difficult to get in front of my camera, so I snuck some pictures in of he and Rachel recently while taking head shots of Rachel for her new job.

Let me tell you a bit about Thomas. He was always out of the mainstream, the original hipster. He would bite kids in preschool just to say hello, he teased his 5th grade teacher, Mr. Nelson, relentlessly, and as a teen became an expert in spinning poi and fire (gulp), and is still invited onto stages to perform today.

Thomas spinning poi in my studio in 2010

At one point, he refused to wear jeans, instead coming up with the weirdest Goodwill outfits I’ve ever seen. Eternally in a knit hat, scarf and multiple layers of clothing,his outfits were always completed with a funky coat of some kind.

Yes, he attended multiple shows and who knows what kind of trouble he got into during those later teenage years. He was always very mysterious about his activities to his parents, of course.

In his early 20’s, he also would hang out with my scientist in-laws and they eventually sent him to California to present a scientific paper they’d all three collaborated on. He was one of the youngest presenters there, and the only one without a college degree (as yet) to present this paper to an international forum of scientists. It was just the start for him though. After two internships and a college degree from the University of Washington, he has chosen to accept a job in emerging technology at the Starbucks Corporate in Seattle.

Smart and funny, maybe those piles of books I read to him as a youngster paid off?

So here are a few more fun photos of this amazing young couple: