Thursday, June 13, 2013

Lately

I bet all my posts start like this, but....... I'm horrified at how long it's been. Okay, let's recap! 

OMG! I can't believe all the stuff I've missed.

Lily and I trying to be cute for the camera.


 We went to the Noah's Ark exhibit at The Skirball Center.


See Ana?
 Ana and Tod being Ana and Tod.

Both girls started NaNoWriMo in November. Neither completed their novel, but I am proud of them for starting. Maybe this year. Isn't she a cute author, though?

Here's me embarrassing my offspring. I'm so embarrassing.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Ana turns 14 and other Octoberish stuff

I am so behind! Ay! Okay, here goes an attempt at a catch up. (Interestingly, soon after this last post I got a calling at church that takes up A LOT of my time...)

The night before Ana's birthday she got her room straightened up all pretty and nice so she could thoroughly enjoy her day. She also piled all her stuffed animals and her "tubby tubby" blanket on her bed so she could hold on to her youth as tightly as possible. She's cute.


Birthday breakfast was crepes with the works and The Timechart History of the World

Pretty much every gift she got was Doctor Who related. Here she is with her Sonic Screwdriver (10th doctor edition). She wears her nerdery loud and proud.

She also got this Doctor Who shirt, which is hard to see, but it's the TARDIS and Cinderella. Oh, and she made me that cute ring from clay.

Cupcakes at Young Womens.

Her friends gave her this awesome Van Gogh/TARDIS poster.

She had this friend gathering.

And her amiga, Natalie, wrote her this love letter.

In other October news.... We bought a car from a friend. It happened to be a convertible, which has proven to be fun when the weather is nice.

The girls and I took a henna class. This is the design I did on Lily.

This is the design the pro did on me.

Lily's design on me.

The next day we went to Disneyland with friends. Here's my tattoo with the henna paste off.

More Disney pics. Tower of Terror.

Soaring Over California

Lily & Makenzie

I attended a concert at The Hollywood Bowl and my good friends Chau and Ranjani. I didn't care for the artist (Jason Mraz), but shows at the HB are always magical.

Indian food lunch date.

Dinner date at Terranea with my handsome huz

I think he was having some sort of silly dialogue with that gull, but I don't really remember now.

Halloween prep. I was so proud of Ana. She made her own pattern and sewed an Ariel skirt.
 

Lily and Makenzie were creepy porcelain dolls.


And that's October in a whirlwind. Phew! It will feel good to push publish. In 3. 2. 1...



Tuesday, October 2, 2012

San Diego

I have a friend in San Diego who needed a dog/house sitter for a week and she called upon us to help out. Todd was even able to accompany us. He's normally not able to miss a week of work, but because he wanted to go, the company just gave everyone a week off. Tadow!

This is the puppy. Leia. We're convinced she's really a cat, though. She wasn't very social and she would run and hide in the closet. Meow. She warmed up to the girls, eventually, though. They're pretty irresistible. 


We spent a couple days at Balboa Park.



Loved the science center. We spent hours there two days in a row. It happened to be the first week of school for most of the nation and we were feeling pretty cool that we were having educational experiences AND having fun.



The girls and I went to a museum the church runs to show how Mormon pioneers played a part in settling San Diego. Lily wanted me to show her playing on her iPod on a wagon. She thought that was pretty funny.

Panning for pyrite. 

Pretty girls. Pretty sunset.

Everyone told us we had to eat at Phil's BBQ. None of us are big meat lovers or BBQ fans, but we thought we'd be super trendy and try it. Food was admittedly good, but I doubt I'll go back. Unless I turn into a tiger or something.


One of our favorite things was visiting the Star of India and other ships in the harbor. It's fun to do these kinds of things with a ocean/maritime enthusiast such as Tod. He gets us all fired up about it.

 


We toured a US sub and a Russian sub. Dude. The US is waaaaay better. I mean seriously!


 Had desert at Extraordinary Deserts. Lame name. Extraordinary deserts.

Day 2 of Balboa Park. Ana snapped this so hawt pic of me.


I met up with my lovely old friend Stacie Woolf for lunch. Was so great to catch up with her. I love having friends who you can go years without speaking to, but because of your long and intimate history together, it's like a day hasn't gone by.


We spent a ridiculously long time building things with blocks. First we had a timed contest to see who could build the tallest tower in 5 minutes. I was smoking everyone, but Ana came up in the last minute and beat me. Todd kept going, though. This took him a while, but he built a super tall tower. We discovered something interesting at this point. Look closely at my tower (on the left). At the bottom, you'll see two blocks missing. We don't know how that happened, but were amazed it could stand without them.

This was the ultimate height he achieved.


 Then! Tod got crazy in the tinker room trying to beat the record for building something. He spent hours on this! He got close, but didn't figure it out before they closed.


And while he tinkered, the girls played games...


In case you've ever wondered about if/how guitar strings vibrate when they're played....here's your answer.

Who knows what this was, but Tod couldn't get enough of it. He was such a little boy here. It was kind of adorable.

We also went to the beach, Horton Plaza, the swimming pool, etc. It was really fun to get away, even though were just kind of living our normal life in a different city. We're hoping the friends need a dog sitter every year. :)