Here We Go Again

We went to the Disneyland parks again last Wednesday. It's hard to resist when every one's schedules allow us to be there earlier than we usually get there.

We went over to Ca. Adv. first (because it closes first). We just missed a session of "talk with Crush", so we went over to the Bug's Life area. We hadn't been there in a while, so it was a nice to go on those rides again.

Here we are on the caterpillar ride...

After that, we went to the Tuck and Roll bumper cars. When we were in line, I noticed a young kid sitting in a car by himself. The ride worker asked him how old he was, and the boy said "7", and the worker said, "OK", and let him ride alone. I told Anna that Duncan might be able to ride in his own car, so we asked, and indeed he can! He was very excited. I went with Liam, and then Jennan.

We went to see Crush shortly after being in the Bug land area. Then made our way to Disneyland. At Disneyland we went on Buzz, where Anna had a normal score finally. In fact, I think I beat her by almost 200,000 points. I was a little over 500,000. We also went on Nemo, Pirates, and the Tiki room, before heading to the tram before the massive Fantazmic crowd would flood the exit and tram.

I remembered the stroller this time, so that was nice to have again. This was one of those trips where I found myself thinking that these Disneyland trips are such a fun time to be together as a family and have a good time.

Friday Flashback 2.27.09

Upon reaching into my stack of old pictures, two pictures emerged.


This first picture is from 1988 (I'm pretty sure). We're at the Las Vegas Temple open house. I'm not sure we're in the future parking lot, or above the paved parking lot at this point. I don't remember if it's my mom or dad taking this picture.

In this picture I'm probably 16, maybe 17. I'm giving the Vulcan hand sign from Star Trek (*cough* dork). But in contrast, I am wearing my monkey boots, so I retained a bit of coolness among the dorkyness (at least in my eyes). Kevin is the one posing like he's running to catch a bus. He's probably 12.

This was a youth trip to tour the temple before it's dedication. I remember parts of this trip pretty clearly. Mostly the walking in the temple part. I also remember the protesters on the street near the entrance. It was the first time I had encountered that type of thing.





This picture was taken in June of 1994. We're on the front lanai of my grandparents' house, in front of their front door. This was Kevin's graduation trip. I had been home from my mission six months. Kevin originally was going to have a high school buddy go with him, but his buddy pulled out, and I jumped in. Our dad is taking the picture. It's hard to tell, but Kevin's hair is pretty crazy in this picture. It's all bushy. He's also got a bad case of the Foutz grin happening. It says on the back of the picture, that we're getting home from church, but I thought this was taken on our way out to church. Anyway, good times, fond memories.

This was my 200th post.

Yay for me.

More From Kristi

Here are a few other pictures from Kristi's visit.

Liam has his own way of playing Wii.

Our little Tegan, getting bigger all the time.

Jennan is learning the Foutz grin from her Auntie. Kristi spent a good part of her day giving Jennan "piggy pig" rides.

Kristi got a new (really nice) camera for Christmas, and she's taking pictures all the time. Luckily we have some pretty cute kids.

Free Tacos 2.24 Only

Tomorrow, Tueday, February 24th ONLY! You can get two free tacos at Jack in the Box with THIS COUPON.

Karate and Tooth KO!

Duncan had karate Saturday. My mom and sister Kristi were visiting at the time, and came along. The pictures were taken by Kristi.


Here are the kids doing "push-ups". I need to work with Duncan on doing proper push-ups so they don't look so much like pelvic thrusts.


Receiving instruction. (In this shot, you can see the wide variety of belt ranks in Duncan's class.)

Today was a sparring day. The whole class has about 2/3 younger kids, and the rest are older kids. On sparring days, kids spar with kids their own size usually. Today the teacher decided to go 2 or 3 on 1. Here is Duncan in mid side kick during a 3 on 1.

Duncan was involved with about 3 more bouts before he volunteered to be the 1 vs. 2 others his size. He was having a fun time.

During that bout, he had an exchange with his classmate, Preston. This picture was snapped just moments before Duncan took an inadvertent shot on the chin (I missed it) that sent one of his two loose front teeth flying!

Duncan ran to the bathroom because he thought he was bleeding. Once it was realized what had happened, I went down to find the tooth. One of the students helped me.

