Best Friend Visit!!!!

We left our best friends behind when we left Utah. It was pure tragedy. Not long after, though, they moved to Montreal. They came to stay with us for a few days during the summer. 

We sat on the porch for a verrrrry long 30 minutes or so waiting for them to pull up. When they did it was mayhem and raucous. Reunions are the best!

Pure joy right there.

I had an arsenal of activities at the ready for their visit. It turned out, though, that all anyone really wanted to do was be together and we didn't do anything to fancy. Mostly hung around the house, but did go to the beach a couple times and had one big outing to the Science Center. 

Pure joy.

Desert counter at our nearby Whole Foods

One night the adults ditched the kids at home with pizza and a movie and we went out for dinner and desert. Laura (and her husband, who didn't happen to be on this trip) are fun to share culinary experiences with. They're so gastronomical!

The whole brood at Manhattan Beach

Pure joy!

We hadn't originally planned this, but while they were at our house, we decided to ride with them up to Utah. That was seriously the quickest 12 hour ride of our lives! It flew by because the kids were all so entertained by each other. Laura and I gabbed and gabbed. When we hit Vegas I was shocked because the drive was flying by. We could talk forever about our shared interests - nutrition, food, health care, education, etc. She's so great. I realized on this trip - more than ever - how much I enjoy her. She's so great. Wait I already said that.

While in Utah, we gathered up some friends and had a pool party at Little America. That place is so magical, even in my adult years I love to be at this pool.

We had to part ways with them in Utah. Saddest day.

Now we spend our days plotting how to get up to Montreal to see them again...

Summer

It's been for ever. Forgive me. Here's what we've been up to since I last posted.

Lily was in a show - Greece, the Musical! She played Echo, the cursed nymph. She couldn't speak her own words, just echo the words of others. She was fantastic.

 

Todd painted the set for the play. It was out of this world.

On the front side of the panel was this scene of The Acropolis.

It gets turned around during the show and on the back side is Mt. Olympus. It had lights installed into it and was amazing.

Here is a clip from the show. 

We try to celebrate Joan of Arc's feast day every year. We love Joan. Basically this means we eat yummy french food, say a few french words and watch some frenchish movie. This year it was haricots vertes (roasted green beans), crepes, ham sandwiches on baguette and the movie Chocolat (one of my faves).

We celebrated the 4th of July watching fireworks in Redondo Beach with the director of the film we're in.

I went to a great dinner party with my friend Ranjani and some friends from my dance class. She had this cool Japanese table, which is cute and interesting, but honestly, a little hard to enjoy a meal at...

Visited a nearby botanical garden.

Got to see some cousins

Visited the Cleopatra Exhibit at the Science Center for the 2nd time. Ana took a billion pics of artifacts, but this is my fave. 

 
Todd's kids were here for a while. They rode the train to work with Todd most of the days. The train in Los Angeles is a very interesting adventure! They all seemed to love it, though.

That's not nearly all, but this is all the blogging I can handle for now. More updates later!

Birthday Boy

 
Tod had a birthday recently and I wanted to get him away from home/work because it's really important for his brain to have a break from being creative every once in a while. He totally loves being creative, but it's mentally exhausting to have all these wild ideas bouncing around his brain and then being forced to come up with wild ideas for someone else and then having them tell him to change it and have it done by a certain deadline, etc. As his art manager, I try to schedule breaks into his busy life and also make sure he's constantly exposed to things that will inspire him. I love my job!!! ;)

He couldn't miss much work so we just took a quick over-nighter vacation. We left from Union Station in Los Angeles and rode The Surfliner up to Santa Barbara. The train ride was interesting. The first hour or so stretches through some pretty gritty and grimy parts of Los Angeles. Once we were out of the city, though, it was exhilarating. The train runs right next to the coast. It was Tod Heaven.

Just look at that view and proximity to the ocean!

Upon our arrival we ate a delicious meal and then stayed at a gorgeous hotel, which we had to walk to because we were carless, but SB is a great walking town and if it wasn't, the shuttle is only 25 cents. We also walked to the end of the gigantic wharf and smooched a little.

 
The next day we cruised over to the zoo. This might seem juvenile for a couple of grown ups, but as I mentioned previously, it's vital to keep Tod inspired and he happens to draw an inordinate amount of animals at work, so it really wasn't that bizarre for a couple of kidless adults to be cruising around the zoo. Toddles brought his sketch book and loved observing/drawing the crazy caged creatures.

Woah - gnarly ant eater! And who named that animal anyway? We don't call monkeys banana eaters...

These little dudes were hilarious.

So cute!

 
The SB Zoo offers giraffe feeding, which I couldn't resist - partially because I knew Ana would flip out over it. She's a little obsessed with giraffes. I was wishing she could have been there to experience it herself.

Once back in LA, we hopped in the car and headed over to Sunset Blvd to the House of Blues, where our favorite band was playing a free show.

Very short clip of a very good cover they played.

Tod's kids came to stay with us a few days after the trip. He has them convinced he turned 58. They're cute, but a little too gullible! 

The days of Todd's lives

Todd got an unexpected call from his aunt Joni last week. She was calling to tell him that she was in Los Angeles for her niece's wedding and asked if we could come to the reception. It was WAAAYY across this sprawling city, but we decided to go because it was a very rare opportunity for Todd to see some very important people in his life.

When Todd was 13ish he went to live with a foster family in Rigby, ID. Incidentally, this is only a few miles from where I grew up. He lived with his aunt's family (she is an aunt through marriage) for a year or two and it was difficult in many ways, but also had some very bright spots. Joyce, for instance, was one of them.

Joyce, Todd, Joni

 Joyce, Virgil, Todd

Joyce's husband, Virgil, was often grumpy and bossy. Todd really struggled having to be an indentured servant on his farm. Joyce was always sticking up for Todd, though, and pouring out tremendous amounts of love on him. At one point, Todd left their house rather abruptly (he ran away) and Joyce said multiple times the evening we saw her how much she wished he'd stayed. She really was such a sweetheart and you could tell she really cared for Todd. 

Joyce & Virgil have a son named Niels who is an artist and was attending art school when Todd lived at his parent's home. In this picture, Todd is explaining to Niels that one time when Niels was at home, he gave Todd his first sketch book and how pivotal this moment was in Todd's life.

It was really great to watch Todd catch up with these people and listen to their stories about him living at their home. I was wishing I could go back and witness Todd at that time on all his adventures - riding motorcycles into canals, blowing things up, etc. Who knows, maybe I did see him riding his bike at the park and noted how gosh durn handsome he was.  ;) 

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...