When my son Max graduated from high school, Jen (Max’s mom) suggested that it would be nice to put together a little video compiling some of our favorite photos and home movie excerpts from his 18 years of life. (All of my ridiculous projects begin in this same way, with the best of intentions…) It quickly spiraled out of control when I realized that we had hours and hours of video that I hadn’t watched in years, and of course none of it had been digitized. Add to that the thousands of photos Jen and I had amassed over (nearly) two decades, and I had a daunting project ahead of me.

After much cross-country exchange of aging videotapes and manila envelopes stuffed with undated photos, Jen and I pared Mr. Maximum’s eventful life down to 30 minutes of highlights, complete with music. Luckily, Max was happy with the result, and it made lots of people cry and stuff, so I guess all those hours slaving over a hot video monitor were not in vain.

We love you, Max!

Post Script: Inevitably, some good stuff wound up on the (metaphorical) cutting room floor. So here’s a kind of an “outtakes” video, for Max Toews completists (and parents) only.