After I picked up the tooth, I went to the bathroom to help Duncan rinse his mouth and reassure him that he was OK. He was actually pretty excited about it all (except the blood). He said he didn't even feel the tooth come out because of the punch. He was glad he didn't have to feel it. He even went up to Preston afterward, and thanked him.



Here he is right before bed, showing off his tooth and new larger gap.

I guess we didn't take a picture of the next morning when there was a dollar in place of his tooth. He'll have a great story to tell, from now on, on how he lost one of his front teeth. Good times.

Week 1 - Mr. Sasquatch

One week down... 5 more to go!

mrsasquatch.com

Have a hairy day!

Friday Flashback 2.20.09

This picture comes from the same Hawaii trip from a couple weeks ago's flashback photo. Taken in late June or early July of 2001.

In this picture you can clearly see Kevin, myself, and Keith. I believe we are waiting for the big finale show at the end of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

You can see the temporary tattoo on my forearm I got in the New Zealand/Maori section of the PCC. I'm also wearing a cool Bob Marley shirt that I eventually wore out. I'm glad I bought it when I found it. I don't think I've seen another one like it since I did.

So yeah, good memories, good times. Hope to do it again sometime.

Anna Scores High Again

We went to Disneyland and made it in time to go into Ca. Adv. as well, yesterday.


Our old passes expired last week, so we renewed them, and got them in the mail the other day. Liam's had expired the week before, so I actually had to buy him a new pass. We also finally broke down and got Jennan a pass too.


The boys are on minimum days half of this week and all of next week due to parent teacher conferences, so as soon as Anna's off from work, we can head out to Anaheim. Once the boys got home, I didn't judge the time before we should leave to pick up Anna very well, so at the last minute I was dashing around to get ready. Once ready, I loaded the kids, and off we went.


We made it to Anna's school right on time. We picked her up so we could be on our way that much sooner. Doing that puts us about 40-50 minutes ahead of waiting for her to get home (sometimes longer). Then on the way home, we swing back by the school so she can drive her car home.


We needed to make a stop at the tshirt wholesaler to pick up an order I placed, and that's when I realised I had forgotten to put the stroller in the van! This was going to be an interesting visit to the "Happiest place on earth". A while earlier in the drive it was also discovered that I forgot the diaper bag. Luckily I'm in the habit of putting a diaper with Tegan's PJs, so we did have an extra one with us.


Once at the Disney parks, we went into Ca. Adv. first since we had some time to do so. We made our way to the Toy Story Midway ride/game, where I totally spanked Anna's score. By the time we were done on that ride, Ca. Adv. was closed, so we trekked over to Disneyland.


The first thing we did was have Liam and Jennan get their official passes. We asked the kids where should we go first, and the response was Buzz Lightyear, so away we went. By the way, Jennan was pretty excited to not be in the stroller, in fact, she literally jumped for joy! And carrying Tegan wasn't too bad. Anna and I took turns, and she did a fair amount of walking too. Back to the play by play. We were in line for about 15 minutes or so for Buzz. Anna said she needed to redeem herself from her poor Midway showing, and she sure did. It also happened to be my personal best score for that ride too, but Anna's got me beat pretty well.




I didn't look to see how close she was to breaking the top ten for the day, but it says she's ranked 27 just above her score. (Mine says 98 [top 100, baby!]) Her mystery rider is Tegan, mine was Jennan. Here's a link to see her other high score. Oh yeah, she also got this score without getting parked right in front of a high score target.

After Buzz, we made our way to Small World to see the new changes. Luckily the line was normal length. The temporary "long line" poles and stings were still up, so you could really tell they have had some long lines there recently. The changes were mostly subtle, but we enjoyed them very much. From there we rode the carousel and did Pirates twice, and then made our way to the tram. It was pretty nice not having to worry about a stroller when it came time to get on the tram. We could go in any line to be seated.

In all, a fun trip, even with the forgotten stroller. It was definitely more work, but we made it through. We might start just bringing the umbrella stroller for Tegan when we come. The only down side is the limited "carry" space under the seat. But we'll see how it goes.

Something New

Carl's Jr./Green Burrito has new Crisp Burritos. They must be on the small side because they're marketing them as a between meal snack item; Plus, you order them in 3s or 5s.

Here's a link for a coupon to get a free drink with your 3 or 5 pack purchase.

When you try them, come back here and let me know what you thought.

