Beach Day

It has been so hot this week! The beach was the perfect escape. Well, as long as we stayed under the umbrella or stuck our feet in the cold ocean water. Reese discovered she likes sand. Particularly the wet sand down by the water. It was the only sand she ate. It was so fun watching her crawl around on the wet sand after the wave would rescind. Then as a wave would come, I would pick her up and dip her feet in the water. She would kick her legs excitedly and was not bothered by the cold temperature one bit.

After a wonderful afternoon at the beach, the ride home was not so enjoyable. It was just Reese and I in the car. I thought it was the perfect time to leave because she would fall asleep on the way and we would almost be home when she woke up. After checking the traffic on my phone, I decided to take the 105 to the 710. Well, after getting off the 105 I came to a complete stop. The 710 was dead locked. Of course when I stopped, Reese woke up. She was not happy that the sun was in her eyes and she was getting hungry. I checked my phone again and the entire 710 was RED. There was a car accident and the freeway was reduced to ONE lane. It took forever to get to the next exit after merging on and Reese was bawling. Apparently everyone else wanted to get off the 710 and go up side roads as well, so we were still creeping along.  I knew I needed to pull over and nurse Reese, but the neighborhood seemed so sketchy. There were bars on windows, homeless people walking the streets, and no public parking lots. I felt bad making Reese wait even longer, but I thought it best to drive a little further to find a parking lot. We ended up in the parking lot of Toys R Us and Starbucks. Reese was absolutely thrilled to get out of the carseat and eat. Unfortunately, I put her right back in the carseat because we still had a long way to get home. She continued to cry most of the way home, but found some comfort in holding my hand and listening to me sing. She about had a come apart when I had to drive with both hands.

Long story short, we left El Porto beach at 3:30pm and arrived home at 6:00pm. Given the fact that it only took us 35 minutes to get there, it was a joke! At least we made it home safe and sound.

Mormon Dodger Night-

We spent Friday night at the Dodger game, along with Mormons from all over the Southland.  'Twas an enjoyable evening of Dodger Dogs, Nachos and more conversation with our friends than actually watching the game (though can you blame us? the Dodgers stink right now).



Our chauffers for the night, the Phillip's.  Our night started off great, no traffic (we are only 5 minutes from the stadium anways), and as we were pulling up to the parking booth the car next to us offered us a preffered parking pass... for FREE!!! Yes, please and thank you (the less money we can give McCourt the better, I already paid way more than I had to for the tickets). The little guy had on a sweet Ethier onesie, sandly he blew right out of it, see next..



Cassy asked to hold Jordan, and as soon as he sat on her lap he proceeding to relive himself of his previous meal (or two).  Unfortunatley for Cassy the diaper was no match for "the explosion of the night" and, well, you can kinda see the ramifications (post clean-up).  She was a very good sport about the incident, and we all had a good laugh.  



Yes, we were WAAAAYYY up there, row JJ is exactly the top row of the reserve section. We figured that we were above to top of the foul poles, but the railing behind the seats provided a nice head rest and we could stand up without concern for anyone's view being obstructed.



From our penthouse seats we had a great view of the parking lots, which were basically empty. This picture shows only one big lot that wasn't even ever opened for people to park in (there were others, also).  Obviously this shows that people just aren't going to the games.  No one wants to go and support Frank McCourt, and for good reason (dude is more than dumb, and I'll leave it at that).  I'm in the 'no support' club, which is why we haven't been to more games.  If I could be guaranteed a free preffered parking pass every time I went I'd be more willing to buy the $1 ticket on Stub Hub (seriously though, we can get tickets for $1, McCourt you're a disgrace). 



World Cup Notes...

So, around the 80th minute of the match, while Blair was painting her toenails we had this conversation:Blair: "I want a shootout"
Me: "So, you want Japan to score?"
Blair: "No, I want a shootout"
Me: "Well, we are winning, so Japan has to score before we can have a shootout"
Blair: "OH NO! Nevermind, I don't want them to score, I want us to just win, I forgot we were ahead"

It was the next minute (the 81st) when Japan scored their first goal, so Blair jinxed the first goal, you can blame her. 

