The Haps

I haven't posted in a while. Just going to quickly recap what we've been up to.

For three days last month we had film crews in our house as they shot us for their documentary on homeschooling. It was a bit strange at first to have them in our home and have the big lights and microphones around, but it didn't take long until we were used to it and we just acted normal. 

They will come every month or two over the course of the next year until they have what they feel like is a good story.

Todd is now a published illustrator. His first book was released this month. I couldn't be more proud of him for this. He's currently working on the cover for book two. It's a fun project for us to work on together. I act as his art director for all his freelance stuff and make sure he's following directions, meeting deadlines, etc.

One of Tod's favorite artists (Syd Mead) had an exhibit at a local museum so we went to check it out. Tod was in heaven. I had seen it already, but didn't really understand the magic in the art until I went with Tod and saw him get all excited and explain to me what he loved about it.

We went to Disneyland with Matt & Chalene. Lily is our little goofball.

Tod and I went on a whale watching cruise. This is our second cruise. We always time them poorly. It's the end of grey whale season and beginning of blue and consequently we didn't see much. I did, however, discover why pirates wear their hair under cover like this.

Here's the biggest excitement from the cruise...a mother and calf blowing their spouts. I guess that is pretty cool. We love being out on the ocean. One of these days we'll see the whale migration in all it's glory.

One day while dropping Tod off at the train station, I took a little detour to see the famous Watts Towers. I've always been curious about them. They didn't disappoint. Right in the middle of the ghetto you find this fantastic artwork.

Film crews will be back next week for round two of shooting. Guess I'll go clean my house now...

Palm Springs(ish)

The fine fellows at Tod's work thought that they'd do something nice for us since Tod has been working 60-70 hours/wk for the past few months. It's been nuts. Seriously.  One of the dudes he works with has a vacation home in Palm Springs. Well, to be accurate, it's his parent's home and it's in La Quinta, just past PS. 

But for this shot, just pretend I'm in Barcelona.

The home we stayed in was very nice. Here is cute Tod critiquing the art.

The hot tub and pool. Note the golf course in the back yard. An Arnold Palmer course. Too bad we think golf is dumb.

 

La Quinta has a charming little quarter called Old Town. In Old Town we ate at Hog's Breath Inn, but we chose to call it The Stumpy Borehound. That is a tavern in the book Tod just finished illustrating.  We had the most divine artichoke soup here. Who knew you could make a soup from artichoke!?

The fellows who funded this trip sent us spending money. We used it to eat some yummy food and get massages and pedicures. This was Tod's first. He really enjoyed the feet soaking part and the massaging chair part...

....and he hated the rest....

 Way too ticklish for his sensitive little tootsies.

He got me these SO cute earrings. FYI, I don't intend to wear these together, I have 2 of each.

We were there on Easter and Tod snuck out at 6 am and made me a lovely breakfast complete with a sweet note and a lily.  

And then he sent me on an egg hunt. Each "egg" was in one of these bowls he'd seen me eying the day before. Aren't they cute? He's such a keeper!

Great mini vacation. And until we can make it back to Barcelona, it will have to suffice. :)

A bit behind...

Random events from the past couple months. 

Ana and Lily took an archery class. The instructor is a 3 x Olympian. They enjoyed this more than I expected them to. Probably because they both love The Hunger Games.

 

Randomly before Lily took a shot I told her that if she got a bulls eye I'd buy her an ice cream cone. Then all the kids there started bartering with their mothers to get them something if they shot the dead middle of the target. Ana's wish was for 2 rats. She's been begging me for to let her get pet rats for some time. I always respond with an enthusiastic NO! I had a moment where I considered saying yes, since the likelihood of her hitting her mark was pretty low on her first day. Glad I didn't!!

One of our favorite bands over the past couple years has been fun. They just released their second album and they played an in-store event near us the night the album came out. We went. I was so glad we didn't have to worry about it being a school night. It was fun to jam out with Ana & Lily in tow.