Supply and Demand

I came across this survey thing where you shuffle your mp3s (iPod, iTunes, Windows media player, etc.) and use the song titles as the answers to the questions. You have to use the songs in the order as they appear on the mp3 player... So here it goes:


IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY? Saints (The Breeders) - Weird.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF? What I Got [clean version] (Sublime) - I guess I can't give a straight answer. But at least it's clean.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL? Recycled Air (The Postal Service) -that's pretty funny

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? True Faith (New Order) - Very reassuring.

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE? Anarchy in the UK (Skandalous All-Stars) - Who knew? I hope they don't know that, so I can still visit someday.

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO? Wings of a Dove (Madness) - Yep, totally.

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? Faint (Linkin Park) - I'm sure it's because they're overwhelmed with my awesomeness.

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? This Town (Hot Hot Heat) - Huh?

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? Buddy Holly (Weezer) - another funny one

WHAT IS 2 + 2? Rapper's Delight (Sugar Hill Gang) - Of course.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? Sweet Sixteen (Billy Idol) - Uh Oh.

What's your life story? Hey Ladies (Beastie Boys) - I wish.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Karma Chameleon (Culter Club) - ?

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? I eat Cannibals (Toto Coeto) - Yeah, pretty much.

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING? Like the Weather (10,000 Maniacs) - No we didn't.

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? No One's Leaving (Janes Addiction) - Great, now no one will come to it.

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST? Trippin' (Godsmack) - As falling down, right?

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR? Do You Remember (Bob Marly and the Wailers) - No, I blocked it out.

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET? Alfie (Lily Allen) - funny one.

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW? Blue Savannah (Erasure) - I hope that's a hearty lunch plate somewhere.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Blue (Tommy Lee) - Nope, not true.

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS? Supply and Demand (The Hives) -Ok.


Well, that was pretty good for the most part. Some of them didn't really work out, but that's how it goes.

It's Not Too Late

Today is day two of hair growing for the Mr. Sasquatch competition, but it's not too late to enter!

Go to mrsasquatch.com for all the details.


Have a hairy day!

Monday Music 2.16.09

I have a CD single for this song in the box I'm going through.


This would be a great fighter entrance song.


Prodigy "Firestarter"



Short and sweet Monday music today.


Happy President's day.

Vappy Halentine's Day

It's valentine's day. The kids have been gearing up for it this year. We made some valentines last monday during family night. The kids got some valentine cards in the mail from Grandma Foutz (pictured with Jennan's valentine she made monday), a couple days ago. The boys passed out little valentine cards in their classes yesterday, and both had parties in their classes too.




I got these really pretty roses for Anna.

Hope you have a nice day too.

Friday Flashback 2.13.09

Today's randomly chosen flashback photo features me and my brothers and sisters.

This is after my mission (early-ish 94), pre head shaving days for me. I think Kevin is a senior at this time; Kyle's a sophomore.

Anyway, somehow I want to say we hadn't been all together as brothers and sisters for a while, so when dad's there with the camera, we all somehow got into the spirit of having our picture taken together, and formed the modified pyramid shape you see before you. I believe that in the same spirit, we took a number of silly pictures, including one with us each wearing a hat of some sort. (I know I have it somewhere, I'll have to look for it.) I remember that it was fun to take those pictures.

BTW- have a happy Friday the 13th!

More Monopoly

We broke out the Monopoly game again on Sunday. It was fun, but we did put a time limit on it. We said we would play for one hour. The boys were fine with that. That's not enough time to put up houses and hotels and those type of things. Really you're just trying to buy as many properties as you can, and collect enough rent, so that at the end of the hour, you have the most money and assets. We were all within about $300-$400 from each other, so it was pretty close. I won by less than $200 over Liam. Fun stuff.

A Bunch Of Stuff

Liam needed to do a project where he makes something with wheels. We came up with a wagon. Liam painted it. He tried cutting the cardboard for the wheels, but it was too thick. The wagon body is from an empty check box.

Liam and Jennan ready for church.

Tegan was watching a show in the boys' room, so I sat down to join her for a moment. Anna saw me and took this picture. (Looks like I should have made a diet resolution this year.)

The last week of January, the kindergarten class has it's 100th day of class, and celebrates. Here's Liam showing off some of the things they made. The visor says "I survived 100 days in Kindergarten". The necklace has 100 beads. And I think they have a bunch of things in class that day that they can count 100 of.