Then, in the second OT, after Hope crashed into her own player and Japan was setting up for the corner kick, I said: "They better not score on this corner, because Solo is hurt now and we'll lose if this goes to PK's" Probably 10 seconds later Japan scored and Blair exclaimed "You jinxed it!! I'll take the blame for the first one but the second one was all your fault!"

As we went on to see Solo's injury wasn't much of a factor in PK's, since we couldn't put the ball in  a decent spot on goal (kinda the story of the whole game). I'm calling it a choke job. 

Another thing, Ian Darke seems like a knowledgable announcer but maybe he should recognize he's not announcing the game to a bunch of Brits.  Lose some of the British slang phrases, and adopt a couple American phrases, Thanks.

And one more, Paraguay was playing Brazil in the Men's Copa America (currently in PK's and Brazil is choking) at the same time as the Women's World Cup Final (I was flipping back and forth between the 2).  I wonder what would have happened had Brazil's Womens Team made the WC final.  What game would the country watch, or would they alter the times of the games, (I imagine they were kind of pre set), I can't imagine they would want both teams playing at the same time.  It didn't happen, so it doesn't really matter, just thinking out loud. And
.
.
.
.
.
.
GANA PARAGUUUUUUAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! Brazil makes exactly 0 PK's and Paraguay advances in the Copa America... and my mood has done a 180 (I am officially over the women's loss). Aguanta Paraguay!!!!!!

Carmageddon... Yes please!

So, the 405 (or a 10 mile stretch of the 405) has shut down for the weekend.  We've been hearing about this for at least a month now, on the news, at shool/work, and on signs flashing on every freeway up and down the west coast (reportedly people in Oregon were told not to travel south this weekend).  For us, this wasn't really much of a concern since we don't really go to west LA very often (even less to 'the valley'), so the advice to stay inside or 'stay in your neck of the woods' wasn't going to be an issue for us.  But of course, Blair's doctor's appointment gets scheduled for ... July 16, the 1st day of Carmageddon, and I have an Ayuda dental clinic in Tustin, so I can't go with her.  Needless to say, she was excited to attack Carmageddon on her own, "NOT'.  She had to be at the Dr. office between 8 and 10 AM, so she had planned on leaving around 7:30, so I sent her a text at around 9:30, and her response was "The best I have ever seen:) it needs to be Carmageddon all the time!"  So it is safe to say the general public stayed home and off the roads, and Blair had a very easy trip to West LA. 

Espana pequena

We had our first taste of Spanish food yesterday. We enjoyed the Patatas Bravas, but the Paella not so much, but it was a fun experience. We all got a free flan and Daisy showed us how we are suppose to eat it, although this flan wasn't quite as inhalable as we'd hoped...

(and the video doesn't seem to want to work, lucky you Daisy)

It was way better than my attempt!!
Now I have finally updated the blog.

Thanksgiving trip to STG.

Since Blair has actually started to post a few things, I must clarify that this is not Blair making this one. And onward we go with some pictures of trip over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Here is Joely (cousin), Debbi (Blair's Mom), Blair, and Amber (sister) getting

ready for their Black Friday adventures (on Thursday night).

Friday was our day on the lake; glass and a dry suit led to Blair having

her best winter surfing experience to date.

I tried out my wet suit in the lake (51*, not too much coolder than the ocean), and it did the trick. Also giving me the freedom to complete another 360; its been a while.

The outside temp was 44*, but luckily there was no wind so we survived. And only my

dad and Troy were with us so it was a quick trip. Well worth it.

It was kinda weird to be back to the place we've called home for so long, and be visiting, or vacationing. Our trip was cut a little short since we came back Saturday morn, only to watch USC blow it against Notre D@me , (we still got your back RoJo). But we beat UCLA, so all is not lost. Fight On!

Date Night @ D-land

One thing that we have loved about living in Southern California is going to Disneyland! We bought annual passes and have already used them multiple times. We decided to go to the happiest place on earth last night, thinking the cool weather might keep some people away.

This is Tyler and I rockin the Captain EO glasses. This 3-D video was brought back to Disneyland as a tribute to Micheal Jackson. They still use the same video that they made in 80's.

There was absolutely no line at Splash Mountain. I guess not a lot of people want to enjoy this ride at 9:00 at night. I have to say that this ride is a lot more fun when it is dark outside.

It was fun to see all the Christmas lights that were up. I especially liked seeing the castle.