We were pretty darn close to the band.

Afterward we stood in line to get the band's signatures on our fun. posters. I made Lily try this hat on in the record store. She wasn't as entertained by it as I was. 

 

It was a long line, but we finally got to say hi to the band and chat for a few seconds. Woohoo! 

And Lily was in Pirates of Penzance. She played the part of the flirty, pirate-crazy daughter of the Modern Major General.

Pirates is over now and Lily has moved away from our local drama group to a more professional playhouse. She's in a musical called Greece! The Musical. It is about Greek Gods and Lily plays the part of Echo. Ana is in another ES Senior Drama production. It's a comedy called Fools! She plays the part of a shoes maker. Not a shoemaker, a shoeS maker. It's pointless to make one shoe so she is a shoes maker. 

More randomness coming soon.

Big Sky

It was a long time coming. Twelve years, in fact. And long overdue. This is why we decided to make the thousand mile trek to Montana when my parents resurrected the Big Sky trip. 

Los Angeles is a long way from Big Sky. It took a lot of leg work to get us there. We first flew into SLC, where Ana met up with her old buddies.

And I met up with my old buddy. And her new buddy. Well, he's not new to her, just me. It was the first time I met Natalie's beau. We ate at Yellowfinn, hoping to run into Susan. She wasn't there, but Greg was a nice second.

Our time together was too short. Always too short. But very sweet.

Don't tell the Highway Patrol that we seriously had that many kids squished in Natalie's back seat.

Luckily, we were able to hitch a ride from Utah to Rexburg because Grandma & Grandpa Z were in town that weekend. Their house was demolished due to a remodel, so we all had to cram into one bathroom. I caught this very glamorous shot of Mary. This is the secret to fantastic hair....a plethora of round brushes.

We spent lots of time at RMC. Les & Mitch showed up in town on the day we were headed up to Big Sky. Here Lily & Ella are demonstrating their butt dance.

We finally hit the road for Montana and had to have our ritual stop at The Gusher in West Yellowstone for pizza. They make a mean pie.

We finally made it. And it was glorious to see it again. We used to go every winter with all our friends from Rexburg. Had many fun times and made many memories up there. It was really great to be back.

Leslie & Ana on the ski lift. It had been a while since we had been skiing, but Ana picked it right back up.

Lily picked it up too, only maybe she was a little too confident. She sufficiently endo'd on her first run and hurt her wrist. Thank goodness for that helmet because she banged her head pretty hard. She was in a lot of pain the rest of the trip (still is 3 weeks later), but she suffered through it because she couldn't bear to miss out on the fun. We had to spend a while in the first aid office getting all splintered up.

There was a lot of hopping back and forth between the hot tub and snow drifts. Can you take a moment to observe the beautiful view from our lodgings?

Les had a birthday while we were there. Of course Mother Mary had to bring back the white board. Inside joke from a decade or two ago...

Some sista time

Tod had a gnarly adventure getting to Montana. He had stayed behind to work, but was flying up just for the weekend. He had a little snag at the airport, though, and wasn't able to get up there until the following day. He had never been on a snowboard before, but enthusiastically rented one and jumped on it completely oblivious to the difficulties of learning this sport. The guys in the rental shop were onto his oblivion, though, and graciously threw in a helmet and wrist guards free of charge.

He actually did incredible. Snowboarding is pretty hard to pick up, but he did really well on his first run. So well, in fact, that I encouraged him to do what many newbies don't attempt for their first year or two...toe side edge. It was mean and cruel of me I realize now. Todd caught an edge and did a number on his leg. A massive bruise developed and it has slowly moved to basically every part of his leg. Nomadic bruises. Who knew?! He's still limping 3 weeks later. He's such a trooper, though. Complains of nothing and just smiles through everything. I've got a pretty adorable husband and kids.

We stopped in at RMC again on our way back into town. Tod couldn't resist "playing" the decorations. Turns out that vase makes a great whale noise. :)