Monday Music 2.9.09

Inspired by the latest CD I've uploaded to my iPod, The Crow soundtrack, here are a couple of my favorites...


Medicine "Time Baby III"




Nine Inch Nails "Dead Souls"



Helmet "Milquetoast"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pByYv_zWN1U (embedding disabled)


Anyway, it's a pretty good soundtrack. There's other good songs too.



btw- I'm up to 4211 songs. Almost up to 15GB of music. I still have about 100 or so cds to go through. I think I've gone through about 600 cds up to this point (about 150 were from others so far). It's been fun.

UFC Fights Tomorrow

Here's a picture of me with UFC fighter Rob Emerson.

He's fighting tomorrow, but I don't think he'll beat Kurt Pelligrino.

It's been a while since I've put anything up here that was about MMA or the UFC fights I watch, but I thought I would today.

Tomorrow night, on Spike TV, I'll be watching UFC Fight Night. Fight Nights are a chance for fighters that might not have a whole lot of drawing power (people tuning in to see them fight) for a pay per view, to showcase their skills on "free" tv. This helps them build a fan base, and eventually find themselves on a PPV.

Anyway, there should be some good fights. I'm ging with Joe Lauson, Cain Velasquez, Mac Danzig, Anthony Johnson, Kurt Pelligrino, Jake Rosholt, Rich Clementi, Nick Catone, and Matt Riddle to win thier fights.

I Meant To Earlier or Happy Late Birthday

Last Saturday was Anna's sister Eva's birthday. I meant to do a blog post in her honor that day, but that day was crazy busy, and I didn't have time. Then I just forgot... till today!


Eva lives in Minnesota. We get to see her and her family a couple times a year when they come to southern California to visit. One year (2004), we went out to visit her and her family in MN. Sara and her kids went too. At the time, we only had Duncan and Liam, and Sara only had Skyler and Jackson.


Here are some pictures from that trip.



Here's baby Jackson, Eva, and Aidan (from left to right). We're all at a fastfood place named Culver's. It was CRAZY GOOD! Home of the butter-burgers. No, it's not a "butter" burger. They grill/toast the buns with butter. It was really good. Culver's also has frozen custard. Probably the best frozen custard I've ever had. As you can tell, I have some very fond memories from that place.


Don't fall asleep when there's a camera present!

The McAlister sisters all grown up. (Anna shaved off her dreads that year)

Eva sitting with the kids in the van we borrowed. I think she's between Duncan and Liam.

I remember it was a fun trip. I'm sure we'll go back again someday.

So a big late HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Eva! Hope you had a great day.

Friday Flashback 2.6.09

Today's random flashback picture was taken when my whole family went to Hawaii. You would think I would know off the top of my head when that was, since it was the last time I was there, but nope. Or you would think I would know because Anna's got dreads, and she only had those for about 3-4 years. But I couldn't tell you what years they were.

One thing I do know, is that Anna and I didn't have any of the kids, so I know it was before Dec. of 2001. But, it's starting to come back to me... it was after Kelly graduated from High School! So this is either late June or early July. When I graduated, the whole family went to Hawaii, and when ever one of us graduated, they got to go to Hawaii with either mom or dad as a graduation present. Since Kelly was the last of the kids, we decided we would all go together again.

Anyway, back to this pretty unflattering picture. We had to walk down a path, and some stairs to see a waterfall. I don't remember the name of it. I'm looking pretty touristy with my video camera and bag though. Anna's about 4 mo. pregnant with Duncan. Keith looks like Keith.

I sure wouldn't mind going to Hawaii again sometime, except Hawaii for me is Oahu, and Hawaii for Anna is the big island, Hawaii. It's sure going to be fun deciding where to spend more time, because that means we're going. That's like having to decide what to eat at In-N-Out; what ever you get, it's gonna be good, because you're at In-N-Out!

Great, now I'm hungry for a double-double, and yearning for an island vacation. There went my day.

Monday Music 2.2.09

Inspired by one of the young men in my ward that said, "You like Jamaican music?", as I turned up the volume for a reggae song that came on the radio.


I replied, "There's lots of different music in Jamaica, just like the U.S. This music is called Reggae, and yes, I like it."


This is not the song I turned up, but it's a good one. Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers "Tumblin' Down"



One of my favorites... Don Carlos "Just a Passing Glance"



Enjoy.